You have probably heard that your blood vessels stiffen with age. Most of us assume it is a slow drift measured in years.
The idea that any supplement could nudge them in under an hour sounds unlikely.
Researchers at the University of Surrey ran a randomized controlled trial of 61 adults aged 40 and older. A multi-ingredient supplement called NOVOS Core improved flow-mediated dilation, a standard measure of blood vessel flexibility, within an hour of the first dose.
The findings were published in November 2026 in European Heart Journal Open. The trial was led by Christian Heiss, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Surrey.
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The six-month results
Over six months, the supplement group's systolic blood pressure fell 6.1 mmHg more than the placebo group's. Arterial stiffness, measured by pulse wave velocity, also dropped more in the supplement group, with a difference of 1.18 meters per second.
Blood vessel flexibility stayed better in the supplement group at the six-month mark, not only at one hour. Cholesterol and triglyceride levels did not change in either group.
"Because vascular aging is multi-factorial, the formulation was designed to target several complementary pathways," Heiss told Medical News Today.
What is in the supplement?
NOVOS Core is a 15-gram daily powder dissolved in water. It contains vitamin C, magnesium, calcium alpha-ketoglutarate, glycine, glucosamine, hyaluronic acid and L-theanine.
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The powder also includes pterostilbene, fisetin, ginger root extract, Rhodiola rosea extract and a small amount of lithium.
The researchers chose ingredients linked in earlier work to processes behind biological aging and vascular dysfunction. They do not claim to know which ingredient, or which combination, drove the effect.
The results need caution
The trial was small. Sixty-one adults started, and 43 completed the study, which the authors note limits how far the findings generalize. Participants were healthy non-smokers, so the results may not carry over to people with existing heart disease.
The study measured biomarkers, not clinical outcomes. No one tracked heart attacks, strokes or deaths. Whether these early changes in blood vessel markers translate into fewer heart events over years remains unknown.
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Funding also matters here. NOVOS Labs, the company that sells NOVOS Core, funded the study and supplied both the active powder and the placebo. One of the paper's authors is a NOVOS Labs employee.
The paper states that the funder had no role in data collection, analysis or the decision to publish, and that the academic authors kept full control of the data.
What comes next?
Heiss and his team call this a proof-of-concept study. They write that larger trials are needed to see whether the changes in blood vessel markers translate into fewer heart attacks and strokes over time.
Anyone already taking blood pressure medication or being treated for cardiovascular disease should talk to their doctor before adding a supplement of this kind.
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This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.