Effect of coenzyme Q10 plus nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide supplementation on maximum heart rate after exercise testing in chronic fatigue syndrome - A randomized, controlled, double-blind trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of NAD+ in the context of chronic fatigue syndrome and me, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Several studies have proposed symptomatic treatment with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) supplementation.

The primary endpoint was to assess the effect of CoQ10 plus NADH supplementation on age-predicted maximum heart rate (max HR) during a cycle ergometer test.

Secondary measures included fatigue, pain and sleep.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 80 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, young adults, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

A proof-of-concept, 8-week, randomized, controlled, double-blind trial was conducted in 80 CFS patients assigned to receive either CoQ10 plus NADH supplementation or matching placebo twice daily.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got NAD+ and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on NAD+, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with NAD+ could be set against what happens without it.

Maximum HR was evaluated at baseline and at end of the run-in period using an exercise test.

Fatigue, pain and sleep were evaluated at baseline, and then reassessed at 4- and 8-weeks through self-reported questionnaires.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Dietary Supplements, Endpoint Determination, Exercise Test, Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic, Heart Rate, NAD and Pain.

Author keywords: Chronic fatigue syndrome, Coenzyme Q(10), Maximum heart rate, Nutritional supplements and Sleep.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of NAD+ in 80 patients in people with chronic fatigue syndrome and me.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2016 (Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland)), a journal based in England.

More context: the NAD+ compound page, Chronic fatigue syndrome and ME research.