While there is no doubt that dietary supplements of nicotinic acid help to lower the blood level of cholesterol, some people have been taking it in such excessively large doses that they have injured their livers.

The Southern Medical Journal (76:239) reports the case of a man who took about four grams (4,000 mg) of nicotinic acid daily for several months and became ill with fever, jaundice (yellowness of the skin), nausea, vomiting, and pain, swelling, and tenderness in the abdomen. Tests showed that his liver function was seriously disturbed. All of these problems quickly subsided after he stopped taking nicotinic acid.

However, not believing that a vitamin (nicotinic acid is a member of the vitamin B complex) could cause illness, he started taking large doses of nicotinic acid again a year later. Once more he suffered with the same symptoms, which were again proved to be due to liver toxicity, and which, for the second time, subsided when he stopped taking nicotinic acid.

The medical literature contains 11 more case reports of patients with liver disease who had been taking three to four grams of nicotinic acid daily. These doses are 30 to 40 times greater than the 100 mg daily doses recommended as an adjunct in controlling the blood cholesterol. Limiting one’s intake of animal fat and cholesterol, however, must remain the cornerstone of any program to prevent atherosclerosis.

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