The trial's main test failed; its sleep result was a side finding
60 older adults took 250 mg of NMN a day for 12 weeks. The stepping test the trial was built around showed nothing. Walking time and reported sleep did improve.
What the study found
The sleep and walking gains were secondary; the main test failed
Sixty older adults took 250 mg of NMN a day for twelve weeks. The stepping test the trial was designed around showed no difference at four weeks or twelve. Four-metre walking time and reported sleep quality did improve against placebo, and those are the results the paper's title carries.
The caveat · No allowance for testing many things
A secondary outcome is exploratory unless it was named in advance and corrected for testing many things at once, and this paper reports no such correction. Three of the four authors work for Meiji Holdings, which sells NMN. The authors highlight that walking-time changes tracked changes in blood NAD, 2PY and 4PY, which is an association inside one trial rather than evidence that raising NAD caused the walking.
What we don't know
A secondary outcome is exploratory unless it was named in advance and corrected for testing many things at once, and this paper reports no such correction. Three of the four authors work for Meiji Holdings, which sells NMN. The authors highlight that walking-time changes tracked changes in blood NAD, 2PY and 4PY, which is an association inside one trial rather than evidence that raising NAD caused the walking.