In the health and anti-aging worlds, there's recently been a lot of drama and controversy around NAD.

NAD is nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a coenzyme that's in all cells.

Is NAD really the key to a long, healthy life? Boundless energy? What's the best way to increase it? What supplements work the best?

NAD is also incredibly important for keeping your skin looking young, healthy, and beautiful.

What is NAD

We all have NAD in every cell of our bodies. It plays a huge role in making energy available to our cells. If someone removed all NAD from your body, you'd drop dead in seconds.

NAD is involved in over 600 critical biological processes your body must carry out.

The levels of NAD in your body correspond to how old or young your body appears. The more NAD present in your cells, the younger you look and the healthier you are.

The opposite is also true. The less NAD in your cells, the older they look and the lower the level of their functioning.

Of course, this is most apparent with your skin cells. You can estimate the levels of NAD in your skin based just on its appearance.

For many important functions, your body needs an adequate supply of NAD. If your NAD is too low, your body ignores that function, and you go biologically downhill.

Yes, as we age, NAD goes down. By age 60, we have only half what we had in our twenties.

NAD in our skin also gets depleted just because we're surrounded by toxic and irritating stressors in our environment: air pollution, dust, sunlight, smoke, pollen and dry air.

As a result, our skin is usually starving for additional NAD.

This brings us to a point that's important, but also commonly overlooked.

What is the Cause of Skin Aging

Although many people want a magic powder or cream that makes them look 21 years old again, that's not reality.

If you want to look 21 again, your skin has to function like 21-year-old skin again.

The root cause of skin appearing older is skin aging.

That sounds obvious, but most people want to skip the step of achieving real health, and go straight to the magic creams for 21-year-olds no matter their chronological age.

Therefore, if you want your skin to appear 21 years old again, you've got to reverse its functional aging, so it again functions as it did when you were 21.

Boiling It Down to Energy Metabolism

All our cells use tiny "furnaces" called mitochondria. The mitochondria create ATP, which your cells - including your skin cells - use for energy.

The more mitochondria in your cells, the more ATP - and the more energy. 

The more energy your mitochondria produce, the more your cells can actually do - and the more energy you feel. 

NAD also Increases Repair of Your Skin's DNA

As mentioned, your skin gets exposed to a lot of unhealthy, stressful conditions, just because it's on the outside. One of the major causes of skin problems is the ultraviolet radiation in direct sunlight.

By overpowering the protective antioxidants in your skin, the UV rays of direct sunlight irritate, dry and inflame your skin with sunburn.

Without the protection of NAD and other antioxidants, sun damages your skin's DNA. This leads to sagging, unhealthy-appearing skin.

Recycling NAD

When you're young, your body conserves NAD simply by recycling it - using it over and over.

However, as we age, that process also becomes less efficient. Overall, that contributes to lower NAD as we age.

Some of the Controversy

To fully feel the cellular energy burn, we need optimal levels of NAD. Our first thought is to look for a supplement of NAD. However, that's not possible. NAD is too large. It can't be digested.

Instead, researchers have been looking for precursors to NAD. You take the precursors, it's hoped, and your body turns them into NAD. You hope.

Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard has been promoting the molecule NWM as the best precursor supplement to take to boost NAD. However, he has also taken steps to stop the sale of NWM in the United States while he develops a supplement he hopes to sell to a major pharmaceutical company for hundreds of millions of dollars, as he did with resveratrol. 

However, it's even more complicated. Other related substances such as niacin and NR may also help naturally increase NAD in your cells.

NAD Molecule too Large for Skin Absorption

This is the same reason we can't directly swallow NAD supplements. The molecules are too large to escape digestion - and that's also too large to be absorbed by your skin through your pores.

That means we are forced to consume NAD precursors. These include:

1. Nicotinic acid (NA) aka niacin, a form of vitamin B3.

2. Nicotinamide (NAM)

3. Nicotinamide riboside (NR)

4. Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)

This is the precursor Dr. David Sinclair wants to take off the American market so he can sell his own, proprietary, form of it - after spending years promoting NMN as an anti-aging miracle.

5.  Tryptophan: Essential amino acid

Lifestyle Factors that Increase NAD

a. Eat foods rich in B vitamins, such as avocados and peanuts

b. Eat foods rich in the amino acid tryptophan, including poultry, beef, eggs, soy products, dairy, nuts, seeds and legumes.

c. Eat foods rich in healthy fats, such as nuts, seeds and avocados.

d. Exercise on a regular basis.

e. Get 7-9 hours of sound sleep every night.

f. Manage your stress.

g. Meditate.

h. Listen to music.

i. Perform the yoga asana savasana for ten to twenty minutes (called the "corpse" in Sanskrit) or practice yoga nidra, which also consists of complete physical relaxation while awake.

j. Practice heart resonance breathwork - inhaling for 5-6 seconds, then exhaling for 5-6 seconds.

Develop the habit of consciously breathing to that slow rhythm every time you're stressed or faced with a problem.

https://theelixirclinic.com/how-to-increase-nad-levels-naturally/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1SjkHtfd0s&t=1200s

https://bengreenfieldlife.com/article/self-care-routines/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotinamide_adenine_dinucleotide

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7238909/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fe4AkYAbuk