Cholesterol Control Without Diet!
The Niacin Solution

The second edition of the fascinating new book, Cholesterol Control Without Diet! The Niacin Solution, should revolutionize the treatment and lifestyles of millions of Americans who struggle with abnormal cholesterol levels, are at risk of heart attack and stroke, and think they must follow an unappetizing, rigid diet. Sound too good to be true? Read on!

Author William B. Parsons Jr., MD explains that diet is a weak and often ineffective method for controlling cholesterol levels. He adds that niacin, the drug whose use for cholesterol control he pioneered more than 50 years ago, controls cholesterol in the presence of an ordinary American diet.

       Dr. Parsons wisely wrote this book for both the general public and doctors. It tells why bad and good cholesterol fractions are more important than the total cholesterol number. He teaches that niacin is the only drug that reduces bad cholesterol, raises good cholesterol, lowers triglycerides, and favorably changes other components of blood cholesterol. No other drug does all these things -- or even the first two!

       Niacin, used for more than 50 years and shown to reduce heart attacks, strokes, cardiovascular surgery, and deaths, costs only one-sixth to one-tenth as much as "statins," the best-selling drugs in this field. With billions of dollars in annual sales, statin producers have spent heavily on advertising, including paying leaders in this field to be cheerleaders for statins. Niacin has been under-used because many doctors are not good at using the drug, having been dissuaded from its use by misconceptions about side-effects, which are easily managed by methods outlined in the book. The patient learns why niacin is the best drug for cholesterol control and how to be sure the doctor supervising its use is "good at using niacin". Doctors who read the book will benefit from the author's decades of experience in niacin research and use.

There are two important differences between using niacins and using statins for control of cholesterol and related lipids:

	(1) Statins do only one thing well (reduce bad cholesterol, LDLC). Niacin reduces bad cholesterol, raises good cholesterol, reduced triglycerides, and produces several other important changes, not well known to the public or even to practicing physicians but important in reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other vascular disasters.
	(2) Billions of dollars are spent each year on statins. Usual doses for time-release niacin cost a patient $10 to $15 a month! With Washington struggling to develop a workable national health program at this writing, the ability to use a cost-saving treatment (niacin) instead of exorbitantly expensive drugs (statins) becomes important.

      The author emphasizes that, although available without prescription, niacin is not a do-it-yourself drug; it requires knowledgeable medical supervision. Cholesterol Control Without Diet! The Niacin Solution urges the patient and physician to become a team in controlling abnormal cholesterol patterns--too much "bad" cholesterol or not enough "good" cholesterol. It answers questions from both patient's and doctor's viewpoints as it puts a new spin on this established, but often misunderstood, method of treatment.

       "Our goal," says Dr. Parsons, "is to allow each person to live as one who has never had a heart attack, not as a heart attack survivor. There is a world of difference!"

       But for anyone who has already had a heart attack, stroke, or other artery-blocking complication, the book teaches a special set of guidelines which can reduce present cholesterol deposits in arteries while retarding new ones.

      The author has studied the effects of niacin since 1955, when he was still in his internal medicine training at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. There, applying an idea suggested by Canadian researchers, he conducted the first systematic study of this new treatment and reported it to the medical world. His later reports from Madison, Wisconsin, where he continued his work, helped to lead to the Coronary Drug Project, a nationwide 8-year study which showed that niacin reduced heart attacks, strokes, cardiovascular surgery, and deaths in thousands of men who had already experienced one or more heart attacks. Over the years he has written many medical articles and chapters in three books on use of niacin. He first published this book in 1998, produced a second edition in 2004 and third edition in 2008. After 18 years of practice in Madison, Wisconsin and 21 years in Scottsdale, Arizona, he has retired from office practice.

       According to latest estimates, more than half of Americans have cholesterol patterns that should be treated. Cholesterol Control Without Diet! The Niacin Solution offers an innovative, affordable, and proven approach to their problems.

       The newly revised and updated second edition contains nearly all of the first edition's text, plus an update at the end of each chapter and 5 new chapters. The changes and additions, in a different type face, are easy to identify. In the new, short chapters (each 6 pages), the author tells about: