A GROWING number of folks from the Land Down Under have come to call Guam home. Whether Aussie or Kiwi, they are hard-working, hard-playing, open-hearted people who have blended well within our island family.

Over the past year, major local health insurers have partnered with Medtral New Zealand to provide Guam patients with access to Auckland’s finest private hospitals and medical specialists. Medtral is the international patient division of New Zealand’s top private hospitals that service more than 22,000 patients annually from around the world.

Guam health insurance executives have been impressed with the Medtral hospitals’ international accreditation; cutting-edge facilities; highly competent, English-speaking physicians; and “significantly cost-effective” prices. Among the sophisticated surgical procedures that are available in New Zealand are Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery, Total Hip Joint replacement, Total Knee Joint replacement, In vitro fertilization, and Robotic Prostatectomy.

Another benefit of Guam’s Aussie-Kiwi connection is our virtually limitless access to Vegemite. Our friends from Down Under are very generous with their beloved sticky, black food paste made from celery, onion, and recycled beer brewer’s yeast extract. Indeed, if every Guam man, woman or child would be willing to eat a whole bottle of Vegemite in one sitting, I’m sure the proud Aussie-Kiwi community would be happy to provide the bottles.

Vegemite is one of the world's richest sources of B vitamins, specifically thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid. The main ingredient of Vegemite is yeast extract, which is probably the best dietary source of niacin providing 97 milligrams per 100-gram serving, or 5.8 milligrams per teaspoon.

Niacin, also known as vitamin B-3, is a water-soluble vitamin that reduces cholesterol and other circulating lipids. High blood cholesterol and lipids substantially increase the risk of developing heart disease. The Mayo Clinic reports that niacin therapy lowers the risk of a heart attack by 27 percent.

Niacin works with other B-vitamins to help convert food into energy. This important vitamin also helps produce certain sex hormones, as well as stress-related hormones. Since it dissolves in water and is excreted in urine, your body’s supply of niacin needs to be continually replenished. Men and women require different amounts of niacin in a normal healthy diet. Women need 14 milligrams daily, while men may need as much as 16 milligrams to replenish daily supplies.

Good old American breakfast cereals are really great sources of niacin due to fortification. In a 1 cup serving, Total Raisin Bran and Kellogg's Product 19 provide 20 milligrams of niacin. You'll get a whopping 26 milligrams of niacin in three-quarters of a cup of Whole Grain Total. Other good dietary sources of niacin are beef, chicken, fish, malted drinks, wheat flour, grains, mushrooms, and legumes.

However, for a patient with heart disease to gain beneficial effects on blood lipids, supra-physiologic niacin doses as high as 2,000 milligrams per day may be necessary. This is real medicine with a definite risk:benefit analysis that needs to be medically supervised on a regular basis. You and your physician will need to weigh the risk of side effects from high niacin doses, such as liver damage, indigestion, nausea and flushing, with potential cardiac benefits.

The American Heart Association says dietary supplements contain variable amounts of niacin and are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. For these reasons, over-the-counter niacin supplements should not be used in place of the prescription form of niacin.