Your body and gut bugs share vitamin B3 to stay healthy
NAD precursors cycle between host tissues and the gut microbiome
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Dietary nicotinic acid is useless for distal gut microbes.
One would assume eating the vitamin helps all the bacteria in the gut, but the study found it is absorbed so early in the proximal GI tract that it never reaches the microbes further down.
Practical Takeaways
Prioritize soluble fiber to support the energy levels (NAD) of your colonic microbiome.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Dietary nicotinic acid is useless for distal gut microbes.
One would assume eating the vitamin helps all the bacteria in the gut, but the study found it is absorbed so early in the proximal GI tract that it never reaches the microbes further down.
Practical Takeaways
Prioritize soluble fiber to support the energy levels (NAD) of your colonic microbiome.
Publication
Journal
Cell Metabolism
Year
2022
Authors
Karthikeyani Chellappa, Melanie R. McReynolds, Wenyun Lu, Xianfeng Zeng, Mikhail Makarov, Faisal Hayat, Sarmistha Mukherjee, Yashaswini R. Bhat, Siddharth R. Lingala, Rafaella T. Shima, Hélène C. Descamps, Timothy Cox, Lixin Ji, Connor Jankowski, Qingwei Chu, Shawn M. Davidson, Christoph A. Thaiss, Marie E. Migaud, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Joseph A. Baur
Related Content
Claims (6)
When you take NR or NMN supplements, your gut bacteria turn them into a form of vitamin B3, which your body then uses to make an important molecule called NAD+ that helps keep your cells healthy.
In mice, a nutrient made by the body called nicotinamide travels to the gut and becomes the main building block that gut microbes use to make an important molecule called NAD—most of it in the small intestine. This shows the microbes rely heavily on the host's nutrients to survive.
Your gut bacteria can turn a form of vitamin B3 from your body into another version that gets reused to make important energy molecules, especially when your body’s usual recycling system isn’t working well.
In mice, the body absorbs vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid) early in the gut, so gut bacteria farther down don’t get much of it — scientists saw almost no labeled B3 ending up in those bacteria’s cells.
In mice, a supplement called nicotinamide riboside only boosts energy-related molecules if gut bacteria first turn it into a different form—without those bacteria, the supplement doesn’t work.