The 8 Most Important Things You Need to Know About NMN

You cannot enjoy robust health if your body doesn't manufacture energy. Unfortunately, as we age, we gradually become increasingly less energetic simply because our bodies produce less of it.

NMN may be a way to cheat Father Time.

Led by Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, a professor of developmental biology and of medicine, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that supplementing healthy mice with a natural compound called NMN can compensate for this loss of energy production, reducing typical signs of aging such as gradual weight gain, loss of insulin sensitivity, and declines in physical activity [1] .

In skeletal muscle, the researchers discovered that NMN administration helps energy metabolism by improving the function of mitochondria, which operate as cellular power plants.

They also found that mice given NMN:

Gained less weight with aging, even as they consumed more food, likely because their boosted metabolism generated more energy for physical activity.
Gained better function of their retina, as well as increased tear production (often lost with aging).
Developed improved insulin sensitivity, and this improvement remained significant even when they corrected for differences in body weight.

The best form of NMN currently available is the sublingual form, as it gets absorbed into your bloodstream for enhanced bioavailability.

Read on to learn about the very important health benefits offered by NMN and why the sublingual form is best.

#1. Sublingual NMN Boosts NAD+

The remarkable things that NMN may do to improve your health and help you age better is due to its ability to boost NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), and that best happens when the NMN can actually enter your bloodstream.

As you’ll see in the next section, NAD+ is a coenzyme found in all living cells, and is necessary for the fundamental biological processes that make life possible.

NAD+ has two general sets of reactions in the human body: helping turn nutrients into energy as a key player in metabolism and working as a helper molecule for proteins that regulate other biological activity. These processes are incredibly important because they are responsible for regulating oxidative stress and circadian rhythms while maintaining the health of DNA and keeping humans healthier for longer.

Unfortunately, NAD+ levels decline as we age, and we simply can’t consume this molecule directly to make up for its decline in our body. That’s why we need to take an NMN sublingual precursor to NAD+ that will boost its levels.

NMN Needs To Enter Your Bloodstream

Taken in a capsule, NMN is primarily digested in the gastrointestinal tract and processed in the liver. However, in sublingual form — where it’s dissolved under your tongue — NMN can bypass the stomach and liver and circulate in your blood where it’s needed [2] .

The absorption of molecules delivered through the sublingual route can be three to 10 times greater than oral route delivered via capsule, and is only surpassed by direct IV injection [3] .

#2. NMN May Support Healthy Blood Vessel Aging

As we age, the smallest blood vessels in our bodies wither and die, reducing the blood flow to organs and tissues.

Harvard professor, Dr. David Sinclair’s experiments with mice have demonstrated a way to reverse blood vessel aging and grow muscle.

Dr. Sinclair is among the most renowned anti-aging scientists in the world, and is an expert on NAD+ and NMN. He reports that the NAD+ boosting NMN compound reverses aging in blood vessels and restores muscle strength, while increasing exercise endurance [5] .

A 2018 research study used NMN as the precursor to increase NAD+ levels. Commenting on the study, Dr. Sinclair said:

“We’ve discovered a way to reverse vascular aging by boosting the presence of naturally occurring molecules in the body that augment the physiological response to exercise” adding, "The approach stimulates blood vessel growth and boosts stamina and endurance in mice and sets the stage for therapies in humans to address ... vascular aging." [6]

Old blood vessels become sensitized to the signals from exercise muscles, which results in muscles shrinking as we age and a diminished capacity to exercise and grow new blood vessels.

#3. NMN May Help Muscle Growth

Your DNA is the blueprint for your body’s physiological function. When proper DNA expression is altered because of an unhealthy diet, environmental toxins and aging, your body’s DNA blueprint can be altered. Should this happen, chronic health conditions can develop, such as cancer, diabetes, and neurological dysfunction. NMN helps prevent adverse changes in gene expression by repairing damaged DNA [17] .

Muscle tissue is weakens as we grow older. Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after age 30.

At some point, from age 75 onward, some amount of muscle attrition occurs even with exercise. Any loss of muscle matters because it lessens strength and mobility, often leading to instability and a higher chance of falling [7] .

Cognizant of the effects of muscle loss, Dr. Sinclair and his research associates decided to examine why exercise loses its protective power to sustain muscle vitality and whether this process is reversible.

The signaling cross-talk between blood vessels and muscles requires NAD+ and sirtuin1, or SIRT1. NAD+ boosts SIRT1, which in turn enables the signaling conversation between muscles and blood vessels. The problem is that both NAD+ and SIRT1 decline as we age, and eventually can no longer perform their role as the interface between muscles and blood vessels.

In Dr. Sinclair’s study, mice were given NMN which boosted NAD+ levels and in turn boosted SIRT1. The results showed these mice had better endothelial function, blood vessel growth, and improved blood supply to their muscles.

#4. NMN May Lower Your Body Fat

Weight gain and weight loss resistance are common struggles for countless people across the world. Potentially, NMN may be a powerful nutraceutical ally in weight loss efforts because it reverses insulin resistance, improves glucose tolerance, and ameliorates mitochondrial dysfunction, three factors that contribute to stubborn weight issues.

Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD from the Washington University School of Medicine conducted an experiment on mice to see if NMN could augment their NAD+ levels by converting NMN to NAD. Remarkably, this study showed that old mice could be made young, thin, and energetic again with NMN. The researchers showed, at least in mice, aging could be reversed with NMN supplementation [9] .

In Dr. Imail’s study, mice fed low-dose NMN lost 4% of their body weight. Those fed high-dose NMN lost 9% of their body weight.

#5. NMN May Increase Your Energy

The mitochondria are the energy power plants of cells. In Dr. Imai’s study, mice given NMN were much more energetic and had better energy production from their mitochondria.

Indeed, the most important NAD+ precursor for mitochondrial synthesis is NMN [10] .

During the course of Dr. Imai’s experiment, NMN-consuming mice switched their primary energy source from glucose to fatty acids. The overall results from the experiment “strongly suggest that NMN has significant preventive effects against age-associated impairment in energy metabolism." [11] .

#6. NMN May Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity

Mice on NMN showed much better insulin sensitivity. Better insulin sensitivity may mean a reduced risk of diabetes. Even heavier mice on NMN showed better insulin sensitivity.

Consistent with these insulin results, after 12 months of NMN administration, NMN-fed mice showed significantly improved insulin sensitivity compared to the body weight-matched control group [12] .

#7. NMN May Improve Your Heart

The human heart requires a continuous supply of ATP to fuel its muscular contractions and sustain life. ATP is short for Adenosine Triphosphate, a molecule that stores and transports chemical energy within cells.

Without ATP we would soon die, but that doesn’t happen. What does happen, however, is Interruptions in the heart’s ATP supply, which can impair heart and vascular function and, ultimately, cardiovascular health.

By enhancing the biosynthesis of NAD⁺, an essential substrate in ATP-producing reactions, NMN boosts cardiac ATP levels and significantly improves heart health. Importantly, NMN also supports healthy arterial aging and vascular function, two phenomena that play crucial roles in maintaining cardiovascular health [13] .