The Vegan Lifestyle

Vitamin B3: Health Benefits, Source, And Dosage. Vitamins are very important for the excellent functioning of the body. The lack of them results to weakness, disease or even death. Vitamins work together with enzymes (chemical catalyst) thus their being called as “co-enzymes”.

Among the important vitamins needed by the body is the vitamin B complex. This is a group of vitamins that are needed in the proper functioning of the body, specially for the brain and the nervous system.

One of these B complex is vitamin B3 (niacin, niacinamide, nicotinic acid). This vitamin maintains and strengthens the gastro-intestinal tract, circulation, and the nervous system. It is needed for the protein and carbohydrate metabolism. Vitamin 3 increases blood flow to the skin and body extremities. It is good for cold hands and feet.

Vitamin 3 helps the body to produce many hormones. It is important in energy production, and in the metabolism of fat, cholesterol, and carbohydrate. Vitamin 3 is used in over 50 different chemical reactions in the body. It also helps to regulate the blood sugar, and antioxidant mechanisms. It lowers bad cholesterol, and reduces early onset of arthritis and diabetes. It is effective in the treatment of early diabetes.

Vitamin 3 mild deficiency symptoms are canker sores, irritability, insomnia, nervousness, chronic headache, digestive problems, diarrhea, and anemia. Severe deficiency symptoms include disorientation, mental dullness, pellagra, and neurasthenia.

The rich sources of vitamin 3 are brewer’s yeast, brown rice, wheat germ, rice bran, peanuts, sunflower seeds, whole wheat, torula yeast, and green vegetables.

Vitamin B3 is needed in the assimilation of vitamin C and other B vitamins. To be more effective, this vitamin should be taken together with other B vitamins because it works closely with them.

Dosage: RDA 18 mg; ODA 100 mg; TDA 2,000-6,000 mg (time release). Megadoses of up to 25,000 mg are used for the treatment of schizophrenia, arteriosclerosis, and high cholesterol. But prolonged megadose can induce stomach ulcers, liver damage, colitis, jaundice, and male impotence. Note: The above dosages are for adults. Children 12-17 years old should reduce the dose to 3/4 of the recommended, and those 6-11 years old, to 1/2 of the recommended dose.

The harmful effects of caffeine are many. Among the harmful effects of caffeine are forgetfulness, nervousness, and addiction.

Caffeine is a psychoactive substance naturally found in coffee, tea, kola nuts,  and in lesser amount, in cocoa. It is also found in beans, leaves, and fruits of some plants that acts as a natural pesticide to ward off insects.

Caffeine is a common ingredient in soft drinks, such as cola which was originally prepared from kola nuts. Soft drinks usually  contain about 10 to 50 milligrams, and energy drinks, 80 milligrams of caffeine per servings. Guarana, a prime ingredient of energy drinks, contains large amounts of caffeine with small amounts of theobromine and theophylline. It is also found in tea, and in chocolates, in the form of cocoa, in small amount.

Caffeine is an excitotoxin that harms the brain. It stimulates the body in similar manner as cocaine and heroin, and its addiction is gradual and subtle. Like most excitotoxins, caffeine causes brain malfunctions. This substance, like alcohol and nicotine, can easily penetrate the blood-brain barrier and can over excite the brain neurons to death.

Busy people  who want to extend their working hours drink more coffee in order to stay awake all day. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors in the central nervous system of our brain, and brings a temporary feeling of alertness and wakefulness. Adenosine is a neurotransmitter that is involved in the control of the sleep-wake cycle. It promotes drowsiness and sleep after long hours of work or mental activity.

Caffeine molecule is structurally similar to adenosine. It easily binds to adenosine  receptors on the cell surface without activating them, thus blocking and inhibiting their functions. Cells that are normally slowed down by adenosine are speeded up by caffeine. Sensing that the cells are not slowed down, and suspecting that an emergency has happened, the hypothalamus reacts by releasing a neuro-hormone called dopamine into the bloodstream which triggers the adrenal glands to start pumping. Dopamine  increases heart rate and blood pressure, thus the feeling of wakefulness and alertness when drinking coffee.

The temporary sensation of high energy and alertness after drinking coffee, soft drinks, and energy drinks could be due to the the effects of caffeine’s three by-products during its metabolism.   Paraxanthine increases the lipolysis process, which releases glycerol and fatty acids into the blood as a source of fuel for the muscles. Theobromine dilates the blood vessels to increase the amount of oxygen and the flow of nutrients to the brain and muscles. Theophylline relaxes the smooth muscle of the bronchioles;  changes the time of heart rate, and alters the force of  muscle contractions in the heart.

Caffeine is an excitetotoxin that destroys the brain. Its excitatory effects not only weaken the neurons in the brain but can even over excite them to death. Caffeine, by counteracting adenosine, has inhibitory effects on brain activity. It adversely affects the healthy functioning of the brain, and other learning skills.  Long-term consumption of caffeine even in small doses affects learning and memory by inhibiting the creation of neurons in the hippocampus of the brain.

Other harmful effects of caffeine are the following:

• it causes nervousness, trembling, and abnormal muscle contractions
• it causes dizziness and headaches
• it causes indigestion
• it slows down reaction to auditory and visual stimuli
• it causes forgetfulness  and tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
• it increases the risk of myocardial infarction
• it increases heart rate
• it causes heart palpitation
• it increases the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women
• it causes lethargy, and irritability
• it causes confusion and inability to focus
• it causes visual hallucinations
• it intensifies and prolongs the effects of psychostimulant drugs such as amphetamine, methamphetamine, and dextroamphetamine
• it causes increased gastric acid secretion in the cells
• it decreases broad-range thinking abilities

Some studies showed that caffeine is good for the heart, and increases mental performance related to focused thought. This may be true as in other contradicting results from studies done on the effects of caffeine. But these are all temporary and transitory. When the stimulating effects are gone, the harmful effects of caffeine appear in the form of illnesses and diseases.

Caffeine is a nerve irritant that does not nourish the system in any way. Its temporary effects of high energy, alertness, wakefulness, increased strength, vivid imagination, and mental arousal are only nervous excitements produce before caffeine is ever digested and assimilated by the body. When the effects of this stimulant are gone, these unnatural euphoric conditions disappear, and only results to debility and langor.