How losing energy as you age impacts your mind and body
If you’ve lost the spring in your step as of late, don’t blame your diet or your sleeping habits, but your cells.
As you get older, both your genetics and your environment cause change to happen at a cellular level that can impact your health.
These changes result in your muscles losing mass and strength, your skin losing elasticity and your immune system not having the resources to fight off infections like it once did.
As well as the noticeable physical changes, there are also major changes occurring at the cellular level that aren’t as obvious.
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is the critical coenzyme that enables the mitochondria, which is the energy powerhouse of the cell, to produce energy that sustains all of our bodily functions.
Mitochondria, the energy powerhouse of the cell
This coenzyme plays a crucial role in co-ordinating many important cell functions, such as converting food into energy and co-ordinating cellular function, repair and regeneration.
NAD+ is said to be the little molecule that holds the key to maintaining health on a cellular level, but this coenzyme can drop by as much as 50 per cent by the time you reach your 60s, despite being plentiful in your youth.
Many scientists believe that maintaining healthy NAD+ levels is a key part of supporting our “health span”, which is a relatively new term that describes the amount of time we spend in good health during our lifespan.
What causes my NAD+ levels to decline?
Even if you were young and in relatively good health, your NAD+ stores can be depleted any time your body is placed under excessive metabolic stress.
Along with ageing, some of the biggest causes of NAD+ depletion are overeating, drinking too much alcohol, not getting enough sleep, leading a sedentary lifestyle and getting sick.
NAD+ levels can impact the way you feel, the way you look and the way you act as all of your cells are dependent on NAD+ to function properly.
How to restore NAD+ levels
If you’re wanting to support your resiliency and health as you age, there are ways you can boost your NAD+ levels through exercising, intermittent fasting or taking an NAD+ boosting supplement.
Dr Charles Brenner, professor of biochemistry and director of the Obesity Initiative at the University of Iowa, made an important breakthrough in the field of NAD+ metabolism in 2004 after he unexpectedly discovered a new use for a rare form of vitamin B3 known as nicotinamide riboside (NR).
“I was working on an enzyme that makes NAD in yeast,” Professor Brenner tells Over60.
“NAD+ is a coenzyme that is the central regulator of metabolism in all forms of life. Received wisdom said that there would be no way to make NAD+ if we knocked out this enzyme, but I found that NR could bypass the known pathways to NAD+ in yeast – and I found the NR kinase genes that perform the first step in converting NR to NAD in yeast, mice and humans.
“NR was a known compound, but it was not previously known to be a vitamin for humans until I found this pathway in 2004.”
Brenner found that NR raised NAD+ levels by converting NR to NAD+ if taken orally and was able to boost the level of NAD+ within cells.
“NAD+ is consumed in conditions of metabolic stress,” explains Professor Brenner, “and NR is the most effective NAD+ precursor to restore healthful NAD+ levels.”
How Tru Niagen® helps
Tru Niagen® is the branded dietary supplement containing the rare form of vitamin B3, nicotinomide riboside (NR) which has been proven to boost NAD+ levels in humans.
“We need NAD+ to power our bodies, but we also need NAD+ to deal with all of these common metabolic stresses. When NAD+ is committed to these defensive processes, less NAD+ coenzymes are available to convert our fuel into energy and to catalyse all of our bodily functions.”
Australia is one of the first countries in the world to have access to the cutting-edge dietary supplement Tru Niagen® which can support energy levels, cellular repair and general health by boosting NAD+ levels.
For more information about Tru Niagen® which was launched in Australia in April 2020, visit www.truniagen.com.au
This is a sponsored post produced in partnership with Tru Niagen®.