My overdose of vitamin B3

In October of 2005 I went to the doctors with a weird tingling in my left arm. Of course, being in the left arm my wife thought for sure I was having a heart attack. It took about a week to get an appointment, though, so I told he I doubted that it was a heart attack.

At any rate, they told me it sounded like a pinched nerve somewhere in my arm or shoulder. While there, they noticed that they never ran any blood work on me in the several years I had been going to that doctor. So, off for some blood work I go.

I get a call about two days later telling me that my cholesterol was a little high. Not drastic, but a little high. And I was to try a follow this diet plan they were going to mail me. That is a nightmare all in it's self, but a whole seperate story.

My wife hits the web and finds out that the B3 vitamin, also called Niacin, has been shown to help lower cholesterol. So, she goes out and gets me a bottle.

I keep forgetting to take them on a regular basis. I might get one today, but forget for a few days then take it again. So, determined to not forget the other day I inadvertently took this once daily supplement twice in a day.

So, here I am at 3am with 10 times the daily recommended allowance of Niacin in me and I wake up. I feel like it is the middle of summer and the A/C was left off. I am burning up. My skin felt sore like it was sun burned. Thinking that I am getting the flu or something I get up to take my temp. It is normal. So I go look in a mirror in the bathroom and notice that I am bright red from head to toe.

Being mildly freaked out I go wake up the wife and we start to Google illnesses that would cause you to look red. We found plenty of ominous deseases out there that would cause it, but I wasn't too worried by them because I didn't have any of the other symptoms. So, we start thinking about anything that I might have eaten.

Turns out if you take too much Niacin that your body will react in the way mine did. You look like a beet for several hours. After reassurance by the poison control center that I had nothing to worry about I went back to bed and woke up looking normal again. It has been about 4 days since I took a dose. :)