Who doesn’t want to live forever? Well, a lot of people I’m sure. Forever is…well… forever.
But whether it’s for our health or our vanity, most of us probably wouldn’t say “no” to a long life without the side effects that come with getting older. And if you’re searching for ways to stay young, you may have stumbled upon a new kind of anti-aging supplement: one based on a molecule called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. NAD+ for short.
And while you shouldn’t spend your life’s savings on the stuff, it turns out that science might be onto something here. Might. [♪ INTRO] Human bodies age because they accumulate cellular damage over time.
This damage can come from a variety of sources. Some are external factors, like UV radiation and pollution. Some are internal, like the genetic errors that slowly build up as our cells copy their DNA over and over to make more of themselves.
So over time, our cells can begin to malfunction, or they simply die without replicating, leaving no replacement. So aging is a gradual decline in function. And with it comes a higher risk of age-related illnesses like heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders.
Modern medicine has gotten better at treating many of these diseases, but hasn’t worked out how to stop aging in the first place. At least not yet. But this is where NAD⁺ enters the chat.
Our bodies are constantly making NAD⁺ throughout our lives, and it’s what scientists call a coenzyme, a molecule that helps enzymes do their jobs in the cell. And this particular coenzyme supports several essential functions in every cell of your body. NAD⁺ plays a major part in DNA repair, inflammation reduction, and keeping your mitochondria working properly.
But as we get older, the amount of NAD⁺ in our bodies drops. It’s a totally natural process, but this decline contributes to the cellular damage and breakdown we see as aging. So scientists have a hypothesis: that boosting a person’s NAD⁺ levels could be the key to combating the aging process.
And like all good scientists, they’ve been testing that hypothesis. Some researchers have focused on supplements that don’t specifically contain NAD⁺, but one of two smaller molecules that our bodies can turn into NAD⁺. Their names are both mouthfuls, so we’ll just call them NR and NMN.
And that’s because NAD⁺ is a lot harder for your body to absorb. It has to be injected directly into your bloodstream, but the precursor molecules can be taken in pill form. So even if literally no one on the planet was afraid of needles, those pills would be a much cheaper anti-aging intervention, assuming the research proves the hypothesis correct.
And the results of these supplements have been promising… at least if you’re a lab animal. And if you’re a human animal, you might be interested in these sponsors. Thanks to Brilliant for supporting this SciShow video!
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You’ll get 20% off an annual premium Brilliant subscription and the first 30 days for free. In one paper from 2013, a team of scientists gave some geriatric mice daily doses of NMN for one week, and the mice wound up showing better muscle function. Researchers have also carried out studies on tiny worms, called C.
elegans. Testing on worms might sound a bit pointless, but these little creatures are actually pretty similar to us, biologically speaking. We share many of the same genes and bodily processes, so scientists use them as sort of “simplified” versions of the human body, to see what side effects certain drugs might have on us.
Both positive and negative. And increasing NAD⁺ levels in C. elegans worms, either by giving them those precursor supplements, or by genetically engineering them to maintain higher NAD⁺ levels in their bodies, appears to extend their life and delay certain age-related declines.
But, despite all their similarities, mice and worms are not humans. So, the big question remains, does this promising research translate to us? So far, the results in human trials have been encouraging, but limited.
One study in middle-aged and older adults showed that taking NR supplements increased NAD⁺ levels without any significant side effects, and might have some potential for treating heart disease. Another trial, which used NMN instead, was in postmenopausal women with pre-diabetes. The women who took the supplement had better insulin sensitivity in their muscles compared to women who took a placebo.
And back in 2022, a research team published a big analysis that looked at multiple studies to see what we could learn from all of these findings put together. They found that the supplements may help manage your cholesterol. And our cholesterol levels can get harder to manage as we age, although that’s mostly because of how our lifestyles change as we age, not the aging itself.
Either way, I have to say “may” because the decrease they found wasn’t statistically significant. But in more positive news, it appeared that increasing NAD⁺ can reduce certain chemical signals associated with inflammation. That’s good because chronic inflammation is linked to a wide range of diseases and health issues.
But while these studies show that boosting NAD⁺ in our aging bodies can do us some good, they fall short of the life-extension promises seen in worms. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the wellness industry from enthusiastically embracing NAD⁺ as an anti-aging miracle. You can wander down the aisle of your local drug store and pick up a bottle of non-FDA regulated NAD⁺ precursor right now.
Or if you’ve got even more money to burn, you could do what Jennifer Aniston told The Wall Street Journal she does, and get hooked up to a NAD⁺ IV drip. Luxury wellness centers currently offer NAD⁺ infusion treatments that’ll set you back hundreds of dollars per session! The reality, however, is that we’re still in the early days of understanding the full impact of boosting NAD⁺ levels in humans.
Whether or not NAD⁺ turns out to be our best bet against aging, what can we do to stave off the inevitable march of time? Well, instead of trying to expand our natural lifespan, we can try using well-established, if unglamourous techniques to maximize our healthspan, the number of years we live in good health, free from chronic disease. And yes, I mean the boring stuff, like eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, not smoking, and so forth.
Maybe just focus on the basics before splurging on NAD+ products. Boosting NAD⁺ certainly isn’t the magic bullet some companies are claiming it to be. But maybe, just maybe, we’ve found a fancier way to help us live longer, if not forever.
