A few days later, ChromaDex reasserted its first comer status in the NAD game by announcing that it had conducted a clinical trial demonstrating that “a single dose of NR resulted in statistically significant increases” in NAD in humans—the first evidence that supplements could really boost NAD levels in people. Details of the study won’t be out until it’s reported in a peer reviewed journal, the company said. ChromaDex also brandishes Nobel credentials: Roger Kornberg, a Stanford professor who won the Chemistry prize in 2006, chairs its scientific advisory board. He’s the son of Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg, who, ChromaDex proudly notes, was among the first scientists to study NR some 60 years ago.
While resveratrol has hogged the anti aging spotlight over the past decade, unsung researchers in places like Oxford, Miss. , have quietly shown that pterostilbene is a kind of extra potent version of resveratrol. The pterostilbene molecule is nearly identical to resveratrol’s except for a couple of differences that make it more “bioavailable” animal studies indicate that about four times as much ingested pterostilbene gets into the bloodstream as resveratrol. Test tube and rodent studies also suggest that pterostilbene is more potent than resveratrol when it comes to improving brain function, warding off various kinds of cancer and preventing heart disease.
