Niacin: The Energizer Powering Your Cells And Fighting Cancer

Authored by Sina McCullough, Mercura Wang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Whether it is turning food into fuel, building cells, repairing DNA, detoxifying, recycling nutrients, or defending against oxidative stress, niacin provides the energy to keep it all running smoothly. Without it, your cells would be like a phone stuck with a 1 percent battery: desperately low on power and struggling to keep up!

But niacin does more than energize your body. It also plays a vital role in specific functions, like supporting skin health—a finding that dates back to the discovery of this remarkable vitamin.

In the 1910s, Dr. Joseph Goldberger, a U.S. Public Health Service medical officer, was investigating the mystery of pellagra. This debilitating disease was sweeping South Carolina and other parts of the world, leaving a trail of severe symptoms: rough, scaly skin, digestive issues, and mental disturbances, with a fatality rate of 40 percent. Tens of thousands were affected, and the cause was a mystery. Most thought it was an infectious disease.

Goldberger suspected pellagra wasn’t caused by a germ but by something missing from people’s diets. By restricting corn and adding foods like fresh milk, buttermilk, eggs, beans, and peas to the diets of pellagra patients, Goldberger showed the symptoms could be reversed. But what was the magic ingredient in these foods?

Years later, a biochemist identified niacin as the specific factor behind this dietary solution. It turns out that niacin was the key to preventing pellagra and restoring health.

Special Talents

Niacin has many talents and roles, but a few main ones are highlighted below.

1. Energizer

Niacin is the star player in your body’s grand energy production team. Fats, carbohydrates, and specific proteins are broken down into energy when you eat. Turning these foods into usable energy is where niacin truly shines. In the presence of oxygen, these nutrients travel through a series of pathways to transform the food you eat into energy, known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which powers nearly everything you do, from thinking to moving.

ATP is in constant demand but exists in only small, rapidly depleted amounts. To keep us alive, our cells must regenerate ATP continuously—and that’s where niacin steps in as a genuine “energizer.” Niacin, in the form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), acts as the critical energy carrier in the pathways that convert nutrients into ATP, ensuring that despite our limited ATP stores, we always have a fresh supply ready to fuel every heartbeat, every breath, and every thought.

Without niacin, the body’s energy production would cease, making this nutrient essential for sustaining life itself.

2. Nerve Protector

Niacin has shown exciting potential in protecting the nervous system and combating neurological diseases. Pre-clinical trials suggest it could be beneficial for conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and glioblastoma.

Niacin helps repair the myelin that protects your nerves and reduces inflammation in the brain. A 2004 prospective study found an association between higher niacin intake and a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline. Niacin also speeds up the transformation of stem cells into nerve cells and helps those cells survive, even under oxidative stress.

3. Cancer Fighter

Niacin enhances DNA repair by maintaining cellular energy levels, preventing ATP depletion, and increasing excision repair, which is essential for reducing cancer risk. In clinical trials, niacin reduced the incidence of skin cancer. In patients with cancer, higher niacin intake increased the odds of survival. Niacin may also help prevent certain cancers, as niacin deficiency can impair DNA repair, thus leading to genomic instability and increased tumor development in rat models, including a higher risk of chemically induced leukemia.

Also, niacin has been shown to effectively reduce the incidence of premalignant actinic keratosis by 11 percent, squamous cell carcinoma by 30 percent, and basal cell carcinoma by 20 percent among cancer patients, compared to a placebo after a 12-month trial. Furthermore, if you have certain cancers, such as carcinoids, you may also need more niacin.

Other Talents

Niacin also helps in the production of reproductive and stress-related hormones, improves circulation, regulates the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and suppresses inflammation.

Fun Facts

• Niacin is not technically an essential vitamin because your liver and certain microbes in your intestine can make it from tryptophan, the amino acid famous for making you sleepy after Thanksgiving turkey.
• While some organizations discourage its use as a first-line therapy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved niacin to treat high cholesterol and high triglycerides. Niacin was the first cholesterol-lowering drug before the discovery of statins.
• Unlike some of the other B vitamins, niacin is stable when exposed to heat and light. It survives most cooking methods, so the niacin in your food is unlikely to be destroyed during preparation.
• More than 400 enzymes depend on niacin, making it critical for proper body function.
• There’s growing interest in niacin’s role in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite.

Favorite Hangouts

Niacin hangs out in liver and meat, including chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, salmon, tuna, shrimp, and sardines. Vegetarians can find niacin in unfortified nutritional yeast, mushrooms, asparagus, sweet potato, bell pepper, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, nuts, lentils, peas, and legumes. Niacin bioavailability is higher in meat compared to plants because it is mainly in the form of the coenzyme NAD.

Some of the foods rich in niacin are listed below. Their daily consumption quantities are calculated based on the Food and Nutrition Board’s Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for niacin, which is 16 milligrams per day for adult males and 14 milligrams per day for adult females.

Food portions and the percentage of the daily value they meet include the following:

• Pan-fried beef liver (3 ounces): 93 percent
• Grilled chicken breast (3 ounces): 64 percent
• Marinara sauce (1 cup): 64 percent
• Roasted turkey breast (3 ounces): 63 percent
• Cooked sockeye salmon (3 ounces): 54 percent
• Light canned tuna (3 ounces): 54 percent
• Roasted pork tenderloin (3 ounces): 39 percent
• Pan-browned ground beef (3 ounces): 36 percent
• Cooked brown rice (1 cup): 33 percent
• Dry-roasted peanuts (1 ounce): 26 percent

Recipe: Energizing Chicken Salad

Short on time? No worries! Grab an organic rotisserie chicken, and this meal will come together in under five minutes. It’s a quick and easy way to load up on niacin and its supporting cast, vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin B1, iron, and tryptophan (covered later).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked chicken breast
• 2 cups spinach
• ½ avocado
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Handful of sunflower seeds and sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Shred the cooked chicken breast and place it in a large bowl.
2. Add spinach and diced avocado.
3. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
4. Sprinkle almonds on top.
5. Toss well and serve chilled for a refreshing, niacin-packed meal.

How to Optimize Absorption

Some of the niacin in foods like coffee, grains, and seeds is bound, so for it to be released, it requires special processing, like roasting, germinating, fermentation, or alkali treatment.

For coffee lovers, roasting is key; the more robust the roast, the more niacin available, while decaf contains less.

Grains are often marketed as a good source of niacin, but here’s the twist: This is only true if they’re germinated, fermented, alkali-treated, or fortified. About 70 percent of the niacin in whole grains in their natural state is bound up in a form our bodies can’t easily absorb.

Diets that relied heavily on grains like corn and sorghum were the culprit behind widespread pellagra outbreaks in South Africa, India, and Southern Europe in the 18th century and later in the United States after the Civil War. In the postwar South, diets were largely grain-based, relying on cereals like corn, wheat, and grits, which left them dangerously low in niacin. It wasn’t long before physicians, including Goldberger, connected the dots: Niacin deficiency was at the heart of these health crises, and eating niacin-rich foods could save countless lives.

Long before modern science understood the importance of niacin, many ancient cultures had already developed ways to make it more available in their diets. The Aztecs, for instance, boiled and soaked corn in an alkaline solution, such as water with lime or calcium hydroxide—a method known as nixtamalization. Other cultures added alkalizing substances like juniper ash or lye made from hardwood ash.

This alkalizing process freed the bound niacin, making it more bioavailable and likely protecting against pellagra in regions like South and Central America, where these techniques were practiced. Unfortunately, it is thought that when these traditional methods of processing corn were abandoned, niacin deficiency may have become more widespread, potentially contributing to pellagra outbreaks.

Today, to help prevent such deficiencies, the FDA requires niacin to be added to flour and bread and labeled as “enriched.” That’s why added niacin is listed on many bread labels in the grocery store.

If you’re cooking at home and want to unlock more niacin from whole grains, try these tricks:

• Germinate (or sprout) raw grains.
• If whole-food forms of corn are a staple in your diet, consider preparing them in lime water.
• When making bread, use yeast or baking soda to help it rise.
• Combine three days of sprouting with an eight-hour sourdough fermentation.

Supporting Cast of Nutrients

The amino acid tryptophan is a dietary source of niacin because it can be converted into niacin by the liver and certain microbes in your intestine. Including tryptophan-rich foods like turkey, eggs, and cheese in your diet can help boost niacin levels.

However, the conversion process is inefficient, requiring about 60 parts tryptophan to make just one part niacin. This ratio is why niacin intakes are expressed as niacin equivalents (NE), with 1 milligram of NE equal to 1 milligram of niacin or 60 milligrams of tryptophan.

Therefore, niacin should be consumed with foods containing vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin B1, and iron. These nutrients help convert tryptophan into niacin.

Pairing niacin with foods containing unsaturated fatty acids is also a good idea. Adding unsaturated fatty acids to your diet can help increase niacin synthesis from tryptophan. Avocados, olives, nuts, fatty fish, and dark chocolate are a few examples of these types of foods.

Deficiency

Niacin deficiencies are rare in industrialized nations, primarily because of adequate dietary intake and the addition of niacin to numerous foods and multivitamin supplements.

Recommended Dietary Allowance

The current RDA (16 milligrams daily for men, 14 milligrams daily for women) is based on preventing deficiency. Still, some experts suggest higher amounts may benefit those dealing with high levels of oxidative stress, such as athletes or people with chronic conditions.

Symptoms and Signs

Common niacin deficiency symptoms include the following:

• Depression
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Memory loss
• Hallucinations
• Indigestion
• Canker sores
• Vomiting
• Poor circulation
• Pellagra-related symptoms

Pellagra is often recognized by the “3 D’s”: dermatitis (inflammatory patches on the skin), dementia (cognitive decline), and diarrhea. In its most severe form, there is a fourth D: death. These symptoms typically appear in the late stages of niacin deficiency.

Pre-pellagra symptoms include:

• Weakness and fatigue (often the earliest symptom)
• Exercise intolerance
• Hair loss
• Tongue inflammation and mouth sores (vitamins B2 and B6 and iron deficiencies can all lead to this)
• Anxiety, depression, mood swings
• Gas, bloating, indigestion (these precede diarrhea)
• Neuropathy, or numbness and tingling in hands and feet (vitamins B1, B2, B6, and B12 and folate deficiencies can all cause neuropathy)
• Migraine-like headaches and light sensitivity

Who Is at Risk?

The risk factors that raise a person’s likelihood of niacin deficiency in the United States include the following:

• Alcoholism (chronic alcohol consumption interferes with niacin absorption)
• Limited diets (e.g., eating disorders or food insecurity)
• Carcinoid syndrome
• Liver cirrhosis
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Hartnup disease
• Inadequate riboflavin, pyridoxine, or iron intake
• Certain medications

People with Parkinson’s disease who are taking medications like levodopa might face a higher risk of developing or worsening a niacin deficiency. Levodopa is commonly prescribed to Parkinson’s patients to help increase dopamine levels in the brain, easing motor symptoms. It’s often paired with carbidopa to prevent levodopa from breaking down in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain. However, carbidopa can interfere with the body’s ability to make niacin naturally.

Parkinson’s patients often experience systemic inflammation, which can compromise niacin levels. Adding dopaminergic medications like carbidopa/levodopa may further reduce the body’s natural niacin production, worsening a potential deficiency. For this reason, Parkinson’s patients on these medications may need to monitor their niacin levels to avoid deficiency.

Toxicity

Niacin was commonly prescribed for high blood lipid levels until statins were discovered. At high doses (generally 1 to 6 grams per day), niacin can increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides. However, high doses can also lead to liver damage and failure, with a higher risk associated with the sustained-release form.

Niacin at 50 or more milligrams per dose can cause a “flush,” which increases blood flow to the skin. It typically starts at the top of your head, turning your face bright red before spreading down your body, and is often accompanied by a warm, tingling sensation. If you want to avoid the flush, niacinamide is an alternative form of niacin. While it is not as effective, it does not cause the flushing effect.

Timing also matters. To reduce the chance of niacin flushing, take supplements with food and start with a lower dose before working your way up.

Even higher doses of niacin (3,000 milligrams a day) may lead to jaundice, abdominal discomfort, blurred vision, worsening of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), and triggering of preexisting gout. Other risks are the formation of stomach ulcers and increased uric acid levels, which may increase the risk of gout.

Also, if you’re allergic to aspirin, you may be sensitive to tartrazine, which is found in some forms of niacin. Avoid taking niacin without consulting your health care provider if you have liver problems or an active peptic ulcer. If you are pregnant, avoid taking niacin supplements altogether.

Interactions

Niacin may reduce the effectiveness of certain medications, including those that lower cholesterol (bile-acid sequestrants) and treat gout, as well as the antibiotic tetracycline. Certain anti-seizure medications (e.g., phenytoin and valproic acid) and the tuberculosis medication isoniazid may cause niacin deficiency in some people.

Niacin supplements may increase the levels of carbamazepine and mysoline in the body. Niacin can also strengthen the effects of blood thinners and alpha-blockers (one type of blood pressure drug), thus increasing the risk of bleeding and low blood pressure, respectively.

Combining niacin with statins may slow down heart disease progression while increasing the risk of muscle inflammation or liver damage. Therefore, if you are taking any of the medications mentioned above or regularly consuming alcohol, it’s essential to consult your health care provider before starting niacin supplements. Additionally, using nicotine patches alongside niacin may increase the risk or severity of niacin flush.