Niacinamide

I was trying to come up with a topic to write about for this newsletter this morning and the subject of niacinamide kept popping up. I have no idea why that would come up other than I had just made up a fresh batch of the nutrient drink powder Ellen and I use daily and it has a fair bit of niacinamide in it. Compared to the amino acids and prebiotic fibers it is a tiny amount, but compared to the amounts of Vitamins A, D, E, and K2 I use, it is a high dose. I don’t like to take a thousand pills every day, so the nutrients that don’t taste bad I make into a powder that I mix with coconut milk and stevia each morning.

For those of you not familiar with niacinamide, it is the non-flush-causing form of niacin/vitamin B3. While it has many of the same benefits to the body as niacin, it does not produce the same cardiovascular benefits without the flush. I mainly take it because it helps my body to replenish the basic energy mechanisms we have in every cell. It also helps to fight neurological degeneration, something that is important to me. Dementia just seems like no fun to me. But as I was preparing for this article, I found a lot of information on the benefits of niacinamide for the skin.

Niacin and niacinamide both protect the skin from sun damage. They increase the production of keratin in the skin and reduce red blotchiness. As I was reading, I discovered that niacinamide is widely used as a skin serum for treating a wide variety of skin conditions such as:

Acne

Rosacea

Boosting hydration

Dark spots

Wrinkles

Actinic keratosis

​​​​​​​It seems that there is quite an industry of niacinamide skin serums for facial beauty already available out there. The main issue I found with them is that most of the products are using concentrations that are way too high. As we have seen in many other articles, the body works in a Goldilocks zone. Too much of something is as bad as too little. All the research on niacinamide serums was done with concentrations varying between 2 and 5%. But the products being sold have concentrations between 10 and 20%. I suspect that they charge a pretty penny for these products as well. A quick scan of Amazon shows me that such products sell for $6 to $49 per ounce. And yet, you could easily make your own for about twenty-five cents an ounce.

Since we could all use skin support, I thought I would show you how easily you could make this for use on your skin. This only takes three ingredients – water, niacinamide, and vegetable glycerin. Trot down to your friendly neighborhood health food store and buy an inexpensive bottle of pure niacinamide capsules – 500 mg in size. Also, buy a small bottle of glycerin and some deionized or distilled water. If you want to be official, you could also pick up a 1-ounce glass dropper bottle to keep your serum in. I know Elliott’s Natural Foods has these items, and I would expect any other health food store would have them as well. These supplies should be enough to make you 30 to 50 one ounce bottles of facial serum.

Okay, now for the simple directions:

Fill your bottle half full of the deionized or distilled water.

Open up 2 or 3 capsules of niacinamide and pour the powder into the little bottle. (I had pure niacinamide powder so I had to measure out what I needed.)

Put the lid on and shake vigorously.

Open the bottle and add 1 tsp. of glycerin and enough water to almost fill the bottle.

Close the bottle and shake again – all done!

You have just made yourself a fancy skin treatment. I did not suggest adding in any weird preservatives, so keep the bottle in the fridge. For a first-time treatment put a drop on your wrist and rub it in. Wait overnight to make sure that you do not have any sensitivity reaction. This usually only happens with products that are highly concentrated, but anyone can be sensitive to anything at any time, so better safe than sorry. If everything is fine then two or three drops on your face is usually enough to rub in to produce the desired effects. You can also use it on your skin anywhere, so if you have those dark spots of aging on your arms, go for it. Play around and see what results you get!

I told Ellen about this article, and after I described what it was about she immediately said she wanted some. That is cool as this will allow me to take some pictures of the process.

This is a short and straightforward newsletter, but I suspect many of my patients will find it rewarding.

Take care,

David

Ellen 

Last weekend was father’s day. As a delightful treat Ellen took me to Ruth’s Chris. The place was packed. We got placed out in the atrium for a change. The meal was great. Ellen got the sea bass and I got the fillet.