Niacin To Lower Cholesterol

High cholesterol levels are one of the leading causes of heart disease and generally it is controlled with drugs like Lipitor which is a statin drug.  But there are things we can do that are more natural and without sided effects.  For example you can use niacin to lower cholesterol.

Sometimes cholesterol is not about what you eat but instead it is about genetics or a disease called familial hypercholesterolemia which is an inherited disease.  Studies have shown that Niacin has had a direct impact on those levels.  To reduce what is known as the niacin flush patients in the study also took aspirin.  By the end of the study all of the participants were showing normal or near normal cholesterol levels.

So where do you get niacin ?  Well you can get it out of a bottle in a supplement but you can also get it in your food and very easily I might add. Niacin is water based so you never have to worry about overdosing or getting too much.  That said it is also important to realize that you may not be getting enough.

Here is just a short list of foods containing Niacin:

Beef liver, 3.5 oz cooked           	14.4

Peanuts, 1/2 cup                      	10.5

Chicken, white meat, cooked 		13.4

Tuna, canned in water, 3 oz   		11.8

Salmon, 3.5 oz cooked          		  8.0

Corn grits, instant, 1 pkt        		  6.8

Ground beef, 3.5 oz cooked    		  5.3

Cheerios, 1 cup                   		  5.0

Peanut butter, 2 Tbl              		  4.4

Almonds, 1/2 cup                 		  1.4

Potato, baked with skin          		  3.3

Bagel, plain, 2.5 oz     			  3.3

Flour tortilla, 10"         		  2.6

Pasta, 1 cup cooked    			  2.3

Mushrooms, raw, 1/2 cup       		  1.7

Barley, 1/2 cup cooked          		  1.6

Corn, yellow, 1/2 cup  			  1.3

Mango, 1 medium                		  1.5

Lentils, 1/2 cup cooked         		  1.4

Sweet potatoes, 1/2 cooked   		  1.2

Peach, raw, medium    			  0.9

Carrot, raw, medium    		  0.7

Niacin is essential to the body supporting energy metabolism, involving biosynthesis, and the degradation of pyridine nucleotide coenzymes, adenine dinucleotide, nicotinamide, and dinucleotide phosphate.  High doses of Niacin use a pharmacological lip lowering therapy too.

As mentioned earlier Niacin is water soluble.  The result is that you will not build up supplies in the body and you can end up with a deficiency.  Symptoms include fatigue, irritability, diarrhea, poor appetite, headache, memory loss, and even emotional stability. 

Niacin is very important for the control of cholesterol and the sooner we all begin to realize that natural supplements and vitamins and minerals in our food can prevent us from ever developing conditions that require pharmaceutical treatment.

The problem is that today’s foods aren’t as fresh as it once was and so sometimes the nutrients are missing even from fresh produce.  The other problem is we spend way too much time eating fast foods, processed foods, and foods that just filling with no real nutrient value.  Even when companies put vitamins and minerals back into food it isn’t as powerful or beneficial to the body.

So whether you already have a cholesterol problem or you want to prevent a problem keep Niacin in your diet.