Niacin, a common cholesterol therapy that has been on the market for the past 50 years, is believed to be too risky for routine use in cholesterol therapy. Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, preventative cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine®, suggests that Niacin poses an increased risk of death and serious side effects, and shows no benefit for reducing heart attacks and strokes.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones’s editorial stems from a large new study that examines adults ages 50 to 80 with cardiovascular disease and who took extended-release niacin (vitamin B3) and laropiprant, a drug that reduces facial flushing from large quantities of niacin, to determine whether there were fewer heart attacks and strokes in comparison to a placebo over four years.

Each patient in the trial was already receiving a statin medication for treatment.

Lloyd-Jones, chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said in a statement, “There might be one excess death for every 200 people we put on niacin.” He continued, “With that kind of signal, this is an unacceptable therapy for the vast majority of patients.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, Niacin, a type of B vitamin, is used to increase HDL, or good cholesterol, which in turn helps to lower the amount of LDL, or bad cholesterol, in the blood.