You’re likely aware of the recently published and very encouraging clinical results using NAD+ boosting vitamin supplement Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Life Changing Anecdotes) in a study relating to Alzheimer’s. If you missed it, you can catch up here and here. Late last week, the lead investigator, Dr. Christopher R. Martens gave a podcast interview to discuss results of his study. Here’s a key excerpt (podcast embedded below):

Beginning at the 5:50 minute mark of the “Making Sense of Science” podcast below:

HOST:

“…In the meantime, should people start taking NR supplements, maybe especially if they have risk factors for Alzheimer’s?

DR. Martens:

“Really, where we’re at, in the state of the field now is these early, small-scale clinical trials that are relatively short in duration…

I mean, my study that we reported here was 6 weeks of NR supplementation.

The work that we’re doing now with older adults with MCI (mild cognitive impairment) is only 12 weeks.

So, that really doesn’t give us a wide enough window to test whether the NR is actually slowing the progression of the disease or lowering risk.

To do that, we really need to translate this work to larger Phase 3 clinical trials where people take NR for at least a year.

And those are much bigger trails, more expensive trials, likely would need to be conducted over multiple study sites throughout the country.

As the field reports these smaller findings in these smaller scale studies, that all builds from a scientific standpoint.

It builds momentum toward those larger scale studies.

The challenge — and this is the same process that is taken by pharmaceutical companies when they develop drugs.

The challenge for us in this field is that while we’re doing all this early phase efficacy and R&D work, the supplement is already available on the market.

And so we get a lot of those kind of questions.

And my response is typically the same — that we don’t know yet whether this will have a beneficial effect on the actual disease.

That’s what we’re trying to study.

And we’re trying to report as ethically as we can what our findings are without overselling the potential, until we have done those bigger trials”

NOTE:

  • In an Interview, Scientist Discusses Key Findings from His Alzheimer’s Related Study Using NR (Link)
  • Video: First Human Trial Shows NR Can Enter The Brain And Reduces Biomarker For Alzheimer’s (Link)
  • What Does One of the Top Alzheimer’s Researchers Think about the Latest Alzheimer’s Study Including NR? (Link)
  • Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” for Alzheimer’s (FAQs)
  • Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Consumer Reviews)

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