Can boosting NAD+ help you age healthier?

NAD+ is a molecule at the center of cellular energy, DNA repair, and resilience against stress. Levels decline with age, and this drop has been linked to frailty, cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Early studies suggest that restoring NAD+ through supplementation and lifestyle strategies may improve healthspan, but large human trials are still needed.

Instalab Research

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is one of the most important molecules in your cells. It acts as a coenzyme, meaning it helps enzymes do their jobs. At its core, NAD+ is essential for:

Energy metabolism: NAD+ shuttles electrons during redox reactions, which is how your cells convert food into ATP, the body’s usable energy.
DNA repair: Specialized enzymes use NAD+ to fix breaks in DNA, protecting against mutations that can drive cancer and aging.
Cell signaling: NAD+ powers proteins such as sirtuins (enzymes that regulate stress resistance, inflammation, and longevity pathways) and PARPs (poly ADP-ribose polymerases, enzymes that repair DNA but also consume a lot of NAD+ in the process)

Why NAD+ Declines With Age

Research consistently shows that NAD+ levels fall as we get older. This is not just a lab finding: in humans, lower NAD+ has been associated with neurodegenerative disease, insulin resistance, heart failure, and even increased cancer risk (Verdin, 2015; Covarrubias et al., 2020; Abdellatif et al., 2021).

One reason is increased activity of enzymes that use up NAD+:

CD38: An enzyme on immune cells that breaks down NAD+. Its activity rises with chronic inflammation, which tends to increase with age.
PARPs: DNA repair enzymes that consume NAD+ when they respond to accumulated DNA damage. Over time, they may deplete NAD+ faster than the body can make it.

The combination of reduced NAD+ production and increased consumption leads to lower cellular energy, weaker DNA repair, and less resilience to stress.

Can We Restore NAD+?

Animal studies suggest that replenishing NAD+ through dietary precursors such as nicotinamide riboside (NR) or nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) improves muscle strength, metabolism, and even cognitive performance. Lifestyle strategies like exercise and caloric restriction also raise NAD+.

Early human trials have found that NR and NMN supplementation can increase blood NAD+ levels and appear safe, but results on actual health outcomes are still preliminary. A 2023 review in The Journals of Gerontology highlighted the need for longer, well-controlled trials to determine whether NAD+ boosters truly improve aging-related outcomes in people (Freeberg et al., 2023).

How do I test for NAD+ levels

Currently, NAD+ is not part of routine blood panels but specialized labs have developed assays that measure NAD⁺ and related molecules (like NADH and NADPH) from a blood sample.