Nicotinamide mononucleotide supplementation enhances aerobic capacity in amateur runners: a randomized, double-blind study

In this six-week human study published July 8, 2021, researchers conclude that supplementation of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) remarkably lifted ventilatory threshold (VT) in amateur runners. The benefit was dose-dependent and muscle-related.

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, four-arm clinical trial including 48 young and middle-aged recreationally trained runners of the Guangzhou Pearl River running team was conducted to investigate the effects of a combination of exercise training and supplementation with NMN.

▸  Improved ventilatory threshold even among healthy young athletes.

▸  The improved aerobic capacity is likely the result of enhanced O2 utilization of the skeletal muscle.

▸  The improvement is muscle, not cardiac, related.

▸  The improvement of aerobic capacity is dosage-dependent.

▸  Larger doses of NMN have better results.

▸  Results were after 6 weeks of supplementation

▸ VO2@VT1, VO2max@VT1, HR@ VT1, power@VT1 and power@VT2 were all increased significantly.

“Our human study showed that exercise combining with NMN supplementation increases VT in a dose-dependent and the large dose of NMN had a better effect.”

Participants

Forty-eight healthy recreationally trained runners (40 males and 8 females, aged 27–50 years, with regular exercise years of 1–5 years) were recruited for the study. All participants were healthy and nonsmokers who did not drink caffeine or alcoholic drinks and had no prior use of medication or supplemental nutrients.

Results

Analysis of covariance of the change from baseline over the 6 week treatment showed that the oxygen uptake (VO2), percentages of maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max), power at first ventilatory threshold, and power at second ventilatory threshold increased to a higher degree in the medium and high dosage groups compared with the control group.

▸ These results are for a single group of healthy young subjects receiving up to 1200mg/day NMN.

▸ During the intervention period, all participants who had taken NMN reported no adverse side effects.

▸ The findings reveal that exercise training combined with the supplementation of NMN further lift ventilatory threshold in amateur runners.

The VO2@VT1, %VO2max@VT1, HR@ VT1, power@VT1, and power@VT2 were increased significantly from the NMN supplementation compared with baseline, and the positive effect was in a dose-dependent manner.

“These results indicate that NMN supplementation was able to further increase the VT compared to exercise alone. The improvement may be attributed to an improved ability of O2 utilization by skeletal muscle. Our data suggest that skeletal muscle is one of the most sensitive tissues to NMN in humans.”

Builds upon results in earlier studies

We now have results on NMN in humans.  1 was a safety trial, while the other 3 show some benefit for muscle improvment in humans.

Similar results as Dr. Sinclair’s famous study on mice

One of the exciting things about this research is the similarity to this study by Dr. Sinclair with mice, where Dr. Sinclair says:

“We’ve discovered a way to reverse vascular aging by boosting the presence of naturally occurring molecules in the body that augment the physiological response to exercise,”

While results from this current study aren’t quite that strong, it was only 6 weeks with young, fit athletes. It will be interesting to see results from longer term research in older, less fit subjects similar to Dr. Sinclairs mice.