 Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, that's a mouthful, so we'll refer to it as NAD plus. We've discussed NAD plus on lifespan news many times over the last year, but what the heck is NAD plus? Why is NAD plus so crucial for human health, and is there anything you can do to optimize your NAD plus levels? Keep watching to the end of this video to find out. NAD plus is a key coenzyme found in all living cells. NAD plus is essential for life, one of the most versatile molecules in the body and an important area of focus for aging research. NAD plus is important for the mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of our cells, to produce the energy ourselves need. NAD plus functions as a coenzyme in the mitochondria, allowing the creation of chemical energy that our bodies can then use. NAD plus binds to enzymes and transfers electrons between molecules. NAD plus works almost like recharging a battery. A battery goes flat because its electrons are used up to provide energy. The electrons can't return to their charged state without a jolt, and it's the same in our cells. NAD plus gives the molecules the jolt they need to become active again, and in this way NAD plus is able to increase or decrease enzyme activity, gene expression, and cell signaling. Due to its critical importance in the body, most organisms can produce NAD plus in a few alternative ways. Humans have three major pathways to create NAD plus, the de novo pathway, the price handler pathway, and the salvage pathway. In biochemistry de novo means that a molecule is created directly from another molecule. In the case of NAD plus, the niacin molecule is built from scratch using the essential amino acid L tryptophan, or TRP. The de novo is the only non-vitamin B3 pathway for the creation of NAD plus. The price handler pathway is one of the vitamin B3 pathways and starts with either nicotinic acid, or Na, or niacinamide, or NAR, also known as nicotinamide, or NAM. Are you confused yet? Stay with me. The Na or NAR, present in the food we consume, is then converted via a series of enzymatic reactions into NAD plus. Finally, the salvage pathway converts Na into NAD plus. This pathway has nicotinamide mononucleotide, or NMN, as an intermediate, and nicotinamide riboside, or NR, also uses the same salvage pathway. It's called the salvage pathway because instead of using the usual precursor molecules, such as TRP or vitamin B3, to make NAD plus, this pathway recycles or salvages NAM, which is often generated from NAD plus back into NAD plus again. Of the NAD plus pathways, perhaps the most recent focus has been on the salvage pathway and the NAD plus precursor molecules NMN and NR. There are now many supplement companies marketing NAD plus precursors as NAD plus boosters. NAD plus is a very useful coenzyme and is utilized by many proteins in the human body, particularly sirtuins, which repair DNA damage and are associated with healthy longevity in multiple species. In this way, NAD plus helps to combat genomic instability, one of the proposed nine reasons we age. Most cells contain the necessary repair systems to fix DNA damage. However, repairing this damage consumes NAD plus, and if DNA damage becomes excessive, it can deplete the pool of NAD plus available and impact the other functions that require it. As we age, we're caught in a downward spiral of increasing NAD plus consumption from an ever shrinking pool of available NAD plus. Experiments conducted in mice have demonstrated that treatment with the NAD precursor NMN can mitigate and resist age-related DNA damage, as well as the damage resulting from exposure to radiation. Of course, this data is taken from animal studies and is subject to the usual caveat that results may not be the same in humans. Ongoing research has yet to determine if these results will translate. The sirtuins, often referred to as the longevity genes, play a key role in maintaining healthy cellular function. The sirtuins are a family of enzymes that take part in cellular stress responses, facilitating cellular damage repair, and they are also involved in insulin production and secretion. Sirtuin activation is dependent on the availability of NAD plus in order to function, and they play an important role in aging. David Sinclair, a Harvard geneticist and probably one of the most well-known researchers on NAD plus biology, believes that age-related loss of NAD plus along with the corresponding fall of sirtuin activity and its protective effects are primary reason why we tend to develop diseases when we are old and why we don't when we're young. David Sinclair is a big proponent of NAD plus repletion and other methods of keeping your NAD plus levels up as we age to encourage healthy longevity. David has said many times that he takes one gram of NMN in the morning because you want your NAD plus levels to be the highest in the morning and then come down by the evening to help optimize sleep. David mixes his NMN with his homemade yogurt because David says NMN is best absorbed when taken with a source of fat. David and his team previously demonstrated that NAD plus precursor NMN can extend the lifespan of mice in a study and that it also reverses loss of mitochondrial function with age. While there are a myriad of animal studies on the effects of NR and NMN on aging, there isn't yet much good human data supporting their use for healthy life extension that we're currently aware of at Lifespan News. Click the card above or check the video description to see our recent video on NMN use in humans to learn more. A company called Genfinity offers two different NAD tests circulating NAD and intracellular NAD. Genfinity also resells their NAD tests through various longevity brands. I haven't taken this Genfinity NAD tests yet and I'd like to learn more about the details of the science. There's also NAD plus transdermal patches and NAD plus injections that I've heard many positive anecdotes about for years but anecdotes are just that and the placebo effect can be very powerful. There's more NAD plus related studies in human trials being conducted at the moment and hopefully in the near future there will be much more data upon which a conclusion can be formed about NAD plus in the context of healthy human longevity. Are you currently using NAD plus precursors or related products? If so, which ones? Do you think it's benefited you or not? Or are you unsure? I'd really like to know what you think in the comments. This video is a short intro to NAD plus to learn more including the history of NAD plus. Click the link in the video description for a recent article by Lifespan.io's editor-in-chief Steve Hill. If you found this video valuable, please consider sharing it. Thanks and we'll see you in the next video.