Niacin (vitamin B3) is a small molecule made of only 14 atoms, smaller even than the simplest sugar. But this one molecule has profound effects on health: it plays a role in more than 500 reactions in the body. Many illnesses are caused by too little niacin, and many illnesses can be cured with high doses of niacin. The authors of Niacin: The Real Story are advocates of orthomolecular (nutrition-based) medicine, supporting an approach to wellness that involves substances that naturally occur in the human body. This book makes the case for the widespread use of niacin for the prevention and treatment of health problems. In Niacin: The Real Story readers will discover how to take niacin, with detailed recommendations on forms and therapeutic doses. there is plentiful, accurate information on niacin side effects and safety. Niacin can be used for arthritis, children's learning and behavioral disorders, mental illness, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions. Niacin: The Real Story is for people who want to learn more about niacin and its wonderful healing properties.
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About the Author
Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., has published over 600 reports and articles as well as thirty books. His early work led to the use of niacin for schizophrenia and as an anticholesterol treatment. He died in 2009 at the age of ninety-one.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., is the author of Doctor Yourself and Fire Your Doctor! With Dr. Abram Hoffer, he co-wrote Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone and The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism. He is also coauthor of Vitamin C: The Real Story, I Have Cancer: What Should I Do?, Hospitals and Health, and The Vitamin Cure for Children's Health Problems (all available from Basic Health). He has published over 100 reviews and editorials and his non-commercial, natural-healing website is DoctorYourself.com.
Harold D. Foster, Ph.D., worked as a geomorphologist, professor of medical geography, and consultant to the U.N. in disaster planning. He authored or edited over 300 publications, which focused on reducing disaster losses or identifying the causes of chronic degenerative and infectious diseases. He died in 2009.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., is the author of Doctor Yourself and Fire Your Doctor! With Dr. Abram Hoffer, he co-wrote Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone and The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism. He is also coauthor of Vitamin C: The Real Story, I Have Cancer: What Should I Do?, Hospitals and Health, and The Vitamin Cure for Children's Health Problems (all available from Basic Health). He has published over 100 reviews and editorials and his non-commercial, natural-healing website is DoctorYourself.com.
Harold D. Foster, Ph.D., worked as a geomorphologist, professor of medical geography, and consultant to the U.N. in disaster planning. He authored or edited over 300 publications, which focused on reducing disaster losses or identifying the causes of chronic degenerative and infectious diseases. He died in 2009.
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Andrew W. Saul, M.S., Ph.D., is Editor-in-Chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles and has written or coauthored twelve books. Four of these were coauthored with Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. Many of Saul's books have been translated into foreign languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, Norwegian, and Italian. Dr. Saul was on the faculty of the State University of New York for nine years, and has twice won New York Empire State Fellowships for teaching. Psychology Today magazine named him one of seven natural health pioneers, and he is featured in the documentary movie Food Matters. Dr. Saul has no financial connection whatsoever with any health products company or supplement manufacturer. His website, DoctorYourself.com, is the largest peer-reviewed, non-commercial natural healing resource on the internet.
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73 of 75 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Niacin: The Real Story
By A Hoffer, PhD, MD, A Saul, PhD and H Foster, PhD, 2012, Basic Health, CA
Abram Hoffer, Andrew Saul and Harold Foster wrote Niacin: The Real Story to let the public know that niacin (vitamin B3) has a broad spectrum of healing properties. Decades of research, references and recoveries taught Dr. Hoffer that niacin therapy can help patients who have deficiencies or metabolic disorders which can cause or contribute to mental, cardiovascular, arthritic and other illnesses.
Abram Hoffer was a PhD-MD student in the 1930s and 1940s, when vitamins had only just been discovered. In those years, as soon as doctors learned that nutritional supplements could help, physicians began to prescribe vitamins. Abram Hoffer read their research papers and progress reports. He remembered them.
Meanwhile, year after year, pharmaceutical manufacturers synthesized hundreds of compounds, researched their efficacy and promoted their use in medicine. Prescription drug-making became the most profitable industry in history. Marketing campaigns taught health professionals how and when to prescribe a growing list of pills which affect the human body in many ways, while claiming that the benefits of synthetic chemicals offset their risks and side effects. Drug sales skyrocketed. Of course medications work. Prescription drugs do save lives. However, as the years passed, many health professionals focused on medications and never learned the therapeutic effects of vitamins.
Years of careful reading taught Abram Hoffer that vitamins can help to restore and maintain health, especially when patients have nutritional deficiencies or metabolic disorders. After he became a biochemist, researcher, physician (in 1949) and then a psychiatrist, Dr. Hoffer spent 60 years diagnosing patients and complementing other treatments with vitamins, while researching, developing and writing about orthomolecular medicine as a restorative dimension of care. His original research encouraged him to prescribe health-restoring doses of vitamins. He and his colleague Humphry Osmond performed the first double-blind placebo-controlled scientific experiments in psychiatry and discovered that an optimum dose of niacin helped 75% of patients recover from acute schizophrenia. To educate the public, Abram Hoffer wrote prolifically about vitamins, research and clinical applications. For decades, Dr. Hoffer helped patients recover while mainstream medical professionals dismissed restorative care. Believing that vitamins could not possibly help, they ignored Dr. Hoffer's research and recovery reports. Their closed-minded attitudes withheld vitamin regimens from trusting patients.
Dr. Hoffer often prescribed niacin with other vitamins, minerals and amino acids. He encouraged patients to eat nutritious diets and eliminate trigger foods. He taught many doctors how to complement other treatments with vitamins and modify doses based on each patient's diagnosis, progress and biochemical individuality. Knowing that factors such as biochemical individuality and food allergies and sensitivities can also affect patients' health whether they suffer from deficiencies, disorders or diseases, Abram Hoffer and his orthomolecular colleagues diagnosed carefully and customized vitamin treatment programs. Thousands of patients recovered.
Abram Hoffer died in 2009 at age 91. His legacy left the world more than 35 books and hundreds of articles, reviews and editorials which explain that optimal doses of vitamin B3 (niacin and/or niacinamide), can complement other treatments, including prescription medications. Niacin: The Real Story, his last book, outlines Dr. Hoffer's research, discoveries and clinical recommendations. His references and recovery stories support his concept that vitamin therapy can help to restore health. Adventures in Psychiatry: The Scientific Memoirs of Dr. Abram Hoffer, (2005), details his research, progress and success using vitamins to treat schizophrenia. How to Live with Schizophrenia (1966), written by Hoffer and Osmond for patients and families, still reads fresh and clear today.
Hoffer, Saul and Foster's 2012 book explains what niacin is, how niacin therapy began, how niacin works, why we need more niacin, how to take niacin and why niacin is safe. The only cautionary note concerns niacin's harmless and noticeable but short-lived flush effect. After one week, patients who take niacin every day will flush much less. Abram Hoffer learned about the flush by taking niacin himself, for 55 years! During his 60-year career, Dr. Hoffer prescribed niacin to thousands of patients. His finding? Niacin helped patients recover, feel better and live longer. This book provides research reports, references and recovery stories which justify the clinical use of niacin for mental illness and cardiovascular problems and niacinamide for arthritis. A long chapter outlines how patients with 25 other health problems can also respond to vitamin B3 therapy.
If you or a loved one has a chronic health problem, you can read this book to understand how niacin could help you. Thanks to Abram Hoffer and his
co-authors, Niacin: The Real Story encourages patients, families, caregivers and even health professionals to learn that niacin has a broad spectrum of wonderful healing properties. Depending on each patient's diagnosis and diet, optimum doses of niacin can complement other treatments and help patients recover, safely and effectively.
Review by Robert Sealey, BSc, CA
Author of Finding Care for Depression, Mental Episodes & Brain Disorders
[...]
By A Hoffer, PhD, MD, A Saul, PhD and H Foster, PhD, 2012, Basic Health, CA
Abram Hoffer, Andrew Saul and Harold Foster wrote Niacin: The Real Story to let the public know that niacin (vitamin B3) has a broad spectrum of healing properties. Decades of research, references and recoveries taught Dr. Hoffer that niacin therapy can help patients who have deficiencies or metabolic disorders which can cause or contribute to mental, cardiovascular, arthritic and other illnesses.
Abram Hoffer was a PhD-MD student in the 1930s and 1940s, when vitamins had only just been discovered. In those years, as soon as doctors learned that nutritional supplements could help, physicians began to prescribe vitamins. Abram Hoffer read their research papers and progress reports. He remembered them.
Meanwhile, year after year, pharmaceutical manufacturers synthesized hundreds of compounds, researched their efficacy and promoted their use in medicine. Prescription drug-making became the most profitable industry in history. Marketing campaigns taught health professionals how and when to prescribe a growing list of pills which affect the human body in many ways, while claiming that the benefits of synthetic chemicals offset their risks and side effects. Drug sales skyrocketed. Of course medications work. Prescription drugs do save lives. However, as the years passed, many health professionals focused on medications and never learned the therapeutic effects of vitamins.
Years of careful reading taught Abram Hoffer that vitamins can help to restore and maintain health, especially when patients have nutritional deficiencies or metabolic disorders. After he became a biochemist, researcher, physician (in 1949) and then a psychiatrist, Dr. Hoffer spent 60 years diagnosing patients and complementing other treatments with vitamins, while researching, developing and writing about orthomolecular medicine as a restorative dimension of care. His original research encouraged him to prescribe health-restoring doses of vitamins. He and his colleague Humphry Osmond performed the first double-blind placebo-controlled scientific experiments in psychiatry and discovered that an optimum dose of niacin helped 75% of patients recover from acute schizophrenia. To educate the public, Abram Hoffer wrote prolifically about vitamins, research and clinical applications. For decades, Dr. Hoffer helped patients recover while mainstream medical professionals dismissed restorative care. Believing that vitamins could not possibly help, they ignored Dr. Hoffer's research and recovery reports. Their closed-minded attitudes withheld vitamin regimens from trusting patients.
Dr. Hoffer often prescribed niacin with other vitamins, minerals and amino acids. He encouraged patients to eat nutritious diets and eliminate trigger foods. He taught many doctors how to complement other treatments with vitamins and modify doses based on each patient's diagnosis, progress and biochemical individuality. Knowing that factors such as biochemical individuality and food allergies and sensitivities can also affect patients' health whether they suffer from deficiencies, disorders or diseases, Abram Hoffer and his orthomolecular colleagues diagnosed carefully and customized vitamin treatment programs. Thousands of patients recovered.
Abram Hoffer died in 2009 at age 91. His legacy left the world more than 35 books and hundreds of articles, reviews and editorials which explain that optimal doses of vitamin B3 (niacin and/or niacinamide), can complement other treatments, including prescription medications. Niacin: The Real Story, his last book, outlines Dr. Hoffer's research, discoveries and clinical recommendations. His references and recovery stories support his concept that vitamin therapy can help to restore health. Adventures in Psychiatry: The Scientific Memoirs of Dr. Abram Hoffer, (2005), details his research, progress and success using vitamins to treat schizophrenia. How to Live with Schizophrenia (1966), written by Hoffer and Osmond for patients and families, still reads fresh and clear today.
Hoffer, Saul and Foster's 2012 book explains what niacin is, how niacin therapy began, how niacin works, why we need more niacin, how to take niacin and why niacin is safe. The only cautionary note concerns niacin's harmless and noticeable but short-lived flush effect. After one week, patients who take niacin every day will flush much less. Abram Hoffer learned about the flush by taking niacin himself, for 55 years! During his 60-year career, Dr. Hoffer prescribed niacin to thousands of patients. His finding? Niacin helped patients recover, feel better and live longer. This book provides research reports, references and recovery stories which justify the clinical use of niacin for mental illness and cardiovascular problems and niacinamide for arthritis. A long chapter outlines how patients with 25 other health problems can also respond to vitamin B3 therapy.
If you or a loved one has a chronic health problem, you can read this book to understand how niacin could help you. Thanks to Abram Hoffer and his
co-authors, Niacin: The Real Story encourages patients, families, caregivers and even health professionals to learn that niacin has a broad spectrum of wonderful healing properties. Depending on each patient's diagnosis and diet, optimum doses of niacin can complement other treatments and help patients recover, safely and effectively.
Review by Robert Sealey, BSc, CA
Author of Finding Care for Depression, Mental Episodes & Brain Disorders
[...]
51 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Regrettably most of the orthodox medical establishment pays little attention to the importance of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients except to advise that we should all eat a "good balanced diet" -- which few Americans actually do. Fortunately a few maverick doctors, including Dr. Hoffer and his coauthors, have studied the importance of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients and come to realize that deficiency of one or more of these is the leading cause of many modern ailments. In this book Dr. Hoffer discusses in detail the importance for health of the essential vitamin niacin. This is a book well worth reading -- including by members of the orthodox medical establishment. If everyone got enough of each of various essential nutrients there would be much less need for the pharmaceutical drugs which are widely prescribed to treat the symptoms of modern ailments but whose known side effects are currently the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Gedalya
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found out about this book by Dr. Mercola and I bought it right away. B3 is a water soluble vitamin yet very hard to get from your food intake. It's been well known to increase the HDL while lowering the LDL's and Triglycerides. Some other great benefits for which I started taking Niacin for is Arthritis. It really works great. The flush is hard to take and very intense but it starts to go away after a week compared to the strength it showed in the first week. If you have low HDL,s, Arthritis, Mentally unstable, trigeminal neuralgia this Vitamin is a key ingredient you might be lacking. This book is great and informative.
Also I must recommend The Miracle of MSM the natural solution for pain. Which is also a great book about another great product which works amazingly.
Also I must recommend The Miracle of MSM the natural solution for pain. Which is also a great book about another great product which works amazingly.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting book
I'm into nutrition and toxicology (inspired by my failing health), so am always looking to expand my understanding of these topics. I've read Dr. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Ona B. Welch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book.
Definitely worth the time to read. After taking niacin for a few weeks, my cholesterol numbers were down. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Willow3
5.0 out of 5 stars
eye opener
It is incredible how many serious health issues can be treated with such simple and cost effective solutions... Read more
Published 9 days ago by dmo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another complex subject well explained
My doc suggested this...it is excellent. He did not have time
to get into the details, so...I took charge.
A significant addition to my health library.
to get into the details, so...I took charge.
A significant addition to my health library.
Published 13 days ago by Art Saves Lives
5.0 out of 5 stars
Niacin its great for You
Great book having the most complete information about niacin. It gives all the advise needed to start your own niacin protocol. Its clear and easy to read/understand.
Published 24 days ago by nacia
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read
This book proves that every doctor should be required to know this basic information. With this information, the doctors would be more informed before leaving med school.
Published 2 months ago by cfp
5.0 out of 5 stars
a thoroughly understanding of how niacin came to be a winner
It helped to understand why it was not used for schizopohrenics earlie as they did not go far enough in their practice. Dr. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Carol Barton
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book, not well written
The book is good, has good and very revealing information about the benefits of Niacin. However I didn't appreciate much the way it was written. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mark T
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great content.
Lots of good info about Niacin in here. Great stories as well.
The kindle ebook screwed up some of the formatting (tables, etc. Read more
The kindle ebook screwed up some of the formatting (tables, etc. Read more
Published 2 months ago by CJW
2.0 out of 5 stars
Inpracticable
Just reading the first chapter and skimming through the remainder of this book, I feel it is not for me. I was hoping to see a different approach from Mr. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sally Archer
