NAD+ therapy

What it is

NAD+ therapy aims to raise nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a coenzyme central to energy metabolism and DNA repair that falls with age. Two routes are sold as one category: oral precursors, nicotinamide riboside (NR) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), which the body converts to NAD+, and intravenous NAD+, infused directly. Clinics market restored energy, slowed aging and sharper cognition. Controlled trials confirm only the first step. NR roughly doubled blood NAD+ in healthy older adults (Martens et al., Nature Communications, 2018), and NMN improved muscle insulin sensitivity in prediabetic women (Yoshino et al., Science, 2021). Whether raising NAD+ changes any outcome in healthy people is untested, and IV NAD+ carries almost no controlled efficacy evidence. The FDA excluded NMN from supplements in 2022 over prior drug study, then reversed that position in late 2025.