Inside every cell of your body, a molecule called NAD+ is hard at work keeping you alive and thriving. This essential coenzyme, technically known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is crucial for powering everything from basic cell function to DNA repair. As we age, our NAD+ levels naturally decline, which may explain many common signs of aging, from decreased energy to slower recovery times. So, what is NAD+?
In this article, we'll break down what NAD+ is, explore its essential role in cellular health and aging, and uncover practical ways to maintain healthy NAD+ levels. Whether you're interested in healthy aging, optimizing your cellular health, or learning about the science behind feeling your best, understanding NAD+ is a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Key Takeaways
- NAD+ is a coenzyme found in every cell that powers vital functions like energy production, DNA repair, and cellular health. However, its levels naturally decline with age.
- The benefits of NAD+ span multiple areas of health, including muscle strength, brain function, heart health, and immune system support.
- While diet and lifestyle factors can help maintain NAD+ levels, supplements containing NR (nicotinamide riboside) are considered the most effective way to boost NAD+ levels.
- Recent research links healthy NAD+ levels to better aging outcomes, with studies showing it helps activate "longevity genes" and supports cellular repair mechanisms.
What Is NAD+?
Wondering what NAD+ is? NAD+, short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is a coenzyme essential for the healthy functioning of all living cells. Acting alongside enzymes, coenzymes accelerate specific chemical reactions vital for cellular functions. With thousands of enzymes at work in the body, NAD+ stands out as indispensable. It's involved in over 500 enzymatic reactions, playing a pivotal role in regulating nearly all significant biological processes.
A Brief History of NAD+
The history of NAD+ traces back to its discovery in 1906 during research on fermentation. Scientists William John Young and Arthur Harden identified a substance in brewing yeast that boosted sugar fermentation, naming it a "coferment," known today as NAD+.⁽¹⁾Their work laid the foundation for further exploration, leading to Hans von Euler-Chelpin and Arthur Harden's Nobel Prize-winning research in 1929, which deepened our understanding of NAD+ and fermentation processes.⁽²⁾
In 1930, Otto Warburg uncovered NAD+'s pivotal role in biochemical reactions, particularly in electron transfer—a process crucial for energy generation in the body. ⁽³⁾ Despite these breakthroughs, NAD+ gained widespread attention only in the late 1930s, when niacin, a precursor to NAD+, proved effective in treating pellagra—a severe condition prevalent in the American South, characterized by skin inflammation, diarrhea, dementia, and mouth sores. Further studies revealed that niacin-rich sources like milk and yeast could alleviate pellagra symptoms due to their NAD+ precursor content.⁽⁴⁾
Over time, scientists identified various NAD+ precursors, such as nicotinic acid (NA), nicotinamide (NAM), and nicotinamide riboside (NR), each serving as pathways to NAD+ production. Understanding the historical context and significance of NAD+ and its precursors sheds light on their crucial roles in cellular processes and health maintenance.
What Are the Benefits of NAD+?
The benefits of NAD+ stretch far beyond basic cellular function. This molecule plays a crucial role in nearly every aspect of your health, from supporting healthy aging to maintaining muscle and brain health.
As researchers continue to study NAD+, they're uncovering more ways this essential compound helps keep our bodies running at their best. Let's explore the key benefits of maintaining healthy NAD+ levels.
Supporting healthy aging
When it comes to healthy aging, NAD+ is your cellular ally. This molecule helps activate proteins called sirtuins, often nicknamed the "longevity genes," which help regulate various aspects of aging.⁽⁵⁾
As we get older, natural NAD+ levels decrease significantly — by up to 65% between ages 30 and 70+. NAD+ aging research shows that maintaining healthy NAD+ levels supports your body's natural repair processes, helps protect against oxidative stress, and supports the kind of cellular health associated with healthy aging.
Supports cellular health
NAD+ isn't just crucial for energy production; it's a powerhouse coenzyme driving cellular health and DNA repair alongside sirtuins and PARP (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase) enzymes. Factors like high-fat/high-sugar diets, excessive alcohol intake, immune health challenges, or sedentary lifestyles can harm cells, but NAD+ is the key to cellular rejuvenation.
Sirtuins, essential for metabolic balance, manage fat and glucose metabolism in response to energy fluctuations, ensuring energy homeostasis. Additionally, they safeguard chromosome stability, mend DNA, and alleviate cellular stress.⁽⁶⁾
PARPs also play pivotal roles in DNA repair and chromosome stability. When DNA damage occurs due to metabolic stressors or environmental factors like sunburn, PARPs spring into action, initiating repair processes. NAD+ is crucial for PARPs to synthesize new DNA strands, aiding in the restoration of damaged cells.⁽⁷⁾
NAD+ depletion can occur in the skin; in animal studies, NAD+ deficiency increased the sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) rays and impaired the ability to repair skin cells after sun damage.⁽⁸⁾
Supports muscle health
NAD+ helps keep your muscles strong and functional. It helps your muscle cells produce the energy they need for everything from daily activities to intense workouts. As you age, maintaining adequate NAD+ levels becomes even more important for muscle health.
Research shows that NAD+ helps support muscle stem cell function, which is essential for muscle repair and regeneration after exercise.⁽⁹⁾ It also helps regulate metabolism in muscle tissue, supporting healthy muscle function and recovery.
Boosts brain health
Your brain is home to a staggering 86 billion neurons, the dynamic cells that orchestrate the exchange of neurotransmitters, vital chemical messengers facilitating communication between brain cells. These neurons, often dubbed “excitable cells,” possess an extraordinary ability to generate electrical impulses essential for transmitting information.
This electric activity comes at a cost, as neurons demand significant energy to function optimally, making them susceptible to “excitotoxicity,” defined as when nerve cells suffer damage or death when the levels of otherwise necessary and safe neurotransmitters such as glutamate become pathologically high.
NAD+ is a pivotal molecule revered for its function in neuronal resilience and brain health. NAD+ serves as a primary substrate for mitochondrial activity, facilitating the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the fundamental energy currency driving neuronal functionality within the brain.⁽¹⁰⁾
Aids in reproductive health
Recent research has highlighted NAD+'s role in reproductive health. This molecule helps maintain the quality of eggs in females. NAD+ levels are particularly important during pregnancy, as they help support healthy fetal development. Studies suggest that maintaining adequate NAD+ levels may help support overall reproductive function and fertility.⁽¹¹⁾
Fights lifestyle stressors
Our cells face constant challenges from environmental toxins, poor diet, lack of sleep, and stress. NAD+ acts as a cellular defender, helping your body adapt to these various lifestyle stressors. It supports your cells' natural stress response systems and helps maintain cellular health even when faced with challenging conditions. Whether recovering from a late night, bouncing back from a strenuous workout, or dealing with environmental stressors, NAD+ helps your cells stay resilient.⁽¹²⁾
Supports heart health
Research suggests that sustaining optimal NAD+ levels may play a pivotal role in safeguarding heart health.⁽¹³⁾ A pioneering pilot study, partially funded by the American Heart Association, delved into the impact of nicotinamide riboside (NR), a precursor to NAD+, on mitochondrial health within the heart.⁽¹⁴⁾
This study focused on analyzing peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), commonly known as white blood cells. The findings revealed a significant improvement in the mitochondrial respiration rate of PBMCs following supplementation with NR over a span of five to nine days.
Supports immune health
NAD+ helps support the function of immune cells and aids in their energy production, which is essential for mounting an effective immune response. NAD+ also helps regulate inflammation in the body, supporting balanced immune function. Maintaining healthy NAD+ levels may help support your body's natural defense systems and overall immune health.⁽¹²⁾
What Role Does NAD+ Play in Energy Production?
How is energy generated from NAD+ different from just drinking a cup of coffee? 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.
There are several ways your cells and mitochondria produce energy, and the most efficient way is the electron transport chain process. NAD+ temporarily binds with mitochondrial enzymes, and when the bond breaks, NAD+ transfers electrons with the enzymes. These electrons help catalyze a chemical reaction, triggering the production of cellular energy. It’s called a “chain” because multiple enzymes work together like an assembly line, passing the electrons down to the following enzyme. NAD+ drives this process by acting as a delivery mechanism, providing and accepting negatively charged electrons to and from many enzymes that sit in the mitochondrial membrane. NAD+ ignites these mitochondrial power plants in your body. Without it, the electron transport chain assembly line would halt.
How Can You Get More NAD+?
As the science around NAD+ becomes clearer, many people are wondering about the best ways to boost their levels of this essential molecule. While your body naturally produces NAD+, several strategies can help maintain or increase your NAD+ levels. From simple lifestyle changes to more targeted approaches, let's explore your options.
- Supplementation: The most effective way to boost NAD+ levels is through what are NAD+ supplements containing NR (nicotinamide riboside). What are NAD+ supplements? Unlike other forms of vitamin B3, NR supplements are efficiently converted to NAD+ in the body and typically don't cause uncomfortable side effects like flushing.⁽¹⁵⁾ When choosing a supplement, look for products backed by clinical research and third-party testing.
- NAD+ IV therapy and injections: NAD+ IV therapy is an intravenous treatment that delivers NAD+ directly into the bloodstream through an IV, bypassing the digestive system. Using pharma-grade Niagen to boost NAD+ is a direct approach that increases NAD+ in your bloodstream through intravenous infusion or injection at wellness clinics. These treatments can provide quick results, with a 20% increase in NAD+ levels within three hours of treatment. With availability at premier wellness clinics, Niagen IV by Niagen Plus can be an efficient way to boost your NAD+ levels.
- Diet: One of the most well-known tips for aging well is to eat a healthy diet. While food alone won't dramatically increase NAD+ levels, eating these nutrients as part of a balanced diet supports your body's natural NAD+ production.
- Lifestyle: Regular exercise, getting enough quality sleep, and stress management can help maintain healthy NAD+ levels. Research shows that activities like strength training, time-restricted eating, and maintaining a healthy weight can help support your body's natural NAD+ production.⁽¹⁶⁾ You can also gain tips from the Blue Zone diet and lifestyle, which blends healthy, plant-based eating with community and social interactions to live longer.
What Is the Best Way to Boost NAD+ Levels?
Taking NR is the best way to boost NAD+ levels. NAD+ is naturally produced by cells in your body, and while fasting and exercise can increase NAD+ production, the most effective way to boost NAD+ levels is by consuming NAD-boosting supplements in the form of vitamin B3. Since vitamin B3 deficiency is rare, you may not know how vital this nutrient is for health or what happens when you don’t have enough of it.
Niacin is the most prevalent B3 vitamin and is commonly found in multivitamins and breakfast cereals. Unfortunately, niacin can cause the unwanted side effect of flushing (redness and heat in the face and upper body) at high doses. Furthermore, there are potential side effects when taking niacin while also taking certain cholesterol drugs called statins. As such, niacin is not the preferred B3 vitamin for NAD+ creation.
Nicotinamide has no apparent side effects, but a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that nicotinamide inhibits sirtuins, which could result in diminished cellular repair.⁽¹⁷⁾
Although related to niacin and nicotinamide, NR is structurally and biochemically different. NR’s discovery was a critical turning point in NAD+ research because of its unique property of elevating NAD+ levels far more efficiently than its vitamin B3 rivals. It requires fewer steps to convert to NAD+ in the body than niacin and promotes sirtuin activity, unlike nicotinamide. To date, NR has no attributable adverse effects in published clinical studies where it has been administered in servings of up to 2,000mg/day.
Why Do NAD+ Levels Decline with Age?
As we age, our bodies naturally produce less NAD+. However, aging itself isn't the only factor affecting our NAD+ levels. Understanding these decline factors can help us make better choices to support our NAD+ production and overall health.
- Oxidative stress and inflammation: Our cells are constantly bombarded by various stressors that drain NAD+ resources. Poor diet choices, chronic stress, environmental toxins, and air pollution all trigger oxidative stress in our cells. When this happens, our bodies use more NAD+ to repair the damage, depleting our natural reserves.
- Mitochondrial dysfunction: Our mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses that produce energy, become less efficient with age. This decline creates a vicious cycle: as mitochondria struggle, they require more NAD+ to function, but they also become less efficient at recycling used NAD+ back into its active form. Over time, this leads to both decreased NAD+ production and increased NAD+ consumption, contributing to an overall metabolic slowdown.
- Poor lifestyle: Many common lifestyle choices can accelerate NAD+ decline. A sedentary lifestyle reduces our cells' ability to efficiently produce and use NAD+. Regular alcohol consumption forces our bodies to use more NAD+ for toxin processing, while high-calorie diets overwhelm our metabolic systems. Late nights and irregular sleep patterns disrupt our natural circadian rhythms, which can influence NAD+ production.
NAD+ Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Take NAD+ Directly?
Direct supplementation of NAD+ is inefficient due to its inability to enter cells directly. Your body must break down orally administered NAD+ into smaller molecules and then reassemble them again in order to be utilized. NAD+ is made up of different parts, including two phosphate groups, which contribute to its large size. Unlike NAD+, when NR is ingested, it can enter cells directly because of its smaller size. The breakdown and reassembly of NAD+ requires extra time and energy, which is why vitamin NR supplementation is the superior method of increasing NAD+ levels.
Can I Get NAD+ from Food?
Foods like broccoli, cabbage, poultry, beef, rice, and milk contain small amounts of the NAD+ precursors tryptophan and niacin (vitamin B3). B3 vitamins are precursors used as building blocks to create NAD+. There are three main forms of vitamin B3: niacin, nicotinamide, and the less common NR. The amino acid tryptophan yields NAD+ but requires excessively more biochemical steps for NAD+ production than the different forms of vitamin B3, thus rendering this amino acid an estimated 60 times less efficient for NAD+ production compared to niacin. Research also indicates that NAD+ levels decrease by up to 65% between the ages of 30 and 70, so food alone won’t compensate for the NAD+ decline with age.
What’s the Difference Between NAD, NAD+, and NADH?
You might see the terms NAD, NAD+, and NADH used interchangeably online and on store shelves. “NAD” is a collective term that defines the different forms NAD takes on its molecular journey. NAD+ and NADH occur when an electron is gained (NADH) or lost (NAD+). NAD+ represents the oxidized form of NAD because of losing an electron. Gaining and losing an electron like this is called a redox reaction. NADH represents the reduced form of NAD because it gains an electron and is ready to transport it to a different molecule. The letter H in the acronym stands for hydrogen. NAD molecules frequently switch back and forth between these two forms as they transport electrons elsewhere to power metabolic reactions.
Can you boost NAD+ levels with NMN?
NR has been suggested to have better bioavailability compared to NMN. This means it may be more efficiently absorbed and utilized by cells. NR is 25% more efficient than NMN at converting to NAD+ based on a 2019 NIAGEN study.⁽¹⁸⁾ NR can directly enter a cell, raising NAD+ via a few enzymatic steps, whereas NMN cannot enter cells directly. Some studies suggest that NR may be more effective in raising NAD+ levels in certain tissues, such as the liver, than NMN.⁽¹⁹⁾ NR may be more readily available than NMN, which can influence individual preferences. Most importantly, NMN was banned from sale in dietary supplements by the FDA in November 2022, which is another reason why health-conscious consumers choose NR.
Why Has NAD+ Become Popular?
Recent interest in the aging process and age-related health issues has brought NAD+ to the forefront of scientific research. In a review published in Cell, a team of researchers proposed nine hallmarks of aging, one of which is related to the health of mitochondria. With further exploration of how to prevent mitochondrial dysfunction, NAD+ became the central focus due to its direct role in mitochondrial health and healthy aging.
Wrapping Up: The Future of NAD+
This is an exciting time for NAD+. Research and clinical trials continue to investigate the potential benefits of supplemented NAD+ levels. Also, NAD+ has been receiving media coverage from news sources that investigate its healthy aging and cellular energy-boosting capabilities. As the population ages and science improves, the development of and demand for efficient NAD-boosting supplements like Tru Niagen continue to grow.
Now that you have a better understanding of the history, the science, and the advantages of increasing NAD+ levels, stay on the lookout for news and developments by keeping an eye on the Tru Niagen news page and signing up for our regular emails.
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