Bill Wilson, Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and His Vitamin Therapy for Alcoholism

Bill W., co-founder of AA, believed niacin could ease withdrawal and improve recovery. History, science, and what modern research says

Bernd Guzek, MD, PhD

Anyone involved in addiction treatment knows who Bill W. was – one of the two co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Far fewer people know that he was absolutely convinced that targeted nutrient therapy could make it significantly easier to get out of addiction and lead to faster, more stable sobriety.

Bill W. and Niacin: Why the AA Co-Founder Promoted Vitamin B3 for Recovery

Bill W. (William G. Wilson), co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, enjoyed a promising early career on Wall Street until his alcoholism caused everything to collapse. Through the Christian Oxford Group, multiple hospital stays, and a profound spiritual experience, he finally achieved lasting abstinence in 1935. That same year is considered the founding year of AA, and in 1939 the famous “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous was published.

Even after years of sobriety, however, Bill W. continued to suffer from depression, insomnia, and chronic exhaustion. In 1958, Aldous Huxley introduced him to the Canadian psychiatrist Abram Hoffer, a pioneer of orthomolecular medicine. On Hoffer’s recommendation, Bill began a high-dose niacin regimen (vitamin B3: 1,000 mg after each meal). His symptoms improved rapidly.

AA Leadership Rejected the Nutrient Approach

The AA Establishment Remained Opposed

Together with Hoffer, Bill W. spoke in 1966 at the “International Doctors in AA” conference in Indianapolis. Although the medical community remained largely skeptical, interest began to grow: niacin sales among AA members jumped from almost zero in 1965 to 24,000 units sold by 1967. In 1968, Bill published another paper, describing vitamin B3 as a valuable complement to alcoholism treatment.

After Bill’s death in 1971, his wife Lois completed one final manuscript on the subject. It included, among other things, a report by Dr. Russell Smith on 500 alcoholics, of whom roughly 75 % had benefited from B3 therapy. The medical mainstream responded with indifference or outright rejection.

This late, largely forgotten chapter of AA history shows Bill W.’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to expand the fellowship with nutritional and orthomolecular approaches.

Dr. Abram Hoffer: “I have learned more about addiction from no one else than from Bill W.”

Abram Hoffer died in 2009 at the age of 91. A video of him speaking about Bill W. and his approach—using nutrients and vitamins to make recovery from addiction easier—has been preserved on YouTube. We have created and translated a transcript of that video for you.

“I also want to thank Haleh; she is an excellent neuropsychiatrist and introduced me very kindly. Thank you, Haleh.

In 1960 I met Bill W. at a meeting in New York City. It was a fascinating event organized by Eileen Garrett, president of the American Parapsychology Foundation—Bill was deeply interested in those kinds of phenomena. We got to know each other there and became close friends. We started talking, and Humphrey and I told him about the results we were getting with niacin in schizophrenics and alcoholics.

Bill was brilliant; he was so sharp that he instantly saw the implications. If we were right, we had found a way to achieve even more than AA could on its own. He didn’t want to replace AA—he wanted to improve it, because AA’s results without the nutritional component simply aren’t as good, even though AA has helped millions of people. Bill was absolutely thrilled.

At the time I was working at the Huxley Institute of Social Research and was its president for a while, which meant I had to travel to New York frequently. I must have been there a hundred times, and every single time I met with Bill. We had dinner together, spent evenings together, and talked for hours. I learned so much from him; when it comes to the subject of addiction, I have never learned more from any single person than I did from him.

One evening in his New York hotel room, Bill said: ‘Abram, I have 30 files here I want to go through with you.’
I said, ‘What?’ He replied: ‘Yes, I’ve tested 30 of my friends—all AA members, artists, scientists, actors and actresses, highly accomplished people. I gave them all niacin.’

‘Fantastic—and what happened?’

‘Well, ten of them were completely normal again after one month, another ten after the second month; the last ten haven’t recovered yet.’

That was incredible, because it exactly matched what we were seeing back in Saskatchewan at the time.

Bill was absolutely thrilled about it and – by generously handing out niacin himself – discovered that it had many other benefits. For example, it’s excellent for arthritis; Dr. William Kaufman had already pointed that out in publications from 1945 and 1950. It also lowers cholesterol, as we had demonstrated and published from Saskatchewan in 1955. It is still the best known substance for lowering total cholesterol and raising HDL – the “good” cholesterol – unlike statins, which Bill sharply called “fraudulent” and said only benefited the pharmaceutical companies and no one else. Niacin, on the other hand, genuinely works. It is the only substance that, in a large U.S. government-funded National Coronary Drug Study, has ever been shown to reduce mortality in men who had already suffered a heart attack. To this day, it remains the gold standard for cholesterol management, even though most doctors are unaware of it.

Bill knew all of this and decided to share the information with an organization called “International Doctors in Alcoholics Anonymous” – there are so many alcoholic physicians that they have their own doctors’ association within AA. For years they had been begging him to come and speak. By that point, however, Bill had become cautious; he didn’t want to “become God,” as he put it – he didn’t want to be idolized – and had gradually withdrawn from the public eye.

Finally they invited him to a meeting in Indianapolis at the Speedway, in one of the motels there. Bill said: “If you invite Dr. Hoffer, I’ll come and speak too.” Of course they primarily wanted Bill, but they would do anything to get him on the program. Bill asked me if I would come; I said, “I’d love to.”

What followed in Indianapolis was a fantastic meeting. I was surrounded by doctors – all AA members – and by Bill W. himself. Bill gave a beautiful talk that essentially summarized what I’ve just outlined for you. Then I spoke and presented our work in a more scientific way. I really liked those AA doctors; they were incredibly practical, hands-on physicians. Today, for results like these, people would probably first set up a committee, obtain approvals from higher scientific and ethics boards – and by the time you were finally allowed to act, the idea would be dead two years later.

This meeting was different: instead of forming a committee to “review” our claims from the outside, they did the sensible thing. They appointed a three-person panel – and all three immediately started taking niacin themselves. A month later every single one of them said: “This is amazing.” They all felt significantly better because they were taking niacin. With that, Bill suddenly had the official backing of the AA doctors.

He then wrote a memorandum to physicians – some of you may know it. It was brilliantly written. In it he recommended that AA members, in addition to working the program, should also take niacin. Out of caution he still held back on broader nutritional recommendations.

That, however, got him into serious trouble. The international AA headquarters in New York was furious with Bill – ironically, people he himself had appointed and who had been close to him. The doctors on the board felt that Bill W., who had no medical license, had no business talking about vitamins at all – the same way Linus Pauling was later smeared as a charlatan simply because he wasn’t a physician: “Who does he think he is, talking about medicine?” Nevertheless, the movement gained momentum, and by the time Bill died, things were already well underway. There was real cooperation, not just hearsay and isolated successes.

Dr. David Hawkins, a psychiatrist on Long Island and a close friend of mine, ran a clinic. He had trained as a psychoanalyst, practiced psychoanalysis, loved Bill, and became just as enthusiastic. We became close friends, and he started treating alcoholic schizophrenics with niacin. That’s the most difficult patient group of all, because as soon as you get the schizophrenia under control, they become psychotic again and start drinking – they oscillate between drinking and abstinence.

One example: many years ago a young woman came to see me in Saskatoon. Her problem was alcoholism – she hated alcohol, hated being drunk – but she was tormented by voices. She had discovered that whenever she drank, the voices disappeared; as soon as she went to AA and stayed sober, they came back. What was she supposed to do? A terrible dilemma.

I told her: “There is a third way.” The third way is to become healthy without the voices coming back. I gave her niacin, and within two to three months she was free of the voices – and no longer needed to drink.

She became a solid AA member; in fact, in Saskatoon she was part of the “Schizophrenics Anonymous” group that I had founded with Bill W.’s help – the very first group of its kind anywhere. She ended up becoming one of our real experts and taught others how to chair meetings.

I believe we have to do what many clinics in the United States are now doing very well: carry out a thorough examination of the biochemistry and metabolism of alcoholics and addicts, then make the right adjustments – the right diet, eliminating allergenic foods (extremely important), cutting out sugar, giving them food that doesn’t make them sick. Encourage them not to drink, not to take drugs, to join AA if needed, and give them the support they require to move from a diseased state back to a normal one. I consider that absolutely essential.

That’s why I want to thank your organisation. I want to thank Miss Rubens, who was so helpful with the arrangements. And I want to thank Cara for this award, which I value deeply – and when my family comes to visit from Toronto, I’ll proudly show them this wonderful prize. Thank you very much.

How does Niacin work during withdrawal and after?

Biochemical Plausibility (NAD⁺/NADH)

In simple terms: niacin (vitamin B3) works during withdrawal primarily on a biochemical level. It is the precursor for the coenzymes NAD⁺ and NADP⁺. When alcohol is broken down, alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase reduce NAD⁺ to NADH, dramatically shifting the NADH/NAD⁺ ratio. This imbalance disrupts dozens of metabolic pathways. Adequate B3 intake helps replenish NAD⁺ pools, restoring redox-dependent processes (including aldehyde detoxification). This is a highly plausible mechanism that can indirectly reduce the vegetative over-arousal and exhaustion typical of withdrawal.

Secondly, B-vitamin deficiencies are extremely common in chronic alcoholics. Alcohol use disorder is explicitly listed as a high-risk condition for niacin deficiency. Severe B3 deficiency (pellagra) causes gastrointestinal, dermatological, and neuropsychiatric symptoms – including depression, insomnia, and hallucinations – that can either mimic or intensify withdrawal symptoms. Correcting the deficiency alone can stabilise mood, sleep, and overall well-being, even without specific withdrawal medication.

Safety Aspects & Medical Supervision

Current guidelines for alcohol withdrawal still consider benzodiazepines (or phenobarbital in some cases), thiamine, and other supportive measures the gold standard. Niacin is not part of official withdrawal protocols. The historical reports from Hoffer and Bill Wilson describe clear benefits of high-dose B3 – particularly on mood, sleep, and craving – but these are not backed by large, robust, controlled trials. In practice this means: B3 can be a sensible supplement to correct deficiencies, but it does not replace guideline-based medical detoxification.

For supplementation, nicotinamide (the non-flushing form) is usually preferred. Nicotinic acid can cause flushing and, in high or sustained-release doses, can be hepatotoxic and affect glucose and uric acid levels. Therefore: use only under medical supervision, with regular monitoring of liver values, blood glucose/HbA1c, and uric acid.

Who Was Abram Hoffer?

Abram Hoffer (11 November 1917 – 27 May 2009) was a Canadian biochemist, physician, and psychiatrist best known for his “adrenochrome hypothesis” of schizoaffective disorders. He believed that megavitamin therapy and other nutritional interventions could be effective treatments for both schizophrenia and cancer. Hoffer was also involved in early LSD research as an experimental therapy for alcoholism and was one of the discoverers that high-dose niacin could treat elevated cholesterol and other dyslipidaemias.

Where Can I Learn More About Nutrients in Alcohol Withdrawal?

You can find extensive information about using nutrients to support alcohol withdrawal in our book “Bye, Bye, Booze” and here on our website, especially in the service/resources section. We are frequently updating.

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