Is anyone taking Niaspan (Niacin/B3) and by how much has it raised your glucose levels?

1

I'm experiencing a significant increase in insulin requirements and it started when I began taking 1000mg at bedtime. I suspect this is the cause but would be keen in hearing the experiences of others.

Thanks!

Christopher

2

Well, if you look in the literature and really read it, Niacin is known to raise blood sugar levels. I looked into this back in 2009 and found

"I have to tell you I ran into the same thing and the whole thing totally makes me angry years afterwards. To make a long story short, I was referred to a cardiologist because of my continued complaints about the horrible side effects in my cholesterol treatment. When expressed concern that niacin was causing blood sugar increases, I was waived off. When I self-experimented, I found that it did indeed raise my fasting blood sugar. I then found this article, by the now infamous Scott Grundy. When I brought it to discuss with my cardiologist, he looked at the "conclusion", that niacin was safe for diabetics and gave it back. The fact that the study found that most patients had to increase medications to keep their blood sugar under control, some even had to go on insulin. Four patients (1 from small dose and 3 from moderate dose) had to drop out because their blood sugar went out of control. And even with attempts to compensate for the blood sugar changes, the niacin still resulted in higher HbA1c. The fact that the study concluded that it was safe for diabetics to raise their blood sugar cause they could just medicate is "TOTALLY INSANE."

In hindsight, if you look at the infamous Scott Grundy, former chair of the NCEP, you realize he had some particular biases. He clearly thinks diabetics all die from cholesterol and not from high blood sugars. I was most disappointed in my cardiologist, who seemed to be a caring and thoughtful man."

3

Yes - I discovered this in the literature last night. Shame on me for not checking sooner and blindly trusting my local endo. I'll never let that happen again. I could kick myself. This was driving me batty for months.

Thanks for the link. Now I'm almost certain this has been the cause. I'm looking forward to getting my insulin dosing back to "normal" levels.

4

So 4 days after discontinuing Niaspan I've been able to reduce my bedtime Levemir dose 7 units from 24 to 17 and I woke up this morning at 83. That's almost a 30% drop in dosage. Wow! I'm hoping as this flushes further out of my system and as my body readjusts I'll be able to lower it even further.