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Vitamin B3 is also known as niacin and is available in two forms: nicotinic acid (or nicotinate) and niacinamide (nicotinamide). In supplemental form both nicotinic acid and niacinamide can satisfy nutritional requirements for vitamin B3 but each has its own specific role in the treatment of disease.

Niacin deficiency causes a range of symptoms from muscle weakness to fatigue and pellagra - a disease characterised by the ‘3Ds’: diarrhoea, dermatitis and in the later stages, dementia. Other symptoms of low Niacin levels are ulcer formation, dizziness, bad breath, headaches, nausea, irritability and depression.

Thompson’s Niacin is the nicotinic acid form, which has a marked effect on the cardiovascular system. Niacin stimulates circulation and dilates the blood vessels, thus helping to maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

The ability of Niacin to ‘relax’ blood vessels makes it useful for circulatory problems such as intermittent claudication (cramping of the calf muscle) and Raynaud’s disease, a disease characterised by numbness and often pain in the hands or feet when exposed to cold conditions. Nicotinic acid may also prove useful in headaches and migraines.

Niacin, along with the other B group vitamins also helps support healthy brain and nervous tissue improving the body’s ability to cope with stress. Nicotinic acid helps in the regulation of blood sugar in people with hypoglycaemic problems.

Thompson’s Niacin tablets can produce redness, warmth and itching over areas of the skin; this ‘Niacin flush’ usually occurs with doses over 50mg and is the result of a histamine release, which causes vasodilation of the blood vessels. This reaction is harmless, lasts only 10-20 minutes and ceases when Niacin is taken on a regular basis