Customer Reviews

Cholesterol Control Without Diet!: The Niacin Solution

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

In a new book, William B. Parsons Jr., MD tells why niacin, a drug whose use for cholesterol control he pioneered more than 40 years ago, is really a "designer drug" for this purpose. Niacin, unlike other drugs in this field, does everything right. It reduces bad cholesterol, increases good cholesterol, lowers triglycerides, and has favorable effects on several recently discovered components of blood cholesterol. No other drug does all these things, or even the first two. Best of all, niacin does all this in the presence of an ordinary American diet. Dr. Parsons calls his book, CHOLESTEROL CONTROL WITHOUT DIET! THE NIACIN SOLUTION, a wake-up call to the public and the media. When most people hear "choelsterol," they think "diet" because advocates of diet have brainwashed the media, which in turn has brainwashed the public, including the medical profession, he contends. This book shares the author's long experience in research and use of niacin in medical practice. "Although available without prescription, niacin is not a do-it-yourself drug; it requires knowledgeable medical supervision," the book repeatedly emphasizes. Parsons says that if every doctor were good at using niacin, more than 90% of patients with cholesterol problems could have the drug's distinctive advantages at a cost one-sixth to one-tenth the cost of the expensive "statins," the best-selling cholesterol control drugs. Dr. Parsons has studied niacin since 1955, his final year of internal medicine training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Following up on preliminary findings of Canadian doctors, he conducted the firstg systematic study of niacin's effects, which showed that it lowered bad cholesterol and raised good cholesterol without diet. His later work in Madison, Wisconsin led to the Coronary Drug Project, an 8-year study which showed that niacin decreased heart attacks, strokes, cardiovascular surgery, and deaths in men who had already had heart attacks. He advocatess starting prevention of heart attacks by using niacin in young adults as well as middle-aged persons with abnormal cholesterol patterns, then continuing in elderly patients who have no overriding medical problems. While practicing medicine since graduating from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1948, Parsons has written many medical articles and chapters in several books. In this new book, he outlines for the general public and for physicians his vast experience in the safe and effective use of niacin. For the past 20 years he has practiced internal medicine in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is a very readable book for the general public. It teaches readers how to be sure their doctors are good at using niacin. "The definition of a doctor good at using niacin? One who has read this book." The knowledge in CHOLESTEROL CONTROL WITHOUT DIET! THE NIACIN SOLUTION can very well reduce heart attacks and strokes, cardiovascular surgery, and deaths, as niacin did in the Coronary Drug Project. From the back cover: WHO NEEDS THIS BOOK? Everyone, really. !The 29 million Americans adults who have cholesterol patterns that should be treated. ! Anyone who has had a heart attack, coronary artery surgery, angioplasty, or other artery procedure, stroke, or surgery on neck or leg arteries. ! Close relatives of persons who have had a heart attack, stroke, or other problem just listed. ! Every adult who does not know his/her bad and good cholesterol fractions. ! Every doctor who does not know how important it is to be good at using niacin. ! Every pharmacist who may be asked to advise patients. ! Persons with excellent cholesterol patterns who are dieting when they don't need to be. ! Persons dieting for cholesterol problems but not tested to be sure their goals are being reached. ! Every persons with relatives or friends in any of these categories. YES--EVERYONE, REALLY!

This book contains a wealth of information about preventing heart attack and stroke, not limited to cholesterol control--although that is its main thrust. As in the first edition, it teaches that diet has so little to do with your cholesterol level that we might as well say it has nothing to do with it. The problem is that you inherited a body factory that produces too much bad (LDL) cholesterol, not enough good (HDL) cholesterol, or to much triglyceride. Total cholesterol is essentially irrelevant; you and your doctor need to know and manage all of those fractions.
To change the body factory requires medication. The best medication is niacin, which does everything right (lowers LDLC, triglycerides, and Lp(a)--"the heart attack cholesterol"--while raising HDLC. The widely advertised, expensive statin drugs do only one thing well--reduce LDLC. Statin drugs had, until 2001 (no later figures available) caused 112 deaths in the US and resulted in withdrawal of one such drug (Baycol) from the market. Statins do this by causing rhabdomyolysis ("dissolving of muscles"), with circulating myoglobin then blocking the kidneys, causing kidney failure. The muscle pains that often accompany statin use are warning signs to stop those drugs. Read the fine print ot listen closely to the fast talk at the end of commercials, then decide whether the statin manufacturers are trying to sweep these hazards udner the rug.
Some experts think statins may, in time, prove to cause cancer, based on the fact that they all cause cancer in animals.
Niacin has a safety record dating to the 1950's, when the author pioneered its use at the Mayo Clinic. A landmark study, sponsored by NIH (not by drug companies) showed (in men who had already had one or more heart attacks) that niacin reduced both heart attacks and strokes by 25%, while also reducing cardiovascular surgery, hospitalization, and deaths--as compared to other drugs or to placebo.
Why, then, haven't we heard more of niacin? Because it's not patentable; thus no one company benefits from its exclusive sale. Reliable, inexpensive niacin products are available. This is not a fad supplement; niacin has been approved by FDA for cholesterol control since the early 1960's.
Although available without prescription, "niacin is not a do-it-yourself drug," the autrhor points out repeatedly. It require knowledgeable medical supervision to monitor cholesterol results and be sure there are no untoward side effects. The nuisance effect of skin flushing at the onset of treatment is easily avoided by using time-release products and a daily aspirin for the first week or two. The book dispels rumors and myths that niacin is hard to take or that time-release products should be avoided.
Worried about prescription drug costs and statin hazards? Niacin costs $10-14 a month for usual doses (less than the co-pay of most prescription drug plans), while statin prices vary from $42 to $142 a month, depending on drug and dosage.
This book emphasizes what Laura Bush recently learned: that in women, heart attacks cause more deaths each year than all cancers combined. The book takes the position that heart attacks and strokes are largely preventable. A second copy for your doctor is a good idea. And since obesity has been upgraded to a major risk factor for heart attack (as well as diabetes and worn-out weight-bearing joints), you might also do well to consult the author's newest book, Tough Talk About Fat! How to Reach and Maintain Your Ideal Weight. (It doesn't scold a person for being overweight; it tells him to GET TOUGH with that excess weight and get rid of it--all of it!)

I have hypercholesterolemia and have been reading about Niacin for years. Dr. Abram Hoffer discovered its cholesterol lowering effects in the early 50's and Dr. Parson's picked up where Dr. Hoffer left off and has more good information on niacin in this book than I've seen anywhere else. If you have elevated cholesterol, this is a must read.

The information on niacin could not be more complete, but the limitations of the book are when it comes to cholesterol discussion. Dr. Parson's says diet doesn't matter, meat is okay, and vegetarians are not healthier, which flies in the face of all medical studies. I agree a low fat diet is not good, but avoiding meat helps prevent the cholesterol from oxidizing, which is when the trouble starts. Also, he doesn't really even mention anti-oxidants.

If you want good info on niacin, buy this book! I think an excellent book to purchase as well to get the entire picture is "The Antioxidant Miracle" by Dr. Lester Packer.

This expanded, updated paperback 2nd edition has all the truths of the 1998 hardcover and much more. These truths include:
* Diet has so little to do with one's cholesterol level that we
might as well say it has nothing to do with it.
* It's all right to eat eggs and lean red meat.
* TOTAL cholesterol level is irrelevant; you need to know BAD and GOOD levels, plus triglycerides levels.
* If diet helps at all, it does so only during periods of weight reduction. Diet reduces GOOD cholesterol as much as it lowers BAD cholesterol!
* To change the body factory (which determines your cholesterol levels), requires medication. NIACIN is the best. It does everything right: lowers bad cholesterol, raises good cholesterol levels, lowers triglycerides, reduces Lp(a) (nicknamed "the heart attack cholesterol," especially in women), and produces favorable
changes in bad and good cholesterol subfractions.
* The best-selling statin drugs do only one thing well: reduce bad cholesterol.
* Statins have caused at least 112 deaths in US and more worldwide. The first statin reached the US market in 1987, the others in the 1990's. Some experts think statins may cause cancer, as all of them do in animals, and that it will take more time for this to appear. (Tobacco and asbestos take 20-40 years.)
* Statins cause myopathy ("something wrong in muscles"), varying from mild aching to actual dissolving of muscles fibers. The latter can lead to kidney failure and death. If muscle aching occurs, the patient should stop the statin and contact his doctor promptly. Statin ads hide this warning in the small print or the fast talk at the end of expensive TV ads.
* Niacin has a safety record dating to 1956. In a 1966-1974 study at 53 US centers, niacin was the only drug that reduced heart attack and stroke, cardiovascular surgery, hospitalization, and deaths from all causes.
* This book teaches doctors and patients how to prevent flushing of the skin from niacin (using time-release niacin, with a morning aspirin for the first 2 weeks) and avoiding liver problems (by testing twice a year).
* Niacin IS NOT a do-it-yourself drug. It requires knowledgeable medical supervision.
* Reliable, generic time-release niacin costs $10-14 a month for usual doses. Statin prices vary from $42 to $142 a month.
* For more information, visit www.cholesterolnodiet.com. This site also tells about Tough Talk About Fat! How to Reach and Maintain Your Ideal Weight, a $9.95 no-nonsense book that WILL help you, loved ones, and friends achieve healthy, desired weights. Tough Talk doesn't scold you for being fat; it tells you to GET TOUGH with that excess fat and get rid of it--all of it! And then it tells you how.

I read this book because my cholesterol was off the charts and my HDL was low. Dr Parsons correctly identifies why statin drugs don't work to improve mortality and makes an air tight case for Niacin. I use the EP Plain Niacin therapy outlined in the book and now my cholesterol is 140 and 45 HDL with no change in diet. Thanks Doc! If you've tried Niacin and couldn't tolerate it, read this book. You'll be able to succeed. A portion of the book is devoted to detailed advice to practicioners on how to treat patients with Niacin. Good advice for health care professionals.

Dr. Parsons presents a powerful argument for the use of niacin as a lipid lowering agent. His argument would be more powerful on a professional level if he would limit his emotional attachment and let the facts speak for themselves. I agree with his conclusions regarding the effectiveness of niacin and with the power of the pharmaceutical industry to shape public and medical opinion. In my opinion, however, he does downplay the incidence of certain side-effects of niacin and to some extent exxagerates the bad effects of other drugs.

In total, this is a solid book that supplies a great deal of information that can greatly decrease one's risk of heart disease.

Niacin works, period. Why is this generally unknown? As Dr. Parsons argues, there is no big money pushing niacin. (Although the HMOs should be; they'd save billions!) Niacin cannot be patented, so there is no fortune waiting to be made. In fact, niacin is and will continue to be a thorn in the side of pharmaceutical companies that spend millions promoting their statins which are clearly inferior to niacin.

I have only a couple of minor complaints about the book. Dr Parsons basically dismisses the use of soluble fiber as insignificant. I know from personal experience that soluble fiber can make a very significant dent in cholesterol. I suspect it does so with even fewer potential complications than niacin. I use them both.

Second, the homocysteine connection which is gaining more credence is not even mentioned in the book and anti-oxidants (vitamin e etc) are mentioned only in passing.

My final gripe (no fault of the book)is that I cannot locate an MD in New York City that specializes in niacin therapy. If anyone knows of one, please e-mail me! Thanks.

This book may literally be a lifesaver for me!
I had a bad reaction to one of the statins. Then, tried every diet/food that i could try. Cholesterol went up.
Got the book and started Niacin. After one month of taking niacin, cholesterol went from 251 to 198!
Hasnt been that low in 5 years or more.
My doctor didnt know beans about niacin so Dr Parson's book was my last chance.
Thank you, Dr Parsons!

This book is a lifesaver for me. I can't tolerate the statins (or hardly afford them either). Niacin works wonderfully for me. And an added benefit, my memory is coming back. Great book. I have bought 5 copies for all of my close friends.

Richard (Dick) Barnes Maple Hill, Kansas

Dr. Parsons has written a book that is valuable to consumers and healthcare providers for many reasons. One of the main strengths of the book is a debunking of the myth, perpetuated by "Big Pharma", that statins are the best agents to reduce cholesterol, when niacin clearly wins the cholesterol-control battle for the entire lipid profile, hands down. Parsons does a good job pointing out flaws in the statin studies and also exposing the huge financial role Big Pharma plays in pushing statins. The main problem with statins, which many MDs as well as the general public still do not understand, is they don't do much for several important lipid parameters faced by a huge majority of the population these days, which are elevated triglycerides and low HDL ("good") cholesterol, along with small-particle LDL. Fact is, statins do not tackle these parameters well- they are only moderately successful lowering high triglycerides, and are almost worthless raising HDL. Niacin, on the other hand, tackles these lipid factors head-on, and remarkably well. Of course, you'll never learn this from your statin companies, because niacin is a common vitamin and cannot be patented for huge profits like statin drugs can. Hence, the relative obscurity of promoting niacin's clinical superiority in the popular medical ads...
But never count out Big Pharma. Aware that niacin is clinically superior as an HDL-raising (and all-around lipid improvement) agent, they have been very busy exploring ways to make money off of niacin. One way, obviously, is to pair niacin with one of the patented statins, which boosts profits. And indeed this is what happened with Advicor(tm) and other niacin-statin combinations. So now, to get around the inferiority of statins doing the job right, statins are paired with niacin and drug companies can claim much better results. Another strategy for drug companies to boost profits is to add something else to niacin that CAN be patented. Niacin manufacturers have long wanted an agent that reduces the so-called "niacin flush", and research has gone into possible anti-flushing compounds that could be added to the niacin and thus become a proprietary combination that could- you guessed it- once again be patented for mega bucks. For example, look for Merck's new "Cordaptive"(tm), a niacin/laropiprant combination, to be available soon. But once again, there are common supplements, at a much lower price, that could be used instead. For anti-flushing, check out recent research on flavonoids such as quercetin and luteolin.

So, why only my 3-star rating (actually, I give it 3.5 stars)? For one thing, Dr. Parsons seems to share the "old-school" medical view that cholesterol itself is the main target for heart health, whereas recent research implicates more fundamental root problems, which concern one's endothelial health in general. In short, there is a growing recognition that low-grade inflammation, often linked with high-processed-carb diets/sedentary lifestyle and resulting insulin resistance, produces free radicals that cause a lot of damaging effects throughout the body. Cholesterol production is not a villain; in fact, cholesterol is vital to many bodily functions. When cholesterol goes haywire, such as LDL fractions shooting upward, it is indicative of a more basic problem, and cholesterol, far from being the bad guy, is actually the body's attempt to RESPOND to the problem. Parsons' breakdown into "good" vs. "bad" cholesterol, and his niacin solution to both these parameters, is vastly simplistic. Researchers moving in the direction of inflammation control, reduction of excess free radicals, improvement of general endothelial and hormonal health (never underestimate those hormones), optimizing nitric oxide production, etc., are focusing on a much larger, more fundamental, picture than Dr. Parsons is. Niacin is great, but the public should be learning that bad cholesterol is just a marker of more fundamental inflammatory conditions. Heck, tell your doctors too, because they generally don't know that either...after all, physicians tend to rely on their drug reps (who are highly-coached salespeople, not researchers), and "cholesterol" seems to be a convenient singled-out target that drug companies can greatly profit from. And physicians tend to be too busy/too lazy to question the drug-company sales-talk.

There is speculation now that the reason why statins can be effective is not because of their cholesterol action per se, but rather a reduction of inflammation. But hey- a lot of actions impact on inflammation, and most of these cannot be patented, because they are a result of one's diet and activity patterns. And we can't use the excuse of "bad genetics" as a reason for drugs, since low-grade inflammation doesn't come from your genetics (which only reveals propensities), but rather is perpetuated by lifestyle habits and environment. The problem in trying to attack health conditions with just a "pill" strategy (drugs OR niacin), is that systemic inflammation can't be tamed by just focusing on symptoms- at some point the root problem needs to be addressed. Want to raise your HDL cholesterol? Niacin certainly can be useful tool, but so is cutting the refined junk out of your diet, making sure you are getting good nutrition (such as adequate Vitamin D), and getting proper exercise, which is what your body is designed to do. Voila! Watch how your HDL/triglyceride ratio improves. Dr. Parsons has already given up on food or exercise to help you, and dismisses your desire to make those changes...for you see, he takes a dim view of lifestyle changes in his book. But don't you follow him here. One should recognize that "old school" physicians like Dr. Parsons seem happy to concentrate only on improving cholesterol markers via a "pill" approach. Sadly, this is merely a "band-aid" approach to cardiovascular health.