Vitamin B3:
Vitamin B3 or Niacin
Vitamin B3 is a vitamin that makes up the nutritional powerhouse known as the Vitamin B complex. Vitamin B3 has several names: niacin, nicotinic acid and niacinamide, and it serves many vital purposes in the functioning of the body and the mind.
Vitamin B3 works with the other B vitamins to transform food to energy. It also helps regulate the appetite, as well as the digestive system. Its primary tasks within the digestive system revolve around controlling the levels at which bile and other stomach fluids are secreted.
Among other contributions Vitamin B3 makes to your health is the essential role it plays in the respiration of cells, its role in keeping the nervous system healthy, and its relationship to the production of the hormones associated with reproduction. Vitamin B3 is also important to the health of the body's biggest organ, which is the skin.
Vitamin B3 is water-soluble, which means it is washed out of the body via the urine, and the body must renew its supply of niacin daily. Deficiencies of vitamin B3 can have drastic health consequences for both the body and the mind, including open sores on the skin and in the mouth, a swollen tongue and chronic bad breathe, loss of appetite, chronic diarrhea, joint pain, low blood sugar and headaches.
Dietary supplements are an effective and safe way to ensure you meet the recommended daily requirements of B3 in your diet. However, it is important to use dietary supplements according to the standard dose levels, as taking too much can cause other health problems, some pretty bad. Vitamin pills, like all medications, should be kept out of the reach of children.
Some natural sources of niacin, or vitamin b3, are meat products like prawns and sheep liver, two foods that hold a lot of vitamin b3. Vegetarian alternatives are rice bran, sunflower seeds, turnip and beet greens, and celery.
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