From Abram Hoffer, M.D. Ph.D.
As one of the discoverers that niacin lowers total cholesterol I have followed this relationship for fifty years. I have gradually come to the conclusion that the cholesterol hypothesis is a very poor one.
Perhaps it can be saved by discussing only HDL where it appears to be advantageous for it to be elevated. My conclusion is that low total cholesterol levels are merely the result of poor nutrition unless HDL is high. Using myself as an example;at age 91 my total choleserol is remarkably lows but my HDL is remarkably high and I have been on niacin for the as fifty five years. But the current cholesterol idea will be difficult to eradicate as it is the basis for the billion dollar industry fraud of the drug companies who love it since hey can sell useless products that are also dangerous, and have be to be taken for life.
There is a growing literature, in the scientific press, not in the medical press which I consider total junk, that niacin is one of the most important vitamins. For example Wallerian degeneration is inhibited by niacin. According to the Coronary Drug Study, niacin lowered mortality, increased longevity. The statins have never been shown to do that.
Here follows two chapters from our book Feel Better,Live Longer with Vitamin B-3 by Hoffer and Foster
CHAPTER 13
CORONARY, CARDIOVASCULAR AND CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASES
In Canada, for men of all ages, 36 percent of deaths are attributable to Cardiovascular disease, while in women the mortality is even higher, at 39 percent.1 In 1995, there were 79,117 deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease, compared to 75,221 in 1992.2 There is nothing unique about Canada. In England, coronary heart disease kills more than 110,000 people each year. More than 1.4 million suffer from angina and 275,000 have a heart attack annually.3 Coronary heart disease was responsible for the death of 26.4 per 100,000 among American white males in 1992.4 Throughout the Developing World, at most ages diseases of the heart and stroke compete with cancer as the major cause of death.
The discovery that niacin lowered cholesterol levels arose from research conducted by Professor Rudl Altschul, Chair , Department of Anatomy, University of Saskatchewan and one of this book’s authors, Dr. Abram Hoffer, then Director of Psychiatric Research in the Department of Health. Professor Altschul had found that rabbits developed hypercholesterolemia very rapidly, if they were fed cooked egg yolk in a specially baked cake. Raw egg yolk did not have the same effect. He had also found that exposing rabbits to ultraviolet light decreased their cholesterol levels. He wanted to try ultraviolet light on people, but could not find any doctor in Saskatoon willing to work with him. Hoffer agreed to provide subjects in one of the provincial mental hospitals. Since the treatment was safe and patients could not be harmed by it, he considered that it would be good for them to mix with healthy young people who would be conducting the research. At that time, Hoffer had been suffering from bleeding gums, but found that large doses of vitamin C did not help.
After taking niacin for two weeks for other reasons, his gums were healed. From this Dr. Hoffer concluded that the niacin had increased the rate of repair of gum tissues, which had been under a lot of physical stress from maloccluded teeth.
Professor Altschul thought that the most important single pathological factor in coronary disease was the inability of the intima (the inner wall of the blood vessel) to repair itself, especially where the blood stream changed direction, causing the greatest stress to the arteries. As Professor Altschul explained this hypothesis to Hoffer, the latter suddenly recalled his bleeding gums and suggested that niacin might be able to heal the arterial wall’s intima. Hoffer then gave the professor one pound of crystalline niacin to test the effects on experimental rabbits. A few months later, Altschul reported back that the niacin had lowered rabbit cholesterol levels. On receiving this news, Hoffer organized a similar study using humans.5 The results were published in 1955 and were soon corroborated as a result of the interest and enthusiasm of Dr. William Parsons Jr., then at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The drug coronary study6 results were exciting because they showed that men who experience a coronary and who were then given niacin died less frequently than normal and lived longer. Specifically, there was a ten percent decrease in death rate and a two-year increase in longevity. Since that time, niacin has become the gold standard for normalizing lipid levels, even though this fact is rarely taught in medical school. Niacin also lowers triglycerides and
lipoprotein(a) and elevates HDL (the good cholesterol fraction) which is its most important function. In a logical world, niacin would be used, at a cost of roughly $10 each month, to lower coronary death rates. But the statin drugs, some ten times as expensive, have the backing of the pharmaceutical companies and continue to play this role. Even when niacin alone is not completely effective, it can be combined with simvastatin7,8. This dual treatment approach produced marked clinical and angiographically benefits for patients with coronary disease and low HDL levels. In contrast, in 2003, the University of British Columbia Therapeutics Initiative9 sent a letter to 12,000 BC doctors stating that statins “have not been shown to provide an overall health benefit” when prescribed to people who have not already had a stroke or heart attack and do not have cardiovascular disease. More recently Dr. Graveline10 reported that statins cause transient global amnesia.
In combination with folic acid, niacin has been therapeutic against atrial fibrillation in six of Dr. Hoffer’s patients. The first case was a physician, age 70, who had been on nicotinic acid for many years, 3 to 6 grams daily. On this dose he developed lymphedema in the left leg. In an effort to deal with this problem he discontinued his nicotinic acid. The edema cleared, but, after many months, he began to suffer a number of disturbing symptoms, including a very low pulse rate which was unresponsive to demand. It remained slow, even when he tried to walk fast, and would begin to speed up only after a few minutes. He became very short of breath and suffered episodes of tachycardia (the sudden racing of the heart) which were controlled by pressure on the carotids in his neck, or by changes in body position.
Such rapid heart beat episodes lasted up to 20 minutes and were accompanied by shortness of breath and sometimes dizziness. On physical examination he was normal, as was his electrocardiogram and he had a normal sinus rhythm. He, therefore, resumed taking the nicotinic acid, starting with a low dose and gradually working up to
4.5 grams daily. At the same time, he increased his folic acid from the 5 mg per day he had been taking for several years to 40 mg daily.
He continued to take daily Vitamin B-12, 1 mg sublingually. By the time these dosage levels were reached, over a couple of months, all the heart rate symptoms vanished. He can now walk with no shortness of breath.
The second case of atrial fibrillation involved a physician aged 76.
She had consulted Dr. Hoffer for advice in treating a young patient who subsequently recovered on vitamin B-3 and vitamin C. This physician was so impressed with this patient recovery she had decided to place herself on a vitamin program. This regimen included 1 gram of niacin and 15 mg of folic acid twice a day. During one of her visits she described how she had suffered periods of atrial fibrillation lasting for as long as three hours at a time, before starting on the vitamins. Only when she went off the program for several months did it recur. A third patient, age 72, consulted Dr.
Hoffer for severe depression. In 1981, she had a coronary. She was advised she would suffer pain after this and she did. In 1988, she was admitted to hospital for severe chest pain. Thereafter, she had recurrent painful episodes every three weeks, unrelated to activity or exertion. In 1989, she was in hospital for one week for depression. She then started on niacin 500 mg three times a day together with doses of antidepressants. She recovered and remained well until April 1993. She was then admitted to hospital with atrial fibrillation. In June 1993, her pulse rate was around 100. Dr. Hoffer added 5 mg of folic acid, three times a day, to her program. She remained on digoxin. By March 1994 she was well. She had very few brief episodes of pain, no fibrillation and was able to walk 1.5 miles daily and to garden with no difficulty.
Hyper cholesterol associated conditions
Conventional medicine is consistently lowering the acceptable levels of serum cholesterol. At the time of writing, some 105 million American adults have cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dl. This is considered borderline high. About 37 million of these have values in excess of 240 mg/dl, a level which is definitely considered high.
The authors agree with Bill Parsons “that niacin is the best substance currently available for the control of cholesterol. It decreases the incidence of coronary disease and strokes and raises life expectancy”. Not only does niacin normalize and stabilize blood lipid levels, it inhibits the release of fatty acids under severe stress. Dr. Hoffer has also given his patients niacin since 1955, when they have symptoms of early senility and it has been very
beneficial.12,13 It is most helpful in the early stages of senility, especially if patients have a history of cardiovascular problems, or if their cholesterol levels are elevated. It is of little benefit when senility is fully developed. Another beneficial effect of niacin is that it diminishes, or removes, xanthomatous deposits and fat deposits in the skin.
Cardiovascular disease
McCracken wrote “An impressive body of scientific research clearly demonstrates that niacin, when taken in mega quantities, can have a protective and healthful effect upon the cardiovascular system. There can be no doubt about this; the findings are clear and consistent.
Enough is known about the biochemical effects of niacin for us to say that niacin exerts a protective effect upon the basic chemistry that researchers believe cause many forms of cardiovascular disease”. The use of tobacco is very stressful to the heart. Niacin can mitigate some of its harmful effects, for example, decrease smoking’s elevation of free fatty acids. In one experiment, free fatty acids rose by 30% thirty minutes after the subject had smoked two cigarettes. Injections of nicotine also increased dogs’ cholesterol levels by 34% and decreased the flow of blood in the coronary vessels. By blocking the release of free fatty acids, niacin prevents one of smoking’s health damaging cycles. McCracken also referred to a Norwegian study where arteries leading to the dogs heart were tied thus simulating a heart attack. Giving intravenous niacin fifteen minutes after the restriction and continuing it for 30 minutes decreased the heart damage.
Condorelli14 and his associates began to study the therapeutic applications of niacin in 1938, very soon after it was identified as the anti-pellagra factor and its vasodilator properties were observed. Dr. Condorelli’s chapter in R. Altshul’s book is very impressive. He reported the following properties of niacin, given by intravenous injection or by mouth (1) increase in the velocity of the circulation (2) increase in cardiac output (3) increase in systolic stroke volume (4) decrease in total pulmonary pressure (5) increase in peripheral circulation in the viscera, brain and muscles (6) increased oxygenation (7) increase in pulmonary oxygen diffusion (7) decrease in EEG abnormalities caused by hypoxia of the myocardium. In short, niacin improves the body’s blood flow, improves circulation of oxygen and restores organ function. It does not increase blood pressure.
Condorelli also described niacin’s therapeutic effect on the following conditions (1) Angiospasms, includes headaches and other regional spasms as in the retina which may occur with hypertensive spells, are relieved by niacin but it must be given intravenously.
Spasm in the limbs also responded to niacin but it did not help Raynaud’s disease (2) Niacin also helped in embolism by relaxing the spastic vessels around the embolus (3) Thrombotic arteriopathies such as intermittent claudication (4) Angina (5) Coronary insufficiency
(6) Eclampsia
(7) Nephritis. Condorelli reported “The experience of twenty years has always confirmed the efficacy of nicotinic acid in acute diffuse glomerulonephritis, and we also established that in sub-acute or chronic forms and in other nephritic disorders this treatment may be in some way beneficial”.
We are aware of two patients with nephritis who have been cured by niacin. The first was a woman in Saskatoon who was told over 30 years earlier that she had severe nephritis and that she would have to have a kidney transplant. Hoffer knew about Dr. Condorelli’s studies and gave her this information suggesting that she see her nephrologist and discuss this with him. Twenty years later, Hoffer had dinner with her in Victoria and was reminded by her husband of this earlier discussion. She then described how she had discussed niacin with her nephrologist, who laughed at her. She became more determined than ever that she would not have a transplant and instead began to take niacin on her own. She has been well since. The second case was a twelve year old girl in Calgary. She had severe acute nephrites for which she was advised there was no treatment. Her father, a high school teacher, began to read as much as he could on the illness and on his own started her on niacin. She recovered and then visited Dr.
Max Vogel, who confirmed her former illness and recovery from it.
These two cases, anecdotal as they are, confirmed what Dr. Condorelli reported.
Stroke
Each year about 500,000 people in the United States have their first stroke, and about 25% of these die from it. A further 100,000 have a recurrent stroke. According to Parsons, strokes are largely preventable if certain risk factors are avoided. Niacin, by correcting lipid profiles, reduces a major risk factor. One of Dr.
Hoffer’s patients is now 111 years old. She is physically and mentally alert and last year was still cross country skiing. She has been taking high dose niacin for 41 years.
Dr. Hoffer has studied the effect of niacin on patients who had already suffered brain damage from stroke or by trauma. He became interested after reading a report from Sweden many years ago about the treatment of strokes. The authors reported that stroke patients on admission to hospital were promptly given IV niacin and that these experienced a marked reduction in the incidence of subsequent strokes. A number of patients were referred to Dr. Hoffer having had a stroke or trauma. One was a middle aged woman who had prided herself on her memory. She had a mild stroke but after her recovery her memory was not nearly as good and she found this a terrible handicap. After a few months on niacin her memory was partially restored and she was content.
Another case involved a young man who was struck on the head by a heavy object during an industrial accident. After two years, he was able to talk and to walk with a limp but he had not regained his interest in reading. Before the accident he had been an avid reader.
After three months on niacin he regained some of this interest and became content with this improvement. Dr. Hoffer concluded that niacin, by dilating the capillaries, accelerated healing and perhaps also increased the ability of the brain tissue to repair itself. Such repair has always been considered impossible, but as medicine progresses the formerly impossible often becomes commonplace.
Indeed, evidence is accumulating that niacin helps recovery of the damaged brain. Yang and coworkers15 for example, found that nicotinamide could rescue viable but injured nerve cells, within the ischemic area, after experimental strokes in animals. Early injection of nicotinamide reduced the number of necrotic and apoptotic neurons.
Later injections were not as effective. Yang and Adams16 concluded “Early administration of nicotinamide may be of therapeutic interest in preventing the development of stroke, by rescuing the still viable but injured and partially preventing infarction”. They also found that this vitamin decreased the progression of neurodegenerative disease. It prevented learning and memory impairment caused by cerebral oxidative stress. According to these studies nicotinamide works more quickly than niacin but both are interconvertable and in our opinion niacin will have an advantage because it dilates the capillaries.
Levenson 17 reviewed the findings that with traumatic brain injury zinc is released and accumulation of high amounts of free zinc leads to the loss of NAD. Supplements of vitamin B-3 increase NAD levels.
1.Public Health Agency of Canada. Heart Disease and Stroke in Canada 1997. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/hdsc97/s02_e.html
2.Ibid.
3.Department of Health. Coronary Heart Disease.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/HealthAndSocialCareTopics/CoronaryHeartDisease/fs/en
4.bmj.com Letters. Why heart disease mortality is low in France.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/319/7204/255
5.Altschul R, Hoffer A, and Stephen JD. Influence of Nicotinic Acid on Serum Cholesterol in Man. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1955; 54: 558-559.
6.Canner PL, Berge KG, Wenger NK, et al. Fifteen-year Mortality in
Coronary Drug Project Patients; Long-tern Benefit with Niacin. J Am
Col Cardiology 1986; 8: 1245-1255.
7.Brown B Greg, Zhao X, Chait A, et al. Simvastatin and Niacin,
Antioxidant Vitamins, or the Combination for the Prevention of
Coronary Disease. New England Journal of Medicine 2001; 345: 1583-1592.
8.McKenney J. New Perspectives on the Use of Niacin in the Treatment
of Lipid Disorders. Archives Internal Medicine 2004; 164: 697-704.
9.Munro M. Cholesterol Pill’s Side Effects Worry BBC Drug
Specialists. Times-Colonist, Victoria, September 16, 2003.
10.Graveline D. Transient Global Amnesia. A Side Effect of “Statins”
Treatment. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. Aug/Sept 2004;
#253/254: 85-89.
11.Parsons WB Jr. Cholesterol Control Without Diet. The Niacin
Solution, Revised, Expanded, Second Edition, Lilac Press, Scottsdale,
Arizona, 2003.
12.Hoffer A. Senility and Chronic Malnutrition. J Orthomolecular
Psychiatry 1974; 3:2-19.
13.Hoffer A, and Walker M (1980). Nutrients to Age Without Senility.
Keats Publishing, New Caanan, Ct.
14.Condorelli L. Nicotinic Acid in the Therapy of the Cardiovascular
Apparatus. In Niacin in Vascular Disorders and Hyperlipemia Ed R
Altschul, CC Thomas. Springfield Ill 1964.
15.Yang J, Klaidman LK, and Adams JD. Medicinal Chemistry of
Nicotinamide in the Treatment of Ischemis and Reperfusion. Mini
Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry 2002; 2: 125-134.
16.Yang J and Adams JD. Nicotinamide and its Pharmacological
Properties for Clinical Therapy. Drug Design Reviews 2004; 1: 43-52.
17. Levenson CW. Zinc Supplementation: Neuroprotective or Neurotoxic?
Nutrition Reviews.2005;63:122-125.
CHAPTER 14
SENILITY (PREMATURE AGING)
The recent book, Smart Nutrients by Hoffer and Walker1, gives an
overview of the problems associated with aging. Dr. Roger Williams,
the great biochemist who discovered both folic and pantothenic acids
wrote “Ideally, toward the end of life, we should fall apart at once
and be gone like Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “wonderful one-hoss shay,”
instead of suffering through the diseases of old age. Dr. Hoffer and
Dr. Walker have written a book that should help everyone in his or
her approach to this idea. As they make clear, every kind of
essential nutrient comes into play in the promotion and prolongation
of healthy life. It is program of living that is worth following up.”
This is what Dr. Donald Davis wrote about Dr. Roger Williams. “After
his discovery of pantothenic acid and the successful launching of the
Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute in 1940, Williams turned
much of this attention to educating the public and the medical
profession about the importance of nutrition and biochemical
individuality. His books such as Nutrition Against Disease,
Biochemical Individuality, The Wonderful World Within You, and The
Prevention of Alcoholism had wide impact. They helped inspire the
current explosion of nutrition research, and they strongly influenced
many prominent leaders such as Linus Pauling, Wayne Jonas (former
director, NIH Office of Alternative Medicine), Jonathan Wright, Alan
Gaby, Abram Hoffer, Jeffrey Bland, Carl Pfeiffer, and Hugh D. Riordan.”
Dr. Williams died when he was 95 years of age. Toward the end of his
life he was nearly totally deaf and blind but his mind was as sharp
as ever. He still attended meetings and was in London in 1971 when
Dr. Hoffer and colleagues presented their findings about
orthomolecular psychiatry and he helped start the schizophrenic group
in Great Britain. Dr. Williams confided in Dr. Hoffer that he was
very sorry he had not started taking vitamins early enough. He was
sure that they would have prevented both of his major infirmities.
The International Schizophrenia Foundation recently announced the
first members of the new Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame, 2004.
Listed below are these members together with their ages and their
main areas of interest nutritionally. On average, they lived for 84.1
years and, in contrast to most men, their productivity did not
decrease with age. On the contrary it increased.
Linus Pauling 1901 to 1994 vitamin C
William McCormick 1880 to 1968 vitamin C
Roger J Williams 1893 to 1988 Folate, pantothenate
Wilfred Shute 1907 to 1982 alpha tocopherol
Evan Shute 1905 to 1978 alpha tocopherol
Irwin Stone 1907 to 1984 vitamin C
Carl C Pfeiffer 1908 to 1988 B vitamins and C
Allan Cott 1910 to 1993 niacin
William Kaufman 1910 to 2000 nicotinamide
Humphry Osmond 1917 to 2004 niacin and vitamin C
The 2005 inductees in to the Hall of Fame lived on average 82 years.
Max Gerson 1881 to 1959 nutrition and niacin
Albert Szent-Gyorgi 1893 to 1986 vitamin C
Cornelius Moerman 1893 to 1988 nutrition and B vitamins
Frederick Klenner 1907 to 1984 High dose vitamin C
Josef Issels 1907 to 1998 Nutrition
Emanuel Cheraskin 1916 to 2001 Nutrition, Vitamins
Horrobin D. 1939 to 2003 Essential fatty acids
Hugh Desaix Riordan 1932 to 2005 Nutrition and vitamins
It is of interest that Dr. Hoffer has a female patient who is 111
years old, alive and well both physically and mentally. She is the
oldest person in Saskatchewan, and was still cross country skiing
when she was 109 years old. This woman has been taking elevated
niacin for 41 years. The world’s oldest human is currently about 116
years old and lives in Russia. Perhaps Dr. Hoffer’s patient may
eventually become the world’s oldest person thanks to niacin!
In 1962 Hoffer,2-3 wrote “There seems to be no reason why old people
should develop the type of intellectual and mental deterioration
found in senile states. Indeed, the brain is exposed to so little
mechanical wear and tear that it ought to be the last organ in the
body to deteriorate. For apart from the gentle pulsations of the
blood vessels, the even gentler contraction and expansions of the
neuroglia, it has achieved a state of perfection in which its
essential activity is the transmission of ions (electrical impulses).
These functions are surely less harmful to tissues than the attrition
of bone upon bone at the joints for example. Heart, muscle, bones,
joints, skin and the hollow viscera which move continuously or act as
bearings must all, one would suppose, be subjected to continuous
mechanical deterioration due to friction and flexion. These organs
ought to deteriorate long before the brain does… All that has to be
done is (1) to reduce the small amount of vascular wear and tear in
the brain and
(2) discover and then inhibit chemical changes in cerebral tissues
which lead to tissue failure.” Hoffer reviewed the early literature
which showed niacin, thiamin and liver extract inhibited senility
from developing and described patients from his practice who were
treated with niacin. Their mean age was 69. Five senile psychotics
recovered. Two were markedly improved by niacin and two were not
helped by it. Six were depressed, not senile, and of these five
recovered and remained well. The best results were seen when the
niacin was given before definite senile changes occurred. It has been
shown that mean IQ decreases with age in a linear manner, dropping
from 110 at age 30 to 70 at age 79.5. It would seem that the best
time to counter senility with niacin is between 30 and 60 years of age.
Niacin is known to lower total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides
but above all elevates HDL. Perhaps these characteristics are what
gives niacin its anti-aging properties, recently confirmed by the
Women’s Health Study4 presented at the Ninth International Conference
on Alzheimer’s Disease. Beginning in 1991, nearly 40,000 women 66
years of age or older were enrolled in this study, which established
that those in the highest HDL quintile had the least chance of
developing cognitive impairment. Although there was no associate with
other lipids, a linearly decreasing risk was associated with
increasing levels of HDL. Women in the highest quintile had only
one-fifth the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease as those in
the lowest quintile. Niacin is the best substance that is known to elevate HDL.
Credit for longevity must be given, of course, to so many different
factors, including genes and lifestyle. Hoffer and Walker’s book is a
primer which describes how we should “feed” our “longevity genes”.
They function best when the body is provided with anti-oxidant
vitamins and minerals and protected from toxic metals and xenobiotic
chemicals. One of the most important of these vitamins is vitamin
B-3, nicotinic acid and or nicotinamide or nicotinamide adenine
dinucleotide (NAD).
In Smart Nutrients, Hoffer and Walker wrote,
“It has been said that old age can become an expression of human experience. It can be rich, varied, colorful, and in turn enriching; or it can be impoverished, empty, and only serve to emphasize the futile of life.”
For the elderly of today, reality is too often better described by
the latter possibility. With this book, our aim is to transpose it
into the former – a journey toward a full life.
As the poet John Keats put it:
And like a newborn spirit did he pass
Through the green evening quiet in the sun.”
The ideal substance for preventing the effects of stress and
pathological blood lipid levels should have the following properties:
(1) It must be effective
(2) It must be safe with long continued use
(3) It must be inexpensive and
(4) It must be readily available and
(5) It should have other desirable healing properties.
Only niacin had all these properties. It lowers low-density lipiprotein
cholesterol, lowers triglycerides, lowers Lipo A and elevates HDL.
The elevation of HDL may be its most important property. It is safe.
Dr. Hoffer has been taking 3 grams daily for 50 years. It is cheap
compared to any and all drugs. It is readily available and will
continue to be so unless governments under pharmaceutical pressure
place an embargo on its use in correct concentrations. It has all the
healing properties described in this book. The closest drug to it is
aspirin used in low dose. This is widely touted as the one of the
main answers to geriatric decline but it also has serious
side-effects such as excessive bleeding. One of Dr. Hoffer’s
physician friends and one of Dr. Foster’s graduate students both
nearly died from exsanguination after using aspirin. It is estimated
that 67 patients must take aspirin in order to protect one against a
stroke or myocardial infarction, but from each hundred such patients
one will suffer serious bleeding. Aspirin does not have the other
advantages of niacin. It is not a substance commonly found in the
body and does not have any of niacin’s therapeutic properties,
although it does decrease deaths and extends lifespan. It is not easy
to compare niacin and aspirin since no one has estimated the likely
long term effects of niacin, in the same way that those of aspirin
and the statins have been examined. This is because niacin cannot be
patented, and, as a result, no company can profit from such a study.
Governments and their agencies seem preoccupied with other
matters.5-6 “Will they listen to the recommendations recently put
forward by Ames7,8 in two stimulating reports? Ames suggests that
people can live longer by “tuning up their metabolisms”. By this he
means that by adding nutrients to their diets, including niacin, in amounts larger than the RDAS, many diseases will be treated better, the incidence of cancer will decrease and aging will be slowed.
1.Hoffer A, and Walker M. (2002). Smart Nutrients. Prevent and Treat
Alzheimer’s and Senility, Enhance Brain Function and Longevity. Vital
Health Publishing, Ridgefield, CT.
2.Hoffer A. Niacin Therapy in Psychiatry. CC Thomas. Springfield, Ill, 1962.
3.Hoffer A. Senility is a form of chronic malnutrition. Report of a
National Conference on The Crisis in Health Care for the Aging,
sponsored by the Huxley Institute of Biosocial Research, New York,
Mar, 6, 1972.
4.Wysong, P. High HDL Cholesterol may protect against dementia. The
Medical Post. August 10, 2004; 40: page 9.
5.Hoffer A. Editorial “Toxic Vitamins”. Journal of Orthomolecular
Medicine 2003; 18: 123-125.
6.Hoffer A. Side effects of over-the-counter drugs. Journal of
Orthomolecular Medicine 2003; 18: 168-172.
7Ames, BN Elson-Schwab J Silver EA High -dose vitamin therapy stimulates
variant enzymes with decreased coenzyme-binding affinity
increased Km): relevence to genetic disease and polymorphism Am J Clin
Nutrition 2002;75:616-658
8.Ames BN Increasing longevity by tuning up metabolism. European
Molecular Biology Organization 2005:6:S20-S24.
At 10:26 AM 1/25/2009, you wrote:
Dear friends,
This morning both Peter and I read the attached pdf of an invited
review from the Dec 2007 Archives of Medical Sciences sent out by
Luca (a THINCS member) and we both like it very much. If you don’t
have time to read the whole paper, be sure to read the last two
sentences of the article!
All our best, –Ali and Peter
P.S. Luke, the first author is from the Dept. of Medicine at U.
Virginia in Charlottesville!
—————————————–
Subj: [thincs] Lipids in aging and chronic illness
Date: 1/25/2009 3:40:28 AM Central Standard Time
To: <mailto:thincs@yahoogroups.comthincs@yahoogroups.com
File: ARCHIVESMEDICALSCIENCESLipidsinagingandchronicillness[1].pdf
(86282 bytes) DL Time (TCP/IP): <1 minute
Although “politically correct”, this paper raises some interesting points.
Luca
——————————–
Subj: Re: [thincs] Lipids in aging and chronic illness
Date: 1/25/2009 4:27:36 AM Central Standard Time
Luca,
Very interesting paper. I think that the authors believe the
cholesterol hypothesis to be complete rubbish. They sound very
conventional, but what they say is extremely subversive. A good
paper that raises many interesting points. I shall be using bits of it.
Malcolm