More than 70 years ago, researchers at the University of Wisconsin were the first to use niacin, or vitamin B3, as a drug when they found it could quickly cure a horrible disease known as pellagra that began as a skin rash and led Thurs dementia, killing thousands of people every year in rural America.
Another chapter in the saga of niacin was written Sunday when the New Research Showed That It outperformed a popular cholesterol-lowering drug in improving artery health.
The Research May Lead to more use of the reliable stand-by as doctors move toward a different strategy in the fight against heart disease - raising HDL cholesterol (the good kind) instead of just focusing on lowering LDL cholesterol (the bad kind). That's Because heart attacks and strokes still occur even among people Whose LDL cholesterol is being controlled with cholesterol-lowering drugs.
"Doctors are faced with an array of options," said lead author Allen Taylor, a cardiologist at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC "It is really clear that niacin was superior."
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