Anti-ageing compound shows promise

Tru Niagen is distributed from a 2000sqm warehouse on Omaha Flats Road. Pictured, Matakana Health director Kevin Glucina.

A Matakana firm has the exclusive rights in Australia and New Zealand to distribute a medical supplement that it says boosts the body’s supply of an essential compound.

Scores of recent scientific research has been devoted to Nicotinamide Riboside (NR).

Although research continues, NR has been approved for human consumption, and is distributed in New Zealand by Matakana Health under the brand name Tru Niagen.

The body is able to convert NR into Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD).

An early study found that boosting NAD in older mice returned grey hair to black and regained muscle strength, essentially turning back the biological clock.

It is believed that this may be because NAD enables PARB enzymes, which are responsible for repairing DNA.

Matakana Health director Kevin Glucina cautions that mice have a much faster metabolism than humans, perhaps producing more dramatic effects.

“Medical scientists are looking at it more from the perspective of trying to hopefully improve health-span,” he says.

“You could still be fit at 90 years old. That’s the goal, not finding eternal youth.”

Kevin says Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD) is a compound essential for all cellular life.

“NAD is essential for about 500 different functions. Without it, we couldn’t survive.

“Most importantly, it is fundamental to the process of metabolism in cells, which is the source of energy in all living beings.

“The stunning thing about NAD is that all five living kingdoms make use of it. It is used by everything from kauri trees to cats and dogs, as well as humans.

“It is produced naturally in the body and some quantity can be absorbed through food.”

However, NAD levels drop by about half between the age of 40 and 60 and continue to decline, contributing to the aging process.

Twelve years ago, Dr Charles Brenner of the University of Iowa was researching how the body produces NAD by looking at genes within cells.

He subsequently discovered Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) the body’s most efficient precursor of NAD.

Matakana Health got the NZ distribution licence for Tru Niagen two years ago, and the licence for Australia and the Pacific Islands six months ago.

It supplies the supplement to pharmacies and to the public online, as well as to GPs.