Niacin or vitamin B3 has the ability to prolong life , as demonstrated by Michael Ristow, from the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich (Switzerland), in a study with worms of the species Caenorhabditis elegans . Specifically, by including this ingredient in the diet, the life of these organisms was lengthened by up to ten percent. And all because both niacin and its main metabolite, nicotinamide, promote the formation of free radicals, which although until now were considered unhealthy, according to the researcher "small amounts of these molecules, known as reactive oxygen species (ROS for its acronym in English), generate oxidative stress that has a beneficial impact on health ".
In fact, Ristow previously demonstrated that the positive effects of playing sports are due to an increase in the formation of reactive oxygen species . And their new work, published in Nature Chemical Biology , suggests that niacin produces a metabolic situation in the human body very similar to that of physical exercise.
