Cholesterol Control Without Diet!: The Niacin Solution

This expanded, updated paperback 2nd edition has all the truths of the 1998 hardcover and much more. These truths include:* Diet has so little to do with one's cholesterol level that wemight as well say it has nothing to do with it.* It's all right to eat eggs and lean red meat.* TOTAL cholesterol level is irrelevant; you need to know BAD and GOOD levels, plus triglycerides levels.* If diet helps at all, it does so only during periods of weight reduction. Diet reduces GOOD cholesterol as much as it lowers BAD cholesterol!* To change the body factory (which determines your cholesterol levels), requires medication. NIACIN is the best. It does everything right: lowers bad cholesterol, raises good cholesterol levels, lowers triglycerides, reduces Lp(a) (nicknamed "the heart attack cholesterol," especially in women), and produces favorablechanges in bad and good cholesterol subfractions.* The best-selling statin drugs do only one thing well: reduce bad cholesterol.* Statins have caused at least 112 deaths in US and more worldwide. The first statin reached the US market in 1987, the others in the 1990's. Some experts think statins may cause cancer, as all of them do in animals, and that it will take more time for this to appear. (Tobacco and asbestos take 20-40 years.)* Statins cause myopathy ("something wrong in muscles"), varying from mild aching to actual dissolving of muscles fibers. The latter can lead to kidney failure and death. If muscle aching occurs, the patient should stop the statin and contact his doctor promptly. Statin ads hide this warning in the small print or the fast talk at the end of expensive TV ads. * Niacin has a safety record dating to 1956. In a 1966-1974 study at 53 US centers, niacin was the only drug that reduced heart attack and stroke, cardiovascular surgery, hospitalization, and deaths from all causes.* This book teaches doctors and patients how to prevent flushing of the skin from niacin (using time-release niacin, with a morning aspirin for the first 2 weeks) and avoiding liver problems (by testing twice a year).* Niacin IS NOT a do-it-yourself drug. It requires knowledgeable medical supervision.* Reliable, generic time-release niacin costs $10-14 a month for usual doses. Statin prices vary from $42 to $142 a month.* For more information, visit www.cholesterolnodiet.com. This site also tells about Tough Talk About Fat! How to Reach and Maintain Your Ideal Weight, a $9.95 no-nonsense book that WILL help you, loved ones, and friends achieve healthy, desired weights. Tough Talk doesn't scold you for being fat; it tells you to GET TOUGH with that excess fat and get rid of it--all of it! And then it tells you how.

After reading Dr. Parsons book I started taking Plain Niacin following Dr. Parsons' guidlines and found it was very effective in reducing total cholesterol, LDL, VLDL and Triglycerides. It is the most effective of any drug for raising HDL. I raised mine 31% and I am working on getting it higher by exercising. I do not yet have my HDL level to the preferred minimum of 45, but am confident I will get there. Low HDL runs in my family and, fortunately, my total cholesterol and LDL are so low now, I don't believe I am in a high risk category anymore.The vast majority of Americans could prevent heart disease if they would become their "own doctor" and aggressively pursue a course of cholesterol treatment with a physician. It is odd that Niacin is still in the category of "generally unknown" given that it was the first drug used in treating cholesterol and still is one of the most effective and has the lowest cost.

I read this book because my cholesterol was off the charts and my HDL was low. Dr Parsons correctly identifies why statin drugs don't work to improve mortality and makes an air tight case for Niacin. I use the EP Plain Niacin therapy outlined in the book and now my cholesterol is 140 and 45 HDL with no change in diet. Thanks Doc! If you've tried Niacin and couldn't tolerate it, read this book. You'll be able to succeed. A portion of the book is devoted to detailed advice to practicioners on how to treat patients with Niacin. Good advice for health care professionals.

Niacin works, period. Why is this generally unknown? As Dr. Parsons argues, there is no big money pushing niacin. (Although the HMOs should be; they'd save billions!) Niacin cannot be patented, so there is no fortune waiting to be made. In fact, niacin is and will continue to be a thorn in the side of pharmaceutical companies that spend millions promoting their statins which are clearly inferior to niacin.I have only a couple of minor complaints about the book. Dr Parsons basically dismisses the use of soluble fiber as insignificant. I know from personal experience that soluble fiber can make a very significant dent in cholesterol. I suspect it does so with even fewer potential complications than niacin. I use them both.Second, the homocysteine connection which is gaining more credence is not even mentioned in the book and anti-oxidants (vitamin e etc) are mentioned only in passing.My final gripe (no fault of the book)is that I cannot locate an MD in New York City that specializes in niacin therapy. If anyone knows of one, please e-mail me! Thanks.

In a new book, William B. Parsons Jr., MD tells why niacin, a drug whose use for cholesterol control he pioneered more than 40 years ago, is really a "designer drug" for this purpose. Niacin, unlike other drugs in this field, does everything right. It reduces bad cholesterol, increases good cholesterol, lowers triglycerides, and has favorable effects on several recently discovered components of blood cholesterol. No other drug does all these things, or even the first two. Best of all, niacin does all this in the presence of an ordinary American diet. Dr. Parsons calls his book, CHOLESTEROL CONTROL WITHOUT DIET! THE NIACIN SOLUTION, a wake-up call to the public and the media. When most people hear "choelsterol," they think "diet" because advocates of diet have brainwashed the media, which in turn has brainwashed the public, including the medical profession, he contends. This book shares the author's long experience in research and use of niacin in medical practice. "Although available without prescription, niacin is not a do-it-yourself drug; it requires knowledgeable medical supervision," the book repeatedly emphasizes. Parsons says that if every doctor were good at using niacin, more than 90% of patients with cholesterol problems could have the drug's distinctive advantages at a cost one-sixth to one-tenth the cost of the expensive "statins," the best-selling cholesterol control drugs. Dr. Parsons has studied niacin since 1955, his final year of internal medicine training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Following up on preliminary findings of Canadian doctors, he conducted the firstg systematic study of niacin's effects, which showed that it lowered bad cholesterol and raised good cholesterol without diet. His later work in Madison, Wisconsin led to the Coronary Drug Project, an 8-year study which showed that niacin decreased heart attacks, strokes, cardiovascular surgery, and deaths in men who had already had heart attacks. He advocatess starting prevention of heart attacks by using niacin in young adults as well as middle-aged persons with abnormal cholesterol patterns, then continuing in elderly patients who have no overriding medical problems. While practicing medicine since graduating from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1948, Parsons has written many medical articles and chapters in several books. In this new book, he outlines for the general public and for physicians his vast experience in the safe and effective use of niacin. For the past 20 years he has practiced internal medicine in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is a very readable book for the general public. It teaches readers how to be sure their doctors are good at using niacin. "The definition of a doctor good at using niacin? One who has read this book." The knowledge in CHOLESTEROL CONTROL WITHOUT DIET! THE NIACIN SOLUTION can very well reduce heart attacks and strokes, cardiovascular surgery, and deaths, as niacin di