Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD) is a foundational cellular molecule essential to multiple metabolic and regulatory processes. Without adequate NAD, your cells — and you — cannot survive. Your body makes NAD from common foods, but most modern diets are made up of foods that are depleted or devoid of nutrients, leaving your body NAD-deficient. NAD levels naturally decline with age, accelerating the aging process.
Learn about the benefits of NAD, and how you can boost your own levels for better health.
What is NAD+
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a coenzyme found in all living things. Within the human body, coenzymes enable other enzymes to do their jobs. NAD+ is a fundamental component of energy metabolism, and plays a key role in multiple life-enabling metabolic processes.
In humans, NAD+:
- Regulates metabolic pathways
- Repairs DNA
- Remodels chromatin — a mixture of DNA and proteins that forms chromosomes
- Controls cellular senescence
- Supports immune cell function
NAD+ is the oxidized form of NAD, written with a plus sign to indicate its positive charge. As an oxidizing agent, NAD+ accepts electrons from other molecules, an essential step in the cascade of chemical reactions that create ATP. The terms NAD and NAD+ are often used interchangeably.
10 Key Health Benefits of NAD+
1. NAD+ Supports Mitochondrial Function
Mitochondria are tiny organelles inside each cell that are responsible for converting fats and glucose into ATP, the energy molecule. NAD plays a vital role in the energy transport chain. Without cellular NAD, life would not exist.
2. NAD+ Helps Repair Blood Vessels
Aging blood vessels begin to lose their capacity to constrict and dilate, leading to chronic inflammation and metabolic disorders. Since blood vessels are responsible for delivering oxygen and nutrients to cells throughout your body and for removing metabolic waste, poorly functioning blood vessels present a major health risk. NAD+ is known to have a vasoprotective mechanism to help maintain healthy endothelial cells that line the walls of blood vessels and enable their function.
3. NAD+ Improves Muscle Strength and Function
Mitochondria in muscle cells increase in size and number with regular physical activity. The greater the demand for ATP, the bigger and better the mitochondria. However, ATP production is highly dependent on NAD. One study of NAD-deficient patients found that administering high-dose niacin (B3) — an NAD precursor — increased blood NAD+ and enhanced muscle strength in all subjects treated. Improved strength is just one of many NAD booster benefits.
4. NAD+ Supports and Repairs DNA
NAD+ is an important substrate for DNA repair proteins, including PARP1, PARP2 and PARP3, along with DNA-repairing enzymes SIRT1 and SIRT6. NAD+ can be broken down into two components: nicotinamide and ADP-ribose. Those components combine with proteins to repair damaged DNA, support its integrity, and regulate gene expression.
5. NAD+ Enhances Cognitive Function and Fights Dementia
Multiple studies of mice have found that supplementing with NAD+ precursors improves cognitive function, learning, and memory. Many researchers believe that NAD supplements may help protect against dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
6. NAD Helps Prevent Weight Gain
One recent study found that supplementing with NAD+ precursors enhances whole-body energy expenditure by driving changes in adipose tissue. They concluded that NAD+ treatment has the potential to prevent obesity and its associated health problems.
7. NAD+ Wards Off Age-Related Degenerative Disorders
Research shows that NAD+ has a favorable effect on multiple age-related disorders associated with chronic oxidative stress, inflammation and impaired mitochondrial function — all of which accelerate aging and trigger physical and cognitive decline. NAD deficiency can severely diminish your quality of life as you age.
8. NAD+ Protects Against Metabolic Syndrome
Multiple studies agree that NAD+ protects against metabolic syndrome — a cluster of metabolic disorders and systemic inflammation that increase the risk of hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
9. NAD+ Boosts Immune Function
Due to its ubiquitous presence and participation in multiple biological processes, NAD+ is believed to be a key player in regulating several important immunological functions. For example, scientists note that NAD+ concentrations are lower in the tissues and organs of older people and in people with diseases associated with severe COVID-19 symptoms, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They suggest that NAD+ interventions may promote antiviral defense mechanisms and suppress uncontrolled inflammation.
10. NAD+ Helps Regulate Circadian Rhythms for Better Sleep
High-stress lifestyles and age-related dysfunction can disrupt normal sleep cycles, depriving you of deep and restful sleep. Poor sleep patterns take a toll on your body and brain. Your body’s cells repair and regenerate while you sleep, helping you to stay healthy and combat aging. Inadequate sleep can leave you foggy-brained, causing you to underperform at work and impairing your memory. NAD+ wakes up the mechanisms that regulate circadian rhythms and sleep cycles.
NAD Supplements vs Injections vs IV Infusion
Oral supplements can help to boost NAD, but their potency is unreliable because much of it can be lost in the digestive process. Some people have a low tolerance for pills and capsules, and may neglect to take them on a regular basis.
Subcutaneous NAD injections deliver a potent dose of nutrients directly into the tissue just below your skin, allowing for slow absorption into your bloodstream without diluting potency.
NAD+ subcutaneous injection benefits include:
- Fast and convenient NAD delivery
- Less costly than IV infusion
- Takes only minutes
- Regular injections yield lasting results
NAD+ IV infusion is a popular alternative to NAD+ injections. High-dose NAD can be combined with other nutrients to target specific conditions, and the solution is delivered directly into your bloodstream for speedy delivery to cells throughout your body.
Your NAD clinician can help you decide whether NAD+ injections or IV infusions are right for you.
Enjoy the Benefits of NAD+ Injection Therapy in NYC
Maintaining adequate levels of NAD can be a challenge for anyone, especially as you age. Modern diets of fast and processed foods — and diets that restrict the consumption of animal products — can leave your cells depleted of life-enabling NAD. Over time, low NAD causes cells to underperform and accelerates the aging process.
Enjoy the Benefits of NAD+ Injection Therapy
contact InVita Wellness today
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456 Broadway 2 Floor, New York, NY 10013, USA
In Midtown Manhattan, InVita Wellness offers fast, safe and effective NAD injections and IV infusions. Regular NAD therapy supports robust health and keeps you young and vital, so you can live your best life for years to come.
Resources
Braidy, Nady, and Yue Liu. “NAD+ therapy in age-related degenerative disorders: A benefit/risk analysis.” Experimental Gerontology 132 (2020): 110831.
Csiszar, Anna, et al. “Role of endothelial NAD+ deficiency in age-related vascular dysfunction.” American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology 316.6 (2019): H1253-H1266.
Grahnert, Andreas, et al. “NAD+: a modulator of immune functions.” Innate immunity 17.2 (2011): 212-233.
Méndez‐Lara, Karen Alejandra, et al. “Nicotinamide Protects Against Diet‐Induced Body Weight Gain, Increases Energy Expenditure, and Induces White Adipose Tissue Beiging.” Molecular Nutrition & Food Research 65.11 (2021): 2100111.
Pirinen, Eija, et al. “Niacin cures systemic NAD+ deficiency and improves muscle performance in adult-onset mitochondrial myopathy.” Cell metabolism 31.6 (2020): 1078-1090
Zheng, Minyan, Michael B. Schultz, and David A. Sinclair. “NAD+ in COVID-19 and viral infections.” Trends in Immunology 43.4 (2022): 283-295.
