Vitamins Prevent Anorexia. Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), Vitamin B3 (niacin), Vitamin C and Vitamin D for Anorexia Prevention

Vitamins prevent anorexia. Read more here. This strong statement is based on informal clinical reports. It's been over two and a half years since I started actively blogging. The first blog proposed that anorexia and other eating disorders are vitamin deficiency diseases. I've been researching and corresponding about the relationship between anorexia and vitamins ever since. There is now substantial informal clinical data from colleagues. Young women taking extra vitamins do not become anorexic.

If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here.

The physicians I know want to see data from double-blind, clinical controlled trials. This can not happen. Vitamin D is obtained in optimal doses from sunshine. You can't use sunshine in a blinded trial. The most effective doses of vitamin D from pills (4000 - 6000 IU/day) involve unacceptable risks. Although not especially serious if caught early, it is easy to take far too much by accident and hard to broadly educate the population of the dangers. As a result, serious vitamin D overdoses are far too common. You can read several moving personal accounts here.

4000 mg/day of vitamin C can not be taken in a double blind trial. It often has an obvious beneficial laxative effect. This is as good an explaination as any as to why vitamin C is the most popular vitamin supplement.

The doses of vitamins required to prevent anorexia are well established as safe and effective. The doses for vitamin C and niacin are set at the upper safe limit value set by the Food and Nutrition Board. There is no more conservative definition of safety than that. Thiamine is so safe that the Food and Nutrition Board has not set an upper safe limit. The Board does not act until there is statistically significant clinical evidence of harm. Vitamin D is best obtained from sunshine and there are no reported cases of vitamin D toxicity from overexposure to the sun.

There is a high prevalence of anorexia amongst female atheletes. Read more here. If you want to help with the public health campaign to prevent anorexia with vitamin supplements, educating the parents and coaches of young female athletes will provide more value than educating the public at large.

Vitamins are vital parts of food. Vitamin D, is probably misnamed because it is best obtained from fresh air and sunshine (long known to be important to human health). Feeding children is the responsibility of parents, not physicians. Physicians see their role as fixing the problems caused by poor nutrition. They are not nutritionists. Health insurance does not pay for nutrition counseling. As a result, the highly challenging field of nutrition does not pay well and does not attract the best scientific talent. The primary source of funding for nutritionists comes from companies that manufacture foods. Between the lack of funding and commercial interests, it isn't easy to get sound scientific advice from professional nutritionists. So - parents are largely on their own in their efforts to decide whether or not to use vitamin supplements and sunshine to prevent anorexia and optimize the health of their children.

The science of nutrition is accelerating, and a consensus around optimal vitamin doses will emerge. The nutrition community has read and understood what's published in this blog and is actively testing the proposal. In the meantime, young women in your community continue to fall victim to a devastating preventable disease. There is much to gain and almost nothing to lose by feeding your children the doses of vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin C, and vitamin D recommended in this blog. There is far more to gain by seeing to it that young women athletes get these vitamin doses. Even just one young women saved from a lifetime living with anorexia is priceless.

Prevent Cavities and Anorexia with Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamine

Ample sunshine and modest doses of thiamine, vitamin C, and niacin prevent cavities and anorexia. Read more here and here. When attacked by a cold or flu virus, extra vitamin D, vitamin C, and niacin can dramatically reduce the duration and severity of the illness.
If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here.

These four vitamins are the only four associated with a named pandemic deficiency disease. Vitamin C prevents scurvy. Vitamin D prevents rickets. Niacin prevents pellegra, and thiamine prevents beri-beri. As a result, there are recommended daily allowances for all four of these vitamins and all four are added to the food supply.

I have studied the safety and effectiveness of vitamin supplements for the past 15 years. Like any other pill, the effectiveness of vitamin supplements increases with increasing dose, and so does the risk of side effects. Physicians monitor side effects caused by vitamin supplements, and have developed upper limit daily doses for each of vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine. The upper limit represent the dosage that 95% of the population can take daily without side effects.

I believe that the reason for the gap between the RDA's and the UL's is that the UL's are difficult to reach by just eating food. If the RDA's were set logically (for manufactured drugs, the doses recommended by your doctor are typically the maximum doses 95% of the population can take without side effects), everyone would be required to take pills every day from birth to death. This strikes people as unnatural because it is unnatural.

The pandemic deficiency of vitamin D is particularly tragic. I'm not sure why vitamin D is even classified as a vitamin. The UL's are easily exceeded without side effects and without pills. All you need to do is get out in the sun - a highly natural activity. Modern living with clothing, electric lighting at night, indoor work during the day, air conditioning, and sunblock is depriving everyone of natural exposure to the sun. This is one deficiency that is simple enough to fix.

My physicians want me to use double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to prove that getting sunshine and taking the UL's of vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine every day instead of the RDA's will prevent cavities and anorexia. This can't be done. How can a double-blind trial be conducted on sunshine? The UL's of vitamin C and niacin have immediately perceived effects. I would know if I was getting the tablets vs. the placebo which would break the blind. The final point is that those receiving the placebo would be getting variable doses of these vitamins from their diet. Physicians never run double-blind drug trials that include low doses of the drug in the placebo. Even for drugs, the effectiveness of the first milligram is much greater than the effectiveness of the last milligram (e.g. a two milligram dose is twice as effective as a one milligram dose while it is difficult to detect a difference in effectiveness between a 20 mg dose and a 21 mg dose).

In the 1930's and 1940's, the decision was made to set recommended doses for vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine that can be readily obtained from food. What else was to be done? Is it really practical to recommend that everyone take vitamin pills every day? Oddly enough, it is the pharma industry that has proven that it is, in fact, practical to take pills every day and they are working hard to see to it that an ever growing percentage of the population takes drugs every day from an ever-younger age.

Someday doctors will, like personal trainers, be paid to prevent medical procedures and drug prescriptions instead of to prescribe medical procedures and drug prescriptions. In the meantime, you'll need to set your own vitamin doses. There is much to gain and little to lose by getting into the sun and taking supplements of vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine.

Prevent Cavities, Cancer, Heart Disease, Obesity, and Problems of Aging

Vitamin C, niacin, thiamine, and vitamin D are the four and only four vitamins associated with pandemic deficiency diseases. Optimizing the doses of these four vitamins is worth the effort. Deficiency of these four vitamins is responsible for the present pandamic of cavities, cancer, heartdisease, and obesity. Here is a good place to start:

two 100 mg tablets of thiamine per day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon)
one 250 mg time release niacin two or three times per week
six 1000 mg vitamin C tablets (three in the morning and three in the afternoon)
one 1000 mg vitamin D tablet

In addition to the vitamin D tablet, it is essential to get regular, full body sunshine. Do not tan. The tan blocks the sun's rays and reduces vitamin D formation. Get no less than 10 and no more than 30 minutes of full body sunshine as often as possible when the sun is shining. This amounts to no more than 15 and no less than 5 minutes on each side. Every square inch of the skin will produce vitamin D. Using all of it on a regular basis is a good idea.

Prevent Anorexia with Thiamine, Niacin, Vitamin D, & Vitamin C: Start with Female Athletes

The hypothesis that anorexia is caused by vitamin deficiency is being tested. Read more here. More and more parents concerned about the eating habits of their children are providing them with some or all of the following vitamin recommendations:

Thiamine: 100 mg of thiamine hydrochloride per day, and one 50 mg enteric coated TTFD (fat-soluble thiamine) twice per week
Vitamin D: full body sunshine (5-10 minutes per side) at least three times/week. Dark-skinned children need more sun than is practical and can take 1000 IU/day of vitamin D under the supervision of a pediatrician
Niacin: one 250 mg time-release niacin twice per week
Vitamin C: 2000 mg daily with breakfast and dinner
Multivitamin: one per day

The reports are trickling in. Children and teenagers taking these vitamins do not develop serious eating disorders. When the hypothesis was first posted here over two years ago, it was a hypothesis. Now it is a successfully tested hypothesis. The vitamins have been 100% effective in the small sample of children tested. I don't expect anyone to take my word for it. I expect readers to try the vitamins and observe the results. Sadly, the vitamins will not be effective for everyone, and general success will provide little comfort to the parents of the small fraction of children who become anorexic despite the vitamins.

The group that deserves the most attention is female athletes. Disordered eating is epidemic among female athletes. Here is the relevant quote from the Manual of Sports Medicine:

"The true prevalence of disordered eating in athletes is unknown. Based on a series of small studies there is reported 15 to 62% prevalence in female athletes. A higher prevalence of disordered eating is often noted among participants in certain sports in which subjective judging and aesthetics are important (gymnastics, dance, figure skating, diving) and sports in which peak performance is associated with low body fat (running - especially distance running - and swimming)."

Teachers, parents, and coaches for these sports should be made aware of the link between vitamin deficiency and eating disorders. If these statistics are even remotely correct, every community of gymnasts, dancers, skaters, divers, runners, and swimmers has members at risk of anorexia but not yet anorexic. The vitamins do not cure anorexia - they prevent anorexia. With luck, some teams will start taking the recommended vitamins. They will be like the first ships that sailed with foods rich in vitamins to test the hypothesis that vitamin C prevents scurvy. Within one year these teams will see for themselve the effectiveness of the vitamins for preventing anorexia.

The fact that female atheletes have a much higher prevalence of anorexia is even more support for the vitamin deficiency hypothesis. Anorexia is a known clinical marker for beriberi - the thiamine deficiency disease. Thiamine deficiency is known as "high calorie malnutrition". Thiamine requirements depend upon the amount of carbohydrate calories burned. Some very rare individuals simply can't burn too many carbohydrate calories without developing symptoms of thiamine deficiency no matter how much thiamine they supplement. Beriberi was epidemic amongst slave populations and prisoners of war fed low fat diets and forced to do alot of hard labor. Female athletes are unwittingly emulating these behaviors and suffering the same consequences.

There's no reason to read and wonder. The hypothesis that vitamins prevent anorexia is easily tested. Get female gymnasts, dancers, skaters, divers, runners, and swimmers to try the vitamins. There's much to gain and nothing to lose. In a few short months the prevalence of anorexia on these teams drops or it doesn't. It's working in our community. Science suggests that it will work in yours too.

Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Niacin, Thiamine - The Benefits (Prevent Cavities) are Worth the Side Effects

Vitamin D, vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine are special because they prevent the only four deadly pandemic deficiency diseases to afflict human populations. I have concluded that cavities and gum diseases are caused primarily by deficiency of these four vitamins - an easily tested conclusion. If correct, it means that we are living in a time of epidemic vitamin deficiency. If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here.

I learn about vitamin benefits primarily by frequenting websites like www.doctoryourself.com and www.vitamindcouncil.org and www.orthomolecular.org. I then use google scholar, Medline, and SCIFINDER scientific literature databases to test interesting claims found at these websites. By and large these sites recommend high doses of vitamin D, vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine and claim that vitamin side effects are not a serious problem.

I learn about vitamin side effects primarily by frequently mainstream medicine websites like Mayoclinic.com and www.emedicine.medscape.com. Mainstream medicine is highly knowledgable and vocal about vitamin side effects.

As a professional scientist, I can say with certainty that vitamin side effects are reliable, reproducible, and unambiguously caused by the offending vitamin. I can also say with certainty that benefits from high doses of vitamins are very difficult to prove. They are not reliable, reproducible, or unambiguously caused by the vitamin. Fully appreciating and quantifying benefits from high doses of vitamins is difficult science. It has taken me 14 years of study to come forth with an easily tested hypothesis that can prove that society will benefit from making the effort to recommend doses of vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine that balance benefits with side effects. It is not possible to gain full benefits for individuals who need higher doses without causing side effects for individuals who need lower doses. I led off with the testable hypothesis:

Cavities and gum diseases are caused primarily by deficiency of vitamin D, vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine

The doses I recommend to test the hypothesis are:

Vitamin D - White skinned individuals: Between 10 and 20 minutes of noontime sunshine at least 3 days per week wearing a bikini or equivalent (no more, no less). Dark skinned. 30 minutes to one hour of sunshine at least three days per week (this is impractical advice) or 10 to 20 minutes plus 800 IU/day in supplement form
Vitamin C - 4000 mg/day divided into as many doses as needed to minimize side effects
Niacin - One 250 mg time release tablet per week
Thiamine - One 50 mg tablet of enteric coated TTFD per week plus one 100 mg thiamine tablet per day

The case of vitamin D is maddening. We were meant to get vitamin D from the sun - not from diet. Vitamin D supplements are far more toxic than vitamin D from sunshine. 30 minutes of full summer sunshine produces 10,000 to 40,000 IU of vitamin D - 5 to 20 times higher than supplement doses associated with side effects. People working outdoors must commonly produce more than 2000 IU per day and yet side effects from sunshine are so rare that they are not discussed. So, using supplements alone, it is much more difficult to get full benefits without side effects. The only reliable food source is fish. The efficiency of vitamin D production in the skin depends upon skin color. It is shocking to recognize the fact that dark skinned peoples are not adapted to live indoors and/or at high latitudes. Dark skin at northern latitudes is so debilitating that every ancient population migrating north turned white within a time span perhaps as short as 1000 years.

The doses are designed to be large enough to make a difference and small enough to minimize side effects. Each dose is above the known published threshold for causing side effects (2000 mg/day for vitamin C, 2000 IU/day for vitamin D, 35 mg/day for niacin, no UL for thiamine and TTFD is not approved for use as a thiamine supplement by the FDA despite the fact that it is used to supplement the food supply in Japan). Each dose will cause side effects in sensitive individuals, and each dose will be inadequate to provide full benefits for everyone.

If I am correct, epidemic vitamin deficiency is causing immeasurable suffering. Vitamin side effects are irritating, but easily cured as long as the overdose symptoms are recognized early on and treated promptly by lowering the dose of the offending vitamin.

Vitamin D Side Effects, Toxicity, Overdose Update

I went back and updated my column on vitamin D side effects. If you are taking vitamin D supplements and/or getting alot of sunshine, it is worth rereadinghere.

Anorexia, Bed Sores, Cavities, Colds, Dementia, Depression, Sleep Disorders, Wounds Caused by Air Pollution, Bacteria, Viruses, and Heavy Metals: Vit

The healthcare community specializing in vitamins is putting forward a simple, easily tested idea. Vitamin deficiency is commonplace amongst children and the elderly, and is the cause of painful, chronic conditions. A simple cocktail of four vitamins – vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine – is the root cause of anorexia, bedsores, cavities, colds, dementia, depression, sleep disorders, and the slow healing of wounds caused by bacteria, viruses, and heavy metals. We are asking readers to focus special attention on cavities and gum disease. Cavities and gum disease are epidemic in our society. It is easy to test the assertion that people with poor dental health either have, or are at high risk for, anorexia, bed sores, colds, dementia, depression, sleep disorders, and slow-healing wounds. It is just as easy to test the idea that vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine prevent cavities and gum disease. Anyone who gets their teeth cleaned regularly has good dental records. They can review their records, start taking vitamins, and ask their dentist to look for improvements. The vitamins either prevent cavities and gum disease or they don’t. Improving dental health either decreases the prevalence of anorexia, bedsores, colds, dementia, depression, sleep disorders, and slow healing wounds or it doesn’t. The vitamin dose is important. Here it is:

1) 4000 mg of vitamin C, once per day (or in divided doses to eliminate side effects)
2) Between 10 and 20 minutes of sunshine between 11 am and 1 pm every day that the sun shines. At least once a month lie under the sun between 11 am and 1 pm for between 10 and 20 minutes in shorts or a bikini (half the time on each side)
3) One 250 mg time-release tablet of niacin per week
4) One, 100 mg tablet of thiamine per day. One 50 mg enteric-coated tablet of TTFD (fat soluble thiamine), once per week. Alternatively, TTFD powder can be rubbed into the skin with water. It is also available as a skin cream.

These four vitamins are special because they prevent scurvy, rickets, pellegra, and beriberi. Read more here, and here.

As the quality of the affordable food supply to working class Americans declines, and the exposure to air pollution, viruses, and heavy metals increases, and more people spend more time indoors and/or use sun block outdoors, more and more Americans are becoming vitamin deficient. Mainstream medicine is responding with drugs that treat the symptoms, enabling patients to manage suffering while carrying on with their lives. Well over half the American population is now on at least one prescription drug for a chronic condition. The average age of patients starting prescription drugs for chronic conditions is dropping with time. By this measure, the health of the average American has been steadily declining for decades despite the country’s enormous investment in healthcare technology.

To read more about vitamins and cavities, click here. To read more about anorexia, click here. To read more about dementia click here.

Sleep disorders are a surprisingly common problem. Pharmaceutical companies have come up with powerful drugs that induce sleep, but they don’t induce healthy, refreshing sleep. I don’t know anyone who really likes to be on sleeping pills. Bed manufacturers and surgeons want people to believe that poor sleep is a physical problem. There’s nothing wrong with you, you just need a better bed or an operation. It is difficult to sift through all the advertising and reach the consensus scientific understanding that poor sleep is typically a problem with the nervous system. Your brain is supposed to control the oscillation between sleeping and waking. Unusual noises at night are supposed to wake you up. So when you first move from the country to the city, you are supposed to have trouble sleeping until your subconscious is reprogrammed to stop traffic noise from waking you up. So go ahead, learn to sleep on your side, have surgery, and buy a new bed. It is useful to compensate for declining brain function when there is no other way. But physical changes like this don’t address the root cause of typical sleep disorders – a problem with the nervous system. And don’t assume the problem is genetic, or an inevitable part of getting older. The problem is often a simple vitamin deficiency, easily fixed with the simple vitamin program we recommend. Read more here.

We tend to think about wounds narrowly. A wound is the result of physical injury – a burn, a cut, a bruise, or a scrape. Chemical burns are generally recognized as causing similar wounds. Viruses, bacteria, air pollution, and heavy metals also cause wounds. Since these wounds are invisible, and often spread across a large area of the body, they are not typically thought of as wounds. They are, however microscopic or invisible, wounds. Slow healing wounds cause lingering colds, infections, and unhealed bruises. A wound is a crisis situation for the body. Very high doses of vitamin C and niacin have proven wound-healing properties and are an appropriate supplemental treatment to drugs and surgeries. Vitamin C and niacin are available as topical creams enabling targeted local delivery of very high doses. In extreme situations, vitamin C and niacin can be injected at the wound site. Read more here.

Bedsores are a particularly tragic wound. Along with anorexia, the scientific case for vitamin deficiency is especially strong. Read more here. Patients in poor health in hospitals and nursing homes are kept inside, and out of the sun and are certain to see vitamin D levels drop. Read more here. Confined to bed, the need for calories drops, resulting in reduced food and therefore vitamin intake. Without supplements and sunshine, nursing home and hospital care is a prescription for vitamin deficiency.

When challenged by wounds caused by bacteria, viruses, pollution, or heavy metals, the best results are achieved by using the methods of mainstream medicine together with the vitamins we recommend. Extra vitamin C and niacin are recommended when antibiotics are needed. The antibiotics kill the bacteria. The vitamins speed the wounds caused by the bacteria. Read more here.

Put our idea that vitamin deficiency is commonplace to the test. Get vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine in the doses we recommend. Urge the children and elderly members of your family in your care to do likewise. Work with your dentists to monitor your dental health. Watch with us to see if the trend of ever-higher numbers of Americans starting chronic prescription drug use earlier and earlier in life can be reversed.

Vitamins Prevent Cavities and Anorexia: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamine

Prior columns have used available science to support the assertion that optimized nutrition can prevent cavities and anorexia. Read more here, and here . The columns assert that the four vitamins associated with deficiency diseases – vitamin C and scurvy, vitamin D and rickets, niacin and pellagra, and thiamine and beriberi – are special. These simple assertions have not been previously tested. If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here. Neither the healthcare profession nor the public has previously made a concerted effort to use these four vitamins together to optimize health.

Simple bold assertions, once made, are usually tested. It is just a matter of time before there is a consensus. Vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine prevent cavities and anorexia or they don’t. I’m writing today to remind readers that they don’t need to wait for a consensus. They can be part of it. I’m also writing to remind readers that even when there is a consensus, it doesn’t mean that the consensus is right for you. Just because it turns out that these vitamins don’t prevent cavities or anorexia in most people doesn’t mean you might not be an exception. Conversely, just because it turns out that these vitamins indeed prevent cavities and anorexia in most people doesn’t mean that they will work for you. Each person, and each family must, in the end, test the scientific recommendations on themselves.

Anorexia is especially important because the stakes are so high. Anorexia causes many young women a long and painful death stretching over years. Sadder still, interviews with chronic anorexics enables the question to be asked, “Are the incurable anorexics that die young the lucky ones?” If you haven’t personally experienced watching a child die from a painful, chronic disease it is hard to fully appreciate the impact on friends and family. If using vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine are going to reduce the prevalence of eating disorders from the ca. 500,000 cases there are today to below 50,000, it’s urgent to make it happen as soon as possible. Millions of lives are at stake.

Cavities and gum disease are especially important because they are so common and so visible. Cancer, heart disease, and diabetes are complex diseases that are difficult to understand. Patients feel different from day to day for no apparent reason. There is nothing to see. Everyone can understand cavities and gum diseases. Just open your mouth and look. Better yet, you can be highly scientific. Ask your dentist to improve their record keeping. Dentists today routinely archive photographs of your teeth and gums in addition to x-rays. They routinely measure and mark the pockets in the gums around each tooth. They poke the gums and measure the tendency to bleed. Reviewing your own dental records with your dentist is solid science worthy of scientific paper should you or your dentist care to make the effort.

The assertion that vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine prevent cavities is bold. Many will dismiss it outright just on the basis that it is too good to be true. The fact remains, however, that neither the healthcare profession nor the public has previously made a concerted effort to use these four vitamins together to prevent cavities and gum disease. The assertion has been made, and the testing has started. A consensus will be reached.

Cavities and gum disease disproportionately afflict the young and the old. Most of this population is in the care of adults in the prime of life. If you are caring for children and/or parents suffering from cavities and/or gum disease, what are you going to tell them when it turns out that the simple act of providing vitamins available from sunshine and the local store could have prevented the pain and you didn’t act because no one else was acting either. If vitamins were dangerous, expensive, or difficult to obtain, you could tell them it was out of your hands. But none of these things are true. It is, in fact, in your hands.

Acting and not acting both involve risks. Act first and risk the embarrassment of having inconvenienced your children and/or parents with the chore of taking vitamin supplements and getting out in the sun. Don’t act and risk the terrible guilt of learning that you could have saved your loved ones from considerable suffering but did nothing.

I choose to act. If my family suffers from eating disorders, cavities, and/or gum disease, it won’t be for a lack of vitamins. If the vitamins work, it won’t just benefit my family. We will inform the family dentist, physicians, and friends of the results, building consensus instead of waiting for it.

Prevent Cancer and Arthritis in Dogs and Cats: Vitamin C, Niacin, Vitamin D, and Thiamine

The case of my dog is worth reporting. At the age of 9 she was in very poor health. We put her through two surgeries to repair a ligament in each back leg, and a third surgery to remove a cancerous lump from her face. Despite the surgeries, she needed arthritis medication. Her front right leg was becoming lame, and on bad days I had to carry her up and down the stairs. Just over a year ago, after her cancer surgery, I put her on the regimen of four special nutrients that I recommend. These are vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine. My dog weighs 60 pounds. I feed her 2000 mg of vitamin C, 800 IU of vitamin D, 125 mg of niacin, and 100 mg of thiamine two or three times per week. For the first few weeks I fed her these doses almost every day.

Besides the vitamins, little else has changed in my dog’s life. She eats the same food, goes on the same number of walks to the same places, gets petted by the same people the same number of times. So it is hard to attribute her amazing recovery to anything but the vitamins. I was amazed when after 6 months on the vitamins she first jumped up again into the back of my car when I took her for walks. She was running around again like when she was a puppy and I was overjoyed. She would return to the car sore and I’d have to help her into the car. Today, she ran around like a puppy on her walk and jumped back into the car after the walk. During the walk, she came tearing down the hillside and then bounded – stretched out end to end – over a large fallen tree. I had forgotten she could ever do such a thing. More than one year after I started treating her with the vitamins, she is still healing. Chronic diseases get worse so slowly they are often confused with the inevitable effects of aging. Apparently they can improve in a similarly slow fashion making it very difficult to connect the cause (vitamin supplements) with the effect (improved health). With people, it will always be something else. It’s the new diet, new trainer, new job, or the new house. It couldn’t still be the vitamins. We correctly associated pills with drugs. Drugs are pills that are designed to work great the first time and then, if anything, work less well as time passes.

I’ve written extensively about vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine. Read more here, here, and here. I consider these to be four special nutrients. I gave them to my dog because I expected them to help. Single cases provide limited evidence. My dog’s case is worth special reporting because the response is so extreme. I gave her the vitamins because the science has proven they would help her. I recommend the vitamins to people because the science has proven they will help. Cases like my dog are special because they demonstrate just how much improvement lucky individuals can experience. If my dog can experience improvement that is reasonably described as resurrection, the average person can have a lot more confidence that the same vitamins will do them enough good to make it worth the effort.

For dogs and cats, the lesson is much more significant. All pets experience health problems as they age, but do not ordinarily have access to the miracles of modern medicince. My dog was very lucky that we could afford the surgeries. Many pets have owners who can’t and simply deteriorate until the suffering gets so bad that putting them to sleep is at least discussed. Unlike surgery and drugs, vitamins are inexpensive and available to every pet owner and vet. Dog and cat owners and vets have much to gain and little to lose by giving the vitamins a try.

Prevent Cavities and Pale Faces: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamine

Oral health (the condition of the teeth and gums) is strongly associated with serious health problems. Childhood respiratory infections and other infectious diseases are among these problems. Children with pale faces and dark circles under their eyes have a higher average number of filled cavities than children without them. Counting dental fillings is a good way to assess the risk of childhood illnesses. Childhood illnesses and cavities are strongly associated because they are both partially caused by failure of some of the same basic metabolic pathways inside our cells. Cavities should be taken very seriously. Every effort should be made to prevent them.

The risk of cavities increases with age. The older you are, the more important it is to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Due to aging, it is more difficult to keep your teeth and gums healthy. It is also more difficult to keep your body free of diseases. Poor immunity is difficult to measure, inspect, and quantify. Cavities are obvious. Gum health is obvious. Everyone should be aware that protecting teeth and gums from cavities and periodontal disease also protects them from colds, influenza, and other infectious diseases.

Cavities are caused by poor nutrition. This is a well-documented fact from the 19th and 20th centuries. During this period, dozens of isolated, indigenous populations joined the modern economy. Time and again, when indigenous populations switched to a modern diet, the prevalence of cavities increased dramatically. Subsequent research has proven that the most important “anti-cavity” factors in the indigenous diet/lifestyle are vitamins. Read more here. The recommended daily allowances of vitamins are insufficient to maximize cavity prevention. If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here. Counting cavities is a good way to establish at an early age what individuals in the population need extra vitamins. In old age, the high prevalence of cavities and lost teeth suggests that the recommended daily allowances of vitamins are inadequate for the majority.

Nothing will change the fact that a higher incidence of cavities and lost teeth are part of the aging process. Optimizing vitamin intake will not stop aging. But it will help you to age gracefully. There is no reason for your teeth to age faster than the rest of your body. Our healthcare system provides excellent services for keeping your teeth healthy. By using orthodontia to keep your teeth in the right place, and then by brushing, flossing, fluoriding, and cleaning every three months, properly nourished teeth will last more than 100 years.

The importance of dental health puts the women (there aren’t many men in these jobs yet) who clean our teeth at the forefront of the healthcare system. Twice a year they have a roughly 45-minute opportunity to compare the health of our teeth to our neighbor’s teeth, and then to teach us about best practices for keeping teeth healthy. Vitamin supplements and sunshine have become part of that conversation. The best dental offices are helping their patients adjust vitamin intake.

Most people don’t like talking about the vitamin supplements they are taking. It’s embarrassing. Healthy people shouldn’t need pills. And vitamin supplements – even 1 RDA multivitamins – cause side effects. Admitting to side effects is also embarrassing. The dental chair is proving to be a good place to discuss vitamin supplement strategies to maximize benefits and minimize side effects.

If your children are not taking vitamin supplements, and they are not going out into the sun to get extra vitamin D, then the odds are that their teeth are deteriorating. If their teeth are deteriorating, then your children are at high risk for developing a pale face and dark circles under the eyes. Find a dental office that will help you put together a supplement program for your children that includes vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine. Send your children out into the sun without sun block. Prevent cavities and pale faces at the same time by implementing the program. Measure the results by tracking the health of your children's teeth.

Prevent Cavities and Sleep Apnea, Depression, Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, Infertility, Impotence: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamine

Oral health (the condition of the teeth and gums) is strongly associated with serious health problems. Diseases of the central nervous system are among these problems. People with sleep apnea, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, infertility, and impotence have a higher average number of filled cavities than people without these diseases. Counting dental fillings is a good way to assess the risk of these diseases. Problems with the nervous system and cavities are strongly associated because they are both partially caused by failure of some of the same basic metabolic pathways inside our cells. Cavities should be taken very seriously. Every effort should be made to prevent them.

Like the risk of sleep apnea, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, infertility, and impotence, the risk of cavities increases with age. The older you are, the more important it is to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Due to aging, it is more difficult to keep your teeth and gums healthy. It is also more difficult to keep your central nervous system healthy. Diseases of the subconscious nervous system are difficult to detect, and poor mental health is difficult to acknowledge and discuss. Cavities are obvious. Gum health is obvious. It’s easy to ask your dentist, “Doc, how are my teeth and gums looking?” Everyone should be aware that protecting teeth and gums from cavities and periodontal disease also protects them from sleep apnea, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, infertility, and impotence.

Cavities are caused by poor nutrition. This is a well-documented fact from the 19th and 20th centuries. During this period, dozens of isolated, indigenous populations joined the modern economy. Time and again, when indigenous populations switched to a modern diet, the prevalence of cavities increased dramatically. Subsequent research has proven that the most important “anti-cavity” factors in the indigenous diet/lifestyle are vitamins. Read more here. The recommended daily allowances of vitamins are insufficient to maximize cavity prevention. If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here. Counting cavities is a good way to establish at an early age what individuals in the population need extra vitamins. In old age, the high prevalence of cavities and lost teeth suggests that the recommended daily allowances of vitamins are inadequate for the majority.

Nothing will change the fact that a higher incidence of cavities and lost teeth are part of the aging process. Optimizing vitamin intake will not stop aging. But it will help you to age gracefully. There is no reason for your teeth to age faster than the rest of your body. Our healthcare system provides excellent services for keeping your teeth healthy. By using orthodontia to keep your teeth in the right place, and then by brushing, flossing, fluoriding, and cleaning every three months, properly nourished teeth will last more than 100 years.

The importance of dental health puts the women (there aren’t many men in these jobs yet) who clean our teeth at the forefront of the healthcare system. Twice a year they have a roughly 45-minute opportunity to compare the health of our teeth to our neighbor’s teeth, and then to teach us about best practices for keeping teeth healthy. Vitamin supplements and sunshine have become part of that conversation. The best dental offices are helping their patients adjust vitamin intake.

Most people don’t like talking about the vitamin supplements they are taking. It’s embarrassing. Healthy people shouldn’t need pills. And vitamin supplements – even 1 RDA multivitamins – cause side effects. Admitting to side effects is also embarrassing. The dental chair is proving to be a good place to discuss vitamin supplement strategies to maximize benefits and minimize side effects.

If you are a senior citizen, and you are not taking vitamin supplements, and you’re not going out into the sun to get extra vitamin D, then the odds are that your teeth are deteriorating. If your teeth are deteriorating, then you are at high risk of suffering from at least one of sleep apnea, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, infertility, and impotence. Find a dental office that will help you put together a supplement program. Stop cavities and prevent nervous system diseases at the same time by implementing the program. Measure the results by tracking the health of your teeth.

Prevent Cavities and Heart Disease: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamin

Oral health (the condition of the teeth and gums) is strongly associated with serious health problems. Heart disease is among these problems. People with heart disease have a higher average number of filled cavities than people without heart disease. Counting dental fillings is a good way to assess the risk of heart disease. Heart Disease and cavities are strongly associated because they are both partially caused by failure of some of the same basic metabolic pathways inside our cells. Cavities should be taken very seriously. Every effort should be made to prevent them.

Like the risk of heart disease, the risk of cavities increases with age. The older you are, the more important it is to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Due to aging, it is more difficult to keep your teeth and gums healthy. It is also more difficult to keep your body free of heart disease. Heart disease is difficult to detect. Cavities are obvious. Gum health is obvious. Everyone should be aware that protecting teeth and gums from cavities and periodontal disease also protects them from heart disease.

Cavities are caused by poor nutrition. This is a well-documented fact from the 19th and 20th centuries. During this period, dozens of isolated, indigenous populations joined the modern economy. Time and again, when indigenous populations switched to a modern diet, the prevalence of cavities increased dramatically. Subsequent research has proven that the most important “anti-cavity” factors in the indigenous diet/lifestyle are vitamins. Read more here. The recommended daily allowances of vitamins are insufficient to maximize cavity prevention. If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here. Counting cavities is a good way to establish at an early age what individuals in the population need extra vitamins. In old age, the high prevalence of cavities and lost teeth suggests that the recommended daily allowances of vitamins are inadequate for the majority.

Nothing will change the fact that a higher incidence of cavities and lost teeth are part of the aging process. Optimizing vitamin intake will not stop aging. But it will help you to age gracefully. There is no reason for your teeth to age faster than the rest of your body. Our healthcare system provides excellent services for keeping your teeth healthy. By using orthodontia to keep your teeth in the right place, and then by brushing, flossing, fluoriding, and cleaning every three months, properly nourished teeth will last more than 100 years.

The importance of dental health puts the women (there aren’t many men in these jobs yet) who clean our teeth at the forefront of the healthcare system. Twice a year they have a roughly 45-minute opportunity to compare the health of our teeth to our neighbor’s teeth, and then to teach us about best practices for keeping teeth healthy. Vitamin supplements and sunshine have become part of that conversation. The best dental offices are helping their patients adjust vitamin intake.

Most people don’t like talking about the vitamin supplements they are taking. It’s embarrassing. Healthy people shouldn’t need pills. And vitamin supplements – even 1 RDA multivitamins – cause side effects. Admitting to side effects is also embarrassing. The dental chair is proving to be a good place to discuss vitamin supplement strategies to maximize benefits and minimize side effects.

If you are a senior citizen, and you are not taking vitamin supplements, and you’re not going out into the sun to get extra vitamin D, then the odds are that your teeth are deteriorating. If your teeth are deteriorating, then you are at high risk for heart disease. Find a dental office that will help you put together a supplement program. Stop cavities and prevent heart disease at the same time by implementing the program. Measure the results by tracking the health of your teeth.

Prevent Cavities and Cancer: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamin

Oral health (the condition of the teeth and gums) is strongly associated with serious health problems. Cancer is among these problems. People with cancer have a higher average number of cavities than people without cancer. Counting dental cavities is a good way to assess the risk of cancer. Cancer and cavities are strongly associated because they are both caused by failure of some of the same basic metabolic pathways inside our cells. Cavities should be taken very seriously. Every effort should be made to prevent them.

Like the risk of cancer, the risk of cavities increases with age. The older you are, the more important it is to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Due to aging, it is more difficult to keep your teeth and gums healthy. It is also more difficult to keep your body free of cancer. Cancer is difficult to detect. Cavities are obvious. Gum health is obvious. Everyone should be aware that protecting teeth and gums from cavities and periodontal disease also protects them from cancer.

Cavities are caused by poor nutrition. This is a well-documented fact from the 19th and 20th centuries. During this period, dozens of isolated, indigenous populations joined the modern economy. Time and again, when indigenous populations switched to a modern diet, the prevalence of cavities increased dramatically. Subsequent research has proven that the most important “anti-cavity” factors in the indigenous diet/lifestyle are vitamins. Read more here. The recommended daily allowances of vitamins are insufficient to maximize cavity prevention. If you are looking for good doses to start with, click here. Counting cavities is a good way to establish at an early age what individuals in the population need extra vitamins. In old age, the high prevalence of cavities and lost teeth suggests that the recommended daily allowances of vitamins are inadequate for the majority. A higher incidence of cavities and lost teeth are part of the aging process. Optimizing vitamin intake will not stop aging. But it will help you to age gracefully. There is no reason for your teeth to age faster than the rest of your body. Our healthcare system provides excellent services for keeping your teeth healthy. By using orthodontia to keep your teeth in the right place, and then by brushing, flossing, fluoriding, and cleaning every three months, properly nourished teeth will last more than 100 years.

The importance of dental health puts the women (there aren’t many men in these jobs yet) who clean our teeth at the forefront of the healthcare system. Twice a year they have a roughly 45-minute opportunity to compare the health of our teeth to our neighbor’s teeth, and then to teach us about best practices for keeping teeth healthy. Vitamin supplements and sunshine have become part of that conversation. The best dental offices are helping their patients adjust vitamin intake.

Most people don’t like talking about the vitamin supplements they are taking. It’s embarrassing. Healthy people shouldn’t need pills. And vitamin supplements – even 1 RDA multivitamins – cause side effects. Admitting to side effects is also embarrassing. The dental chair is proving to be a good place to discuss vitamin supplement strategies to maximize benefits and minimize side effects.

If you are a senior citizen, and you are not taking vitamin supplements, and you’re not going out into the sun to get extra vitamin D, then the odds are that your teeth are deteriorating. If your teeth are deteriorating, then you are at high risk for cancer. Find a dental office that will help you put together a supplement program. Stop cavities and prevent cancer at the same time by implementing the program. Measure the results by tracking the health of your teeth.

Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamin – Maximizing Benefits and Minimizing Side Effects

Vitamins are anti-addictive. It is difficult to perceive the benefits and easy to perceive the side effects. With time, perceived benefits tend to fade away while common side effects emerge and increase in severity. Many people feel the side effects and stop taking supplements altogether.

Vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine are the most important vitamins. Read more here. Each of these vitamins is available in multiple forms. Each form of the vitamin, taken by mouth, will have slightly different side effect sensations and thresholds. Vitamin C is available as the acid, the salt (calcium ascorbate, magnesium ascorbate, sodium ascorbate), and an ester (Ester-C). Vitamin D is available in several forms as the diol and additionally as the triol. Niacin comes as niacin, niacinamide, and niacin inositol (among others). Thiamine comes as the hydrochloride, the nitrate, and as a family of fat soluble molecules known as allithiamines. The most common allithiamines are TTFD and benfotiamine. If you are experiencing side effects, it’s a good idea to try different forms of the vitamins.

Finding the right pill, however, is only the beginning. Each molecule can be placed into the body using several routes. The most common are swallowing pills (the current paradigm), injection (the common route no one likes and that is typically conducted under physician supervision), rubbing onto the skin (increasingly common as more and more vitamins become available in skin creams), and breathing into the lungs.

Vitamin skin creams are wonderful products, most of which have been available to the consumer for less than 20 years. They are very modern products. Unfortunately, they tend to be expensive. I don’t think people realize that they don’t need to pay for vitamin D, vitamin C, niacin, and thiamine skin creams if they don’t want to. Vitamin D, ester-C, niacin inositol, and the allithiamines are stable in tap water and will pass through the skin. Vitamin D can be purchased dissolved in oil. This oil can be rubbed on the skin. The other vitamins can be purchased as powders (typically in gelcaps). The powder can be spread on the skin and rubbed in with water. Over the course of the day, much of the dose will be absorbed.

Vitamin powders can also be inhaled. I haven’t done this myself, and don’t know anyone else who has. I’m not recommending this method. That said, if forced to choose between injections and inhalation, I’d definitely choose inhalation. More importantly, I’m trying to open the minds of vitamin users and health care providers. Why isn’t inhalation more widely used? It is an effective and proven method for delivering medications. There is a recent patent specifically covering inhaled vitamins. It is U.S. 5944012.

If a vitamin is causing a side effect or if swallowing pills is a problem, there are many other options besides completely giving up swallowing vitamin tablets. If you have problems with a knee or an ankle, higher doses of vitamins can be delivered selectively to those joints by rubbing vitamins into the nearby skin. Vitamins that are subject to degradation in the digestive tract can be delivered to the bloodstream more effectively by inhalation. This improves dosage control compared to injection and shouldn’t require any more supervision from a physician than the commonly used inhalers for asthma. Perhaps there are other options. Many readers will find that there is much to be gained and little to lose by giving some of these uncommon methods a try.

Bed Sores, Nursing Homes, Hospitals and Vitamin C, Niacin, Thiamine, and Vitamin D

There are between 1 and 2 million hospital beds and between 1 and 2 million nursing home beds for a U.S. population of 300 million. These beds provide services to a fraction of the least healthy among us. Roughly 10% of this population, or 150,000 individuals, suffer from bed sores in addition to other serious health problems.

Bed sores are caused by poor quality care. Exercise, good food, and vitamin supplements prevent bed sores. Read more here, here, here, here, here and here. Before committing a loved one to a hospital or nursing home, find out how many residents suffer from bed sores. In the best facilities, on a good day there will be no pressure sores at all.

Unfortunately, facilities without bed sores are the exception rather than the rule. One reason is that many physicians don’t accept the importance of vitamin supplements. As evidence, here is a quote from a 2005 report by the Royal College of Nursing and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). "There is no evidence to support the routine administration of nutritional support/ supplementation… to promote the healing of pressure ulcers."

Only a committee could have written this sentence. Given the evidence in the links above, you’ll be hard pressed to find a physician who will support that sentence with any passion.

The effectiveness of vitamins is proportional to the dose used. Stressed skin vulnerable to pressure sores can benefit from high doses of vitamins. Pressure sores are a local problem that can be treated locally with vitamins. The most important vitamins – vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and vitamin B1 – can all be applied directly to the skin using oils and creams that have been recently developed and commercialized by the cosmetics industry. Vitamin C concentration can be safely boosted far higher by injecting it just below the surface of the skin. Topical and subcutaneous injection of vitamins enables healthcare providers to selectively achieve high vitamin concentrations in the skin, thereby minimizing the probability of side effects.

The use of vitamin creams and/or vitamin injections to prevent and treat bed sores is presently a rare behavior. As a result, I can’t provide an optimized procedure. I can, however, testify to the effectiveness of niacin and vitamin C creams for the treatment of minor burns in the kitchen. I often burn myself in the kitchen when opening plastic bags of steaming vegetables from the microwave, from oil spattering out of the frying pan, or from touching a hot pan. I keep vitamin C and niacin cream in the kitchen drawer. If I apply the cream within several minutes of getting burned, the pain and redness disappears almost immediately along with all evidence of the burn. There are many physician committees that will write that there is no evidence to support the routine administration of vitamin creams to promote the healing of minor burns. Why wait for double blind trials and committee recommendations when with less effort you can just try the treatment for yourself?

Vitamins and Abscesses, Boils, Carbuncles and Infected Wounds

Localized infections are surprisingly common. Because there are a variety types with a variety of causes there are many different common names. These include abscesses, boils, carbuncles, insect bites, snake bites, animal bites, and other infected wounds. Before the discovery of antibiotics, these conditions were life threatening and commonly caused death by blood poisoning.

Even with antibiotics, these infections are often painful, debilitating, and can take weeks or even months to heal. There is a need for treatments that will reduce the duration and severity of the infection and speed wound healing. Vitamin injections are highly likely to prove to be very useful for exactly this purpose.

High doses of vitamin C, niacin, and vitamin D are known to help the body fight off infections. Read more here. High doses of vitamin C and niacin are known to accelerate wound healing. Read more here, here, here and here.

Localized infections are a local problem, and don’t require delivery of high concentrations of vitamins throughout the body. They only require high doses of vitamins at the site of the wound. Taken by mouth or by I.V. injection, vitamin C and niacin commonly cause uncomfortable side effects. Injection by syringe at the site of the infection achieves maximum benefits with minimal side effects.

The usefulness of injecting vitamins at the site of infected wounds has not been proven with double blind placebo controlled clinical trials, and there is very little clinical experience. Fortunately, the safety of vitamin injections is proven because of extensive experience with I.V. injections for other purposes. Since the scientific case is strong, the risks are very low, and the cost is almost negligible, there is no need for expensive and time-consuming clinical trials. If the usefulness of treating local infections with oral antibiotics and local vitamins injections isn’t obviously better than oral antibiotics alone, then there isn’t much incentive to add the vitamin injections. Primary care physicians at research hospitals can easily conduct their own trials by adding vitamin injections to the treatment of half their patients presenting with localized infections. Either the average duration and severity of infections drops at least in half by using vitamin injections or it doesn’t.

The debate is over. Doses of vitamins far above the RDA have been proven useful for a handful of conditions using double blind clinical trials. Usefulness has been confirmed in clinical practice in the field. Optimal use of vitamins is complex. Most vitamins are available as a variety of specific molecules and each molecule can be delivered by mouth, through the skin, through the lungs by inhalation, by I.V. injection, and to a local spot by syringe injection. It is past time for primary care physicians to become experts in the safety and efficacy of vitamin supplements and to put them to work for the benefit of their patients. Syringe injections of vitamin C and niacin at the site of local infections is a good place to start.

Overdosing on Niacin: Side Effects, Toxicity, Symptoms, Poisoning

I promised to write one column about the side effects of vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B3 (niacin, niacinamide), vitamin C, and vitamin D (cholecalciferol). Deficiency in these four vitamins causes beri beri, pellagra, scurvy, and rickets respectively. I started with vitamin D because it causes the most problems. Vitamin B3 (niacin, niacinamide) is second because it is the most troublesome.

The situation with niacin is what it is. The Food and Nutrition Board has set the RDA for niacin at 20 mg/day and the upper safe limit (UL) at 35 mg/day. This is far and away the closest for the four most important nutrients. At the same time, niacin is the only vitamin embraced by mainstream medicine. It is used to treat high cholesterol. Heart doctors prescribe 2000 mg/day niacin for this purpose – more than 50 times the UL. Are we supposed to believe that some people can take 2000 mg/day with no problems and others have to both make sure that they get 20 mg/day (the RDA) without exceeding the UL of 35 mg/day? Oddly enough, the answer to this question is yes.

Niacin is famous for causing flushing. Rapid absorption of as little as 35 mg of niacin (think 35 mg of niacin with a hot coffee on an empty stomach first thing in the morning) can cause flushing. The duration and severity of flushing is proportional to the dose. A severe flush can be fearfully painful – an unforgettable experience. A mild flush could possibly be described as a pleasant experience by an unusual person – a feeling of warmth accompanied by tingling. Here is a fairly comprehensive list of other side effects listed by authorities:

Itchy feeling spots on the skin (skin looks perfectly normal upon inspection)
Dry feeling spots on the skin (skin looks perfectly normal upon inspection)
Fainting
Rapid heartbeat
Low blood pressure
Nausea
Diarrhea
Vomiting
Ulcers
Liver malfunction
Nervousness
Panic
Anxiety
Headache
Tooth pain
Gum pain
Decreased Thyroid function
Blurred vision
Lazy eye

I read this information and was well aware of the side effects before I started taking niacin. The information was useful, but lacking in many important details. So, once again, from here on the story is based on my personal experience. It will take time to tell how relevant my experiences have been.

I’ve been taking niacin and reacting to niacin side effects for 12 years. Here are side effects I believe were caused by niacin that I experienced and aren’t on the list above:

Euphoria
Talkativeness
Excitability
Sleeplessness
Restless legs


Early on, I was taking over 1000 mg/day of niacin and feeling great. Then one day, for no obvious reason, after months supplementing near 1000 mg/day, nausea started in the morning right after I took my daily supplement. The nausea intensified throughout the morning until it became disabling. I ended up home and in bed. There, the nausea further intensified until it became agonizing. Finally, over the course of an hour or two, I vomited several times. The vomiting ended with a bright yellow fluid that I suspect is bile. When my wife was niacin poisoned, she also vomited this yellow fluid. I believe it is characteristic of the vomiting caused by niacin. One day I was taking regular doses of niacin and feeling fine, and the next day I was deathly ill. Once the vomiting was over, my recovery was astonishingly rapid. I was back to work feeling well the next day. I told my boss I had a 24-hour stomach bug. Despite great care, this happened to me two more times while taking regular doses of 500 to 1000 mg/day of niacin.

In recent years, I’ve been taking 100 to 1000 mg/day of niacin for several days in a row in short, intermittent bursts separated by weeks and months with mostly none interspersed with several days in the 60 to 125 mg/day range. When I do take it, I like to take the 60-120 mg/day dose of straight release niacin first thing in the morning with a cup of hot coffee on an empty stomach. That way I get the strongest possible reaction. I typically get a very mild flush that, to me, feels good. Less frequently I experience nothing or a severe flush. Rarely, I have experienced a 5 to 15 minute bout of intense nausea along with a severe flush.

In recent years, niacin reliably accelerates my heart rate and makes me less inhibited. I have trouble falling asleep. These effects last for about 24 hours.

On average, as the years have passed, I have been taking less and less niacin and experience a wider range of side effects at a wider range of severities. My testimony directly contradicts the common claim that niacin side effects dissipate with time. It’s not just me. I persuaded friends and family members to start taking niacin at 250 to 500 mg/day doses. Today, many of them have quit taking niacin supplements because of side effects. At the same time, I know several are taking 1000 mg/day niacin to control cholesterol and reporting no problems with side effects.

In summary, the list of niacin side effects is long. The list is so long that I recommend that anyone taking niacin stop taking it for 3 to 7 days at least once/year just to see if niacin is causing any trouble. Stopping for such a short time is not known to do any harm, and symptoms assumed to be a result of aging may actually be niacin side effects. I’ve taken 500 mg/day for several days with no side effects and have taken a single 60 mg dose that’s ruined most of a day. So, in my experience not only have I found that niacin tolerance varies widely from person to person, I’ve found that niacin tolerance in individuals varies widely. As a result, I’ve found niacin to be the hardest to use of the four vitamins associated with deficiency diseases.

Prevent Anorexia – Tracking Anorexia Prevention with Vitamins

I know from hard won experience that people are skeptical about the usefulness of vitamins at doses beyond the RDA, and that these benefits are hard to detect. I know from harder experience that vitamin side effects are easily associated with vitamins, and that people can get very angry when they figure out that a vitamin pill made them feel ill.

I’ve been working with the world’s experts on vitamin supplements to identify conditions that reliably respond to vitamins. We have found several. The one I’m most interested in is anorexia. Type "anorexia and vitamins" into Google and links to my blog come up on the first page. Anorexia is a tragedy, and, based on the evidence that we have presented, there is very good reason to believe that it is a vitamin deficiency disease. I’m excited because I’m hearing from a handful of readers that the vitamins work, and work well. Concerned parents are adding vitamins to the diet at the first signs of eating disorders – well before significant weight loss or reason for serious concern. The result is that the parents lose their concern about eating disorders.

Although I’m excited, all that I have is stories. What I want is statistics. There are somewhere in the range of 500,000 to 1,000,000 Americans with eating disorders. This means in the ballpark of 50,000 new cases per year. There are eating disorder specialists in every state taking on these new cases. If we’re right, and anorexia is largely prevented by taking vitamin supplements, then the number of new cases will decline noticeably as the word spreads. Somebody must have access to this data. I respect data. If anorexia isn’t going away, then we’re wrong and anorexia isn’t mostly prevented by vitamin supplements. If we’re right, then the numbers will fall and the urgency of spreading the word about vitamins will increase. In the meantime, anyone concerned about anorexia has much to gain and little to lose by giving the vitamins a try.

Overdosing on Vitamin D: Side Effects, Toxicity, Symptoms, Poisoning

I promised to write one column about the side effects of vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B3 (niacin, niacinamide), vitamin C, and vitamin D (cholecalciferol). Deficiency in these four vitamins causes beri beri, pellagra, scurvy, and rickets respectively. I’m going to start with vitamin D because it causes the most problems.

I’ve been hesitant to write these columns because they make the vitamins sound scary. In my experience, the benefits of vitamins are difficult to prove (and to feel) while the side effects are obvious. I’m a scientist. Like all active micronutrients (think drugs), the benefits of vitamins must respond to dose. If you want the full benefit, you have to apply massive doses. Of course, this isn’t practical. Side effects also respond to dose. So, you have to find a dose that balances benefits and side effects. Side effects are your friend. They are usually very very mild at the outset. Once recognized, they let you know that most of your body has plenty. They allow you to find the form of each vitamin supplement that is best suited to you (enables the highest dose before the onset of side effects). I can only plead with readers to trust me. The side effects are worth it. Vitamins have the power to lead to a step change reduction in the severity of the chronic illnesses plaguing us.

Vitamin D is the only one of the four vitamins responsible for deficiency that is acutely toxic in overdose. A single dose, sufficiently large, is lethal. This dose is determined by scientists by feeding rats. The data from the rats indicates that a single dose of vitamin D between 3 million and 4 million IU would kill most adults. It is virtually impossible for a consumer to take a dose like this. In fact, vitamin D is so safe that it is sold in bottles without childproof caps. I purchase large bottles of 1000 IU vitamin D tablets that contain 300 tablets. If I swallowed the entire bottle, I’d be taking 300,000 IU of vitamin D. I’d have to swallow ten entire bottles at once to reach the lethal dose.

Much lower doses of vitamin D, taken regularly, build up in the body over time and cause serious illness. not surprisingly, the Mayo Clinic (are they defending themselves against Linus Pauling's accusations?) is the best source I've found on-line for vitamin side effects. Here is their list:

Late symptoms of severe overdose (emerge after months or years of starting supplements)

High blood pressure
High fever
Irregular heartbeat
Stomach pain (severe)

Check with your doctor as soon as possible if any of the following side effects occur:

Early symptoms of overdose (emerge within days or weeks of starting vitamin D supplements)

Bone pain
Constipation (especially in children or adolescents)
Diarrhea
Drowsiness
Dryness of mouth
Headache (continuing)
Increased thirst
Increase in frequency of urination, especially at night, or in amount of urine
Irregular heartbeat
Itching skin
Loss of appetite
Metallic taste
Muscle pain
Nausea or vomiting (especially in children or adolescents)
Unusual tiredness or weakness

Late symptoms of overdose (emerge within weeks or months of starting supplements)

Bone pain
Calcium deposits (hard lumps) in tissues outside of the bone
Cloudy urine
Drowsiness
Increased sensitivity of eyes to light or irritation of eyes
Itching of skin
Loss of appetite
Loss of sex drive
Mood or mental changes
Muscle pain
Nausea or vomiting
Protein in the urine
Redness or discharge of the eye, eyelid, or lining of the eyelid
Runny nose
Weight loss

Stories can be more helpful than lists. The best case history I know of is from an outstanding book called “The Right Dose, How to Take Vitamins and Minerals Safely.” A family of ten all drank regularly from a condensed milk product given to them by a friend. This condensed milk turned out to be a product used commercially by the milk industry to fortify milk with vitamin D. The family members were, on average, most likely taking somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 IU/day of vitamin D. Here is the relevant excerpt from the case report:

“A male patient was admitted to the Dept. of Pediatrics of the Cook County Hospital because of nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and abdominal pain. Anorexia began three weeks prior to admission, followed by vomiting which was associated with vague intermittent abdominal pain. During the week prior to admission, he started to have severe nausea with frequent vomiting and was unable to attend school. He lost 11 pounds of weight during this period. Muscle weakness and frequency of urination were noted. The child’s 35 year old mother was admitted simultaneously, with severe abdominal pain, anorexia, vomiting, and weight loss of two weeks’ duration. The patient was thin, moderately dehydrated, and appeared chronically ill.”

This case report was a fantastic piece of good luck. Obviously, an experiment like this can’t be designed. It had to happen by accident. The reason it was such good luck, was that it also illustrates why vitamin D toxicity is so controversial. Eight other members of this same family took similar levels of vitamin D over this period and “did not become ill”. Eighty percent of this family was able to take between 50,000 and 100,000 IU of vitamin D for 6 weeks with no ill effects. No wonder the two patients kept on drinking the milk long after they fell seriously ill. Why would they suspect the “condensed milk” when everyone was drinking it and was fine?

According to the book, the symptoms in the case report are “classic signs” of vitamin D overdose. Here’s the write-up on the full list of classic symptoms:

“Nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headache, dry mouth, abdominal or bone pain, and dizziness are the classic symptoms of vitamin D toxicity. As the condition progresses, signs of impaired kidney function, such as excessive urination, may arise. Itching, calcification of organs and blood vessels, osteoporosis, and seizures are still other signs that develop at the later stages.” Note the excellent overlap with the more comprehensive list from the Mayo Clinic.

Readers are never going to take 50,000 to 100,000 IU per day of vitamin D. No one recommends sustained doses in this range. So, what’s the best evidence that doses in the range of normal can also be toxic? The best evidence comes from the experience of the British physicians who worked out the recommended daily doses for vitamin D back in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Rickets among babies and toddlers was a major problem in England before the milk supply was fortified with vitamin D. Today, one cup of milk is fortified with 100 IU of vitamin D. The British started out with by fortifying milk at about double this level (200 IU per cup). The program succeeded in eliminating rickets among families that drank fortified milk. Unfortunately, the program made significant numbers of children ill and had to be adjusted down to the current level. Tragically, the present dose doesn’t protect all children from rickets.

The problem with milk fortification is that not only is there a wide range of sensitivity to vitamin D, there is also a wide range of intake. In my opinion, this data suggests that sensitive individuals develop vitamin D side effects from daily use of 1000 to 2000 IU of vitamin D. For example, my son drinks an average of 2 to 3 quarts of milk every day. This means he gets between 800 and 1200 IU of vitamin D from milk and then probably averages over the course of the year another 400 IU/day from sun exposure. The babies in Britain showing up with vitamin D side effect were probably getting plenty of sunshine and drinking plenty of fortified milk. My sense that 1000 to 2000 IU regularly causing side effects was reinforced by a thorough internet search for advice on vitamin D supplement programs from clinicians who help clients put together supplement programs. I found several clinician reports of 2000 IU/day doses leading to problems after months of use.

If you’ve been reading my column, and reading the information at the Vitamin D Council website, you’ll know that 1000 to 2000 IU/day is often not enough. So, the hard facts are that there is no known dose of vitamin D that provides everyone with full benefits without causing anyone side effects.

I read all the information summarized above before I started taking vitamin D. Sadly, this information about specific symptoms was not very useful to me. What was most useful to me was what I read between the lines. I felt that the words of advice from experienced clinicians expressed a deep-seated unease with vitamin D supplements.

With that unease in mind, I chose to supplement with 4000 IU per day of vitamin D, fully expecting to experience side effects. So, from here on the story is based on my personal experience. It will take time to tell how relevant my experiences have been.

I have not experienced any symptoms bad enough to require any treatment, or to cancel any plans, or even to go to bed early. I experienced no side effects for three months at 4000 IU/day. For the past 10 months I’ve been alternating between vitamin D abstinence for 1 to 2 weeks and supplementation for 1 day. Some of the time I supplement by sunbathing in shorts at noon for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Some of the time I take a 1000 IU tablet. Every time I supplement I experience side effects. So, I’m confident that for me, the following side effects are caused by vitamin D. I'm updating this item in early April, 2009. For the past 6 months I have gotten all my vitamin D from sunshine. I lie in the sun at noon for between 10 and 20 minutes 9 out of ten sunny days here at latitude 40 N. Many claim that there is insufficient UV intensity at 40 N in the winter to produce vitamin D. My experience strongly suggests that this view is incorrect.

1) Irritable lungs. For example, when I breath in alcohol vapors I need to cough. When I drink my coffee in the morning I need to cough (probably a reaction to the caffeine).

2) Sensation in the teeth. I feel my teeth. I can’t decide if this is good or bad. What is definitely bad is that when I switch from warm food to a cool drink I get nasty electric shocks in my teeth. Rarely I have experienced tooth-ache like pain as a result of chilling my teeth with cold air or cold food. This pain lasts for 10 or fifteen minutes.

3) Bone pain in the fourth finger on my left hand. This is very strange. Often within minutes of taking a vitamin D supplement (but not from sun-bathing), I notice a slight pain in the fourth finger of my left hand and nowhere else. I first experienced this feeling while taking 4000 IU/day and, at that dose, the pain got quite severe on the last day I took that dose.

4) Nausea with fatigue. For me, this side effect is more severe from sunshine and less severe from supplements.

5) Ringing ears.

6) Chest pain and heart sensations. I find this to be the worst and most alarming side effect. It caused me to shun all forms of vitamin D for two months. I went for a full cardiac workout and blood testing. I was informed that I’m in terrific health. Like the bone pain, for me this side effect is more severe from supplements than from sunshine.

7) A bad mood. Vitamin D is known to have psychological effects. It is supposed to improve mood. I’m really uncomfortable with listing this as a side effect because it is so subjective. The other side effects are sufficient to put me in a bad mood. But my gut tells me it is worse than that and that the excess vitamin D is actually causing some depression.

The following side effects have just emerged in April 2009. They are perfectly described on the Mayo Clinic list:

8) Discharge of the eye, eyelid, and lining of the eyelid

9) Increased sensitivity of eyes to light or irritation of eyes

These early side effects are totally harmless if recognized as such and acted upon. When vitamin D supplementation is stopped, they fade away in a few days. So, it isn’t that hard to manage as long as you are willing to pay attention to how you feel and not worry about the minor discomfort.

Unfortunately, even here I have to add a word of caution. Staying out of the sun and stopping vitamin D supplements from bottles is not enough for everyone. There is a small subset of the population that drinks a lot of milk. Each cup of milk contains 100 IU of vitamin D. One quart is 400 IU – a large fraction of the 1000 IU tablets that are causing me trouble.

Every report I was able to read about vitamin D claimed that overdosing from sun exposure is unknown. This remains true. It is one of the reasons I'm overdosing. I simply can't believe that every expert writing about vitamin D side effects is wrong. Especially when for me, overdosing from the sun is easy. Amazingly, I have to conclude that almost no one has tried to overdose from the sun (avoid tanning and get into the noon sun for 10 to 30 minutes of full body exposure). I experienced a different severity order from the sun than from the supplements. The really distinctive signs – my finger and my heart – are almost unnoticeable from sun overdose. The fatigue and nausea are much worse – and much harder to say with certainty are from vitamin D and not a bad breakfast or a virus or any of the hundreds of other causes of nausea and fatigue. The only side effect with similar severity from both the sun and supplements is the feelings in my teeth. Since I first wrote this the feelings in my teeth have subsided and I rarely get shocks from drinking cold fluids. Now my eyes are more sensitive than my teeth. Maybe this will fade with time to be replaced by yet a differrent first side effect. It seems impossible to "line out" a vitamin D dose. After two years of wrestling with supplements and sunshine, I've rid myself of some of the most annoying early side effects only to have them replaced by different side effects. For whatever it is worth, I've had similar problems with niacin, B-complex, and TTFD supplements. Vitamin C is the only one of the four special nutrients - vitamin C, niacin, thiamine, and vitamin D - that I find easy to use. It doesn't surprise me that it is the most popular vitamin supplement.

Vitamin D is an amazing nutrient. Used in optimal doses, it has incredible potential for improving human health. The early side effects of vitamin D are mild and a blessing. They enable you to find the maximum dose you can take without experience the terrible side effects described in the case report. Don’t let fear of side effects stop you from enjoying the full benefits of vitamin D.

Pregnancy, Infants, and Babies: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamine

Reliable reports from independent physicians working in several countries claim that vitamin supplements at doses significantly higher than contained in prenatal vitamins can prevent poor birth outcomes. These include birth defects, premature births, colicky babies, and difficult labor. If true, acting on this information would be priceless. The trouble is, it isn’t easy to prove whether or not these statements are true, and, more importantly doses of vitamins near or beyond the UL’s set by the Food and Nutrition Board inevitably cause side effects. Bad birth outcomes are common. Right or wrong, vitamin side effects could become associated with bad birth outcomes. Pregnancy is a time for cautious, low-risk behavior. It is not a good time to experience vitamin side effects.

Earlier this week, I heard a broadcast report on a neonatal care unit in Texas. The unit was being shut because it had accumulated $700 million in uninsured services over the past few years. I couldn’t help reflecting on the state of affairs of the American health care system. Mainstream medicine is growing and growing and growing. Neonatal care systems churn out infants in poor health. Many are destined for entire lives of poor health. Is it any wonder that the health care system spends extravagantly to save the lives of premature babies while spending minimal sums to prevent poor birth outcomes? It’s a reliable business proposition. Save premature babies of the middle class and claim most of the discretionary income from the family in extra medical expenses for the entire life of the child. Saving premature babies from the lower classes is OK too. The child is entitled to at least emergency care at taxpayer expense.

The facts are the facts. Prevention of illness reduces the need for medical services. Mainstream medicine is not going to focus on reducing the need for medical services (prevention). Nor should it. It should remain focused on discovery and innovation. Families, schools, and corporations have the obvious incentives to focus on prevention. Mainstream medicine is large enough now, that I suspect most extended families of ordinary size have experienced firsthand the consequences of coping with a serious chronic illness.

So, how can families, schools, and corporations prevent the most tragic of chronic illnesses – poor birth outcomes? The health of the mother is one of the best predictors of healthy infants and babies. Mothers in poor health are more likely to experience poor birth outcomes than mothers in excellent health.

The Food and Nutrition Board developed the R.D.A.’s by studying young adults in excellent health. This includes the R.D.A.’s contained in prenatal vitamins. To me, this means that if an expecting mother is in excellent health, prenatal vitamins will maintain her excellent health throughout the pregnancy and birth.

The task, then, is to get all expectant mothers into excellent health. The place to start is in childhood. The R.D.A.’s for children are too low. Children need a multivitamins and extra vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine. Read more here. They need to learn to master the use of vitamins for themselves as young adults. They need to study and experience vitamin side effects. Young adulthood is the best time to experiment with high doses of vitamins. The risk of permanent harm is negligible and young adults bounce back quickly from any side effects. I believe it is particularly important to master vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine because they are the four special vitamins associated with the four named vitamin deficiency diseases: scurvy, rickets, pellagra, and beriberi. Read more here and here. I believe that mastery of these vitamins will result in excellent health for the vast majority of young women. When and if a young woman in excellent health decides to get pregnant, the conservative course of action is to reduce vitamin consumption to the tried and true levels in prenatal vitamins. The only exception is vitamin C. If a young woman has mastered vitamin C and settled on a daily dose above 2000 mg/day, she should consider continuing to take extra vitamin C at a dose of 1000 to 2000 mg/day, just below the UL of 2000 mg/day set by the Food and Nutrition Board.

If you are a young adult reading this column and you are looking for a place to start, here is one:

Vitamin C – 4000 mg/day first thing in the morning
Vitamin D – ample sunshine in the spring, summer, and fall including full body exposure at least once/month. 1000 IU/day during the winter months.
Thiamine – 5 to 10 mg/day as TTFD in an enteric-coated tablet. It has to be TTFD and the tablet has to be enteric coated. Alternatively, purchase TTFD cream and apply 5 to 10 mg topically.
Niacin – take 250 mg time release niacin once per week

Each vitamin can cause side effects. I plan to write four posts (one per vitamin) concerning the side effects of each of these four vitamins in the near future.

Despite the miracles of modern medicine, a higher percentage of people than ever are living with chronic illnesses and are dependent upon pharmaceuticals. An incredible 50% of all Americans are taking at least one prescription drug. Over 80% of Americans over 65 years of age are taking at least one prescription drug. Less than 100 years ago, there weren’t any prescription drugs. Don’t get me wrong, prescription drugs are miracles of modern science and provide fantastic benefits. If you have a problem that responds to prescription drugs, take the drugs. Just keep in mind that prescription drugs for chronic illnesses are not cures. Drugs are needed because specific cellular systems are wounded and not able to function at 100%. In a majority of cases, these wounds will heal given time and care.

It’s time to work to prevent chronic illnesses by building bodies in robust health in the first place. It’s time to start closing anti-depressant production lines, bypass surgery wards, dialysis clinics, and neo-natal care units by reducing the prevalence of these conditions. It’s time to take control of our health by taking full advantage of the wealth of knowledge about the nutrients that make us and keep us healthy. The best place to start is by improving the health of the young women about to produce the next generation. If there are young women in your family who are not in excellent good health, they have much to gain and nothing to lose by mastering vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin and thiamine.