This is an interesting update on B3 (Niacinamide) for dementia. It has to do with the fact that Mom had to go into long term care (LTC) starting back in February. Something that got overlooked – her B3.
She had been taking B3 at a maintenance level for several months (3 250mg tabs per day). But all that stopped when she had to be admitted to the hospital and later the long term care facility. I just plain forgot.
She was beginning to thrive at the LTC from all the social activities and physical therapy but she still hoped to come home to in April her doctor agreed she could come home under my care. It took about 8 days to process the move and in the intervening time there began a subtle change. She began to get anxious again; confusion and general goofiness. I still brought her home but there was something not quite right.
Still it didn’t click that she was missing the B3, though.
Mom didn’t stay home for long, either. She was getting more agitated and by the fourth day at home she developed a fever. Since she was having trouble urinating I suspected UTI and sure enough that’s what it was. I had to send her back to the LTC and when that happened something snapped in her. She came unglued. If she could have set her feet and arms she wouldn’t have gone through the door.
Once she was there, the admittance nurse checked her O2 levels and she was dangerously low. So she got on right away and immediately feel into a deep sleep. Once she awakened she began a fight with the very same nurses that only the week before were her friends. She had been
To top it off, she wouldn’t keep her oxygen on. She tore it off and fought the nurses and therapists. She tried to take her shoes off when they weren’t there. She tried to put her panties on and off.
It wasn’t till just a few weeks ago that it all came rushing at me that all her confusion and general goofiness was because her Alzheimer’s was coming back – in spades. It took a nurse at the LTC facility she was staying at to jar my memory. But once she did, I began my campaign to get her on B3 as part of her daily meds.
I wrote her doctor and laid out the case wondering if he would believe me that she had had great relief from her confusion and even her anxiety levels decreased before when she was on high doses of B3. I was pleased when one of those nurses told me she was scheduled to have it 4 times a day.
Now we were racing against her possibly dying from pneumonia but I knew that if she got enough niacinamide she would begin to improve. As of today she is recovering from the pneumonia slowly and is showing signs of calm already even after only 10 days of B3.
I plan to keep this updated to let you know how Mom does on B3.