Niacin
 

Has anyone successfully treated their anxiety and/or depression by taking Niacin? If so, how much did you have to take before you noticed a difference and for how long?

I have been taking 25mg of niacin for the past 6 days for anxiety, and it really is doing wonders with the combination of vitamin B complex.

I have never heard of taking niacin for anxiety. That is new to me. I was told to take high doses 5000 mg a day by a Dr. It was to treat high cholesterol. That was a joke. You need to be very careful with niacin. It cause a reaction. A burning, rashy, sensation, very uncomfortable. It can store in your system and become toxic. After several months I would become violently ill and I was taking no where near the 5000 mg doses I was told to. I couldn't handle the reaction. High doses can cause liver damage. Not to say you plan on taking a high dose. Just a FYI.

I take niacin just 2-3 g a day I like the niacin flush. But im going to stop taking that all at once. I went to a AA meeting today and and took 500mg one hour before it started. My anxiety was still bad but better a little. Im gonna try 1.5 g before meetings cause thats not anuff to make me have the flush. Its embarressing that if I want to drink coffe at the meetings I have to use to hands. I havent drank our taken a benzo in 3 years and my hands still shake at meetings. Any ways its gotten better I just wish it go away. I went to an AA christmas party and I went an ate my food away from everybody else cause of the anxiety my hands noticeably shake. And for the depression it helps with my memory alot well along with other vitamins so I feel better about myself.

My hands shake sometimes, especially when I'm really anxious or I've had caffeine or lots of sugar. At an AA party, I would imagine there's not much you can do, aside from drink from a bottle of Smirnoff, that would have you delegated as the "weird one." They've seen people much worse than you, much stranger than you and people with shakier hands than you. They might ask you about it and they might not, but either way, they've seen it before. I'm 2 1/2 years sober and my hands are shaking now. Most non-recovery people don't even ask me about it, so I can imagine people in AA aren't too freaked out about it. Sometimes, in the right crowd, I just make a joke that I've been hanging around Michael J. Fox too much. Laughter is the great equalizer. Find a way to joke about it and you'll be fine.

Whether you decide to take niacin for lowering cholesterol or reducing anxiety, there is a good reason why most pharmacists and physicians specifically advise you to take it just after a meal - doing so helps reduce the sudden (15 to 20 minutes afterward) "flush" that some people experience. For the same reason, if you are looking at large daily doses, you want to break it up in small multiple doses throughout the day rather than taking it all in one go.

Although you do not need a doctor's prescription for niacin/Vitamin B3, if you are going to take large mega (eg above 2000 mgs/day) doses, it'd be prudent to consult your physician and get appropriate monitoring - especially for your liver & liver enzymes. Niacin in high doses can be toxic and there are a number of serious potential side-effects including liver damage, exacerbate an existing case of gout, birth defects, etc.

I do supplement with B3 (Niacin) but not for depression or anxiety, just general health. But I have had problems with the side effects of the supplement so I will share my experience with you here.

Years ago I had problems with flushing and found out it was related to Niacin. Here is what I learned that helped me to resolve the problem and to this day I can take the B supplement without experiencing the problems.

One thing to keep in mind is there are several ways of supplementing vitamin B3 which is basically known as Niacin. There are Nicotinic Acid (commonly known as Niacin) and nicotinamide. Niacin is a water-soluble vitamin, which is also known as nicotinic acid or vitamin B3. Nicotinamide is the derivative of niacin and used by the body to form the coenzymes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). None of the forms are related to the nicotine found in tobacco, although their names are similar.

Hot flashes are mainly associated with the Nicotinic Acid or Niacin form of the B3 supplement. There are products on the market that are Nicotinamide which do supplement the B3 without the hot flash side effect. It has been over 20 years since I did the research which led me to only take the Nicotinamide so I did not have the side effect otherwise I would offer some supporting research to further explain why the side effect is not present with this form of the supplement but I have long since forgotten the research I did, I only know the end result.

I did a quick search on the internet though hoping to find some current research on the subject and did find something interesting which sounded worth a try. It is from the Livestrong website Niacin & Hot Flashes | LIVESTRONG.COM Let us know if you have any luck with it helping out with the depression as I may speak with my doctor about increasing my dosage if you find it is beneficial to you. I definitely think there is a strong correlation between vitamin/mineral deficiencies and illness

Niacin
 

I've been taking 3,000 - 4,500 mg of niacin a day, divided into three equal doses, for about 2 months now and I am feeling much less depressed than I was. I don't mind the flushing, and it gets less intense with higher doses.

I take mega doses of most vitamins, so I cannot say it is just the niacin, but since niacin has been shown to be effective against high cholesterol, depression, alcoholism, and skin cancer, all of which effect me, I decided niacin was a good idea for me.

I am happy with how it's going so far.