Take your vitamins & save your brain!

Vitamin B3

Are you worried about losing your brain power?? Do you feel your faculties have lost their edge? If so, you're not alone. Many people feel their memory and mental clarity seems to lose its sharpness past about the age of 30. I certainly feel that since having my 4th child last year my brain is not at all what it was!

I was therefore very interested to read the recent article on the BBC website about how Vitamin B3 could help stave off Altzheimers (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7710365.stm).

Vitamin B3 is also known as Niacin and is the name given for nicotinamide (niacinamide) and nicotinic acid. It can be found in meat, fish, beans, cereals and potatoes. The amino acid 'Tryptophan' can be converted to vitamin B3
inside the body.

According to the website: http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/, the importance of Vitamin B3 was first realised in 1937 when scientists discovered that the disease 'Pellagra' was caused by a vitamin B3 deficiency. This vitamin is essential for: releasing energy from carbohydrates, fats and protiens, helping DNA synthesis, and for healthy skin, nerves and digestive system.

Signs of deficiency are: loss of appetite, indigestion, skin lesions, mental imbalance and Pellagra (gross deficiency).

Dr Kim Green, who led the study in the BBC article, said: "Nicotinamide has a very robust effect on neurons. It prevents loss of cognition in mice with Alzheimer's disease, and the beauty of it is we already are moving forward with a clinical trial."

His colleague Professor Frank LaFerla, said: "This suggests that not only is it good for Alzheimer's disease, but if normal people take it, some aspects of their memory might improve."


It is important to maintain a healthy balance of all vitamins and minerals, not just vitamin B3.

We sell a wide range of vitamins and minerals on our website at the following link: http://www.homeherbs.co.uk/0/category/425-Vitamins___Minerals.html.


Thank you for reading! All comments welcome.