My husband has taken Niacin about 5 times. This is because of the POIS forums - thanks!! He told me that the first day he was at 90% free of POIS. He was so happy - first time since puberty.
Last night he crushed it up onto a teaspoon. It tasted awful. Went to sleep about 45 minutes. He thought he had awoken because of the flush. We had sex. Today, he had all of his symptoms. So flush or No flush? It must depend on the person and the amount.
Great to hear from a partner, hear the other side of the story!
As far a niacin, when it works it usually works quite well, but it is pretty finicky! There's a procedure here:
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=319.msg4160#msg4160that is pretty good! These would be the basic guidlines, but are quite strict.
As Observer says, the flush is a good guidline, it
USUALLY indicates when you have had enough, but not always.
We say "on an empty stomach", but in my experience, it relates to how hard the liver is working. I think, that even just alcohol
for instance can reduce the effect. I don't mean whether you are drunk or not, but if you've had a couple of drinks, like after a nice
dinner, those too need to be considered in the pre-niacin "fast".
If you have a light sandwich one hour before the niacin, probably it won't affect things much, but if you have barbecued pork ribs you
might have to wait a good 4 hrs. (or take more niacin)
I've noticed that if I have eaten too closely to taking the niacin, that I may not ever reach the flush, or just barely. But as Observer says
in those cases I have to take near 500mg. And usually I'm protected anyways.
Also if you take too large a dose on an empty stomach and have a real heavy flush, you may try to start in on the sex before your body is ready,
and even though you have had a big flush, you are not protected.
So besides the "waiting 20 minutes" after the peak of the flush, you should add, Wait 1 hour from the first tingling of the flush (and if you don't get flush)
about 1 hour and 20 since starting to take the niacin.
All very complicated, but worth it.
In hubbies case. He isn't sure of he got the flush, so it would be difficult to know if he was "protected". Try the above techniques.
The whole niacin process can sometimes take the spontaneity out the the moment. We are working on a new B complex treatment which has
much less strict rules. You take the vitamins daily and here is no flush. But it is fairly new and we are working out the details.
See this exciting thread!:
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=468.0Thanks from all of us for being such a patient and involved wife!
