FRIDAY, June 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) — A form of vitamin B3 that people can buy without a prescription may help improve walking ability when peripheral artery disease (PAD) strikes, new research suggests.
PAD affects up to 8.5 million Americans. It occurs when blood flow to the legs is affected, making activities such as walking painful. PAD is closely related to cardiac risk factors such as diabetes and smoking.
Anything that can alleviate the condition and improve walking endurance is needed. The new study focused on nicotinamide riboside, a form of vitamin B3. Nicotinamide riboside is often promoted as an anti-aging agent and sold as an over-the-counter supplement.
In the new trial, a team led by Christiaan Leeuwenburgh of the University of Florida (UF) recruited 90 people with an average age of 71 years who had peripheral artery disease.
Mary McDermott, a physician and professor of medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, knew that nicotinamide riboside is a precursor compound to NAD, which helps increase energy generation within cells.
Perhaps taking nicotinamide riboside could help people with PAD increase energy production, and help them walk better, the team reasoned.
The new findings seem to support that: People who took nicotinamide riboside supplements for six months were able to walk 23 feet farther during a six-minute walk test, compared to those who hadn’t taken the supplement, who actually walked 34 feet. less after the 6-month trial period ended.
Adherence to supplements was key: People who took at least 75 percent of the pills they were supposed to perform even better, adding more than 100 feet to their walking distance, compared to people who they took a placebo, the researchers reported.
The study appears in the June 13 issue of the journal Nature Communications.
“This is a sign that nicotinamide riboside could help these patients,” Leeuwenburgh, a professor of physiology and aging at the university, said in a UF news release. “We hope to conduct a larger follow-up trial to verify our findings.”
More information
Learn more about PAD from the American Heart Association.
SOURCE: University of Florida, press release, June 18, 2024
