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Aging is an irreversible process. There are no creams or serums that can bring your cells back to their youthful beginnings.
So, instead of buying into anti-aging or reversing the aging process, modern science focuses on living your best life, which is called healthy aging. Ultimately, this means staying healthier for longer.
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+, is a molecule that holds great promise for healthy aging. NAD+ benefits your entire body since you’re made up of trillions of cells. The power of being able to increase NAD+ through modern scientific advancements may be considered life-changing. But can NAD+ reverse aging? Keep reading to find out.
What Is NAD+?
So, what is NAD+? NAD+ is a coenzyme present in all living cells. A coenzyme is a molecule that works with an enzyme to speed up a specific chemical reaction. NAD+ is required for over 500 enzymatic reactions and plays key roles in the regulation of almost all major biological processes.
Enzymes work in tandem with NAD+ to help produce the body’s energy within your cells’ mitochondria. Mitochondria are nicknamed “the powerhouses of the cell” because they produce energy for all your cellular functions. In fact, 90% of your body’s energy is made within your mitochondria. Without NAD+, your body would come to a complete stop.
Unfortunately, research shows that NAD+ levels decline as we age, particularly past the age of 40.⁽¹⁾ This decrease in NAD+ is connected to a decrease in cellular energy and repair, which can potentially lead to accelerated aging.
What Is the Connection Between NAD+ and Aging?
The relationship between NAD+ and aging is fundamental to how our cells function and maintain themselves over time. NAD+ levels steadily decline as we age. This decline isn't just a side effect of aging — it actively contributes to many cellular changes we associate with getting older.
When NAD+ levels fall, it affects several critical cellular processes. First, energy production becomes less efficient, as NAD+ is essential for converting nutrients into cellular energy. Without adequate NAD+, mitochondrial function declines, leading to decreased energy production throughout the body.
DNA repair mechanisms also suffer when NAD+ levels are low. Our DNA faces constant damage from environmental factors and normal cellular processes, and NAD+ plays a crucial role in powering the enzymes that repair this damage. Cellular damage can accumulate quicker when repair processes slow down due to insufficient NAD+.
This molecule affects multiple aspects of cellular health. Beyond energy production and DNA repair, NAD+ influences inflammation levels, cellular stress responses, and the function of proteins called sirtuins that help regulate the aging process.
Understanding this connection has led researchers to investigate how to maintain NAD+ levels as we age, which could be key to supporting cellular health and function over time. While aging itself is natural and inevitable, maintaining optimal NAD+ levels may help support our cells' natural maintenance and repair processes throughout our lifespan.
How Is Oxidative Stress Related to Aging?
As we age, oxidative stress rises and DNA repair declines due to lower cellular NAD+ levels.. NAD+ depletion may play a major role in the aging process at the cellular level by limiting (1) energy production, (2) DNA repair, and (3) genomic signaling.⁽²⁾
While mitochondria are great at producing cellular energy, they also produce a byproduct called free radicals. Free radicals can damage DNA, RNA, and proteins, wreaking havoc on cellular function. Without the proper NAD+ levels, the body may be less able to repair DNA, resulting in more rapid aging.
Our bodies usually have a healthy amount of antioxidants to combat the problem, keeping a delicate balance between free radicals and antioxidants. But sometimes, lifestyle habits can throw things off balance.
Habits such as lack of exercise, sleep deprivation, poor diet, excessive alcohol, and smoking cigarettes all kick our mitochondria into overdrive, which shifts the balance of our free radicals to an unmanageable level. This is what’s known as oxidative stress.
You can counteract the natural decline in NAD+ levels and the effects of oxidative stress with lifestyle changes such as a healthy diet and routine exercise, along with supplementing with NAD+ precursors. What is an NAD supplement? These supplements aim to boost NAD+ levels, which naturally decline with age. Common forms include nicotinamide riboside (NR) and NMN supplements. Niagen® is Tru Niagen’s patented form of NR, which is one of the most well-researched NAD+ boosters on the market.
Higher NAD+ can improve mitochondrial efficiency, reducing oxidative stress on the body and resulting in numerous benefits.
Can NAD+ Reverse Aging?
One of the most significant discoveries about NAD+ and aging involves mitochondria, our cellular powerhouses. These tiny structures help maintain NAD+ balance when levels drop. This explains why some tissues age differently than others and why maintaining NAD+ levels becomes increasingly important as we get older.⁽³⁾
The connection between NAD+ and healthy aging extends beyond energy production. Research has shown that NAD+ supports critical proteins called sirtuins, which help regulate the aging process at a molecular level. These proteins need NAD+ to function properly, and their activity has been linked to various aspects of cellular health.⁽¹⁾
Perhaps most intriguingly, studies have found that NAD+ levels don't just passively decline with age—they're actively regulated by several enzymes in our bodies.⁽⁴⁾ This suggests that supporting NAD+ levels through NAD+ supplements and lifestyle changes could help maintain cellular resilience as we age.
While NAD+ supplementation shows promise for supporting healthy aging, it's important to understand that it works best when combined with a comprehensive approach to health, including proper nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate sleep. Together, these factors support the body's natural ability to maintain cellular health over time.
What Are the Benefits of NAD+?
The remarkable scope of NAD+ in supporting our body's functions extends far beyond basic cellular health. This vital molecule acts as a cornerstone for numerous biological processes, working at the cellular level to support everything from heart function to healthy brain aging. Research continues to uncover new ways that NAD+ contributes to our overall well-being, particularly as we age.
Let's explore how NAD+ supports various aspects of health and the ways your body uses NAD:
Healthy Aging
As we advance through life, maintaining optimal NAD+ levels becomes increasingly crucial for aging healthily. NAD+ helps preserve cellular function and resilience, supporting our bodies' natural repair processes. This doesn't just affect how we feel—it influences how our cells manage the natural aging process, helping maintain vitality at the cellular level.
Heart Health
NAD+ ensures that your mitochondria produce enough energy to drive cellular function. A decline in mitochondrial function in cardiac cells can affect heart health. In conjunction with a healthy diet and regular exercise, boosting your NAD+ levels helps your mitochondria produce the energy required to support heart health.
Brain Health
Your brain is the hungriest organ in your body. At only 2% of your body weight, its main function—processing and transmitting information—consumes a full 20% of your body’s energy every day. This energy comes from mitochondria, which convert food into energy in the cells. NAD+ supports brain health by allowing mitochondria to generate around 95% of the brain’s energy by making ATP (adenosine triphosphate). And just to give you an idea of how important mitochondria are to brain function, each brain cell has around 2 million mitochondria.
Muscle Health
Skeletal muscle cells can contain thousands of mitochondria, and NAD+ localization to mitochondria is important for muscle health. Exercise and movement require significant energy, and your muscle cells use NAD+ to help fuel contraction and relaxation. Your cells also need to repair themselves from any damage done, and cellular repair requires NAD+.
Eye Health
The retina is a demanding tissue when it comes to energy requirements, and NAD+ plays a crucial role in providing this energy supply. NAD+ homeostasis has been shown to be vitally important in the survival and function of neurons in the retina in preclinical models. UV light exposure can also damage ocular tissues via oxidative stress. NAD+ has been shown to mitigate the aging effects of oxidative stress.[5]
Sleep Regulation
Misaligned circadian rhythms lead to things like jet lag and sleep deprivation. NAD+ helps regulate circadian rhythms, helping keep energy metabolism, hormone regulation, and body temperature variations all in sync and working at their best.
Cellular Health
NAD+ powers cellular health through energy production and DNA maintenance. In the mitochondria, NAD+ participates in the electron transport chain — a process that works like a molecular assembly line. Here, NAD+ helps transfer electrons between enzymes, creating the energy your cells need to function.
Beyond energy production, NAD+ enables DNA maintenance and repair. When cells face damage from environmental stressors and metabolic processes, NAD+ powers PARP-1, an enzyme that detects and repairs DNA damage. Research in Molecular Biology of the Cell shows how NAD+ allows PARP-1 to effectively protect cellular integrity.⁽⁶⁾
NAD+ further supports proteins called sirtuins, which help maintain chromosome stability and manage cellular stress responses. These proteins need NAD+ to function, making NAD+ levels essential for cellular nutrition and overall cellular health.
Immune Health
NAD+ supports immune system function by helping maintain healthy immune cell activity. Our immune response naturally becomes less efficient as we age, partly due to declining NAD+ levels. NAD+ helps immune cells function properly by supporting their energy needs and cellular repair processes. This becomes particularly important as we age since maintaining robust immune function helps protect overall health and supports healthy aging.
The relationship between NAD+ and immune health extends to inflammation management. NAD+ helps regulate inflammatory responses by supporting key cellular processes. Maintaining adequate NAD+ levels supports the body's natural immune balance and resilience as it ages.
Reproductive Health
NAD+ supports mitochondrial health in reproductive cells, which is essential for their proper function and viability. As we age, declining NAD+ levels may impact cells involved in reproductive health, affecting the cells' ability to function optimally.
How Can You Boost NAD+ Levels?
Several effective strategies exist for maintaining and boosting your NAD+ levels. While natural decline with age is inevitable, research has identified multiple approaches that can help support healthy NAD+ levels. Here's a comprehensive look at the most effective methods:
- NAD supplements: NAD-boosting supplements offer a direct way to support your NAD+ levels. The most researched form is nicotinamide riboside (NR), a precursor that your body converts into NAD+. Look for supplements containing Niagen to boost NAD+ levels, such as Tru Niagen, as this form has been clinically tested for safety and effectiveness.
- Niagen IV therapy: Niagen IV therapy contains pharma-grade Niagen to boost NAD+, providing a more intensive approach to boosting NAD+ levels. This treatment delivers pharmaceutical-grade Niagen (patented nicotinamide riboside) directly into your bloodstream. Recent studies show that Niagen IV can increase NAD+ levels by up to 20% within just three hours. You can find a premium wellness clinic near you to gain access to research-backed therapies provided by industry-leading doctors.
- Diet: Foods like fish, mushrooms, green vegetables, and whole grains naturally support NAD+ production. Limiting alcohol consumption also helps preserve NAD+ levels.
- Exercise: Regular physical activity stimulates NAD+ production by activating NAMPT, an enzyme crucial for NAD+ synthesis.⁽⁷⁾
- Reduce sun exposure: Excessive UV exposure depletes NAD+, which cells use to repair sun damage. Protect your skin with proper clothing and sunscreen to preserve your NAD+ levels.
NAD+ for Anti-Aging FAQs
How long does it take for NAD to start working?
Results vary by individual and delivery method. With NAD+-boosting supplements, most people notice effects within 2-3 weeks of consistent use. Niagen IV therapy works more quickly, with studies showing up to a 20% increase in NAD+ levels within just 3 hours after treatment.
Does NAD reverse skin aging?
Yes, studies are showing that NAD+ can reverse skin aging. NAD+ plays a vital role in maintaining skin health through multiple mechanisms. NAD+ levels naturally decline as we age, affecting how our skin protects and repairs itself.
Research shows that NAD+ supports specific proteins called sirtuins that help preserve collagen and maintain skin structure. These proteins depend on NAD+ to function properly and help protect against UV damage and environmental stressors.
Additionally, NAD+ supports skin cell energy production and helps maintain healthy mitochondrial function, which is essential for skin cell regeneration and repair. Studies have found that maintaining adequate NAD+ levels helps support the skin's natural renewal processes and may help protect against the effects of environmental damage on skin cells.⁽⁸⁾
Can NAD prevent diseases associated with aging?
Yes, research shows that NAD+ can prevent chronic age-related diseases, supporting several biological processes that become more important as we age. Studies have found that maintaining healthy NAD+ levels supports brain cell function and energy metabolism, which may benefit cognitive health over time.⁽⁴⁾
NAD+ helps cells process nutrients more efficiently and supports healthy blood sugar regulation. The molecule also helps regulate inflammatory responses and supports cellular repair mechanisms throughout the body.
While early research is promising, scientists are still studying the full extent of NAD+'s potential benefits for age-related health challenges. Current evidence suggests that NAD+ works best when combined with a comprehensive approach to health, including proper nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate sleep. As research continues, we're learning more about how supporting cellular health through NAD+ may help maintain overall well-being as we age.
NAD+ Reverse Aging: The Key to Healthy Aging Lies in Your Cells
Scientists have often looked to the mitochondria in anti-aging (or healthy-aging) research. The logic follows the idea that if the mitochondria are the source of all cellular energy, any malfunction or reduction of power may be the reason all cellular functions gradually deteriorate.
And a decline in cell function is what we know as aging.
Reducing oxidative stress via nutrition, exercise, and sleep are some significant changes you can make in your daily life. However, raising NAD+ levels with precursor supplements can give you an added boost to ensure you stock your cells with the resources needed to maintain resilience as you age.