Commonly marketed as an anti-aging product, nicotinamide riboside is an alternative form of vitamin B3 with few side effects. It may protect brain cells and lower the risk of heart disease.
Every year, Americans spend billions of dollars on anti-aging products.
While most anti-aging products try to reverse signs of aging on your skin, nicotinamide riboside aims to reverse signs of aging from inside your body.
Within your body, nicotinamide riboside is converted into NAD+, a helper molecule that exists inside each of your cells and supports many aspects of healthy aging.
This article explains everything you need to know about nicotinamide riboside, including its benefits, side effects and dosage.
What is nicotinamide riboside?
Nicotinamide riboside is an alternative form of vitamin B3, also called niacin.
Like other forms of vitamin B3, nicotinamide riboside is converted by your body into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a coenzyme or helper molecule.
NAD+ acts as fuel for many key biological processes, such as:
- Converting food into energy
- Repairing damaged DNA
- Fortifying cells’ defense systems
- Setting your body’s internal clock or circadian rhythm
However, the amount of NAD+ in your body naturally falls with age.
Low NAD+ levels have been linked to health concerns like aging and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and vision loss.
Nicotinamide riboside supplements have quickly become popular because they appear to be especially effective at raising NAD+ levels.
Nicotinamide riboside is also found in trace amounts in cows’ milk, yeast and beer.
Potential benefits
Here are some potential health benefits of nicotinamide riboside.
Easily converted into NAD+
NAD+ is a coenzyme, or helper molecule, that takes part in many biological reactions.
While it’s essential for optimal health, research shows that NAD+ levels continue to fall with age. Low NAD+ levels are linked to poor aging and a variety of harmful diseases.
One way to raise NAD+ levels is to consume NAD+ precursors — the building blocks of NAD+ — such as nicotinamide riboside.
Animal and human studies show that nicotinamide riboside efficiently and consistently raises blood NAD+ levels. What’s more, it’s more readily used by your body than other NAD+ precursors.
Activates enzymes that may promote healthy aging
Nicotinamide riboside helps increase NAD+ levels in your body.
In response, NAD+ activates certain enzymes that may promote healthy aging.
One group is sirtuins, which appear to improve lifespan and overall health in animals. Studies indicate that sirtuins may repair damaged DNA, reduce inflammation and offer other benefits that promote healthy aging.
Sirtuins are also responsible for the lifespan-extending benefits of calorie restriction.
Another group is Poly (ADP-Ribose) polymerases (PARPs), which repair damaged DNA. Studies link higher PARP activity to less DNA damage and a longer lifespan.
May help protect brain cells
NAD+ plays a key role in helping your brain cells age well.
Within brain cells, NAD+ helps control the production of PGC-1-alpha, a protein that appears to help protect cells against oxidative stress and impaired mitochondrial function.
Researchers believe both oxidative stress and impaired mitochondrial function are linked to age-related brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
In a test-tube study, nicotinamide riboside raised NAD+ levels and significantly improved mitochondrial function in stem cells taken from a Parkinson’s disease patient.
However, it’s still not clear how helpful it is to raise NAD+ levels in people with age-related brain disorders. More human studies are needed.
May lower heart disease risk
Aging is a major risk factor for heart disease, which is the world’s leading cause of death.
It can cause blood vessels like your aorta to become thicker, stiffer and less flexible.
Such changes can raise blood pressure levels and make your heart work harder.
In animal studies, raising NAD+ helped reverse age-related changes to arteries.
In human studies, nicotinamide riboside raised NAD+ levels, helped reduce stiffness in the aorta and lowered systolic blood pressure in adults at risk of high blood pressure.
That said, more human research is needed.
Other potential benefits
In addition, nicotinamide riboside may provide several other benefits:
- May aid weight loss: Nicotinamide riboside helped speed up the metabolism of mice. However, it’s unclear whether it would have the same effect in humans and how strong this effect really is.
- May lower cancer risk: High NAD+ levels have been shown to help protect against DNA damage and oxidative stress, which are linked to cancer development.
- May help treat jet lag: NAD+ helps regulate your body’s internal clock, so taking nicotinamide riboside may help treat jet lag or other circadian rhythm disorders by resetting your body’s internal clock.
- May promote healthy muscle aging: Raising NAD+ levels helped improve muscle function, strength and endurance in older mice.
Potential risks and side effects
Nicotinamide riboside is likely safe with few — if any — side effects.
In human studies, taking 1,000–2,000 mg per day had no harmful effects.
However, most human studies are short in duration and have very few participants. For a more accurate idea of its safety, more robust human studies are needed.
Some people have reported mild to moderate side effects, such as nausea, fatigue, headaches, diarrhea, stomach discomfort and indigestion (30).
In animals, taking 300 mg per kg of body weight (136 mg per pound) daily for 90 days had no harmful effects.
What’s more, unlike vitamin B3 (niacin) supplements, nicotinamide riboside should not cause facial flushing.
Dosage and recommendations
Nicotinamide riboside is available in tablet or capsule form under its own name or with the brand name Niagen.
It is available at select health-food stores, on Amazon or through online retailers.
Nicotinamide riboside supplements typically contain just nicotinamide riboside, but some manufacturers combine it with other ingredients like Pterostilbene, which is a polyphenol — an antioxidant that is chemically similar to resveratrol.
Most nicotinamide riboside supplement brands recommend taking 250–300 mg per day, the equivalent of 1–2 capsules per day depending on the brand.
The bottom line
Nicotinamide riboside is an alternative form of vitamin B3 with few side effects. It is commonly marketed as an anti-aging product.
Your body converts it into NAD+, which fuels all of your cells. While NAD+ levels fall naturally with age, boosting NAD+ levels may reverse several signs of aging.
However, most research on nicotinamide riboside and NAD+ is in animals. More high-quality human studies are needed before recommending it as a treatment.