Niacinamide vs Vitamin C for skin & hair
Short answer: For skin & hair, users rate them about the same: 100% report improvement with Niacinamide (6 reports) and 97% with Vitamin C (29 reports).
Niacinamide has 144 meta-analyses and 72 randomized trials on PubMed; Vitamin C has 738 and 2,072.
Based on 56 reports about Niacinamide and 928 about Vitamin C. Not medical advice.
| Niacinamide Supplement | Vitamin C Supplement | |
|---|---|---|
| Users say it helped | 56%helped20 reports · medium confidence | 64%helped204 reports · high confidence |
| Verdict | Mixed | Mostly positive |
| Research | AResearch: Strong | AResearch: Strong |
| Meta-analyses / RCTs | 144 / 72 | 738 / 2,072 |
| Mainly used for | ||
| Immunity % reporting improvement | — | 90% (40) |
| Skin & hair % reporting improvement | 100% (6) | 97% (29) |
| Energy % reporting improvement | — | 94% (34) |
| Mood % reporting improvement | 67% (3) | 88% (25) |
| Anxiety % reporting improvement | 100% (6) | 94% (17) |
| Common side effects | liver damage, depression, flare, flushing | kidney stones, stomach issues, insomnia, bone pain |
| Typical dose reported | 500 mg / daily | 2000 mg / daily |
Oral nicotinamide should be considered in healthy patients or organ transplant recipients with history of skin cancer (GRADE: weak recommendation; moderate-quality evidence), in particular of BCC and cSCC.
J Cutan Med Surg, 2022 ↗“In my experience, niacinamide (not niacin) 1000-1500mg a day worked wonders in about 5-7 days.”
The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the general population indicates that routine vitamin C supplementation is not justified, yet vitamin C may be useful for people exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise. Regular supplementation trials have shown that vitamin C reduces the duration of colds, but this was not replicated in the few therapeutic trials that have been carried out. Nevertheless, given the consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration and severity of colds in the regular supplementation studies, and the low cost and safety, it m
Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2013 ↗“I know people say you get enough vitamin C from diet but I feel and look better when I supplement it.”
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Percentages come from first-hand user reports and are not clinical outcomes. Talk to a doctor before starting, stopping or combining anything. How we rate