What Is Nicotinamide Riboside?
Nicotinamide riboside, or niagen, is an alternative form of vitamin B3, also called niacin.
Like other forms of vitamin B3, nicotinamide riboside is converted by your body into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a coenzyme or helper molecule.
NAD+ acts as fuel for many key biological processes, such as:
- Converting food into energy
- Repairing damaged DNA
- Fortifying cells’ defense systems
- Setting your body’s internal clock or circadian rhythm
However, the amount of NAD+ in your body naturally falls with age.
Low NAD+ levels have been linked to health concerns like aging and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and vision loss.
Interestingly, animal research has found that raising NAD+ levels may help reverse signs of aging and lower the risk of many chronic diseases.
Nicotinamide riboside supplements — such as niagen — have quickly become popular because they appear to be especially effective at raising NAD+ levels.
Nicotinamide riboside is also found in trace amounts in cows’ milk, yeast and beer.
SUMMARY
Nicotinamide riboside, or niagen, is an alternative form of vitamin B3. It is promoted as an anti-aging supplement because it boosts your body’s levels of NAD+, which acts as fuel for many key biological processes.
Potential Benefits
Because most research on nicotinamide riboside and NAD+ comes from animal studies, no clear-cut conclusions can be made about its effectiveness for humans.
That said, here are some potential health benefits of nicotinamide riboside.
Easily Converted Into NAD+
NAD+ is a coenzyme, or helper molecule, that takes part in many biological reactions.
While it’s essential for optimal health, research shows that NAD+ levels continue to fall with age. Low NAD+ levels are linked to poor aging and a variety of harmful diseases.
One way to raise NAD+ levels is to consume NAD+ precursors — the building blocks of NAD+ — such as nicotinamide riboside.
Animal studies show that nicotinamide riboside raises blood NAD+ levels by up to 2.7 times. What’s more, it’s more readily used by your body than other NAD+ precursors.
However with DripDok it is possible to directly infuse NAD+ directly into the bloodstream using an IV push or drip. Doing this allows you to maximize the effect in a way that would otherwise be impossible.
Activates Enzymes That May Promote Healthy Aging
Nicotinamide riboside helps increase NAD+ levels in your body.
In response, NAD+ activates certain enzymes that may promote healthy aging.
One group is sirtuins, which appear to improve lifespan and overall health in animals. Studies indicate that sirtuins may repair damaged DNA, boost stress resistance, reduce inflammation and offer other benefits that promote healthy aging.
Sirtuins are also responsible for the lifespan-extending benefits of calorie restriction.
Another group is Poly (ADP-Ribose) polymerases (PARPs), which repair damaged DNA. Studies link higher PARP activity to less DNA damage and a longer lifespan.
In addition, DripDok infuses epitalon which is a peptide well known for its ability to regrow telomeres.
In human clinical studies, epitalon and epithalamin both significantly increased telomere lengths in the blood cells of patients of ages 60-65 and 75-80, and their efficacy was comparable to one another.
Epitalon and epithalamin appear to restore melatonin secretion by the pineal gland in both aged monkeys and humans.
A human clinical trial conducted on a sample of retinitis pigmentosa patients found that epitalon produced a positive clinical effect in 90% of cases in the treated group.
In another human clinical trial conducted on a sample of pulmonary tuberculosis patients, epitalon did not appear to correct pre-existing structural aberrations of chromosomes associated with telomere degradation, but did appear to exert a protective effect against the future development of additional chromosomal aberrations.[21]
A human prospective cohort study conducted on a sample of 266 people over age 60 demonstrated that treatment with epithalamin, the pineal gland extract upon which epitalon is based, produced a 1.6–1.8-fold reduction in mortality during the following 6 years, a 2.5-fold reduction in mortality when combined with thymalin, and a 4.1-fold reduction in mortality when combined with thymalin and administered annually instead of only once at study onset.[22][23]
Another prospective cohort study on a sample of 79 coronary patients spanning in excess of 12 years found improved metrics of physical endurance, circadian rhythm, and carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in the treated group relative to the control group following 3 years of biannual epithalamin treatments, as well as a 50% lower rate of cardiovascular mortality, a 50% lower rate of cardiovascular failure and serious respiratory disease, and a 28% lower rate of overall mortality.
May Help Protect Brain Cells
NAD+ plays a key role in helping your brain cells age well.
Within brain cells, NAD+ helps control the production of PGC-1-alpha, a protein that appears to help protect cells against oxidative stress and impaired mitochondrial function.
Researchers believe both oxidative stress and impaired mitochondrial function are linked to age-related brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
In mice with Alzheimer’s disease, nicotinamide riboside raised brain NAD+ levels and PGC-1-alpha production by up to 70% and 50%, respectively. By the end of the study, the mice performed significantly better in memory-based tasks.
In a test-tube study, nicotinamide riboside raised NAD+ levels and significantly improved mitochondrial function in stem cells taken from a Parkinson’s disease patient.
However, it’s still not clear how helpful it is to raise NAD+ levels in people with age-related brain disorders. More human studies are needed.
May Lower Heart Disease Risk
Aging is a major risk factor for heart disease, which is the world’s leading cause of death.
It can cause blood vessels like your aorta to become thicker, stiffer and less flexible.
Such changes can raise blood pressure levels and make your heart work harder.
In animals, raising NAD+ helped reverse age-related changes to arteries.
In humans, nicotinamide riboside raised NAD+ levels, helped reduce stiffness in the aorta and lowered systolic blood pressure in adults at risk of high blood pressure.
That said, more human research is needed.
Other Potential Benefits
In addition, nicotinamide riboside may provide several other benefits:
- May aid weight loss: Nicotinamide riboside helped speed up the metabolism of mice. However, it’s unclear whether it would have the same effect in humans and how strong this effect really is.
- May lower cancer risk: High NAD+ levels help protect against DNA damage and oxidative stress, which are linked to cancer development.
- May help treat jet lag: NAD+ helps regulate your body’s internal clock, so taking niagen may help treat jet lag or other circadian rhythm disorders by resetting your body’s internal clock.
- May promote healthy muscle aging: Raising NAD+ levels helped improve muscle function, strength and endurance in older mice.
SUMMARY
Nicotinamide riboside boosts levels of NAD+, which is linked to potential health benefits regarding aging, brain health, heart disease risk and more.