Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a coenzyme found in every living cell in your body.
Nicotinamide riboside fuels your body from within.
Your health starts with your cells. Everything you do in life depends on the constant cycle of using and regenerating energy throughout your cells. Scientists have known for decades the importance of a coenzyme (a molecule that binds with proteins) called NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) plays a vital role in the processes of your body. NAD+ helps create cellular energy and support cellular repair throughout your trillions of cells—and organs—throughout your body.
Your NAD+ supply declines with age as well as in response to stressors on your body including alcohol consumption, intense exercise, and lack of sleep. However, in 2004, Dr. Charles Brenner discovered a naturally-occurring vitamin in milk called nicotinamide riboside. This micronutrient increases NAD+ levels by 40-50%.
While nicotinamide riboside can be found naturally in certain foods, you cannot get anywhere near the amount you need through a normal diet to effectively increase NAD+.
A coenzyme is a small non-protein molecule that works with an enzyme to speed up a specific chemical reaction.
Coenzymes and enzymes are like two peas in a pod. You have thousands of enzymes in your body, each working as a catalyst for a different biological function.
For example, amylase (saliva) breaks down carbohydrates into smaller molecules in order to be easily digested by your stomach and small intestine.
However, enzymes don’t just break down molecules. They help build molecules as well. You see one of the best examples of this in cellular energy production, where important enzymes work alongside NAD+ to help produce your body’s energy.
Why is NAD+ important?
NAD’s primary function is in your cells’ mitochondria. Mitochondria are often called ”the powerhouse of the cell.” They earn this nickname because of their ability to produce energy for all of your cellular functions. 90% of your body’s energy is made from your mitochondria.
NAD+ is the ignition to these continuous power turbines, the mitochondria. They help kickstart your “cellular engines.”
Without it, cellular energy production would come to an abrupt halt. You need NAD+ to keep you breathing air into your lungs and pumping blood into your heart.
How does NAD+ help in energy production?
There are several ways your cells and mitochondria produce energy. However, the most efficient way is a process called the electron transport chain.
NAD+ loosely binds with the mitochondrial enzymes through covalent bonds.But this bond is temporary, breaking after NAD+ transfers electrons with the enzymes.
These electrons help catalyze a chemical reaction, triggering the production of cellular energy. It’s called a chain because multiple enzymes work together like an assembly line, passing the electrons down to the following enzyme.
NAD+ participates in this process by acting as a delivery mechanism, donating and accepting negatively-charged electrons to and from several enzymes that sit patiently in the mitochondrial membrane.
NAD+ essentially powers your mitochondria. Without it, the electron transport chain would not start. Like an abandoned factory, the enzymes in the mitochondrial membrane would remain unused and barren.
How does NAD+ help in cellular repair?
NAD+ has other roles with other enzymes in the cell as well. For example, sirtuins and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) are classes of enzymes that require NAD+.
Sirtuins are the regulators of the cell, while PARPs play an active role in DNA repair.
Things like overeating, drinking, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, can all cause damage to your cells. Your sirtuins and PARPs are vital to repair the damage.
How do we get NAD?
Coenzymes are either naturally created in the body or provided in the form of vitamins. However, not all vitamins are treated the same.
Some vitamins, like folic acid and vitamin Bs, help the body produce coenzymes by providing the building blocks to construct them.
Other vitamins like Vitamins C and E require no assembly; they act on their own, in this case, as antioxidants.
NAD+ is naturally produced by every cell in your body. Methods such as fasting and exercise can increase the production of NAD.
But NAD+ gets its primary building material from foods with vitamin B3. Cow’s milk, mushroom, fish, green vegetables, and yeast are all sources of vitamin B3 that can help construct more NAD+ in your body.
NAD+ is not a great standalone supplement.
Direct supplementation of the molecule NAD+ is only modestly effective due to its inability to enter cells directly.
A paper in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology shows that your body breaks orally administered NAD+ down to smaller molecules in order to be used.
Once in the cell, they will need to be reassembled again. This breakdown and reassembly require extra energy and time, making direct supplementation of NAD+ an inefficient way to boost your body’s NAD+ levels.
Taking vitamin B3 is the best way to boost NAD+ levels.
The best way to increase your NAD+ is through vitamin B3 supplements. Vitamin B3s are NAD+ precursors, meaning they are smaller molecules used as building blocks to create NAD. There are three main forms of vitamin B3: niacin, nicotinamide, and nicotinamide riboside (NR).
- Niacin (NA), the earliest form of vitamin B3 used for commercial purposes, is the easiest to find and is most commonly found. However, niacin isn’t the most favorable vitamin B3 because it can cause the unwanted side effect of flushing (redness of the face) at high doses.
- In contrast, nicotinamide (NAM) has no visible side effects. But a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows nicotinamide inhibits sirtuins, an important class of enzymes that promote cellular repair.
- Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is the latest addition to the vitamin B3 family. Although related, NR is structurally and biochemically different from niacin and nicotinamide.
NR’s novel discovery as a vitamin became a critical turning point in NAD+ research because of its unique property of elevating NAD+ levels far more efficiently than its vitamin B3 predecessors.
To date, NR reports no attributable adverse effects during published clinical trials.
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