What Is NAD+? Longevity Boosts of Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide & NMN
Channel: Lifespan News
Date: 2021-08-26

NAD+ is essential for life, one of the most versatile molecules in the body, and an important area of focus for aging research. NAD+ functions as a coenzyme in the mitochondria, allowing the creation of chemical energy that our bodies can then use. NAD+ binds to enzymes and transfers electrons between molecules. NAD+ works almost like recharging a battery. A battery goes flat because its electrons are used up to provide energy. The electrons can’t return to their charged state without a jolt, and it’s the same in our cells.

Humans have three major pathways to create NAD+: the de novo pathway, the Preiss–Handler pathway, and the salvage pathway. In biochemistry, de novo means that a molecule is created directly from another molecule: in the case of NAD+, the niacin molecule is built from scratch using the essential amino acid L-tryptophan, or TRP. The de novo is the only non-vitamin B3 pathway for the creation of NAD+. The Preiss–Handler pathway is one of the vitamin B3 pathways and starts with either nicotinic acid, or NA, or niacinamide, or NAR, also known as nicotinamide, or NAM. The NA or NAR present in the food we consume is then converted via a series of enzymatic reactions into NAD+. Finally, the salvage pathway converts NA into NAD+. This pathway has nicotinamide mononucleotide, or NMN, as an intermediate, and nicotinamide riboside, or NR, also uses the same salvage pathway.

NAD+ is a very useful coenzyme and is utilized by many proteins in the human body, particularly sirtuins, which repair DNA damage and are associated with healthy longevity in multiple species. In this way, NAD+ helps to combat genomic instability, one of the proposed nine reasons we age. Experiments conducted in mice have demonstrated that treatment with the NAD precursor NMN can mitigate and resist age-related DNA damage as well as the damage resulting from exposure to radiation.

David Sinclair, a Harvard geneticist and probably one of the most well known researchers on NAD+ biology, believes that age-related loss of NAD+ along with the corresponding fall of sirtuin activity and its protective effects are a primary reason why we tend to develop diseases when we are old and why we don’t when we’re young. David Sinclair is a big proponent of NAD+ repletion and other methods of keeping your NAD+ levels up as we age to encourage healthy longevity. David has said many times that he takes 1 gram of NMN in the morning because you want your NAD+ levels to be the highest in the morning and then come down by the evening to help optimize sleep. David mixes his NMN with his homemade yogurt because he says NMN is best absorbed when taken with a source of fat. David and his team previously demonstrated that NAD+ precursor NMN can extend the lifespan of mice in a study and that it also reverses loss of mitochondrial function with age.

There’s more NAD+ related studies and human trials being conducted at the moment, and hopefully in the near future, there will be much more data upon which a conclusion can be formed about NAD+ in the context of healthy human longevity.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
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What is NAD+? A Summary of Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide: https://www.lifespan.io/news/a-summary-of-nad/

LSN episode on study results showing NMN enhances aerobic capacity in amateur runners - https://youtu.be/WKOPTfGqMPA

LSN episode on study results showing NMN may be beneficial for prediabetic patients - https://youtu.be/WlmkCTHy7vM

Learn more about NMN - https://www.lifespan.io/news/a-summary-of-nicotinamide-mononucleotide/

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