Many individuals take vitamin supplements to higher their health. A team of researchers has now found that one particular popular complement may up cancer risk and even cause it to spread to the brain.

Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is a form of vitamin B3 that has been promoted as an anti-aging complement. Indeed, it is thought for its potential in metabolic and age-related disorders, the researchers wrote of their study, published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. Nevertheless, despite being a widely available complement, the “understanding of NR uptake by different cells and tissues is greatly limited by the shortage of noninvasive in vivo imaging tools limiting its clinical translation.”

For his or her work, the researchers developed and used non-invasive bioluminescent imaging to grasp how NR actually works within the body. They checked out NR levels in cancer cells, T-cells and healthy tissues, the University of Missouri (MU) noted in a news release.

NR increases cellular level energy and cancer cells “feed off of” it. Study corresponding creator Elena Goun, of MU, and her team analyzed the role NR plays within the “development and spread of cancer.”

The researchers found that supplementing with NR led to a “significant increase in cancer prevalence.” Further, high levels of it could not only increase the chance for triple-negative breast cancer, but additionally the chance of metastasizing to the brain — some extent which will already be deadly since “no viable treatment options exist presently,” Goun, whose own father had died of colon cancer, said.

“Some people take them [vitamins and supplements] because they routinely assume that vitamins and supplements only have positive health advantages, but little or no is thought about how they really work,” Goun explained. “For this reason lack of awareness, we were inspired to check the fundamental questions surrounding how vitamins and supplements work within the body.”

The outcomes show the importance of taking a look at the potential unintended effects of supplements. NR, as an example, is kind of widely used and available. Certain human clinical trials are even using it to “mitigate the unintended effects of cancer therapy,” said Goun.

“These results outline the necessary role of powerful nutraceuticals like NR in cancer metabolism and the necessity to personalize their use in certain patient populations,” the researchers wrote.