Nicotinamide

[Guest Sissy]

I am in week 2 of my CR journey and trying to fine tune things.  I'm having almost no trouble getting 100% of the RDA for most vitamins, most days but am taking a multi-vitamin just in case.  In reading "The CR Way" by Paul McGlothin and Meredith Averill, I came across the statement "Your daily vitamin pill may contain a CR benefits stopper; According to serval studies, nicotinamide, which is contained in many multivitamins, is an inhibitor of SIRT1."  I checked and both of my multi-vitamins have nicotinamide.  Most everything I can find online however suggests that nicotinamide has been proven to be helpful in a multitude of ways.   Should I stop taking the multi-vitamins that contain nicotinamide or maybe stop taking multi-vitamins altogether and just make sure I get what I need from food?

 

Thanks

[Michael R]

Hi Sissy: first, please do me and you and everyone on the Forum a favor: register on the Forums and log in each time before you post! It's fine if you want to use a pseudonym, but registering and logging in will ensure that you can't be impersonated and will make it easier to keep track of your questions, input, and progress.

 

As to your question: at worst, the issue would be one of dose. Clearly, frank deficiency is bad for you and should be avoided. Typical multis contain way too much B-vitamins and most everything else, and you just shouldn't take such formulations. If you're talking about an RDAish dose, you have certainly nothing to worry about.

 

First, all of the observations on nicotinamide inhibiting sirtuins are is in yeast, with nicotinamide applied in vitro; we don't know whether nicotinamide even can reach concentrations after oral administration in humans high enough to inhibit the human homolog (SIRT1), or what dose would be required to do so, or how the pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution, and metabolism would affect NAD (let alone SIRT1) in individual target tissues.(1)

 

More importantly, we also don't actually know whether sirtuins are actually involved in the CR effect in even in yeast (see multiple papers by Kaeberlein's group), let alone in mammals. Notably, the putative SIRT1 activator resveratrol has no effect on lifespan in normal, genetically healthy, nonobese mice -- and even more strikingly, neither does transgenic overexpression of SIRT1.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. OTOH, as indicated earlier, there's no sense (for the vast majority of people) to be taking more than the RDA of B3 (niacin OR nicotinamide) IAC.

 

Reference

1. Adams JD Jr, Klaidman LK (2008). "Sirtuins, Nicotinamide and Aging: A Critical Review". Letters in Drug Design & Discovery 4 (1): 44–48. doi:10.2174/157018007778992892

http://www.bentham.org/lddd/sample/lddd4-1/009AJ.pdf

 

 

[Todd Allen]

I am in week 2 of my CR journey and trying to fine tune things.  I'm having almost no trouble getting 100% of the RDA for most vitamins, most days but am taking a multi-vitamin just in case.  In reading "The CR Way" by Paul McGlothin and Meredith Averill, I came across the statement "Your daily vitamin pill may contain a CR benefits stopper; According to serval studies, nicotinamide, which is contained in many multivitamins, is an inhibitor of SIRT1."  I checked and both of my multi-vitamins have nicotinamide.  Most everything I can find online however suggests that nicotinamide has been proven to be helpful in a multitude of ways.   Should I stop taking the multi-vitamins that contain nicotinamide or maybe stop taking multi-vitamins altogether and just make sure I get what I need from food?

 

Thanks

 

Here's a paper that indicates nicotinamide riboside is a SIRT1 activator.  Not sure if this applies to the nicotinamide in your multi-vitamin.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22682224

[Dean Pomerleau]

Todd,

 

The search box at the top of the page and the search page for these forums is your friend.

 

Here is a link to the recent discussions we've had on another thread about NAD supplements and very recent evidence about nicotinamide riboside.

 

--Dean