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Vitamin B3 Fights Superbug MRSA: Study Demonstrates How

August 31, 2012 by admin in Science with 14 Comments

Think twice before passing on the anchovies in pizza. They could be what stands between you and a MRSA infection! They contain Vitamin B3, which a study shows increases the fight against MRSA a thousand-fold!

Think twice before passing on the anchovies in pizza. They could be what stands between you and a MRSA infection!

by Heidi Stevenson

Some people get the superbug MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Most don’t. A new study shows why that may be so, and more importantly, how to overcome the problem with nutrition and even how to treat MRSA. That’s a lot of impact from one study, but it indirectly points out one more, perhaps more significant, point: The entire medical profession has the wrong focus. Instead of trying to battle disease once it exists, it makes far more sense to help people achieve good health so that they don’t succumb in the first place!

So what is this miracle nutrient? It’s simple Vitamin B3, niacin—also called nicotinamide, nicotinic acid, and niacinamide.

The publicly unfriendly title, C/EBPε mediates nicotinamide-enhanced clearance of Staphylococcus aureus in mice, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, packs quite a wallop. The authors showed that Vitamin B3 is necessary for the development of neutrophils, white blood cells that literally eat invaders. They also found that high doses of B3 provide neutrophils with 1,000 times greater ability to kill MRSA infections!

The researchers bred mice with a defective gene that makes them deficient in a protein, called C/EBPε. C/EBPε is necessary in myelopoesis, which is the development and regulation of myeloid cells, including neutrophils. They used mice that had been bred with the gene that results in a deficiency of C/EBPε, which made them susceptible to infections. Humans with the equivalent genetic difference also have less ability to create C/EBPε and are more likely to be infected with MRSA.

They found that Vitamin B3 increased the ability of the gene to create more C/EBPε, thereby enormously increasing their ability to fight off MRSA infections without the need for antibiotics.

The researchers demonstrated that assuring adequate levels of Vitamin B3 significantly boosts the immune system’s ability to fight off MRSA infections—and probably many others.

Treating and Preventing MRSA and Other Staph Infections

One of the researchers, Adrian Gombart of Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute, stated:

This could give us a new way to treat staph infections that can be deadly, and might be used in combination with current antibiotics. It’s a way to tap into the power of the innate immune system and stimulate it to provide a more powerful and natural immune response.

And that, of course, is the most significant point of all: This is not typical allopathic suppression of symptoms. This is literally helping the body perform its natural function.

The B3 dosage given to the mice was exceptionally high—far higher than one could obtain through food. The level, though, is no higher than has been used therapeutically in humans without adverse effects. Though it’s possible to overdose on B3, there is no reason to be concerned about toxicity.

Of course, the study did not address whether having normal levels of B3 in the body could prevent bacterial infections in the first place. However, it does contain information clarifying that adequate levels of B3 most assuredly do prevent infection. Since formation of C/EBPε requires B3, it follows that lack of it will result in greater chance of infection. It’s known that people born with a mutation in the gene that regulates C/EBPε are most likely to suffer from MRSA.

It therefore follows that assuring your body has adequate levels of B3 is critical to maintaining health, and even more so if you’re going to enter a hospital for any reason, but particularly if you’ll be having any kind of surgical procedure. You can, of course, take Vitamin B3 in tablet form to boost your immune system, or you can focus more on obtaining it through your diet.

Food Sources of B3

There are several very good natural sources of Vitamin B3. Some of the best are meats:

Kidney and liver of almost any animal
Chicken
Fish: anchovies, tuna, swordfish
Bran of wheat and rice
Yeast: Marmite, a popular spread for toast in British countries, is a particularly high source
Peanuts

This is just the beginning. B3 is available in many vegetables, dairy products, and beans (pulses). Of course, there is also the pop-a-pill approach. You can take Vitamin B3 in tablet form, too.

Don’t Forget New Laws

Here’s the disappointing part of this story: Governments all over the world are now moving to eliminate access to vitamins at doses worth taking. This is, of course, presented as a safety issue—and that, of course, is pure bull pucky. Vitamins are safe. Overdoses are fadingly rare. As a rule, people need to work at taking enough of any vitamin to produce harm.

Nonetheless, that’s what’s happening. As a result, vitamins can readily be labeled as equivalent to drugs. This is the real purpose behind the theft of access to vitamins. By making them inaccessible to us directly, they are handed over to Big Pharma and Big Medicine, so that they can be treated as equivalent to drugs and made available only by prescription.

If you don’t want this to happen, there’s no time to lose. Some countries have already instigated stunning restrictions on vitamins. Norway and Germany have treated them as equivalent to dangerous drugs, so that you cannot get them unless you first see a doctor for a prescription*. That is, of course, absurd. But, if you don’t want it to happen elsewhere, then you’d better get busy. Start writing to your government representatives. Tell them in no uncertain terms that they will not stay in office if they allow our free and open access to vitamins—and herbs and alternative medicines—to be taken from us. It’s not only your life and future, it’s the lives of your children that are at stake.

We don’t need Big Pharma adulterating our natural products! We don’t need Big Pharma jacking up the prices of vitamins and herbs! We don’t need to be treated like children by doctors in making choices for our health! We don’t need to pay doctors to grant approval for what is our inherent right, the natural products of nature!

*Yes, it’s true that you can still purchase vitamins in Germany and Norway, but not at doses worthy of the term vitamin.

The photo is by Maura Neill. You can see more of her luscious food photos here.