Can corn chips intensify the "flush" from Niaspan?

Factual Questions
1

Standard Disclaimer: you are not a doctor. I am not asking for medical advice.

I take Niaspan, a time-release niacin just before bed. An unpleasant side effect of Niaspan is “the flush”: a hot tingling sensation over most or all of your body. Most of the time I don’t get the flush, but twice last week I woke up in the middle of the night with the flush.

Both nights I had eaten a fair number of corn chips before bed. (Fritos one night, and cool ranch doritos the next night.)

Is there any reason anyone knows why corn chips would aggravate / enhance this side effect? Is there something in corn chips that intensifies the Niacin in Niaspan?

Thanks,
J.

2

The sodium content in the chips may have something to do with it.

Discuss this with your doctor and you may find that this med should be taken with meals to reduce flushing.

3

I take 500mg Niacin tablets twice a day, and get flushed unless I eat a heavy meal, like biscuts and gravy. My Dr. advised rolling up the tablet in a bread ball, but I can’t swallow anything that big. So I just suffer. However, I don’t take them before bed. Breakfast and lunch.

4

My doctor told me to take the pill just before bed so that any flushing would happen when I’m asleep. If it DOES happen when I’m asleep, it usually doesn’t wake me.

Usually, I haven’t eaten anything big for a couple of hours before bed and everything is fine - no flushing. On these nights I ate a bunch of corn chips just before bed and got the flushing. So “taking the pill with a meal” doesn’t seem to apply.

Thanks,
J.

5

I take 1000 mg before bed. I find that if I go to bed with an empty stomach, I’m more likely to have severe flushing. Also if I don’t take it one night, the next night I’m more likely to flush.

The only correlation I’ve noticed between flushing and a specific food is bananas - I had a banana before bed once and the flushing was unbearable. It may have been a coincidence but I’ve avoided testing it again to find out.

ETA:
Also, do you take aspirin? My doctor told me that taking aspirin after the Niaspan helps reduce flushing, so if you don’t, you should ask your doctor about it.

6

My husband has a reaction to eating corn that results in him getting one really hot ear. He says it feels like his ear is on fire. It doesn’t happen with all corn, either. The tacos at Jack in the Box do it.

7

This could be an MSG reaction… Does he have any issues with Doritos or Cheetos (which are coated in MSG)?

8

I also take 1,000mg of Niaspan, and I also take 400-600mg ibuprofen or 1,000mg acetaminophen at the same time which completely eliminates flushing.