NAD+ Is All the Rage in Wellness and Longevity. But What Actually Works? Here’s the Deal.

What’s the Big Deal About NAD+?

Put on your science caps, my friends, because this section is going to be a bit more left brain-focused, written by a right-brained individual.

At its core, NAD+ is a critical coenzyme found in every cell of your body (there are 37.2 trillion of them!), known for cellular energy production, DNA repair, mitochondrial health maintenance, and activating sirtuins (which are proteins involved in longevity and stress resistance). Basically, think of NAD+ as “the thing your cells need to do their best job to keep you aging gracefully, feeling vibrant, and more yourself.”

Starting at the age of 30 (which coincides with your Saturn Return—eek!), your naturally occurring NAD+ levels start to naturally decline (and can even drop by 50% or more by the time we reach our elderly years). Add in daily stressors like sun damage, environmental pollution, poor sleep, lack of exercise, and a diet high in bad fats, and you’re looking at a “downward squiggle,” as they say in marketing. This can potentially lead to decreased cellular energy (which affects big deal mechanisms like your brain, muscles, and heart), increased cellular damage (which means less DNA repair), mitochondrial dysfunction (which contributes to premature aging and metabolic issues), weakened immune health, and many other sad cellular things that contribute to inflammaging.

Can We Reverse Cellular Aging?

There have been many a debate in many an Erewhon parking lot about whether or not you can actually reverse NAD+ decline with lifestyle and supplementation hacks. Words like “NR,” “NMN,” and “precursors” get thrown around like wellness grenades, with competitive longevity-ers fighting their way towards the most trending “thing” on the market.

Sure, positive lifestyle habits like daily exercise, intermittent fasting, cold exposure therapy, and proper sleep hygiene can help to increase your NAD+ on your own time and your own dime, however, the best way to support your NAD+ on the daily is with tailor-made, focused support. As far as NAD+ supplementation goes, look no further than NAD+ precursors.

NAD+ precursors (which makes me sound very smart just by typing it) are the molecules that your body uses to rebuild NAD+. NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) and NR (Nicotinamide Riboside) are the two most studied and most promising molecules shifting the wellness sphere at the moment, given their conversion power. TL;DR: NAD+ on its own is not easily absorbed when taken orally because the NAD+ molecule is too large to cross cell membranes, making it low on the bioavailability scale.

Enter these hotshot precursors that have an easier time entering the cell and quickly converting to NAD+. In fact, NR, a unique form of vitamin B3, is the most efficient way to elevate NAD+. It is able to be directly “upregulated” (science-y term) into the cell and bypass the typical steps that NAD+ has to go through in order to be absorbed into the bloodstream (and therefore your cells). NMN, on the other hand, has a compound that prevents it from directly entering the cell. 

The NAD+ Pioneer

With the rise of NAD+ in the wellness cultural zeitgeist, there have been a lot of new products flooding the market, making it challenging to sift through what is actually efficacious vs. just capturing the moment with words like “liposomal” (trigger word!!).

There’s a reason Tru Niagen has been the expert and Health Care Practitioner-trusted go-to NAD+ supplement since 2016. 

Since 1999, parent company Niagen Bioscience has prioritized clinical scientific research and quality in order to lead the charge on NAD+, and they’ve essentially defined the category with one of the most effective NAD+ precursors on the market.

This is all thanks to Tru Niagen’s proprietary ingredient, Niagen®  (which is a patented nicotinamide riboside). Niagen® is backed by 35+ published peer-reviewed human clinical studies and 400+ published scientific studies/trials, making it one of the world’s most extensively researched NAD+ precursors (with clinical studies proving up to 150% of increased NAD+ levels over the course of two-to-three weeks). 

Beyond scientific depth and efficacy, Tru Niagen is also third-party quality-tested by NSF Certified for Sport and Alkemist Assured, ensuring every capsule delivers on its promise for potency, purity, and scientific validation to support optimal cellular performance, energy production, and overall vitality. 

My Tried and Tru Niagen Experience

For years, I’ve been working with a Naturopathic Doctor to resolve chronic gut and mitochondrial issues. Apparently my central nervous system is the problem! Go figure.

Along that journey, I’ve come face to face with NAD+ in many forms—mostly IVs and shot boosters—and for those of you who have never spent a small fortune on having NAD+ pumped directly into your bloodstream, consider yourself lucky. The experience takes several hours because the drip can’t go too fast or you genuinely feel sick (at least I do!). It’s like being on a nausea / anxiety rollercoaster for three hours, and the worst part: you have to maintain these treatments in order to sustain the positive effects of NAD+. While effective, it started to feel unsustainable and or exhaustive for me.

Therefore, I was more than game to give Tru Niagen Pro® 1,000mg a try as an at-home option to keep my NAD+ levels in check without having a needle inserted into my vein. 

For 30 days, I took my two capsules daily (which is easy for me as a supplement / ritual-loving Virgo woman on a road to wellness). Within about two weeks, I really did start to notice a difference.

Even though my sleep schedule of six hours per night is my monkey, my circus, I noticed a huge decrease in morning fatigue (which is not an excuse to keep this sleep pattern going!!!). I also—and this is going to sound trite, so bear with me—felt more radiant, as in bright. I received multiple compliments on my complexion in spite of not having changed anything in my dietary or skincare routines. I also noticed that my recovery post-workout felt substantially expedited, where I was noticing better results from my exercise routine vs. just constantly living in a state of DONS (delayed onset soreness).

One novel thing that also gave me peace of mind was knowing that—as a woman in her ripe 30s—I was supporting my reproductive health. I often sit with the anxiety that all of my (and society’s) chronic stress levels are depleting my cellular health to the point of barren destruction, so knowing that I was able to help keep my body at a more even-keeled basal point while continuing to endure daily stressors gave me a lot of relief for my future self.

When in the Mood to Restore and Replete

Do I think there’s a one-size-fits-all, silver bullet fix-all for everything? Absolutely not. Supplements should be used alongside healthy lifestyle habits.  But, I do believe that there are core ways to keep your body in a state of stasis (or “balance,” as my Chinese Medicine Doctor refers to it) that allow your body to continue to heal and function at an optimal level.

Tru Niagen’s Pro® 1,000mg is an incredible, highly studied, Annie Goodman Naturopathic Doctor-approved solution for reactivating the energy your cells need to do their best work. For anyone out there feeling like it’s already “too late” to undo the damage that chronic, American capitalism / political stress has caused, just know that care and repair is in your midst (as my therapist says).

Activate your energy at the cellular level and shop Tru Niagen here.