NAD+ precursors

NAD+ is the electron carrier at the centre of energy metabolism and the required substrate for sirtuins and PARPs. Its levels decline substantially with age. Oral NR and NMN reliably raise blood NAD+ levels in humans — that part is settled. Whether raising the level produces a felt clinical benefit is the contested question.

• Multiple human RCTs confirming increased blood NAD+ levels
• Good safety profile across trials at commonly used doses
• Some improvement in muscle mitochondrial markers in older adults

• Consistent improvement in energy, mood or cognition in healthy adults
• Anti-ageing claims are not supported by human outcome data
• Effect on depression is untested

Human trials commonly use 250–1000 mg/day of NR or NMN orally.

Routes studied

Oral, Subcutaneous

Half-life

Oral dosing raises NAD+ over hours; tissue effects accumulate over weeks

Cycle length in the literature

Trials run continuously for 8–12 weeks or longer

Working out a draw volume from a vial? Use the free reconstitution calculator.

Reported side effects

Do not use if

Raising the substrate does nothing if the demand signal is absent. NAD+ is consumed by sirtuins during metabolic stress — exercise and fasting create the demand that makes the substrate useful.

• Fuel →
• Rest →

What amplifies it

• Mitochondria & mental energyWhy depression tracks with impaired cellular energy production, and what mitochondrial peptides, nutrition and sleep actually do about it.

• Cognitive clarityA plasticity-first approach to fog and flat focus: what the BDNF compounds do, what they cannot do alone, and the practice that fills the window.
• Mitochondrial resetFor flatness and fatigue that sleep does not fix: the three distinct mitochondrial mechanisms, and which compounds hit which.
• Mood & motivationFor anhedonia and flat drive: the inflammation and plasticity angles, and why the practice half carries most of the weight here.
• Recovery & nervous systemFor the flatness of early recovery: what the dopamine baseline is doing, the limited peptide research, and the practices that carry it.