4 Ways NAD+ Promotes Anti-aging
What comes to mind when you think about aging?
For most people, images of skin wrinkles and grey hair come to mind when they think about aging.
Yes, skin wrinkles and greying hair are some of the external symptoms of aging. However, what goes on inside the body as we age is arguably much more severe and problematic.
From a biological perspective, cell aging is not necessarily tied to chronological age. Chronological aging refers to the days, months, and years that go by in time. Cell aging refers to the slowing and lack of metabolic efficiency, cell repair, and normal functioning (1).
Cellular NAD+ has a vital role in the normal functioning of cells, so biological aging is mainly due to NAD+ depletion (2).
What is the big deal with cell aging as it relates to NAD+ depletion? In addition to some of the external effects of aging, like a slowed ability to renew skin cells and less skin elasticity, one of the most problematic effects is its impact on the development of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases, like cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases, bone diseases, and heart disease, cannot be cured and significantly affect our wellbeing.
In this article, we discuss four research-backed ways NAD+, either natural or supplemented, promotes anti-aging.
While life span is the number of years a person lives, people may be living with diseases for many of those years, which can impact wellbeing. Healthspan is the number of years of life that a person is healthy, and it is the ultimate goal of many cellular anti-aging therapies, like NAD+ supplementation.
Researchers have established that cellular NAD+ concentrations deplete during aging and that taking actions to reduce the speed at which NAD+ reduces could help to lengthen healthspan (1).Natural ways to increase NAD+ levels include practice healthy eating habits, restricting calories, exercising, sleeping well, and avoiding environmental stressors.
It has long been established that NAD+ is essential for the maintenance of regular cellular activity. Slowing and irregularity of cellular activity are caused, in part, by reduced NAD+ levels, and the result is an impaired ability to destroy damaged cells and renew them.
Researchers specialized in aging looked in detail into elements that determine cellular NAD+ concentrations. They found that supplying the body with NAD+ precursors can help to increase NAD+ concentrations and preserve healthy cellular activity.
One study, for example, found that supplementing mice with nicotinamide and nicotinamide riboside, two NAD+ precursors, stalled the development of illness and cognitive decline related to Alzheimer’s disease (3).
Senescent cells are those that are old and malfunctioning due to environmental factors, genetics, and illness. The accumulation of senescent cells may be the root cause of NAD+ depletion.
Scientists have developed a method called senolysis, a therapy where senescent cells are detected and eliminated without affecting healthy cells (4). They propose using senolysis before NAD+ supplementation to increase the benefits of NAD+ supplementation for preventing aging-related diseases.
Most of the research around NAD+ and anti-aging focuses on the effects of healthy NAD+ concentrations in cells to prevent disease. However, scientists and physicians are also interested in how NAD+ supplementation can be utilized as a therapeutic measure for managing disease and treating disease symptoms.
Some examples of this application include the treatment of heart disease and muscular dystrophy. For the former, research shows that NAD+ supplementation can help to improve cardiac relaxation via antioxidant and anti-aging mechanisms in mice with early-stage heart disease (5). Additionally, researchers demonstrated that replenishing NAD+ in mice with muscular dystrophy improves mitochondrial function (6).
Several trials are underway to explore and describe the therapeutic effects of NAD+ in humans.
The field of NAD+ anti-aging research is fascinating; it has presented some promising areas of application for the prevention and treatment of cellular aging and chronic disease.
In an age where humans have experienced the most extended lifespan in our history, the new frontier of health research is lengthening the percentage of that life that humans live healthy, full lives. NAD+ supplementation and supplementation with NAD+ precursors may have an essential place in lengthening human healthspan (7, 8)
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Johnson, S., & Imai, S. (2018). NAD+ biosynthesis, aging, and disease. F1000research, 7, 132. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.12120.1
Fang, E., Lautrup, S., Hou, Y., Demarest, T., Croteau, D., Mattson, M., & Bohr, V. (2017). NAD + in Aging: Molecular Mechanisms and Translational Implications. Trends In Molecular Medicine, 23(10), 899-916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmed.2017.08.001
Mendelsohn, A., & Larrick, J. (2019). Interacting NAD+ and Cell Senescence Pathways Complicate Antiaging Therapies. Rejuvenation Research, 22(3), 261-266. https://doi.org/10.1089/rej.2019.2218
Chaturvedi, P., & Tyagi, S. (2017). NAD+: A big player in cardiac and skeletal muscle remodeling and aging. Journal Of Cellular Physiology, 233(3), 1895-1896. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcp.26014
Zhang, H., Ryu, D., Wu, Y., Gariani, K., Wang, X., & Luan, P. et al. (2016). NAD+ repletion improves mitochondrial and stem cell function and enhances life span in mice. Science, 352(6292), 1436-1443. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf2693
Imai, S., & Guarente, L. (2014). NAD+ and sirtuins in aging and disease. Trends In Cell Biology, 24(8), 464-471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcb.2014.04.002
Shade C. (2020). The Science Behind NMN-A Stable, Reliable NAD+Activator and Anti-Aging Molecule. Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.), 19(1), 12–14.
