Is there any real evidence to suggest that NON flush niacin works as well as regular niacin at increasing HDL?
It works fine. It is basically the same stuff and does the same thing. The docs I work with use “Flush Free” niacin with great results. One other note, is that niacin helps reduce LDL and it also shifts particle size so that you have larger LDL’s. But niacin, from what I know also reduces insulin sensitivity at these high doses.
Just read your question again. While Niacin may improve HDL, it is not very effective. It works much better at reducing LDL and shifting particle size just a bit.
This is a statement from the PDR for Nutritional Supplements: “Nicotinic acid in gram doses, but not nicotinamide, lowers serum levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglycerides. High dose nicotinic acid also increases serum levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol…”. “Nicotinic acid, in pharmacological doses, is used as an antihyperlipidemic agent. It also causes vasodialation of cutaneous blood vessels resulting in the so called niacin flush. Nicotinamide in pharmacologic doses does not have antihyperlipidemic effect, nor does it cause the niacin flush. There is evidence, however, that pharmacological doses of nicotinamide may prevent type 1 diabetes mellitus.”