Home › Compound Library › Niacin (Vitamin B3)

Niacin (Vitamin B3)

Vitaminoral · inferred

Water-soluble vitamin with a very short plasma half-life. Used at high doses for lipid management. Can cause flushing at pharmacologic doses.

Projected serum levels — 500 mg, once daily

Niacin (Vitamin B3)
Niacin (Vitamin B3) modeled serum levels, 500 mg once daily over 15 days Population-based pharmacokinetic estimate. Steady state reached after approximately 1 days. 0 50 100 150 200 Day 0 Day 4 Day 8 Day 11 Day 15 Time on a regular schedule ≈ steady state · day 1

Maintenance schedule: 500 mg once daily (oral).

Modeled steady state after ~1 days: peak ≈ 181 mg, trough ≈ 0.000 mg body load. Population-based estimate over 15 days for a 500 mg dose at a 70 kg reference body mass — the interactive app scales curves to your doses, timing, and body mass.

Key facts

Category
Vitamin
Route modeled
Oral
Model confidence
inferred
Half-life
45 min
Common dose
500 mg
Suggested maximum
2k mg/day
Reference dose range
250–2k mg (single dose)
Suggested cadence
once daily
Validated against
500 mg oral — Cmax 10 mg/L at 1 h

Documented interactions

  • warning
    Atorvastatin (Lipitor) + Niacin (Vitamin B3) Potentiation

    High-dose niacin combined with statins increases risk of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis.

  • watch
    NAD+ (IV/Injection) + Niacin (Vitamin B3) Stacked effects

    NAD+ (IV/Injection) and Niacin (Vitamin B3) both push the nad salvage pathway in the same direction.

  • watch
    Nicotinamide Riboside (NR, Niagen) + Niacin (Vitamin B3) Stacked effects

    Niacin (Vitamin B3) and Nicotinamide Riboside (NR, Niagen) both push the nad salvage pathway in the same direction.

  • watch
    NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) + Niacin (Vitamin B3) Stacked effects

    Niacin (Vitamin B3) and NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) both push the nad salvage pathway in the same direction.

Serum checks 5 modeled interaction pairings for niacin (vitamin b3) across your whole stack — absorption conflicts, enzyme inhibition, and nutrient depletion included.

Research behind this entry

  1. Niacin in patients with low HDL cholesterol levels receiving intensive statin therapy (AIM-HIGH) Boden WE et al. · New England Journal of Medicine, 2011 DOI

    Major RCT of 3,414 patients found adding niacin to statin therapy did not provide additional cardiovascular benefit despite significantly raising HDL cholesterol.

  2. Effects of extended-release niacin with laropiprant in high-risk patients (HPS2-THRIVE) HPS2-THRIVE Collaborative Group · New England Journal of Medicine, 2014 DOI

    Large trial of 25,673 patients found niacin plus laropiprant did not reduce major vascular events when added to statin therapy and increased serious adverse events.

  3. Fifteen year mortality in Coronary Drug Project patients: long-term benefit with niacin Canner PL et al. · Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 1986 DOI

    Landmark long-term follow-up of the Coronary Drug Project found niacin-treated patients had 11% lower all-cause mortality after 15 years, despite treatment ending 6 years earlier.

3 published studies referenced in the app, each with a plain-language summary.