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No Benefit From Niacin for Heart Patients in Study
Posted 15 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, Nov. 15 – Patients with cardiovascular disease who add niacin to the statin drug Zocor (simvastatin) to help lower their cholesterol get no additional clinical benefit, a new study finds. Even though niacin appeared to increase HDL cholesterol – the good cholesterol – and decrease triglycerides, another type of fat in the blood, it did not reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or death, the researchers found. "The data we had previously on niacin was not very strong and mostly came from one very old study," said Dr. Robert Giugliano, from the cardiovascular medicine division at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, who was not involved with the study. The report was published online Nov. 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the presentation of the findings at an American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Fla. ... Read more
Related support groups: Heart Disease, High Cholesterol, Simvastatin, Niacin, Niaspan, Zocor, Simcor, Slo-Niacin, Niaspan ER, Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Nicotinic Acid, Niaspan ER Starter Pack, B-3-50, Nicobid Tempules, Niacin SR
Trial Stopped After Niacin Brings No Benefit to Heart Patients
Posted 26 May 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, May 26 – Although early research had suggested that the nutrient niacin might raise levels of "good" cholesterol and thwart heart attacks, a major clinical trial has been stopped 18 months early because it has shown no such benefit. The trial, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and a drug maker, enrolled patients with a history of heart disease who had their LDL ("bad") cholesterol under control with statin medications. The new trial hoped to use niacin (also known as vitamin B3) to boost levels of "good" HDL cholesterol while lowering blood levels of fats called triglycerides to help reduce the odds of heart attack or stroke. Unfortunately, "this study has ended 18 months early because we have answered the primary question," Dr. Susan B. Shurin, acting director of the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), said during a morning press ... Read more
Related support groups: Niacin, Niaspan, Slo-Niacin, Niaspan ER, Nicotinic Acid, Nicolar, Niacor, Niaspan ER Starter Pack, B-3-50, Nicobid Tempules, Niacin SR, Nicotinex, Niacor B3, Nico-400, B3-500-Gr
Vitamin B3 May Help Repair Brain After a Stroke
Posted 25 Feb 2010 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Feb. 25 – Based on the results of preliminary research in rats, researchers say that doses of vitamin B3 – also known as niacin – could help people recover brain function after a stroke. Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital found that rats who suffered induced ischemic strokes showed signs of blood vessel growth and new nerve cells in their brains after being treated with vitamin B3. Ischemic strokes, the most common type, occur when vessels become blocked and blood can't get to the brain. The hospital is now testing vitamin B3 treatments on people who've had a stroke, according to a news release from the Henry Ford Health System. "If this proves to also work well in our human trials, we'll then have the benefit of a low-cost, easily tolerable treatment for one of the most neurologically devastating conditions," Michael Chopp, scientific director of the Henry Ford ... Read more
Related support groups: Ischemic Stroke, Niacin, Niaspan, Slo-Niacin, Niaspan ER, Nicotinic Acid, B-3-50, Nicobid Tempules, Niacin SR, Nicotinex, Niacor B3, Nico-400, B3-500-Gr, Nicolar, Niacor
Niacin Adds No Benefit for Statin Patients: Study
Posted 1 Dec 2009 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 18 – Taking the B vitamin niacin offers no additional benefit to seniors with coronary artery disease who are already prescribed cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, U.S. researchers say. The 18-month study of 145 Baltimore-area men and women over age 65 found no measurable difference in arterial wall thickness reductions between those who took 1,500 milligrams a day of extended-release niacin plus a statin and those who took only a statin. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found the results were the same whether the patients took any of the three leading statin drugs: Lipitor (atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin) or Crestor (rosuvastatin). Patients on the dual niacin/statin therapy had an average 5.4 cubic millimeter per month reduction in plaque buildup in the main neck (carotid) artery, compared with 4.0 cubic millimeters for those who took ... Read more
Related support groups: Simvastatin, Lipitor, Crestor, Niacin, Pravastatin, Niaspan, Zocor, Lovastatin, Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin, Red Yeast Rice, Pravachol, Slo-Niacin, Niaspan ER, Lescol
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High Cholesterol, Niacin (Vitamin B3) Deficiency, Pellagra, Hyperlipoproteinemia Type V (Elevated Chylomicrons + VLDL), Hyperlipoproteinemia, Hyperlipoproteinemia Type IV (Elevated VLDL)