Vitamin B3 Stops The Aging Process Of Kidney, Liver, Heart And Muscles

First Posted: May 02, 2016 06:40 AM EDT

Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne discovered that Nicotinamide Riboside (NR), which is a form of Vitamins B3, plays a role in muscular regeneration and can prolong lives.

Science Daily reports that the study was published in Science. It was led by Johan Auwerx and article written by Hongbo Zhang, a Ph.D., student and one of the authors of the study.

The regenerative capacity of the certain organ like liver and kidney and muscles that include the heart weakens. This is the cause of typical disorders that is typical in aging.

The study involved a group of mice as the model. The researchers wanted to regenerate the stem cells in elderly mice. Hongbo Zang said that the fatigue in stem cells was one of the causes of poor regeneration or even degeneration in certain tissues or organs. So, what did the researchers do? They gave a nicotinamide riboside to 2-year old mice, which is the advanced age for them. The results showed that the muscular regeneration is much better in mice that received NR. They also lived longer compared to mice that did not take NR, according to researchers.

This could be a breakthrough for regenerative medicine. Aurwex said that the study could have very important implications in the field of regenerative medicine. He further said that they are not talking about foreign substances into the body but rather restoring the body's ability to repair itself with a product that can be taken with food. This can be effective in the aging process and can treat disease in young people like the muscular dystrophy (myopathy).

Nicotinamide Riboside is a form of vitamin B3 that can function as the precursor to NAD+ or the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. It has no side effects. The increase intracellular levels of NAD ca prevent Wallerian-like nerve damage that is associated with multiple sclerosis, normal aging, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer therapy. An amount of nicotinamide riboside can be found in food such as milk.