Dr. Berg Table of Contents
If you’re deficient in niacin (vitamin B3), you may have some strange symptoms. Find out how to spot a niacin deficiency and what you can do to fix it!
In this article, we’re going to talk about niacin deficiency symptoms. If you have a niacin deficiency, you might experience the “4 D’s”: dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, and even death.
Niacin deficiency symptoms
Now there’s some pretty strange , very unique , different symptoms with a vitamin B3 Niacin deficiency that you need to know about , because you might have these .
You’re dealing with the 4 d’s .
Dermatitis , really bad skin reactions , diarrhea , dementia , and the 4th one is death .
Other than that , you’re perfectly fine .
Subclinical symptoms of a vitamin B3 deficiency
But let’s go through the subclinical symptoms .
Okay ?
And this might shock you .
Subclinical symptoms of a niacin deficiency include the following:
- • Loss of taste
- • Metallic/rancid taste in the mouth
- • Loss of smell/change in smell
- • Face moves when you look in the mirror
- • Words move when you read
- • Unstable or moving ground when walking
- • Fatigue
- • Inability to relax
And when we’re talking about subclinical , we’re talking about not a major deficiency .
You’re deficient to a certain degree .
Number 1 , you might lose this sense of taste .
And number 2 , you might have a metallic taste in your mouth or rancid taste in your mouth .
That could be a niacin deficiency .
And the good thing about that is just by taking it within a week , that could resolve it depending on how deficient you are .
The next one is a loss of smell .
Normally , we think about Zinc being a deficiency of smell , but it can also be Niacin .
Or you might have a change in your smell .
Things don’t smell like they should .
Next one is when you’re looking in the mirror , your face is moving a little bit .
Okay ?
That’s pretty wild .
It might not necessarily be moving , but it could be changing shapes .
When you read a book , you notice the words and the page tend to move a little bit .
When you’re walking on the ground , the ground seems to be a little unstable or could be moving a little bit .
You may also have fatigue or just the feeling like you can’t relax .
These are all subclinical niacin deficiencies .
How to fix a niacin deficiency
Now the major deficiency is called pellagra .
And just so you know , to correct these deficiencies , you can’t just take the normal RDAs , which is , like , 20 milligrams .
You would have to take large amounts , and you can take niacin or niacinamide , which is the non flushed version , but you’d probably need amounts like 6 grams per day .
Benefits of niacin
That’s a lot , but that’s what it takes to correct some of these deficiencies .
One big reason why we need niacin is for our mitochondria .
It’s called NAD .
It helps you extract electrons from foods , which is your energy currency .
vitamin B3 directly is the precursor for this .
And also having a sufficient amounts of niacin .
You can produce more energy from the food that you eat .
You can support something called sirtuins , which is involved in longevity and DNA repair .
I mean , if you think about most diseases , they really originate from the mitochondria .
In all of these degenerative diseases , you’re gonna see a great deficiency of this NAD , and especially in diseases that are related to aging
Okay ?
Because as you age , your NAD gets less and less and less .
Tryptophan can actually turn into niacin .
Tryptophan also converts to serotonin and then melatonin for your sleep .
But vitamin B3 is super important for your skin .
I mean , think about what a deficiency will create .
Severe , scaly , damaged skin .
So it’s super beneficial for the skin , for acne , psoriasis .
If you take , the form of vitamin B3 as niacinamide , that can actually help you more with inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis , any of the arthritis .
But the niacin version greatly helps your lipids , cholesterol , LDL , HDL .
It was really , really popular before , we came out with statins .
And of course , now with recent research , we found that no longer has any benefits .
Right ?
Well , if someone told me that niacin doesn’t do anything , I would ask them what happens when you become deficient in niacin .
Foods high in vitamin B3
And if we take a look at what foods , are high in , vitamin B3 , you’re gonna find high levels of vitamin B3 in animal meat products , as well as liver , organ meats , but definitely red meat for sure .
At the top of the list , it’s in other foods too , but not to the degree that it’s in animal foods , but you can also get it from nutritional yeast .
If you’re gonna get it from nutritional yeast , I would recommend getting it without the added synthetic vitamins that they normally put in there .
You can also , get it from spirulina as well .
There’s a tremendous amount of research on niacin for cholesterol , the heart , and many other conditions .
I was surprised on how much research there is on this topic .
And even for schizophrenia , depression , bipolar , all sorts of mood disorders .
How do you become deficient in niacin?
How do we become deficient ?
Processed foods can create a vitamin B3 deficiency .
Processed corn , processed grains , wheat , cereal , things like that .
The more protein and carbs that you eat , the more the requirement for vitamin B3 is gonna be because vitamin B3 is intimately involved in helping you , extract energy out of food .
But , of course , if you’re eating the right foods , you’ll have your vitamin B3 that’s already in these foods versus the refined foods or the ultra processed foods .
Pregnancy , being an alcoholic , COVID 19 can increase the demand for vitamin B3 .
Therefore explaining a lot of the symptoms with a lack of smell and taste .
It can be a Zinc deficiency , but don’t forget about niacin .
And of course , if you’re on medications , a lot of medications , boy , your your need for vitamin B3 goes way up as well .
And I think a lot of people , might be concerned with the flushing , of the Niacin .
Well , you can use the non flush version , unless you have a specific problem with , cholesterol and you wanna lower the cholesterol , you need the flushing version , but you can just start off very small and then gradually over time , increase it to the point where your body will adapt to the flushing .
I personally don’t mind the flushing .
It’s not dangerous , but sometimes people think they’re allergic to it .
They’re not .
People take niacin also for a fatty liver .
And , overall , there are certain things that increase the demand for niacin , like I’ve talked about , or it could just be you have a deficiency in your , diet
