Nicotinamide/Niacin Vs NMN Vs NR

How to know which supplements to take to best increase your NAD levels?

Brands

We will not go into brands or brand recommendations. Let’s keep this on molecules and hope all producers are delivering what they say they are. When buying supplements I recommend you research the brand you are buying and try to at least get sure it is a real firm. It helps if it is multinational and has thousands of google search reviews and so on… There were cases of fake products, especially on NMN – because it is expensive. You should always use the web and research a brand you are planning to buy.

Nicotinamide/Niacin

I will write about nicotinamide and niacin together because they are available for the longest time and are the most researched. Niacin was first synthesized back in 1867 and used to treat pellagra – a disease that is almost nonexistent in the modern world. Pellagra’s main causes are malnutrition and alcoholism, it is just a chronic lack of niacin (nicotinic acid) or vitamin B3 in a person’s body.

Research on human intake shows significant NAD blood levels rise, it raises NAD in muscle cells – only to normal level in persons who had it lowered. This is important because it is known that nicotinamide/niacin raises NAD in blood, but we want to raise its levels inside our body’s cells, and for that, we need a supplement that can enter through a cell’s membrane. Niacin intake also causes less fat, not on our bellies but between our organs, and strengthens muscles.

It is all great, availability is wide, price affordable. You can get this almost as easily as your vitamin C. Now the only thing is niacin (not nicotinamide) can cause flushing and itchy redness on your skin caused by the dilation of capillaries.

NMN/NR

So why would we even use other forms of vitamin B3 like nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) or nicotinamide riboside (NR)?
Because NAD is made up of more components and NR and NMN are closer to NAD composition. This means that your cell has less work to make it into NAD. Now NMN is closer to NAD form, but it passes the cell membrane a bit harder than NR.
And one great thing – the body has different pathways of making NAD from niacin and NMN/NR so you can take a varied mix of both. Just make sure you do not take doses for dinosaurs :).

What do rich people do?

Well, there is a thing called intravenous infusion. It is great for curing hangovers as I understand it, and great for raising blood levels of NAD. I have never tried this one but I think there is a problem with it. NAD is a big molecule and it has trouble getting into a cell – that is why I use precursors such as nicotinamide/niacin or NMN/NR. I do not believe it raises NAD levels in your cells. Also, I do not even know the price of this treatment, only that I do not think I can afford it.

Take care and enjoy your life