It's no secret that I inject myself with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). It's a bit spendy and a bit uncomfortable, but I do it. Nonetheless, some claim it's not necessary and that one can get all the NAD they need from supplementation. One such supplement that seems to be the current darling of the anti-aging industry is nicotinamide riboside (NR), and find out a bit more about it, I managed to get the discoverer of this "vitamin" on the show. His name is Dr. Charles Brenner.

Dr. Brenner is the discoverer of nicotinamide riboside (NR) as a vitamin and a leading expert on NAD, which he calls "the central regulator of metabolism". Originally from Boston, he is a 1983 graduate of Wesleyan University, who worked in biotech for 5 years before conducting his PhD research in Cancer Biology in the Biochemistry Department of Stanford University.

He subsequently performed his post-doctoral fellowship at Brandeis University before launching his independent career at Thomas Jefferson University. He moved to Dartmouth College in 2003, where he made the seminal discovery of the NR kinase pathway to NAD, and he was recruited to the University of Iowa in 2009 as the Roy J. Carver Chair and Head of Biochemistry.

Dr. Brenner has been funded by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the March of Dimes, the Beckman Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Trust, the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, the Roy J. Carver Trust, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and has won a number of awards for his research and contributions to innovative education.

For example, thanks to technologies that Dr. Brenner developed, it is now possible to determine how any disease or condition interacts the NAD metabolome, which is the set of genes and small molecules that comprise the NAD ecosystem.

Dr. Brenner is a founding member of the ChromaDex Scientific Advisory Board and serves as their Chief Scientific Advisor. Since conducting the first clinical trial of nicotinamide riboside in healthy adults, he has continued to conduct research on mechanisms by which NR boosts metabolism and protects against diseases and conditions of metabolic stress in animals and to participate in the safe and evidence-based clinical development of NR.

During our discussion, you'll discover:

-How Dr. Brenner enhances his own longevity and anti-aging protocol...8:45

-Why it's best to take NR supplements twice per day...11:00

-The seven specific ways that NAD can get damaged...17:30

-How you can test your own levels of NAD...32:30

-How Dr. Brenner discovered NR as a unique, new vitamin...37:15

-Why niacin in different than NR, and why niacin is not a good way to boost NAD...42:30

-The diseases and conditions that benefit from boosting NAD...48:00

-The connection between NAD, longevity and anti-aging...53:30

-Specific foods that you can eat to increase your NAD availability...1:03:15

-Dr. Brenner's opinion on intravenous NAD and injectable NAD...1:10:15

-Whether TruNiagen is different than any other forms of NR...1:19:30

-And much more!

Episode Sponsors

-Thrive Market  Get $60 in free groceries + free shipping when you order using my special link!

-Kion Coffee  Did you know that only 3% of coffee brands are certified organic? Count Kion Coffee among that elite group, and it tastes amazing too!

-Trusii Hydrogen Infused Water Get 30% off your order using promo code “ben” and get an additional 10% off any subscription order.

-Organifi Green Juice Use promo code “greenfield” and receive 20% off your order.

Resources from this episode:

-TruNiagen

-My podcast with the NAD injection clinic

-New study: A randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial of nicotinamide riboside in obese men: safety, insulin-sensitivity, and lipid-mobilizing effects

-ChromaDex: Response To The Claim Niagen Is Just 'Expensive Vitamin B3'

-Dr. Craig Koniver's response when I asked him about NAD IV absorption was to send me this fascinating pdf presentation.

-A portion of Tom Ingoglia of the NAD injection clinic's reply to me was as follows:

"There is a connexin that shows it (NAD) is crossing in fibroblasts. I want to say that it is connexin 43. There is a membrane channel for NMN too...NR has been around for 5 years. NAD IV has been around for 50..."

Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Dr. Brenner or me, or about NAD or NR in general? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.