Four Reason to Take Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) to Boost Longevity

4 Reason to Take Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) to Boost Longevity

Why should we take Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN)? The only reason is to raise our NAD Levels, but why should we try to raise our NAD levels?

NAD or Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide to give it its full name is present in nearly all of our living cells, and NAD+ is essential for sustaining life. Unfortunately, our NAD levels decline radically with age; this creates an energy deficit that decreases our body’s ability to maintain effective biological functions. As a compound NAD is biologically unstable, this makes it unsuitable for oral supplementation.

Fortunately, it may be easy to restore our cellular NAD levels using NAD boosters such as Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (or NMN); NMN is believed to convert into NAD when it has entered the cell.

How much does our NAD drop as we age? By the age of fifty a typical person may have only half the cellular NAD+ they had in their youth, and by the age of eighty their NAD+ levels will drop as low as 1%. An important feature of NAD+ is the numerous ways it which helps protect us against the factors that age us. This includes alleviating chemical stress, inflammation, DNA damage and declining mitochondria; all are conditions associated with aging.

So, a decline in NAD+ levels may not only negatively affect our lifespan, but also influence our health-span. Restoring NAD+ is increasingly being viewed as a cutting-edge tool to promote longevity and a way to combat the diseases of aging too.

Let’s look at ways in which having high levels of NAD can benefit us as we age. Firstly, restoring our cellular energy. NAD+ is required for accurate cellular energy utilization. As we know our NAD+ levels decline drastically with age; this creates an energy shortfall that diminishes our body’s ability to maintain efficient functions at the cellular level. Unfortunately, NAD as a compound, is unstable and cannot be used as an oral supplement, but NMN an NAD precursor is capable of restoring cellular NAD+ levels.

Studies in mice have shown that NAD supplementation slows cellular aging and may improve many of the metabolic defects common to the aging process, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. High levels of NAD+ may contribute to longer telomeres. Telomeres are elements of repetitive DNA that seal the ends of our chromosomes, much like an aglet at the end of a shoelace.

Telomeres gradually shorten every time a cell replicates itself. Once telomeres reach a critically short length, cell renewal practically stops…this leads to the accelerated aging or death of the cell. Telomere shortening is both a marker of cellular aging, and a predictor of a shortened lifespan.

NAD+ is also required for the sirtuin proteins to function correctly; they contribute to longevity and specifically to maintaining the length of critical telomeres. Other compounds, such as resveratrol, may also activate the sirtuins and contribute to extending lifespan, evidence suggests sirtuins function best with an ample supply of NAD

Taking NMN as a supplement is not the magic bullet for longevity. To date, exercise and weight loss have also been shown to effectively lengthen telomeres. Higher levels of NAD+ promote DNA repair. Even though DNA is protected by its chromosomal sheath, it is extremely vulnerable to damage. This can lead to broken DNA strands and mutations in our genes. Constant DNA damage contributes to the aging process and can result in specific lifespan-shortening diseases such as cancer and poor immune function.

When DNA is damaged, it activates an enzyme known as PARP-1…PARP-1 carries out essential DNA repair within all of our cells. To carry out its function effectively PARP-1 consumes colossal amounts of NAD+…our stores of NAD+ are depleted as we age and as a consequence the ability of PARP-1 to repair our DNA is significantly hampered.

Improving DNA repair with higher NAD levels may slow cellular aging; it may also reduce the tenacity of cancer-causing mutations and play an important role in preventing inflammatory conditions. Sufficient levels of NAD allow effective modulation of immune cell signaling.

As we age our immune cells begin to lose focus, some become overactive and contribute to auto-immune diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis, Inflammatory bowel disease, Multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes, while others slow-down and increase our risk of infection: bacterial, viral, fungal, and prion. The process, called immune senescence is closely related to mitochondrial function and energy stability, both of which depend on consistent, high levels of NAD.