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Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
A water-soluble B vitamin that your body turns into NAD+ and NADP+, two coenzymes that take part in more than 400 reactions: in turning sugar and fat into energy, and in building cholesterol and fatty acids. It carries six authorised EU health claims, one of them is the headline claim of Energy & vitality, and it sits at 16 mg in two formulas. We use it as nicotinamide, the form that does not cause the flushing niacin is known for.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
Six claims. All of them authorised.
These are the wordings on the EU register for niacin, and we do not paraphrase them into something that sounds stronger. All six carry the same condition: the product has to be at least a source of niacin under Regulation (EC) 1924/2006. Both of our formulas serve 16 mg, which is 100% of the NRV.These are the wordings on the EU register for niacin, and we do not paraphrase them. All six need the product to be at least a source of it. Both our formulas serve 100% of the NRV.
Niacin has no authorised claim for cholesterol or blood fats. The doses used for blood lipids, 1,500 to 3,000 mg a day, are a medicine used under medical supervision, between about a hundred and two hundred times what one formula serves, and not something a food supplement can promise. In Energy & vitality, niacin carries the headline claim, on tiredness and fatigue. In Pre-workout it does not: the performance claim there comes from the creatine next to it. The skin and mucous membrane claims are about maintaining normal ones, not about treating anything.
WHY NICOTINAMIDE
The claims are the same. The flush is not.
The six claims attach to niacin, not to a particular form, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. Niacin comes as nicotinic acid or as nicotinamide. We use nicotinamide because it does not cause flushing, and because, as our form file records, EFSA prefers it over nicotinic acid for its lower toxicity to the skin.
From about 30 mg a day it can cause flushing, redness and itching that usually fades within one to two weeks. Its EFSA upper limit as a supplement is 10 mg a day. Our file marks gram doses of it as not for use.
No flushing, and a much higher EFSA upper limit, 900 mg a day. Our form file lists it at 100% absorption, which is a note we record, not a claim.
Our form file marks it as stable in liquid, soluble in water at around 500 g per litre and neutral in taste, and it keeps best between pH 5 and 8. It lists no sensitivity to light or heat. Every VION dose is a liquid, so that is what the choice turns on.
Our figures on how it behaves in your body are thin. Our notes put its absorption at 85 to 100%, and the form file lists nicotinamide at 100%. It takes days rather than hours to act, our file records a half-life of about an hour and elimination by more than one route, and it lists CYP2E1 as the liver enzyme it affects, without more detail yet. Your body can also make niacin from the tryptophan in food, 1 mg for every 60 mg, which is why intakes are counted in niacin equivalents (NE). None of this is an authorised claim.Our notes put its absorption at 85 to 100%. Our file records a half-life of about an hour and lists CYP2E1 as the liver enzyme it affects. None of this is a claim.
WHERE IT APPEARS
Two of the twenty-nine carry niacin.
Always 16 mg, always as nicotinamide. In Energy & vitality, the morning CORE formula, it sits with vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6 and B12 and coenzyme Q10. In Pre-workout it is the only vitamin, next to creatine, citrulline, beta-alanine and caffeine, taken 30 to 60 minutes before training and never after 16:00. On a training day both can be in your plan. Both are still pending clinical validation, and each has its own exclusions, listed on its page and below.
THE CEILING
Two limits: 900 mg as nicotinamide, 10 mg in our engine notes. Each formula serves 16.
Niacin has two EFSA upper limits, one for each form: 900 mg a day for nicotinamide, the form we use, and 10 mg a day for nicotinic acid taken as a supplement on top of your diet. Each formula serves 16 mg of nicotinamide, so on a training day with both in your plan, your total from us is 32 mg. The engine adds niacin up across your plan under its upper-limit rule. Our engine notes record the stricter figure, 10 mg a day, as the conservative threshold for CORE formulas, and our Energy & vitality file applies a 10 mg supplement limit to nicotinamide too, noting that its 16 mg is already the NRV. Measured against 10 mg, one formula is already over it, and a training day comes to 32 mg. Our database does not yet carry that figure as a numeric upper limit for niacin, so the two records do not line up, and we would rather write that down than guess.EFSA sets 900 mg a day for nicotinamide, the form we use, and 10 mg for nicotinic acid in supplements. Our engine notes take the stricter 10 mg as the conservative threshold, and each formula already serves 16 mg — 32 mg on a training day.
16 mg is 100% of the NRV, and it is also the figure our file records as the minimum effective amount for adults, over 4 to 8 weeks. The NIH puts the adult intake at 16 mg NE a day for men and 14 mg for women, and EFSA's adequate intake is 1.6 mg NE for every MJ of energy you eat. Our file also records a stricter US figure, 35 mg a day of niacin in total. That is a reason to include it, not a permission to promise anything.
The flushing people describe with niacin comes from nicotinic acid, from about 30 mg a day, and EFSA recommends a label warning on supplements that carry that much. Nicotinamide does not cause it. Our file records liver toxicity, with raised liver enzymes, at 3 g a day and above, nearly two hundred times what one formula serves.
Talk to a healthcare professional first if you have liver disease, an active peptic ulcer, gout or high uric acid, or poorly controlled diabetes: niacin at medicinal doses, above 500 mg a day, can make them worse. At those doses active liver disease is an absolute contraindication; the others are precautions, because niacin can raise uric acid and blood glucose. Do not go over the upper limit: 10 mg a day as nicotinic acid in supplements, or 900 mg as nicotinamide. In pregnancy and breastfeeding our file considers it safe at normal intake, 18 and 17 mg NE a day, and says to avoid medicinal doses. The formulas that carry it add their own exclusions: both are ruled out if you have liver disease, a rule that comes from the niacin in them; Energy & vitality also with vitamin K antagonist blood thinners; Pre-workout also with heart disease, in pregnancy or breastfeeding, or if you are under 18. Separately, our pregnancy rule allows only a short list of formulas in pregnancy or breastfeeding, and Energy & vitality is not on it. Niacin contains none of the fourteen allergens that must be declared in the EU, and our file records no intolerance or dietary restriction for it.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Niacin is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. We have documented one of them, out of the 443 pairs on file, and no drug interaction for it is in our table yet. Our ingredient notes list several medicines, which we show below as notes, not as documented pairs.
It binds niacin in your gut and can cut how much you absorb by 30 to 90%, so it never shares a dose and stays at least 3 hours away. No VION formula carries charcoal, so this matters if you take it separately.
Our ingredient notes rate both as major. With statins, niacin raises the risk of muscle damage at medicinal doses above 1 g a day. Isoniazid, a tuberculosis drug, blocks the niacin your body makes itself and can lead to pellagra. Neither is in our drug table yet, so the engine does not act on them.
Our notes also list diabetes medication, because niacin can raise blood glucose, allopurinol, because niacin adds to the risk of gout, and anticonvulsants, a minor interaction in how they are handled by the body. If you take any of these, or statins or isoniazid, or regular medication of any kind, ask a healthcare professional before starting a formula that carries it.
None of its formula partners, from the other B vitamins in Energy & vitality to the caffeine and creatine in Pre-workout, is in our table as a pair with it yet. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.None of its formula partners is in our table as a pair with it yet. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026Read the introduction to Vitamin B3 (Niacin / Niacinamide / NR / NMN) →
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
Every one of them has a page like this.
What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.