A widely sold NAD-boosting supplement did not slow early Parkinson's disease in a year-long randomized trial of 410 patients, and people taking it ended up with slightly worse symptom scores than those on placebo. The NOPARK trial results were published in JAMA and summarized by News-Medical. The worsening was statistically significant but smaller than the change doctors usually consider clinically meaningful.
The finding matters for U.S. households because nicotinamide riboside, often marketed as an NAD+ booster, is sold over the counter without a prescription. An estimated 1.1 million people in the U.S. live with Parkinson's, according to the Parkinson's Foundation, and many families look for anything that might buy time. The researchers now say this supplement should not be used to treat Parkinson's outside controlled studies.
