Health Benefits of NAD+
What’s NAD+
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a coenzyme that’s in every cell in the body. It’s critical to the chemical processes that our bodies use to produce energy.
Here is how NAD+ works. You probably remember ATP, electron transport chain, and mitochondria from your high school biology. Mitochondria are the power production plants of the cells. It’s in them that cells produce energy by turning Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This energy production process occurs in an electron transport chain which requires electrons to function.
Guess where mitochondria source electrons from? Right NAD+.
Health Benefits of NAD+
Because NAD+ plays a critical role in energy production, it has numerous health benefits. NAD+ improves physical performance, immune response, and cognitive function. People take NAD+ to reverse aging, manage blood pressure, and reduce cholesterol.
Doctors use NAD+ to manage the conditions of patients with multiple diagnoses like Alzheimer’s, depression and Parkinson’s.
Research also shows that NAD+ supplementation is effective in managing the following conditions
• Heart disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Brain damage caused by injury
• Heart damage caused by stroke
• Prevents liver damage
NAD+ has a direct link to your overall health and quality of life. Understanding how to increase NAD+, and the causes and effects of low NAD+ gives you an opportunity to improve your physical and mental health.
Effects of Low NAD+
NAD+ works in mitochondria to produce energy. The process is complicated with chemical reactions, substrates, abbreviations, and precursors. For us not to be lost in details, let’s simplify the process using a basic analogy.
NAD+ is like a battery. Batteries power tools and gadgets necessary for everyday living. To understand the effect of low NAD+, you have to consider the pathway from batteries to gadgets and all the way to a completed task.
- Low NAD+ quickens aging
Two of the tools that need an NAD+ battery are Sirtuins (SIRT) and poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP). PARP repairs damages in DNA. Without PARP, damaged DNA sets in motion cell death. SIRT enzymes facilitate dozens of processes that affect aging by regulating inflammation, fat storage, and blood sugar.
As you age, the damage in DNA increases and this, in turn, reduces the levels of NAD+. Reduction in NAD+ means fewer batteries to power PARP and SIRT. The processes (those managed by PARP and SIRT) go on and this leads to more DNA damage. The cycle continues leading lower and lower NAD+ levels and this hastens the aging process.
How to affordably Boost NAD+ levels
NAD+ molecules are too large and so can’t be absorbed through the Gastro-Intestinal Tract. This means it’s not sold in capsule form. Researchers, however, have been successful in using injections to boost NAD+ in mice. In you humans, even though it costs over $1000 a day and require that you’re hooked on drip IV for 8 hours, clinics that provide NAD+ by IV have become very popular.
There is, however, a less painful way of boosting NAD+ levels. Due to its low molecular weight, NAD+ can be absorbed into the bloodstream through the capillaries under the tongue. This is called sublingual delivery.