If you want to keep your hair young and beautiful - or just plain keep it - a recent study is frustrating.

The published results demonstrate great promise for NMN as a supplement to regrow hair. 

Here's What's Frustrating: 

The alternative health and anti-aging worlds are fighting over NMN.

In fact, you can't buy it any longer, at least not on Amazon, and probably the rest of the United States.

Dr. David Sinclair, the prominent researcher who has been pushing the anti-aging value of NMN, has filed with the FDA to block US sales of NMN supplements - a product he made popular by telling many social media hosts in the field how well it worked.

Just to be clear: After he himself spent years promoting the anti-aging value of NMN to any and everybody who would listen, Dr. Sinclair cut everyone off at the knees by filing with the FDA to block sales of the supplement. It's now assumed he plans to come up with his own product, which will be NMN but modified enough that Sinclair can own the rights to that molecule.

Of course, he'll claim his proprietary molecule works a trillion billion times better than regular NMN.

Sinclair created the demand for NMN. Then he pulled the rug out from underneath his own fans by making the supply unavailable, at least in the US.

Meanwhile, thanks to this study, we now have reason to believe NMN encourages the growth of more, and darker, hair.

What is NMN?

It's nicotinamide mononucleotide - a substance natural to our bodies.

The real value of NMN comes from something else, however: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+).

NAD is a coenzyme critical for many cellular functions.

NAD is so important, it's now considered key to truly halting and reversing cellular aging. It's the real prize we're after.

But NAD is a large molecule. We don't eat it, so we can't take it as a supplement. We must make it - and the process requires a long chain of biochemical reactions.

NMN is basically a precursor to NAD. Without enough NMN, we can't have optimal levels of NAD.

We need more-than-merely-adequate amounts of NAD for:

* Energy metabolism

* DNA repair

* Cell signaling pathways

Without enough energy, we can't do anything.

Cells with damaged DNA can't replicate. They can grow cancerous.

When our cell signaling pathways are jumbled and confused, our organs are confused, and can't function at their best. 

Of course, our NAD goes downhill as we grow older. By middle age, we have only half of what we had in our youth.

Making NAD is Incredibly Complicated

There're other precursors of NAD, including such variations of NMN as ordinary Vitamin B3 (niacin) and nicotinamide riboside (NR). 

Both of them are sold as supplements. Vitamin B3 is a quite standard B vitamin, of course. Many people now take NR in the hope it will also increase their NAD.

In 2021, researchers announced they'd discovered a chemically reduced form of NMN called NMNH. 

NMNH is not quite the NMN Sinclair got banned, so you can still obtain it. The researchers who discovered it claim it's much stronger and more effective than either regular NMN or NR.

Many of the NMNH supplements are liposomal, which just means the nutrient is delivered through a small piece of fat. 

The NMN Hair Study Involved Mice

Researchers applied dihydrotestosterone (DHT) to all the mice because DHT contributes to hair loss. It damages hair follicles, making the shafts thinner and the hair less dense.

They divided the mice into three groups:

1. Received a placebo - the control group

2. Received Beta (the active form) NMN

3. Received topical minoxidil 5%

The study ran for just ten days. But, at the end, the mice who received Beta NMN were already growing short hairs in areas damaged by the DHT.

The mice who received the minoxidil also showed results, as would be expected from a proven hair growth medicine.

The new hair of both groups appeared darker.

Secondary Benefits:

* NMN reduced the inflammation caused by the DHT.

* This reduced oxidative damage caused by the free radicals caused by the DHT

* Increases in the antioxidant enzymes super oxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. Catalase is an enzyme associated with darker hair. When it's deficient, hair is more likely to turn gray or white.

How About Humans?

Growing hair back on mice is nice, but humans lose hair due not only to DHT, but to male pattern baldness and other causes. Will NMN work on them? That remains to be seen.

Other Ways to Get the NAD You Need for Optimal Hair Health

You can consume NMN - found in broccoli, avocadoes, soy beans (edamame), cabbage and cucumbers. 

However, we mostly rely on making NAD out of the Vitamin B3 we consume.

Natural Ways to Increase NAD

Remember: it's NAD we want to increase. NMN is just a supplement we hope will boost NAD levels.

1. Fasting

To our cells, this is called "energy stress." In a fasting state, your body understands it must adapt or risk dying, so it makes more NAD to use energy more efficiently and to repair damage, to survive.

(NOTE: a recent study found intermittent fasting raised risk of heart attack, cancer and death. However, those subjects ate under eight hours EVERY day. Constant "energy stress" is NOT encouraging your body to produce more NAD, it's simply daily starvation. Give your cells time to rest and recover.)

2. Exercise

One way your body conserves NAD is to recycle it. Exercise helps increase that.

You don't need to win any races or break any records - just work out moderately on a consistent basis.

And stay active even when you're not "working out." That is, stand up from your chair and move, even if it's only a little bit.

https://supplementclarity.com/nicotinamide-mononucleotide-nmn-hair-growth-research-review/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38398550/

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

https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fj.202001826R

https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/liposomal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czxXSQb1KPQ