A daily anti-aging supplement drink called NOVOS Core improved several measures of blood vessel health in a six-month trial led by the University of Surrey in England, the university said on November 4, 20261. People who took it had blood vessels that widened more easily, less stiff arteries and a slightly lower top blood pressure number than people who took a dummy drink1. Their cholesterol and other blood fats did not change in any significant way1.
The results were published in the European Heart Journal Open, a peer-reviewed medical journal, under a title that calls them “preliminary findings”1. The trial was small, and it measured warning signs linked to heart disease rather than heart attacks or strokes themselves1.
What the trial did
The study was a randomized controlled trial, meaning volunteers were assigned by chance to get either the real product or a placebo, so the two groups could be compared fairly1. Researchers recruited 61 people. Thirty-three took the supplement and 28 took the placebo, once a day for six months1.
The supplement mixes vitamins, minerals, amino acids and plant-derived compounds that were chosen because they relate to several biological processes linked to aging1. NOVOS describes the product as a daily drink with 12 ingredients aimed at what it calls “all 12 Hallmarks of Aging”2. The hallmarks of aging are a list of basic changes in cells and tissues that scientists think drive aging and age-related disease1.
The idea being tested was whether hitting many of these processes at once with one supplement could shift measurements of heart and blood vessel health1.
The results so far
The team looked at three main measurements of blood vessel health. Each captures a different side of how arteries are working, and each is linked to heart risk1.
- Blood vessel lining. The researchers used flow-mediated dilation, a test of how well an artery widens when blood flow increases. It reflects the health of the endothelium, the thin inner lining of blood vessels that helps control vessel tone and blood clotting. This improved in the supplement group compared with the placebo group1.
- Artery stiffness. Pulse wave velocity measures how fast the pulse travels along the arteries; a slower pulse suggests softer arteries. After six months it was lower in the supplement group, with an adjusted difference between the groups of 1.18 meters per second1.
- Blood pressure. At six months, the top number in a blood pressure reading (systolic pressure) was 6.1 points (mmHg) lower in the supplement group than in the placebo group, after adjusting for differences between people1.
Some changes showed up quickly. Blood vessel lining function improved within one hour of the first dose, while values in the placebo group stayed largely the same1. A difference in blood pressure was also seen one hour after the first dose1.
Blood tests showed no significant change in cholesterol or other blood fats. The researchers said this suggests the changes in the blood vessels were not caused by lowering blood fats1. The estimated 10-year risk of heart disease, a score doctors calculate from several readings, went down modestly, mostly because of the blood pressure difference1.
To give a sense of scale, the university’s announcement noted that earlier large studies have linked a 5-point drop in the top blood pressure number, kept up over time, with roughly 10% fewer major heart and blood vessel events1. It added that this trial was not designed to measure such events1.
What it does not show yet
The measurements in this trial are biomarkers, signs in the body that are linked to heart risk. They are not clinical outcomes such as heart attacks, strokes or deaths1. A change in a biomarker does not always lead to a change in health over the years.
The study’s lead voice, Christian Heiss, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Surrey, said this directly:
“These findings are encouraging. We now need larger studies to understand the mechanisms involved and, importantly, whether these changes translate into longer-term health benefits.”1
Other limits are clear from the numbers. With 61 people split into two groups, the trial is small, and six months is a short time compared with how heart disease develops. The announcement does not describe the volunteers’ ages or health in detail, so it is not clear who the results apply to. Because the supplement contains many ingredients at once, the study also cannot say which ingredient, if any, is behind the changes. Heiss said understanding the mechanisms is one of the next steps1.
Juliet Wright, founding dean of the University of Surrey’s School of Medicine, called the findings “an interesting proof of concept” and said the next step is to establish whether the changes in heart biomarkers lead to meaningful longer-term health benefits1.
Who is behind it
The trial was led by University of Surrey scientists, and the paper’s first listed author is Charles Piercy1. The supplement is made by NOVOS, which sells it alongside other longevity products2.
The university’s announcement quotes Diogo Barardo, NOVOS’s director of research and development, who said the company began developing NOVOS Core in 2019 on the idea that targeting all the hallmarks of aging at once could produce measurable improvements1. He called the trial, which the company names STAMINA, “encouraging clinical evidence consistent with that hypothesis”1. The announcement does not say who paid for the trial or whether NOVOS staff took part in running it. Readers should keep in mind that the maker of a product has an interest in positive results.
How it fits with earlier claims
This is not the first study NOVOS has promoted. In October 2024, the company reported that NOVOS Core extended lifespan by 18% in mice in a study at Newcastle University’s Biosciences Institute3. That study used 38 male mice that were 20 months old at the start, divided into three groups: no treatment, NOVOS Core, and a combination of senolytic drugs, which are designed to clear out worn-out “senescent” cells3. The company said the supplement added about 127 days of life on average compared with untreated mice3.
Those findings come from the company’s own blog, which describes the results in strongly promotional terms, and they were in mice, not people3. Results in mice often do not carry over to humans.
The new trial is different in two ways. It was done in people, and it was published in a peer-reviewed journal1. But it measured blood vessel signs over six months, not lifespan or aging as a whole. It does not test the company’s broader claim that the product slows aging.
Multi-ingredient supplements are common in the longevity market. Testing one against a placebo in a randomized trial, as this study did, is a step up from customer testimonials or animal work, though it is still an early step.
What to watch next
The researchers and the university both pointed to the same next steps: larger studies, work on how the supplement might affect blood vessels, and research into whether the changes lead to real health benefits over time1. Things to look for include:
- a larger and longer trial, ideally run or checked by researchers without ties to the company;
- details from the full paper on the volunteers, side effects and any measurements that did not change;
- independent attempts to repeat the blood pressure and artery stiffness results;
- any study that tracks actual heart attacks, strokes or other health events rather than biomarkers.
For now, the trial shows that in 61 people over six months, a daily multi-ingredient drink was linked to better readings on three blood vessel tests and no change in blood fats, compared with a dummy drink1. Whether that matters for long-term health is still unknown.
