John Abler's Story: Liver Damage and Narconon's Quack Medicine

John Abler's Story
JOHN ABLER
Wed, 06 Nov 1996 19:07:55 -0800

Today I am going to tell the story about my wife getting the purificaton rundown. She paid somewhere around $1200.00 to the CC in Chicago for the big sweatout and when it came time to do it, they were not prepared to administer it. For the $1200.00 they took her (who is they?. I know.) to a local health club that one of the clams had a membership at. They, him, her, whatever, took her there because the health club allowed members to bring guests in for a limited number of visits in order to get new members. This was only good for 2 or 3 days, then they (that word again) took her to another health spa. Same story. Then they found someone that had their own sauna, and they used that one for the rest of the purree. They (and in this case the Co$) took her $1200.00 and did not have to put out much to run this program. My wife even complained about how disorganized the "case supervisor" was.

Some years after that my wife went to a local chiropracter for an adjustment (doctors were criminals according to her. Only natural medicine for me thanks) and when he was making the adjustment, she passed out. We had to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital. In the emergency department the doctor there asked us if she had been taking any illegal drugs. We were dumfounded because she would not even take asprin after taking the purif. He told us that he detected she had an enlarged liver and suspected her of taking illegal drugs. At the time I did not know what to think because there was absolutly no question about my wife and drug use. She nor I have never messed with any of that stuff, but this doctor felt strongly about his opinion. It is only now that have discoved that taking large amounts of niacin can cause an enlarged liver, and the only time she took niacin is when she did the purif.

Niacin and Liver Damage
by Tritium

(...) I have some useful information, including some indications that larger doses of Niacin affect liver function, but not that these are permanent.

My source is the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) of 1992. For those not familiar with it, the PDR is an extensive listing of drugs and summaries of their effects, to help physicians in prescriptions among other things.

Products:

Nicobid (timed-release nicotinic acid supplement) (OTC)
Nicolar (Niacin tablets) (Rx)
Niocar (Niacin tables) (Rx)

Use: adjunctive therapy in patients with significant hyperlipidemia (elevated cholesteral and/or triglycerides) who do not respond adequately to diet and weight lost.

Precautions: should not be used by persons with known sensitivity to Niacin, heart or gallbladder disease, gout, arterial bleeding, glaucoma, diabetes, impaired liver function, peptic ulcer, or by pregnant women. Abnormal liver function tests have been reported in patients taking daily doses of [500 mg of Nicobid, >1 gram of tablets (note that daily dose in Purif routine is 500 mg)] Niacin. Frequent monitoring of liver function tests and blood glucose should be performed during therapy to ascertain that the drug has no adverse effects on these organ systems.

I.e. monitoring is really a good idea.

Adverse reactions: temporary flushing and feeling of warmth, seldom reaching levels that necessitate discontinuance; temporary headache, itching (sometimes severe) and tingling, gastric disturbances, skin rash, allergies, and impaired liver function may occur.

I presume the impaired liver function has other serious consequences on a person's health, while it persists.