Dr Rudy Tanzi is a Harvard neuroscientist, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, pioneer in identifying genetic markers for Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, Chair of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Leadership Group, and author of several best selling books. This week he joined The Genius Life Podcast with Max Lugavere (video embedded below). The following are key quotes on upcoming human trials, why he supplements with Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Reviews), and why he increased his dose during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alzheimer’s Expert Dr Rudy Tanzi (at ~39 minute mark in video below):
“…The other side of diet is supplements.
Supplements get really kind of sensitive because frankly most supplements out there for the brain are trash.
They’re money making snake oil trash.
…So what we do is we screen in my lab in our little mini brain, besides drugs, we screen supplements in every natural product known to man.
We just buy the libraries to screen them all at once.
And some of the things that we find, i’ve actually gone to commercial entities — like we found that Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) very actively induces neurogenesis.
Remember, I said exercises in the brain, the breath of new neurons in the brain and the hippocampus — Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) does that.
We also know that if you’re trying to protect neurons against the neural inflammation — you want to increase the mitochondrial function.
The mitochondria is the battery of the cell.
And what oxidative stress does is it it reduces the battery.
So if you want to up the battery — the battery needs more fuel.
Well, the fuel for your cell battery, the mitochondria, is ATP.
And ATP is a pathway that makes it — and that involves something called NAD, NAD+.
And the way you get to NAD is Nicotinamide Riboside (NR).
So if you take Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) as a supplement you get more NAD.
And then that gives you more ATP — which is cellular fuel.
And that helps protect the cells against free radicals and oxidative stress”
Teaming up with Chromadex (Sellers of NR)
“So Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) worked really well on our screens and then we teamed up with Chromadex.
Chromadex did hire me as a consultant so they pay me now and they do send me free Tru Niagen.
Tru Niagen is their brand of Nicotinamide Riboside (NR).
But yeah, so if you know something works I’m not afraid to get commercially involved.
I just make it transparent for conflict of interest and say yeah i’m a consultant for that company.
…those are my two favorites….Tru Niagen….
…as we find them, i just share them with family and friends and i share them with you know local professional sports teams because they’re getting banged in the head all day.
But i tell everybody: Check with your doc first before you take these….
…just remember we have not done any clinical trials to show that any of these supplements prevent alzheimer’s or treat it.
So we’re not making any claims like that.
And without clinical trials all you can say is: “look these worked in the lab and lab models — whether it’s alzheimer’s in a dish or a mouse — they’re safe”.
So if you want to give them a shot check with your doc and do so but we don’t want to oversell.
You don’t want to oversell anything.
You don’t want to oversell even lifestyle intervention.
There are people out there who say my lifestyle protocol is guaranteed to reverse and end Alzheimer’s.
No”
On Launching Clinical Trials with NR
“…I should also say that at Mass General, I co-direct a center called the McCance Center for Brain Health where our goal is to learn how to quantify brain health.
So when you go to your doctor every year you get a physical…
…So we’re trying to figure out whether it’s blood-based biomarkers or digital technologies or imaging — how to quantify brain health on an annual basis.
And by doing that we can then start doing studies of lifestyle interventions and say do they improve brain health?
You don’t wait for disease. You don’t wait for the brain to degenerate to the point of dysfunction and try to be reactive and turn it back.
We’re going to help those patients like i said earlier by stopping neural inflammation.
It’s too late to test them when you already have the disease.
They have to be used preventatively.
So if you use them preventatively in trials you have to know what to look at to say am i improving brain health.
So our Center is figuring out all the indicators of brain health.
And one of the first things we are testing with those indicators is TRU Niagen.
So, 2 Tru Niagen trials…
And again, because of my association with the company i have to put a firewall between me and the trials which i do.
But we have one trial on Alzheimer’s disease.
It’s just starting.
We already started recruiting patients with Tru Niagen to help Alzheimer’s patients.
And then the other trial is just going to start is on COVID.
So people who’ve had COVID could be long haulers for the neuro COVID where they get brain fog or even more severe symptoms in the brain due to the inflammation the viruses caused around the blood vessels of the brain.
So we’re tracking the neural symptoms of after COVID infection and then we’re going to ask if can they be minimized or reduced by TRU NiagenNicotinamide Riboside (NR).
And this is following up on a trial that was already done you may know about in Turkey where the results were just announced where they showed that Tru Niagen was able to help in patients with COVID in Turkey.
And the reason why is Charlie Brenner who discovered Nicotinamide Riboside (NR)…
…And he showed that when you get a COVID infection your NAD+ levels plummet and that’s why you’re fatigued because you need NAD+ for the cell fuel ATP.
So the reason why they get this huge fatigue and the immunosuppressed is the NAD levels plummet”
Dr Tanzi’s NR Regimen — Increased During COVID-19
“So I take Tru Niagen now at a double dose for now every day just like I’ve doubled my vitamin D3 dose because vitamin D correlates with COVID severity.
So i now doubled my D3 dose from 1000 units which is one capsule to two capsules.
I increased my Tru Niagen to 2 capsules now because if i get COVID i want my NAD levels to be up, my d3 levels to be up.
That’s what i do personally.
I’m not endorsing that.
i’m not telling people to do it.
Check with your doctor for any of this stuff.
I’m just telling you personally what i’m doing right now.
So, i think that testing supplements in our Center, we can finally start to have the clinical trials on supplements, on sleep on exercise, on stress relief on meditation where we can start making real strong claims to say “yes” this does work.
It’s not just it might work, it could help reduce…
That’s where we have to get to clinical trials to make more adamant and confirmed statements.
Tru Niagen….it takes at least a month before you start feeling it…and then all of a sudden it starts to kick in”
Dr Tanzi’s Admiration for Chromadex CEO Rob Fried:
“Rob Fried the CEO of Chromadex (Sellers of NR)….he hates all the BS, the snake oil crap.
He is all about honesty and truth in advertising.
I make sure i work with CEOs who go out of their way to make sure that they never make any false claims or step over the line.
That’s really important with the supplement business because there’s so much crap out there.
You see these ads on TV that make you want to just throw up whatever their claims are….”
Jason
He cited working with Deepak Chopra, that about shot his credibility to smithereens