dilated blood vessel equal pain?
 

Three days ago I started taking niacin and for three days my feet have been horrid. Like crying every night, non stop burn, even during the day, horrid. I told hubby if its getting worse I can't live like this.

Then I realized niacin dilates the blood vessels and thought maybe that is my problem so today I did not take any and its been soooo much better already.

I no niacin causes a flush but this was not a flush. A flush happens within an hour of taking it and goes away. This was a result of dialated blood vessels in my opinion.

So the question is, WHY would this hurt my PN and make them burn and flare?

Any opinions?

I don't know anything, this is opinion. Since there have been so many views to this thread and no replies, I wanted to put my tiny 2c worth in.

I've read that with some vitamins and minerals, etc. the condition gets worse for almost a week before turning around and improving. So, there is a small chance that is what is going on her.

On the other hand, I'm a total believer in your body tells you what it needs and doesn't need. If you don't listen to your body, who will?

Sorry I can't be of real help, I've never had the problem myself.

Niacin and pain
 

I was diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Demyel. Polyneuropathy in the early 90's.

While I cannot say this is something I have heard happens to a lot of PN'ers, I will say that after taking one dose, within a very short time, I began to turn red and burn all over.

Yorkiemom
Cathie

I have not posted on this forum in quite some time. My condition seemed to improve until a couple of recent events. I was looking for the best part of the site to begin posting when this caught my eye.

Why are you taking the niacin? and at what dose?

Here is an explanation of why there is flushing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niacin
Scroll down to the "toxicity" heading.

Did you try ibuprofen or aspirin with it?

This flushing reaction suggests perhaps cyproheptadine (an antihistamine that blocks serotonin) may help your feet.
Dr. Cohen, you know online, uses a serotonin blocking antihistamine he gets from Canada for his erythromelalgia.

B2 and B3 are in a product called CoFactors ATP which is part of the iodine therapy I am doing. Clearly I can not take two of these pills a day. I may try half a pill but not for a few days, the terror of the last 4 days are still lingering, last night was better and so was yesterday but yowza!

Is it really part of the "flush" when it lasts all day and night????

Nice to see you again, Cathie. But sorry you are not doing too well still.

Yorkiemom, you have a teacup yorkie!! I have been thinking about getting one, any pros and cons you wanna share? Although dog parents never wanna share the cons side, lol!

I found this....
http://www.pureformulas.com/atp-cofa....prujOFgz.dpbs

Is this your product?

If so the inositol nicotinate in it is not niacin per se. It should not cause flushing.

The Wiki article explains the genetic error involving histidine metabolism, and with nicotinic acid (real niacin), this explains some flushing in some people.

It is very very uncommon to flush with inositol hexanicotinate.
I use this form and I don't flush at all. But I do flush with a dose of 100mg of niacin (the nicotinic acid form).

Yes, that is the product. Perhaps I just used too much for my body. I used two pills, morning and dinner, as per naturopath instructions but I will not be doing that again. In a couple days I will try to cut the pill in half, there is a score on the pill to do it, so i will try half a pill.

But if it causes problems I will dump it, nothing is worth what I went through the last several days and even worse nights. :mad:

You are missing a point.... this reaction may be revealing YOUR cause of the foot problem in the first place. A histidine metabolic error. Knowing a cause may lead to a solution.