Niacin - Why am I not flushing??

[Ema]

I decided to experiment today with niacin.

I had read that one should start with 50 mg and then wait to see if flushing occurred. If so, it indicates high histamine. If it takes 100 mg to flush, then that indicates normal histamine levels. 150-250 mg indicates low histamine levels.

So I took 50 mg...nothing. And then another 50 mg. Still no flush!

I'm so confused because I always thought I had high histamine based on my reactivity and whole blood histamine levels.

Then I read that some of the orthomolecular doctors like Abraham Hoffer say that you won't flush if you have a niacin deficiency.

It is difficult to predict a saturation level for niacin because each person is different. As a general rule, the more you hold, the more you need. If you flush early, you don't need much niacin. If flushing doesn't happen until a high level, then your body is obviously using the higher amount of the vitamin.

They suggest taking 1000-3000 mg of niacin 1-3x/day which is obviously a much higher dose than the 100 mg I took.

Any ideas about this? I had really hoped that niacin would help my migraine headaches.

http://www.nutritionj.com/content/4/1/3

I'm also curious about the relationship of nicotine to niacin...is there one? Does nicotine metabolize into niacin?

Thanks for any insights into this!

Ema

 

[Sparrow]

Just to confirm, are you taking plain old niacin (not niacinamide, nicotinamide, nicotinic acid amide, inositol hexaniacinate or what have you)?

 

[Ema]

Just to confirm, are you taking plain old niacin (not niacinamide, nicotinamide, nicotinic acid amide, inositol hexaniacinate or what have you)?

Yes, it even says on the bottle that it can cause a "totally normal" flushing reaction!

 

[camas]

Ema

I hope someone can solve this mystery for you. I hadn't heard of niacin reducing histamine levels. I may have to give this a try. Thanks!

 

[Squirmy85]

This is an old post, but this niacin flush test is wrong.

Niacin can not tell you what your histamine levels are. The flush is produced by prostaglandins (sp) not histamine, it doesn't even release histamine, but it does release serotonin from mast cells and pgd2 (I apologize if my spelling/terminology is off)

The first time I took niacin 300mg on an empty stomach didn't make me flush, 100mg on an empty stomach two days later did. I can take 100mg on a full stomach and still flush mildly,
Case in point this test can not and will not tell you histamine levels.

Further it's been studied that being low in certain acids actually cause you not to flush, while being adequately dosed in them would make you flush at a lower dose.....

Dose up on some fish oil if you don't get a flush..... or lower it to not get a flush. Experiment with that.

But please this test needs to be stopped as someone with high histamine levels but low dha levels won't necessarily flush the same way someone with high histamine but high levels of dha will....

This histamine test is just wrong, and the only thing it really tells you is that you might consider upping your fish oil supplement , or eating foods high in dha. There is another acid arichidonic acid (which is mostly for d in fish.

Having low levels of those will reportedly cause you to not flush on higher doses of niacin.

But research has shown that the vasodialition is brought on by prostaglandins not histamine.