Cholesterol Drug Niacin Fuels Debate Over its Effectiveness and Health Risks

The popular cholesterol drug niacin has recently come under fire. According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, it may do more harm than good.

In two separate studies, doctors first examined extended-release niacin and then a combination of extended-release niacin, along with the drug laropiprant. Neither findings showed significant benefits. Furthermore, both studies revealed an increased risk of problems with gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal issues, including bleeding, diarrhea and even gout. The combination drug study even showed a 9 percent increase in death risk, overall. 

"The consistent findings of a lack of benefit of raising HDL cholesterol with the use of niacin when added to effective LDL-cholesterol-lowering therapy with statins seriously undermine the hypothesis that HDL cholesterol is a causal risk factor," said editorialist Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, via Medscape. He further discovered the concerns about the medication in a corresponding editorial.

"The failure (to date) of cholesteryl-ester-transfer-protein [CETP] inhibitors, such as torcetrapib anddalcetrapib , to show any reduction in cardiovascular risk, despite the marked increases in HDL cholesterol associated with these drugs, lends further credence to the notion that HDL cholesterol is unlikely to be causal."

Though it had previously been thought that niacin, a type of B vitamin, worked as an alternative or complement to statins, these studies and other findings show that it does not. Furthermore, some serious health complications are also related.