PODCAST: Dr Hoffman Explains Why He Recommends Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) to Patients

Dr. Ronald Hoffman MD often talks about taking NAD boosters on his Intelligent Medicine radio show. A few days ago, he devoted a segment to new pre-clinical research on Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Reviews). Key quotes:

Dr Ronald Hoffman talks NAD Booster NR beginning at the 34:30 mark:

“One of my favorite supplements these days is something — this is not a commercial announcement — this is just something I came across in garnering the news of the week.

One of my favorite supplements is TRU Niagen — which is Nicotinamide Riboside (NR).

Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) supports NAD+ levels in the body.

And it’s very important when it comes to mitochondrial health and can address inflammation and neurodegeneration and has great implications as an anti-aging supplement.

There’s a couple of ways in which it can help you.

One is in the here and now with an immediate result in terms of your energy and focus.

Just unsolicited, my administrator in the office who does a marvelous job of arranging my professional life and running my practice — she’s a young woman with young kids, athletic, and health conscious. She started taking TRU Niagen at my recommendation.

And unsolicited she just told me she feels great with it.

She feels energetic and more focused.

She was having some problems, maybe hitting the skids a little bit, sleep deprivation, and under the stress of the lockdown.

And so it was nice to hear that she seemed to respond.

Some patients ask me: “What’s this supposed to do for me?”.

It can work for you in the here and now and make you feel better — perhaps increase your athletic performance.

But it can also have a profound effect on your longevity and disease prevention, long term.

It’s hard to tell a 30 year old that when you’re 50, 60, 70 you’re going to get benefits.

So, a couple of interesting studies:

One has to do with the eyes.

It’s a preclinical study that demonstrates protection against light induced retinal degeneration.

In a mouse model, they exposed the mice to UV light — and that’s something that accelerates retinal damage.

What they found in this study in a journal called Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science — they gave Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) to the mice a day before exposure to retinal damaging light.

And they found that the NAD attenuated (reduced) the damage that the light would cause to the retina.

So, the suggestion is that this is a model for how NAD can protect against high blood sugar and diabetes and UV light which we’re all exposed to too much of during our lifetimes which ultimately damages our retinas.

So more research is underway.

Another study has to do with the heart.

End stage heart failure patients — very difficult to treat these patients.

Stage D heart failure means you can barely cross the room. They stage it by how far you can go without running out of gas, being short of breath.

And Stage D heart failure patients are vey uncomfortable moving around and they’re high risk of being hospitalized for heart failure and dying.

And then with COVID-19 forget about it — they’re very very vulnerable.

It’s a serious comorbidity (the simultaneous presence of two chronic diseases or conditions in a patient). 5 year survival rates at just 45%.

So they gave NAD to these patients and they found that it inhibited inflammation and lowered levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and enhanced the mitochondrial respiration rate in these patients with end stage heart failure.

So, it’s a preliminary study.

Will it help to fend off heart failure?

That remains to be seen.

We can’t oversell the results of this study.

But there are many studies underway about Nicotinamide Riboside (NR).

And it’s currently being evaluated for its potential to improve function in peripheral artery disease (claudication), also to improve the effects of exercise on high blood pressure, and to address high blood pressure in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Also, they’re working on studies to look at the role of Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) to protect the liver.

A lot of people in this country suffer from fatty liver disease — it’s nutritional — and NAD may help to restore the function of the liver.

So, always great to see scientists hard at work demonstrating the benefits of some of the things we talk about here.

Sometimes we worry — are we ahead of the curve talking about things, forecasting the benefits?

Well, these studies certainly vindicate Nicotinamide Riboside / TRU Niagen as a useful supplement.

I recommend it highly.”

NOTE:

• More from Dr Hoffman on his personal experience taking NR HERE.
• FAQs on taking NAD boosting vitamin supplement Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) can be found HERE.
• NR supplementation may have helped sufferers of these diseases & conditions (Consumer Reviews)

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