Epic fail with the niacinamide experiment

self-experiment
I have now poisoned myself three times with OTC supplements, and this last time was a doozy. That's what I get for not heeding my own suspicions about my liver health. After coming across interesting info about niacin, it occurred to me that I stopped going out in the sun several years ago because a dark red circle would appear around my neck, a classic niacin deficiency sign. Deficiency is also associated with sugar cravings and insomnia, and that was enough to convince me to try it. I built up to 2,000 mg/day of niacinamide (which doesn't cause flushing) and things went fine for about two weeks. My abdominal discomfort disappeared and my ruddy skin lightened. I didn't notice any change in sleep or cravings. The most interesting change was…
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What you might not know about liver damage

diagnosis and testing
Last year I concluded I was on the wrong track re: my remaining stubborn health issues and I started revisiting theories I had abandoned earlier, either out of insufficient information or insufficient confirmation or because it was just too much of a hassle to think about. One of those theories was liver damage. I had suspected liver damage very early on, after the first bout with killer insomnia -– we're talking 40 minutes of sleep a night for three months. That sprang up when I was given a two-month course of what turns out to be a famously toxic antifungal, Diflucan. However, over the years, dozens of blood and imaging liver function tests came back normal. (I never had a biopsy, because you can’t get one without abnormal liver panels…
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