Niacin has been getting some bad press recently. A brief retrospective of Niacin’s rise to prominence will help us understand its recent fall from favor. Niacin is also known as vitamin B3 or nicotinic acid, a molecule that we need in tiny quantities in our food. As far back as the 1950s it was known that niacin in higher doses reduces blood levels of cholesterol. At that time our understanding of heart disease was in its infancy and there were few effective medications to treat or prevent card...