Medical Research
An interesting insight into Porteous' experience is that from 1960 until his death in 1978 Porteous was an enthusiastic advocate of the medical benefits of niacin. Dr. Abram Hoffer had approached him to request that he recommend it to the senior citizens in the social housing development which Porteous administered. Hoffer believed large doses of niacin, up to six grams a day, could retard the development and even reverse senility, as it dilates the blood vessels, thus improving circulation.
Porteous insisted he would not recommend anything to anyone which he had not first tried himself. For six months, he took the six grams a day and then recommended it to the senior citizens without reservation. As he told the Department of Veterans Affairs doctor on his next annual visit (he was on a 100% disability pension) that he had not felt as well since before the war; he could even touch his hands together above his head, not having been able to raise them above his shoulders before the treatment. He discovered that niacin had greatly relieved the severe arthritis and insomnia that had plagued him as a result of his wartime imprisonment and systematic starvation over a four-year period. He supported the use of this vitamin for all Canadian and US ex-prisoners of war suffering from similar symptoms.
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