How a vitamin in beer and vegemite could prevent skin cancer

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Diarrhoea, dermatitis, dementia, and death. These are the “four Ds” of pellagra, a condition caused by a deficiency in vitamin B3.

Happily, the vitamin is readily available from a range of delicious sources including chicken, tuna, eggs, milk, peanuts, cereals and yeast. You can also get it from the distinctly Aussie sources of Vegemite and beer.

But aside from avoiding the dreaded four Ds, increasingly convincing research shows that a simple form of vitamin B, nicotinamide – a widely available supplement – might also slash rates of Australia’s most common cancer.

Scientists have found the