During his recent appearance on the “Beauty and the BS” podcast with Dr. Peter Grossman, Dr. Charles Brenner (FAQs) was asked whether NAD+ boosting vitamin supplement Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Anecdotes) is an anti-aging pill. Here’s what he said:

From “Getting Real About Living Forever — Dr. Charles Brenner” (18:40 mark):

HOST:

“One of the oxymorons, I think, it bothers me when people say I want to age gracefully.

Because, to me, aging is cancer.

It’s diabetes.

It’s Parkinson’s.

It’s Alzheimer’s.

It’s sarcopenia.

All of these things that happen as we get older, and things that scare a lot of people, scares me, when we think of the fact that we’re heading in that direction.

But it would seem that something like NR is an easy step to, not prevent us from getting there, but perhaps slow that process.

Let me ask you this about the anti-aging market.

Because, with tru niagen, you’re in a mix of a whole lot of other supplements that are out there.

It’s separating fact from fiction, hyperbole from reality, and beauty from BS.

I want to go into anti-aging for a second.

You have been called an anti-aging specialist.

Your products are anti-aging to the layperson.

But I know that you personally have a little discomfort using…

DR. Charles Brenner:

“using the word anti-aging — for exactly the reasons that you talk about: the hyperbole, the non-evidence-based nature of the things in the category.

HOST:

“So, in your area where your research is going…

How would you label that?

Is it longevity?

DR. Charles Brenner:

“I don’t call NR an anti-aging drug.

I say that the use case is to promote resiliency, and protect against disease and conditions that attack the NAD system.

So, we can do a trial on fatty liver.

We can do a trial on peripheral neurodegeneration.

We can do a trial on mild cognitive impairment or Parkinson’s.

And we want to see positive results that protect peoples’ health.

I’m not real comfortable with promises that something is going to extend someone’s life because you can’t do a trial that would demonstrate that.

What would you do?

You’d have to enlist people that are 105 years old, so that in a three or four year trial you would see people in the placebo group dropping off and people in the experimental group being protected?

Maybe you could do that trial.

But I don’t think that people that are 105 years old are representative of people that are 60 or 70.

I mean those people, 105, are super rangers.

We don’t understand why they’re so terrific.

They’ve got great genes.

So, I’m not comfortable with people that make claims that Metformin or Rapamycin are going to be longevity drugs.

I don’t think that there’s evidence to be particularly optimistic about those molecules.

And, then, like you said the whole category is a mix of things that are cosmetic, mythological, and in a few cases based on science.

And, I want to stick with the science”

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