I was on 1000mg per day 500 in the morning and 500 at night. I h...

I've been on 3000 mg of Niaspan a day for about 1.5 years now. I still get some of the itching every now and then. I seem to only get this when I drink alcohol the night before.

Also, don't give into the itch... once you do, the itching gets worse. You just need to brave it for the hour or so that it lasts.

I rarely get the flush anymore... or the itching.

One other thing I should point out. Niaspan is meant to be taking only at bedtime. I use to take it twice a day, but that just increased the chances that I would get flushing and itching... and my lab results were not nearly as good as when I started taking Niaspan only at bedtime. Taking it at bedtime also reduces the chances of flushing and itching... and you will certainly nearly eliminate any chances of this happening during the day while you are awake.

Your cholesterol levels will improve markedly by only taking Niaspan at bedtime.

And I bet your prescription says to "take at bedtime"... I know mine did, even though I took it twice a day in the beginning. I should have read the prescription...

Best of luck.

I have been on niaspan for about 4 months. At first I started out on 500 mg (white pills) and the itching and flushing was bad. I recently switched doctors and he perscribed new 1000mg pills (orange) which a have minimal side effects. My trick is to take 1 asprin a hour before bedtime. And when I take the pill, I take it with a small hunts pudding snack which helps. since i started taking the pudding< no side effect which is great because I am a firefighter and nothing is worse than getting up for a call all broken out and itching.

I used to take niaspan many, many years ago & couldn't tolorate the flushing during the day. So i stopped. Now that my Trigliceride & Cholesterol levels are outa wak, I started again taking 500 milligrams, but this time, the best advice was given by my cardialogist, take a baby aspirin 1/2 hour before the niaspan to alleviate the flushing & itching! By George! It works, Now I'm on 1000 mg a Niaspan, & my Advice to all of you is to take it at bedtime & the more the medication increases in Milligrams, the more aspirin you should take, consult with your physician, I now take one regular aspirin 352 mg (ecotrin) safety coated to prevent stomach upset & the pill 1/2 hour later when preparing to go to bed. Hence the pudding the fireman spoke about! I don't think snack pack has anything to do to eleviate the side effect, but will aid in that nightime craving for a snack & plus the calories if you add up a pudding every night. Hope this information helps.

Hi Im on a 1000 mg of niaspan with 1 81 aspirin & 15 mg of quinapril 1 1000 mg fish-oil every night before bed ...Last night I woke up with the heat of a sunburn all over my body, red blothes , ITCHING not too bad ,that i can deal with .swet pooring out I got very dizzy ,my breathing got weird too .. it took about 20mins to pass .. then I went back to bed ... I know do need to keep taking all my meds.. but im realy scared that its gunna kill me .. it only happens once in a while ... but when it dose its real bad.. any thing that can be done ???? HELP.... SEANSR1968@YAHOO.COM

I went off the drug. I could not tolerate the itching and the burning / flushing of my skin. I just could not tolerate it at all.

I appreciate the reply above where you say that if you tolerate the itch it passes... for me it did not pass. I would try to tolerate it and it just kept going and going... some days it was so bad I would have to get up from my desk and go outside and walk and I still could not tolerate it.

I woke some mornings with bleeding on my ankles because I was scratching over night and did not even know it.

For me when the 'flushing' was bad, it was really bad. I will never forget the first night I woke adn looked in the mirror, my skin was red from head to toe.

SEANSR - you should talk to your Pharmacist about the symptoms you are experiencing with this drug. My PERSONAL experience is that my Doctor was no help as she was not even willing to discuss the side effects - she just wanted me to put up with them. My Pharmacist was amazing and was the one that helped me to understand what was happening.

Good luck.