We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about how dangerous some prescription drugs are. But that’s not the only way the drug companies mislead consumers. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine niacin, an inexpensive b-vitamin called niacin significantly outperformed the multi-billion dollar drug ezetimibe when it came to shrinking artery plaque.
Many of you may better know ezetimibe as the active ingredient in the cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin, which have combined for $21 billion in sales since 2003. To emulate its effectiveness with a vitamin that can be purchased in any supermarket or drug store for under $5 seemed like a long shot. But niacin not only held its own against ezetimibe, it outperformed it. According to the studies’ lead investigator, Allen Taylor:
“The results are very clear…niacin was superiour”
Unlike the other drugs featured on this site, no one will argue that ezetimibe is dangerous. It has even been shown to be an effective drug, but the 21 billion dollar question is this: is it better than the inexpensive and easily obtained niacin? The overwhelming evidence says no.