06 Apr Preliminary Results Show NIAGEN® Has Potential To Lower Blood Pressure For Individuals With Pre-Hypertension
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Charles Brenner
Dr. Charles Brenner, PhD
Chief Scientific Advisor
ChromaDex
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is the central regulator of metabolism. NAD is under attack in multiple conditions of metabolic stress and declines in human aging. Thus, using supplements to maintain NAD has emerged as an important strategy to support healthy aging.
There are three vitamin precursors of NAD. However, two of those forms (niacin and nicotinamide) have unwanted side effects and/or inhibit some of the metabolic regulators that can be stimulated by higher NAD. Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is the most recently discovered NAD precursor vitamin. Research has shown that NR boosts NAD more than the other precursors, doesn’t cause flushing, doesn’t inhibit sirtuin enzymes, and that the pathway that converts NR to NAD is turned on in tissues undergoing stress and damage.
Commercialized as NIAGEN®, NR has been clinically proven to significantly increase NAD levels in people as an oral supplement. NIAGEN® is the only NR with published human safety, efficacy and tolerability studies.
The University of Colorado study is the first clinical trial showing that not only does NIAGEN® boost NAD levels, it also may have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular health and function.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: While the results are preliminary and in a small sample, overall, findings showed that NIAGEN® has the potential to lower blood pressure for individuals with pre-hypertension.
Interestingly, in November, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) lowered their definition of high blood pressure to allow for earlier intervention, making the results of this study particularly promising for those concerned with maintaining their cardiovascular health.
Because elevated blood pressure is a risk factor for many diseases and disabilities, and we don’t generally medicate people with prehypertension, the University of Colorado study reveals exciting, though early, prospects for improving people’s wellness with NIAGEN®. Importantly, the safety data at 1 gram of NIAGEN per day were perfectly clean and this dose of NIAGEN® did not depress the blood pressure of people with normal blood pressure regulation.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?
Response: A further study is already in process to assess NIAGEN® as an option for individuals looking to support cardiovascular health, in addition to lifestyle changes.
Currently, ChromaDex is advancing the global NAD scientific knowledge base by providing NIAGEN® at no cost to independent investigators leading nearly 130 research programs in 34 different areas such as brain and heart health, immunity, and health inflammation response.
NIAGEN® is being utilized in at least 13 of the 16 human clinical trials on NR listed on clinicaltrials.gov.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Response: The respondent, Dr. Charles Brenner, Chief Scientific Advisor to ChromaDex, is the discoverer of NR as a vitamin and the world’s foremost authority on NAD metabolism
In 2004, while on faculty at Dartmouth College, Dr. Brenner made the foundational discovery that NR is a milk-derived natural product and vitamin precursor of NAD. In more than 45 additional publications and issued patents on NAD, Dr. Brenner has identified previously unknown steps in NAD metabolism, shown that NR increases sirtuin activity and lifespan in model systems, developed the methods for quantitative NAD metabolomics, expanded the uses of NR into novel therapeutic areas, and performed the first in people clinical trial establishing NR safety and oral availability.
Citations:
Christopher R. Martens, Blair A. Denman, Melissa R. Mazzo, Michael L. Armstrong, Nichole Reisdorph, Matthew B. McQueen, Michel Chonchol & Douglas R. Seals
Nature Communicationsvolume 9, Article number: 1286 (2018)
Published online:29 March 2018 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03421-7
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Last Updated on April 6, 2018 by Marie Benz MD FAAD