While many focus on metabolic markers when it comes to aging, the goal of metabolism is to produce energy that the body can use to fuel its functions.
The mitochondria are cellular organs that can be thought of as energy factories. Their output is ATP.
ATP is the primary source of cellular energy in the body and we could not live without it.
When the mitochondria are damaged by things like smoking, drinking, overeating, pollutants, pesticides, and stress, they do not perform as well.
They produce less energy. They become more prone to producing prooxidants too. Prooxidants can be thought of as ricocheting bullets on all of your cells and tissues, including the mitochondria.
Mitochondria help to absorb some of this impact. Other popular strategies involve glutathione promotion with NAC, or promoting mitochondrial health with CoenzymeQ10 and/or PQQ supplementation.
Mitochondrial health is one of the most important aspects of cellular aging. It reflects how well we’re getting energy to our brain, body, nerves, and muscles.
NAD+ is also a very important molecule. It regulates almost every metabolic process in the body and naturally declines with age, stress, and inflammation. It can help your body protect and produce more ATP too.
What’s great about NAD+ is that we can raise levels with supplementation, specifically nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) or nicotinamide riboside (NR). NR is known commercially as Truniagen.
NMN was recently classified as a drug leaving NR widely available as a nutritional supplement.
The classification was based on how the initial research was filed, not due to safety. These are safe strategies with strong safety records at intakes from 100mg to 1000mg+ per day.
While NMN will be behind pharmaceutical control, NR is the next best choice to support NAD+ and has a host of its own research to share.
Nicotinamide Riboside Benefits for NAD+ and Muscle Mitochondria.
Muscles, Mitochondria, and Aging
One of the most overlooked signs of good metabolic health is muscle mass. Those with more muscle live longer. It’s one of the strongest predictors of longevity. Muscle is a metabolic organ. If you have good muscle growth in the body, you have good mitochondria numbers too.
A new study looked at NR and its effects on NAD+ and muscle mitochondria.
24 sets of twins were included in the study, both men and women around 40 years of age. They were given increasing doses of NR from 250mg-1000mg over the course of a 5-month study. This is one of the longest studies conducted on NR.
They discovered that participants saw an average 230% increase in NAD+ levels. This rise fuels NAD+ Benefits throughout the body.
Moreover, muscle samples showed increased stem cells and more mitochondria.
It turns out that NR and its boost in NAD+ may also be a significant factor in the density of mitochondria in muscle. In doing so it may promote muscle mass and add another mechanism to its support for a longer lifespan.
We use Truniagen PRO 300mg, 500mg, or 1000mg. Goal intakes range from 300-1000mg per day to optimize NAD+ levels.