Niacin

I'm sorry I have been so neglect in writing here. I was having a niacin rush. Okay, no that has not been the prime activity of my last few months I only thought I would start my return to blogging with a NIACIN WARNING!

Warning! Niacin will give you a rush and maybe even a visit from the EMT's.

Last week I was sitting here visiting with a friend and my daughter. Had poured myself an extremely small glass of wine. I took two measly sips of said wine and broke out in the most incredible hives of my life! I was covered front and back, head to toe and was swelling at my elbows. I had huge flashes of heat and in the surprise of this my breathing was labored. My friend and daughter were alarmed. Extremely alarmed! I could think of nothing I had to counteract this as it was obvious I was having an allergic reaction to something. No Benadryl. No nothing. Was I breathing, was it going to get worse?

The Emt's were called. They arrived quickly. All women. I had 100% oxygenation. It was concluded that I was possibly having a reaction the sulfites in the wine. About 20 years ago I had a reaction to sulfites at a salad bar. It didn't make sense that I would react now, especially to some wine from the same bottle I had drunken from earlier in the week. But the EMT's said reactions can be like that. It subsided within an hour.

Next day I remembered that I had taken a Niacin an hour earlier. I had read that it was good for cholesterol so had been taking one a day for about a week. A friend said that it always made her hot and flushed. Sure enough I read the bottle.

The next week I went to the doctor. I described the full scenario; I took a Niacin and then had two hot bowls of lentil soup and then the two sips of wine. Egads! She exclaimed. You did the two worst things you could do when taking niacin...you had something hot and you had alcohol. She told me that people can react so strongly to Niacin that she had a warning sheet about it. Sure enough it said that it can be exaceberated by drinking hot beverages and or alcohol. The two things i did. It also warned against taking time release.

I went back to the bottle. No such warning about the alcohol or hot beverages! Also, it was time release niacin. Another strike against it. I was also told by my doctor that because I am fair skinned I will always react more than the average person.

I felt a little stupid, yet I had a severe reaction to this. Not knowing what it was made the panic worse. I won't be taking niacin again. And I feel a need to inform/complain/question the manufactures and the powers to be why if Niacin exasperates reactions when drinking hot beverages and alcohol why it doesn't say this on the bottle?