An Apple a Day or an Aspirin or a Niacin Pill

An aspirin a day is supposed to assure heart health, but maybe the same effect can be achieved through an apple a day or a niacin pill. Here is my experience.

Disclaimer

The information in this article is entirely my own opinion based on my own experience. It is not meant to replace or compete with the opinions of any medical practitioner.

An Apple a Day . . .

. . . keeps the doctor away. That is what you were probably taught if you grew up in an English-speaking environment, although probably no one ever explained to you why. Just in the last few days I have come to the conclusion that I may have stumbled on the answer to that puzzle. It came to me after writing the article "Willow, the Aspirin Tree" which is linked below. Mind you, this folk remedy does not do me any good, because I have a strong negative reaction to the very ingredients which make this fruit a folk remedy, salicylates.

An Aspirin a Day . . .

. . . keeps a heart attack away. That is what we have been told in the last 20 years, and I have seen evidence to support the claim. But why should we be taking a synthetically derived salicylate when they are available all around us in natural forms which are far more palatable? Is it that the medical establishment considers something which comes in a medicine bottle to be a more reliable remedy? I have repeatedly heard physicians claim that a pill is to be preferred to a natural remedy because its content can be measured accurately. Well, how do we know the exact optimal amount for each person? No, thank you. I will stick with the apple a day and avoid the negative effects of the aspirin. To find other natural sources of salicylates, refer to the Willow article.

A Niacin Pill a Day . . .

Salicylate-rich fruit makes me hyper, and the skin on my fingers peels when I handle fresh apples, so I use another way of cleaning out my blood vessels on a daily basis, and that is niacin. If you have ever swallowed a niacin pill, you will have noticed a prickly warm feeling and the flushing of the skin as the blood vessels open up. This is a normal and harmless reaction. People whose blood vessels are extremely clogged may not feel any reaction at all. That is not a good sign.