
- Required for energy production - but you knew that, right?!
- Promotes healthy nervous system function
- Helps lower cholesterol levels (pharmaceutical drug named Niaspan)
Many more articles on the right side bar!
As with other vitamins, daily vitamin intake depends on gender, age and body type. Although the values are relatively small (these are in mg), don't take them for granted! I've included a table for your benefit.
| Recommended Daily Niacin Intake (mg) | |
| Infants | 5-6 |
| Kids | 8-15 |
| Adult Males | 13-20 |
| Adult Females | 12-15 |
| Lactating/Pregnant | 17-21 |
Now that you know how much you should be getting, which foods should you eat for a good source of niacin (vitamin B3)?
| Sources of Niacin (Vitamin B3) | Seafood | Potatoes |
| Peanuts | Seeds or Nuts |
| Whole Grains/Cereals | Milk |
| Liver | Other Lean Meats |
Further, niacin can also be synthesized in the body in the metabolism of Tryptophan, an essential amino acid. For clarity, your body will not make niacin without Tryptophan. Even this, however, is pretty inefficient. In fact, less than 2% of the Tryptophan is actually converted to niacin, so don't rely on this!
On the other hand, when your body has an excess of Tryptophan, it's shuttled towards niacin which can be excreted in the urine (just like all the B vitamins, amino acids are water soluble).
Niacin overdoses can have rather dramatic consequences. Some of these include stomach ulcers, chronic itchiness, heart arrhythmia, high blood sugar and even liver damage. Don’t overdo it! One of the most common symptoms following a dose (even small doses) of niacin is skin flushing. In other words, you may have a warm feeling come on your face and arms. The reason for this is that niacin is actually a chemical that will cause dilation of arteries that are close to your skin. The result is a feeling of warmth and reddened skin on the face and extremities. Very large doses can result in some degree of hypothermia (because you're losing heat right through your skin!)
This is another one to avoid. Ever heard of the three D's? Dermatitis, Dementia and Diarrhea. These are symptoms of a condition known as pellagra which, as described, involves the skin, intestines and nervous system.
Niacin is sometimes used to treat a disease called hyperlipidemia in which your blood becomes highly concentrated in free fatty acids which can result in atherosclerosis and heart disease. What's going on here is that certain lipases (enzymes that break down fats) are overacting, leading to high concentrations of fats in the blood.
Niacin actually works to inhibit this lipase action which also causes the uptake of fatty acids by the liver to decrease rapidly, resulting in a downstream decrease in LDL cholesterol (or bad cholesterol).
By extension, niacin can also be used to treat conditions in which increased VLDL and LDL cholesterol is prominent! The drug name is Niaspan and is often used to lower blood lipids and increase the ratio of HDL/LDL cholesterol.
Return from Vitamin B3 to the Nutrition Guide
Return from Vitamin B3 to the Smart Strength Training Homepage
Questions? Comments? Stories? Let's hear what you have to say!
TIP for Web Publishers
Set up a link to this site from your site.
Do you own your own website?
Would you like to have a link on your site so that you or your visitors could easily get to this site?
If so, here is the text link code (just copy and paste the code onto whichever page on your site that you
wish to set up the link).
Contribute your own article!
![]()
Protein to Build Muscle, Part 1
Protein to Build Muscle, Part 2
What exactly is protein, anyway?
Other Muscle Building Supplements
Water Soluble Vitamins
Thiamine (B1) / Riboflavin (B2)
Niacin (B3) / Pantothenate (B5)
Pyridoxine (B6) / Cobalamin (B12)
Fat Soluble Vitamins
Essential Minerals
More Coming Soon!
Contribute your own article!