Trinity compound research profile
NAD+
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) isn't actually a peptide — it's a small molecule your body makes naturally, found in every living cell. Think of...
Research overview
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) isn't actually a peptide — it's a small molecule your body makes naturally, found in every living cell. Think of it as a rechargeable battery that helps your cells produce energy and repair damage. Because NAD+ itself doesn't survive well when taken directly, many products instead use 'precursor' molecules — building blocks like nicotinamide riboside (NR) or nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) — that your body converts into NAD+.
Mechanism under study
Imagine your cells as tiny factories that need electricity to run. NAD+ acts like a shuttle bus, carrying electrons (tiny charged particles) around to keep the factory's power plant (the mitochondria) running smoothly. As we age, our natural NAD+ supply drops, so the idea behind supplementing it is to 'recharge the battery.' Taking the precursor pills (NR) raises NAD+ levels in the blood in a dose-dependent way — meaning more pills, more effect, up to a point (Trammell et al., Nat Commun 2016).
Human evidence summary
A small one-person pilot study found that a single dose of the pill form (NR) raised blood NAD+ levels up to 2.7 times higher than normal (Trammell 2016). A more rigorous 12-week study (where people didn't know if they got the real pill or a fake one, and the treatment/placebo order was swapped halfway through) found that NR pills were well tolerated in healthy older adults and did raise NAD+ levels in the body — but effects on blood pressure and blood vessel stiffness were described as ideas that need more testing, not proven benefits yet (Martens et al., Nat Commun 2018). For the IV (through-the-vein) version, one small pilot study found that NAD+ given this way gets broken down very quickly by the body and mostly ends up excreted in urine, raising real questions about whether IV NAD+ 'gets in' the way marketers claim (Grant et al., Front Aging Neurosci 2019). Popular clinic claims about IV NAD+ fixing addiction, chronic fatigue, or 'anti-aging' are not backed by controlled trials in the source material.
Preclinical evidence summary
The provided source data doesn't describe animal studies for NAD+ — the research summarized focuses on human trials and pharmacology data.
Source material
Use the linked publications and records to evaluate study design, population, limitations, and relevance.