Pace Paw Print

Some people will stop at nothing to try to pass a drug test that they clearly should not pass. There are hundreds of "home remedies" and urban legends that tell a person how to skirt the test; however, recent studies show that the most popular of these remedies is potentially fatal.

It is no secret that at some point in a person's career they will most likely be subject to a drug test. Here at Pace University, there is mandatory random testing for drugs that all athletes are subject to. In addition the NCAA itself requires its own drug tests.

For people in these situations the sport they play can be one of the most important things in their life; an addiction or lack of self control can cause a person to risk losing their eligibility for the sake of getting high. Rather than abstain from the illegal substances, they choose to try to pass the urine test by putting other things into their already damaged systems.

In a study cited by CNN, "Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania describe four individuals who used high doses of niacin to try to beat their impending drug screening tests. Urban legend holds that the B vitamin helps quickly flush drugs from the body."

According to the director of the study, Doctor Manoj K. Mittal, this belief is not only wrong, but in many cases a choice that comes with several debilitating or fatal side effects.

In an article by the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) professors explain, "Niacin is also known as Vitamin B3. It is one of eight water-soluble B vitamins. This means that generally any excess niacin is excreted through the urine."

Used correctly niacin is a great vitamin, and essential in every diet. It can be found naturally in fish, meat, and some vegetables.

As a vitamin used correctly UMMC professors say, "Niacin plays an important role in ridding the body of toxic and harmful chemicals. It also helps the body produce various sex and stress-related hormones in the adrenal glands and other parts of the body."

It is this vitamin's ability to rid the body of toxins that lead people to the belief that ingesting niacin in high doses would help them excrete all of the drugs in their system overnight. This logic could be true if it wasn't for the fact the UMMC confirms that doses over 75miligrams of this supplement taken without prescription can cause serious damage and actually cause more waste to appear in a urine sample.

Of all of the patients that arrived in Mittal's emergency room experience symptoms from a niacin overdose, half complained of severe rashes, pain, and sever discomfort. This group surprisingly was the better off of the two.

The other half who entered the emergency was not as well off, experiencing, "severe reactions, including liver toxicity, heart palpitations, and metabolic acidosis; a potentially deadly buildup of acid in the blood." Mittal later found that some of these patients had elevated liver enzyme, a sign of liver damage.

Although most people who have tried the regiment claim that these symptoms are only uncomfortable, and will fade in a week, Mittal disagrees, saying, "Though this problem is usually reversed when a person stops taking niacin, high doses of the vitamin have been known to spur acute liver failure." If this side effect occurs saving the person's life without a liver transplant can be virtually impossible.

It is also possible that if the niacin damages the liver it will skew the results of the drug test, as the toxin filter for the human body, destroying the filter, can actually cause people to fail a test that they would not have failed.

The UMMC professors also point out that high doses of niacin can actually interfere with certain medications and chemicals that a student is already taking or exposed to. According to UMMC, people should not take niacin as a supplement without consulting a healthcare provider if using: antibiotics, diabetes medication, and aspirin.

There is also one other major defect in the niacin legend. UMMC points out that niacin should not be taken at the same time as nicotine. Since it is not uncommon for drug users to smoke, people are often asking for a violent reaction when trying to rid themselves of toxic drugs.

According to Mittal, the best thing that someone can do to avoid failing a drug test, is to never take the drugs in the first place. Being around drug users who smoke the drug (such as marijuana) is often not enough to show up on a test. While students should avoid these situations in the first place, it is not worth potentially killing oneself in a panic.

After all, it is not really possible to play a certain sport a work at a certain job after a person dies, so why take a chance.

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