Six Months of a Multi-Component Anti-Ageing Supplement Improved Vascular Health Markers in Randomised Trial

A nutritional supplement designed to act on several biological processes of ageing at once has produced measurable improvements in markers of vascular health, according to a randomised controlled trial led by scientists at the University of Surrey. After six months, participants taking the formulation, known as NOVOS Core, showed better endothelial function, reduced arterial stiffness and lower systolic blood pressure than participants who received a placebo. Some of these changes appeared within a single hour of the first dose, and the investigators have called for larger follow-up studies.

The study was investigator-initiated, meaning the academic researchers designed the study and retained control of the data, although the manufacturer, NOVOS Labs, supplied the supplement and matching control and made an unrestricted contribution towards research costs. According to the published notes accompanying the study, the company had no role in study design, data collection, primary interpretation or the decision to publish.

The scientific premise behind the trial reflects a growing school of thought in geroscience, the field that studies the biology of ageing. Professor Christian Heiss, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Surrey, explained the rationale: biological ageing, he said, is not driven by a single pathway but by a number of interacting molecular and cellular processes. The idea behind the study was to ask whether addressing several of these processes simultaneously, through a nutritional supplement, could produce measurable effects on cardiovascular health biomarkers. The formulation combined vitamins and minerals, amino acids and plant-derived bioactive compounds, each selected for its relevance to processes associated with ageing.

As a first step, the researchers deliberately focused on established biomarkers of vascular health rather than clinical outcomes such as heart attacks or strokes. These measures, which include blood pressure, arterial stiffness and the ability of blood vessels to dilate, capture complementary aspects of vascular function and are known to be associated with cardiovascular risk. The team was careful to stress that the biomarkers are not themselves clinical outcomes, a distinction that matters when interpreting what the trial can and cannot show.

The results were consistent across three separate measures. Flow-mediated dilation, a technique that assesses endothelial function by measuring how well blood vessels regulate their tone and blood clotting, improved in the supplement group compared with the control group. Encouragingly, an improvement was already visible one hour after the first dose, while values in the placebo group remained largely unchanged throughout. At the six-month mark, the adjusted between-group difference in systolic blood pressure was 6.1 mmHg, favouring the supplement group, and a difference was again detectable one hour after the first dose.

To put that blood pressure effect into context, the researchers pointed to previous large studies which found that a 5 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure, when sustained over time, is associated with an approximately 10 percent reduction in major cardiovascular events. The trial itself, however, was not designed to assess clinical outcomes, so no claims about actual disease reduction can be drawn from these data. Pulse wave velocity, a measure of how quickly pressure waves travel through the arteries and therefore a proxy for arterial stiffness, was also lower in the supplement group, with an adjusted between-group difference of 1.18 m/s after six months. Lower pulse wave velocity indicates softer, more compliant arteries.

One of the more informative findings came from the blood tests. Cholesterol and other blood lipids showed no significant changes over the course of the trial, which suggests that the improvements in vascular markers were not simply the result of lipid lowering. The scientists also calculated an estimated 10-year cardiovascular risk score for participants and found that it decreased modestly, largely reflecting the difference in systolic blood pressure rather than any broader metabolic shift.

Diogo Barardo, Director of Research and Development at NOVOS and a geroscientist, connected the findings to the original development philosophy of the product. When the formulation was being developed in 2019, he said, the hypothesis was that simultaneously targeting all the hallmarks of ageing, the fundamental biological processes underlying ageing and age-related diseases, could produce measurable improvements in the organs and systems affected by ageing. He described the results, which the team has labelled the STAMINA findings, as encouraging clinical evidence consistent with that hypothesis, particularly meaningful, he argued, given that cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide.

Professor Juliet Wright, Founding Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Surrey, framed the work as an example of how ideas emerging from the biology of ageing can be tested rigorously in people. She described the findings as an interesting proof of concept but emphasised that the important next step is to understand the underlying biology and to establish whether changes in cardiovascular biomarkers translate into meaningful longer-term health benefits. Her caution mirrors that of Professor Heiss, who noted that the findings are encouraging but that larger studies are now needed to understand the mechanisms involved and, importantly, whether the biomarker changes translate into longer-term health benefits.

The study was published in the European Heart Journal Open under the title Acute and 6-Month Vascular Effects of a Multi-Component Nutritional Supplement: Preliminary Findings from a Randomised Controlled Trial. For now, the trial stands as an early signal rather than a definitive answer. It demonstrates that a multi-component supplement aimed at ageing-related processes can shift established vascular biomarkers in a favourable direction, both acutely and over six months, in a small study population. Whether those shifts translate into fewer heart attacks, strokes or deaths in the long run remains an open question that only larger and longer trials can address.

Subject of Research: A randomised controlled trial testing a multi-component nutritional supplement targeting ageing-related processes for its effects on vascular health biomarkers.

Article Title: Targeting multiple ageing-related processes with nutritional supplement shows promising effects on vascular health biomarkers

Article References: Targeting multiple ageing-related processes with nutritional supplement shows promising effects on vascular health biomarkers. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: vascular health, nutritional supplement, ageing, endothelial function, arterial stiffness, blood pressure, randomised controlled trial, geroscience, cardiovascular biomarkers, University of Surrey, NOVOS Core, European Heart Journal Open