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Nicotinamide riboside: Hidden vitamin found in BEER and MILK can make you stronger, slimmer and healthier
Baku, June 9 (AZERTAC). Researchers say the molecule found in milk could help prevent weight gain and diabetes and improve muscular performance.
The snag is that the molecule, called nicotinamide riboside (NR), is extremely small, difficult to find and expensive to synthesize.
Johnan Auwerx, head of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland, said experiments using mice revealed the molecule’s potential.
In an article in the specialist Cell Metabolism journal, Mr Auwerx called the results 'impressive'.
'NR appears to play a role in preventing obesity,' said Mr Auwerx.
Working with Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, his team found mice on a high-fat diet that were fed NR gained significantly less weight - 60 per cent - than mice eating the same diet without NR supplements.
And none of the NR-treated mice had indications that they were developing diabetes, unlike the untreated mice.
Mice which were fed NR supplements over a ten-week period had better endurance performance than those who were not.
Research will continue with human testing at some point in the future.