Best NMN Supplement

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that NAD — nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide — plays a crucial role in maintaining our health.1 There are some natural ways to increase NAD levels through diet, but for a more pronounced effect, consider a supplement.

Unfortunately, taking NAD directly isn’t very effective. The good news is that NAD precursors have become widely available in recent years. Among the possibilities, few have as much potential as nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN).

Here, we’ll break down the potential benefits and risks of taking an NMN supplement and describe the best options on the market. We’ll help you determine which one is right for you.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service we review, including these NMN supplements. All told, our team has spent over 337 hours testing and researching these supplements and the customer service their manufacturers provide.

In addition to that real-world experience with NMN, our team has pored over dozens of scientific journal articles devoted to NAD production and NMN metabolism. All of this preparation allows us to confidently suggest which available supplements stand the best chance of increasing your NAD levels.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy. We’ll continue to monitor the landscape of NMN supplements and other NAD boosters to ensure our content stays up-to-date.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

Cost

Winner: Renue By Science

For the most part, all of these supplements revolve around the same ingredients. Pills and capsules will use different materials to deliver the drugs to your system, and there are powders and solutions, too. But ultimately, the primary ingredient is NMN.

Different brands will use specific doses for various reasons, so we thought it would be most helpful to break down the cost of each per gram. This paints a clear picture of which company provides you with the best deal on NMN, but it’s important to remember that some of these products include other ingredients that help offset their costs and add value.

Note: Quicksilver Scientific uses a liquid formula that absorbs more thoroughly than a powder, pill, or capsule. Its dose is comparable to a 500mg pill by average absorption rates. That would bring its cost per gram to approximately $4.33. Read on for a thorough explanation of delivery methods and absorption rates.

Effectiveness

Winners: Renue By Science Lipo NAD+ Complete Nasal Spray and Quicksilver Scientific NAD+ Gold

Available research and testing experience guided our determination for efficacy. Some NMN studies point toward a dose-dependent increase in effectiveness — the higher the dose, the more effective it is.2 But many of those studies use higher doses than are currently available on the market. However, as we’ll discuss in greater detail below, dose is only part of the NMN equation. Delivery method is at least as important, if not more so. Equal doses of NMN can generate profoundly different effects depending on how you take them. This is caused by both the varying efficacy of different delivery methods and by the limited bioavailability particular to NMN.

To be fair, all NAD precursors suffer from bioavailability issues, even if you’re delivering them intravenously.3 In the digestive tract, they break down into more basic forms of vitamin B, typically niacinamide and niacin. And NAD precursors are often highly unstable in the bloodstream, where they make their way to the liver and are once again largely reduced to niacinamide. You’ll still see an uptick in NAD associated with NMN, NR, and some other NAD precursors, but the degree of efficacy will be hampered by these bioavailability challenges.

There are three ways companies approach solving this bioavailability conundrum, and we’ll describe those in detail below in our section on how NMN supplements work. To help you understand how we applied these solutions to our efficacy rating, we’ll say that we prefer as direct an influx of NMN to the bloodstream as possible. Sublingual powders or liquids, dissolving tablets, and nasal sprays are the best delivery mechanisms for absorbing NMN straight to the bloodstream without involving the GI tract.

But even with those highly efficient mechanisms, NMN can’t be completely absorbed into the bloodstream in the short time it stays in your mouth or sinus cavity. Some NMN inevitably makes it to your stomach, and only a select few ways of compounding an NMN supplement prepare it to survive in that harsh, acidic environment. That’s why liposomal formulas like Renue By Science’s Lipo NAD⁺ Complete Nasal Spray and Quicksilver Scientific’s NAD+ Gold score so highly here.

We called it a draw between the two thanks to Renue’s combination of NMN, NAD+, and NR and Quicksilver’s high dose of the methyl donor TMG, which can enhance NAD’s activity.

Safety

Winner: Renue By Science

While most of these products have similar ingredient profiles, a lot can happen during the manufacturing process that can potentially contaminate a supplement. There are also secondary and tertiary ingredients that can make one brand a better choice than another, whether they’re included for their own merits or to increase the bioavailability of each NMN dose. Renue By Science’s third-party testing promise gives it the win in safety, along with its limited ingredients and variegated delivery mechanisms. It allows an independent organization to verify the purity and safety of its products, and you can choose from a range including pure NMN powder and more complex formulas.

There is a big safety caveat that affects all NMN supplements and anything else that’s designed to increase NAD levels: a known but poorly understood link between NAD levels and cancer growth.4 At this point, researchers have confirmed that starving tumors of NAD can cause them severe damage, making a reduction in NAD levels a potential treatment.25 But, as NAD is essential for proper mitochondrial activity, that can have unintended consequences, including the development of age-related diseases.26 There is also some evidence of NAD-boosting tools being used to fight cancer.

The picture is muddy, and we’ll dive a little deeper into the risks and the relevant research in our safety section below, but those with cancer currently, cancer in remission, or a history of cancer in their family might want to consider alternatives to achieving wellness goals. As with many supplements and medications, the lowest dose that gives you benefit is ideal, so supplements that provide lower doses — or give you control over the dose (like a powdered NMN supplement) — may be preferable from a safety standpoint.

Convenience

Winners: Renue By Science

Renue By Science wins this criterion thanks to the various ways you can take its supplements. You can choose from the following:

• Powders
• Capsules
• Sublingual tablets
• Nasal sprays
• Topical gels

These delivery methods make its NMN suitable for more people and more need cases. And since there are products in this lineup that combine NMN, nicotinamide riboside (NR), and NAD itself, you can relieve yourself of having to decide among them.

Renue’s website is well designed, and its live chat feature connects you with helpful people who can answer various questions about NAD, its precursors, and the company’s policies.

NMN stands for nicotinamide mononucleotide. It’s a precursor to a coenzyme in the body called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). In layman’s terms, NMN is a compound that causes your body to create NAD, which, in turn, can enhance the efficiency with which your body’s cells function.5 Some studies show that it enhances athletic performance by increasing your VO2 max after a short period of use.6 Others connect it with improved insulin resistance, resulting in lower diabetes risk and, potentially, a trimmer waistline.7

NMN vs. NR

NMN isn’t the only player on the block. Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is another NAD precursor that boasts a fair amount of convincing scientific evidence supporting its effectiveness. Some companies, like Renue By Science, actually sell both NMN and NR supplements. Although research into the combined effect is limited, studies on the metabolism of each suggest that specific transporters and absorption rates could enable them to work together synergistically.

Ultimately, you may tolerate one better than the other, and it’s up to you which one to try first. There is a little more research behind NMN, which may give you peace of mind regarding any potential side effects. Our guide to the best NAD supplements includes some NR options you won’t find on this list.

NMN supplements haven’t consistently shown any adverse effects in the research.8 That includes analysis using doses higher than those commonly available. So you can expect to feel only positives as you take NMN.

Currently, the big problem seems to be a lack of research into long-term usage related to cancer. There is no evidence to suggest that NMN or elevated NAD levels can cause cancer. Still, there is some evidence that NAD’s ability to increase cellular efficiency also applies to cancer cells. Researchers successfully inhibited tumor growth by reducing those cells’ access to NAD.9 This implies that an abundance of NAD might fuel pre-existing or developing cancer in the body. But at the same time, there is contradictory research that shows NAD’s protective potential against certain types of other cancers.10

Ultimately, we need more data to conclude whether elevated NAD levels pose a cancer risk. Both of these things may be true:

• NAD has anti-aging effects that may involve protecting against the development of cancer
• NAD could make already-developing cancers worse

At the moment, we know too little about NAD’s entire metabolic lifespan and its effects in the body’s various systems to narrow down which of those two things is more characteristic of NAD. Scientists may eventually identify an ideal dose of NMN or NR — or find a quick, accurate, and inexpensive way to measure and maintain a Goldilocks NAD level in the body — but for now, it’s essential to be aware of the unknowns. Talking to your doctor or nutritionist is always a smart move when considering a new supplement.

NMN supplements and resveratrol

You may find that the NMN supplements that fit your needs also contain resveratrol. A couple companies that we profile here use it in some of the NMN supplements, and others even sell it as its own pill. If this gives you pause, it’s likely because you’ve heard something regarding resveratrol’s side effect risk.11

It’s true that there have been some significant side effects documented in resveratrol studies, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and even liver problems. But these issues arose in studies that looked at doses up to 100 times higher than what you often find in NMN supplements.11 Prior studies have revealed that resveratrol’s both positive and negative actions in the body are dose-dependent.12 That means that it can be beneficial to the body in small quantities, like the ones mixed with NMN in various supplements.

Ultimately, if you’re considering an NMN supplement with resveratrol, you should speak with your doctor to make sure that you’re a good candidate and that the brand in question uses a dose that’s appropriate for you.

Compared to NAD, NMN is a smaller molecule and can more easily pass through cell membranes. That makes it far superior to direct supplementation with NAD, which the body has difficulty absorbing.

When you take NMN, a transporter on the cell’s surface invites it in, where it can convert to NAD in the liver within 15 minutes. Studies using intramuscular injection of NMN showed its ability to create NAD in various organs and systems.6

NAD production is dose-dependent, which means that the more NMN you consume, the more NAD you’ll produce — up to a certain limit. As we mentioned above, there could be long-term safety concerns with high NMN doses, so it’s up to you to balance your risk-to-reward ratio with a given dose.

How NMN supplements absorb

The supplements you’ll see in this guide come in various forms, which can significantly impact their effectiveness. One form of medicine will absorb more or less quickly than another, and it depends mainly on how the company compounds its drugs and the mechanism by which they deliver them.

It’s worth noting that there’s no exact way to calculate the absorption rate of one delivery method over another for every possible substance. Even the molecular differences among NMN brands are enough to make a 1:1 comparison difficult.

As a result, methods with poor absorption often require noticeably higher dosages — something to remember as you compare your options. In some cases, slower absorption may be preferable, especially if you encounter minor side effects from quickly absorbed doses. That said, faster-absorbing delivery methods are often easier to take (coming as nasal sprays or sublingual gels, rather than big pills that some people have trouble swallowing).

Currently, most NMN research has used capsules as the delivery mechanism. There is too little data on other delivery methods as they pertain to NMN. However, NMN is similar to a vitamin in many respects, and other delivery mechanisms for vitamin delivery have been studied extensively. These include studies of liposomal nanocarriers as well as intranasal, sublingual, and transdermal delivery methods.

While they may be faster-acting, sublingual delivery doesn’t seem to increase long-term bioavailability, at least according to one vitamin B study.13 And lipid nanocarriers can theoretically protect NMN until it gets to the small intestine, where a dedicated NMN transporter is waiting to help you absorb it. But there’s more than one type of liposomal delivery system, and each will act differently in delivering specific elements or compounds.14

So, for those of you more interested in using cutting-edge delivery mechanisms with the highest potential for fast and thorough absorption, novel methods like sublingual and intranasal delivery or liposomal encapsulation will be ideal. But if you want to go with what’s been shown to be both safe and effective, standard encapsulation should be your choice at this time.15

Best overall, best budget pick, fastest acting, and most delivery methods

Renue By Science offers a range of NAD-focused products, including a handful of smartly designed NMN supplements. The company tackles one of any supplement’s most significant problems head-on: absorption. Any supplement you take in pill form will not completely absorb. That’s why vitamin supplements often contain 100-1,000 times the daily value of a given vitamin or mineral — they need to make up for the fact that your body won’t absorb it all. Much of that vitamin content passes through your urine.

But Renue By Science formulates its supplements in various types to maximize absorption potential and account for individual preference. Many also use a liposomal formulation that helps protect the ingredients from digestive enzymes so they can make it to the small intestine and more readily access the bloodstream. Compared to many competitors that only offer their supplements in one form — often with no liposomal protection or even an enteric coating on the capsule — you can see how Renue By Science is more likely to have the most effective products.

Here’s a breakdown of its NMN supplements:

Renue By Science also offers many other NAD-related products in several categories, including:

• NAD preservers – Designed to lower inflammation and allow NAD to function better
• Skincare products – Using liposome technology to deliver NAD directly to the skin
• Home tests – Finger-prick blood tests you take at home to measure antioxidants, inflammation, or intracellular NAD
• Pet NMN - Chews designed for dogs or cats (the science behind these is far from conclusive)17

As you can see, in addition to its diverse NMN line, Renue By Science has other NAD products that far outshine the competition. ProHealth Longevity is the only other company with a broad but targeted set of NMN offerings, including one that Renue By Science lacks (lozenges). ProHealth’s prices aren’t quite as good as Renue’s, but you can go through them to get a powdered combination of NMN, TMG, and resveratrol, which is relatively rare in this category.

Renue By Science provides free shipping on its orders without your purchase needing to reach any price threshold. And its return policy has significantly improved; whereas the company used to accept returns only on unopened products, now you're protected by a 60-day money-back guarantee no matter what. That's a nice improvement for customers, though it's worth pointing out that some competing companies like ProHealth Longevity offer longer return windows.

Best absorption

Quicksilver Scientific has multiple supplements to support immunity, longevity, and more. Its product lines span the following categories:

The focal product, NAD+ Gold, is a sublingual liquid in a convenient pump-action bottle. Our testers found this delivery system superior to powders in taste.

One promising ingredient in NAD+ Gold is trimethylglycine (TMG). This ingredient is known as a methyl donor, meaning that it can provide the carbon and hydrogen necessary for methylation. NAD activity and methylation are interdependent processes that the presence of TMG can improve.18 NAD+ Gold contains 50mg each of NMN and TMG.

Quicksilver also sells a product called NAD+ Platinum, which builds on the Gold formula by adding vitamins, quercetin, and resveratrol. Here’s its ingredient list:

• NMN: 50mg
• Riboflavin: 3.6mg
• Vitamin B12: 250mcg
• Proprietary blend: 60mg

The proprietary blend in NAD+ Platinum contains TMG, quercetin, and resveratrol. Considering the fact that Gold contains 50mg of TMG, the 60mg dose within this proprietary blend either reduces the amount of TMG to make room for the other ingredients or provides pretty low doses of those added ingredients (even for a sublingual liquid).

The biggest downside to NAD+ Gold and Platinum is that you have to refrigerate them upon receipt. And because they’re temperature-sensitive, Quicksilver Scientific will not accept returns on them. Ours arrived with a few other boxes, and the sticker that said “refrigerate upon receipt” was on the box’s underside. Quicksilver also failed to provide any shipping or delivery notifications.

As a result, we failed to refrigerate the product when it arrived, only noticing the error some days later. The box itself had no insulation, and the only thing keeping the product cold was a single ice pack. Fortunately, Quicksilver’s products are stable at room temperature for up to a week, and we did catch our order in time, but we had to dig up the company’s product storage guidelines to make sure it was still safe. We think Quicksilver needs to make a better effort to communicate impending deliveries with its customers and to provide more overt labeling on their boxes to ensure that people see the refrigeration warnings.

You can get NAD+ Gold in two sizes as a one-time purchase or subscription. NAD+ Platinum is only available in one size.

If you spend more than $99, you can qualify for free shipping, but no single bottle of Gold or Platinum is expensive enough for this. For all other shipments, the company calculates shipping at checkout based on your location.

Best complex formula

Founded in 2018, Wonderfeel is the youngest company in our guide. Despite its age, the company approaches its product design and transparency with admirable maturity. We consider its Youngr NMN supplement the best complex formula available based on its ingredients, dosage, and manufacturing.

Here’s a quick look at the ingredients:

• NMN: 900mg
• Vitamin D: 20mcg
• Trans-resveratrol: 100mg
• Olive fruit extract: 50mg
• Ergothioneine: 4mg

Each of the added ingredients has a role to play here, either in supporting the NMN present or working alongside it as an antioxidant. Ergothioneine is perhaps the most compelling ingredient in the bunch. Research interest has grown in recent years, revealing potent antioxidant activity. Studies typically use a higher dose than the 4mg in Youngr, but ergothioneine has been shown to build up in the body and remain at high levels for several weeks after study participants stopped taking it. With that in mind, a daily 4mg dose should provide a slow ramp-up to an effective level in the body without safety concerns.

There are 30 servings per container, but each dose requires two capsules. That means you can titrate up from a lesser dose or simply take one capsule per day to provide a 450mg dose that’s higher than many other companies offer. This may offer a better safety profile for some people than the 900mg dose.

Such a practice would also effectively cut Youngr’s cost in half, which would be helpful considering its price tag. A single 30-serving bottle of Wonderfeel Youngr costs $88 for a one-time purchase or $73 for a subscription. Compared to NMN supplements dosed at 1,000mg, this is actually a better price and, with the added ingredients, a better overall value. You also get free shipping on orders over $70 from Wonderfeel, which covers any amount of its NMN.

Our two biggest issues with Youngr are its capsule construction and subscription management system (or lack thereof). Rice hull capsules dissolve quickly in stomach acid, and NMN can easily be reduced to less effective forms in that environment. Given that there’s a dedicated NMN transporter residing in the small intestines, getting your NMN there is preferable. Non-digestive delivery systems like Renue By Science’s nasal spray or Quicksilver’s sublingual solution can circumvent the GI tract entirely. Renue also has a capsule form of its NMN that’s acid-resistant, allowing it to reach the small intestines intact. These are likely preferable delivery methods based on research into other compounds, but it’s worth noting that such comparative absorption data specific to NMN is not yet available.

When you sign up for a subscription, the enrollment is automatically set to monthly shipments. To make any changes, you have to email the company with a request (with increments of up to four months available). This is frustrating compared to other companies’ systems, like omre’s, which allow you to set delivery frequency on the product page before you checkout.

Best NMN and resveratrol combination

NAD and sirtuin activity go hand-in-hand, with the former dependent on the latter for regulating cellular energy and signaling pathways associated with aging.19 And resveratrol has repeatedly been shown to activate sirtuin 1 (SIRT1).20 It also boasts cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and cancer-fighting benefits.11 By combining NMN with resveratrol, you can theoretically increase SIRT1 and improve on its potential by doing so in the presence of additional NAD.21

Omre has three supplements in its catalog:

• Afterdrink: a complex multivitamin combined with several botanical ingredients intended to curb hangovers
• Hydrate: an electrolyte drink with no artificial ingredients
• NMN + Resveratrol: a combination of NMN and resveratrol

There are just three ingredients in omre’s NMN + Resveratrol:

• NMN: 500mg
• Resveratrol: 500mg
• BioPerine: 5mg

By now, you should be familiar with NMN and resveratrol, but BioPerine might be new to you. This is a black pepper extract that’s been shown to improve the bioavailability of various supplements.27

This combination of ingredients provides what may be an ideal middle-ground dose for many people, with 500mg of NMN being strong enough to have a noticeable impact but weak enough to curb some of its associated risks. And 500mg of resveratrol is a similarly average dose, but if you’re concerned about its risk potential, you can take it with a high-fat breakfast, which will slow its absorption rate without affecting the extent of its absorption.22 The closest product to this would be Wonderfeel’s Youngr, which offers a larger NMN dose (900mg) but a smaller resveratrol dose (100mg) for a noticeably higher price.

Omre offers both bulk and subscription savings on its NMN + Resveratrol. Each bottle contains 30 servings. Here’s a handy chart to make sense of your savings opportunities.

Shipping from omre is free on orders over $60, so you’ll have to buy at least two bottles at a time if you want to save on shipping costs. One-bottle purchases incur a shipping charge of just under $7. Subscribing does not open up free shipping on one-bottle purchases. Compared to Renue By Science and Wonderfeel, which both offer free shipping at any order amount, this is a little disappointing.

Best high-dose capsules

ProHealth Longevity offers numerous anti-aging and energizing supplements. Its collection of NMN products provides you with several doses and administration methods to consider. There are powders, capsules, tablets, and lozenges, most with a few dosages available. It’s one of the more expensive brands out there, but its prices for high doses are competitively priced.

ProHealth is the best high-dose NMN capsule, in our opinion, based on its 1,000mg capsule’s low cost per gram and the enteric coating used. Unlike other high-dose capsules from Wonderfeel or omre, ProHealth Longevity uses a specialized coating that prevents the capsule from breaking down in the low-pH environment of the stomach. That allows more NMN to pass through your stomach and into the small intestines, where a dedicated transporter is waiting to assist in its uptake.

Here’s a breakdown of ProHealth Longevity’s NMN offerings.

These are some of the lowest prices per gram of NMN on the market, but those prices often require large up-front investment and enough space to store a large quantity of powder. Most people would do better getting a low cost per gram through Renue By Science with its Pure NMN Powder.

ProHealth Longevity offers multiple bottle discounts on its capsules and lozenges, as well. If you spend more than $35 on your order, you’ll be eligible to receive free shipping. This is a very low threshold and amounts to free shipping on any NMN product.

Nutriop offers a small number of products — 14 in total — all of which are related to cellular health. It has two NMN products: capsules and a sublingual powder. Between the two, we’d recommend the powder for its lower price and greater absorption potential. Nutriop’s capsules will dissolve in stomach acid (like many other brands, but unlike Renue By Science’s acid-resistant option). That will greatly reduce the amount of NMN that makes it to your small intestines intact.

Of course, the most direct comparison to this sublingual powder comes from Renue By Science, and it offers a much larger quantity (100g) for around the same price. That’s about three times the value of Nutriop’s powder, and there is little discernible qualitative difference between the two.

Here’s how Nutriop’s NMN products price out.

Nutriop offers a 14-day return policy for unopened products. It also claims to have a 30-day money-back guarantee, but its details are not readily available. The company has been poor in communication regarding this issue, as well.

You’ll have to spend more than $180 to unlock free shipping. Other than that, you’ll rely on the global currency exchange to determine your exact cost. Nutriop doesn’t appear to have distribution in the U.S., so U.S.-based customers will pay the following based on current exchange rates from the Euro:

• USPS International, 4-6 days: $15.42
• DHL Express, 1-2 days: $31.94

This is the most expensive shipping of the companies in our guide, so you’ll want to take that into account when comparing prices.

The word “longevity” gets bandied about quite a bit by companies selling NMN and similar products. There is some evidence that increasing NAD levels can offset some of the common markers associated with aging, but enduring the passage of time is an incredibly complex ordeal that one pill can’t solve. (At least, not yet.)

Longevity wellness is an industry unto itself, with NMN just one of many avenues for exploration. Let’s take a quick look at some other supplements and approaches you can take to enhance your lifespan, either by lengthening it or improving the time you have. Some of these can be utilized in conjunction with NMN or each other, but there may also be some instances in which taking too many anti-aging products can have the opposite effect. Be sure to discuss your longevity goals with a doctor and develop a comprehensive and safe approach fit for your needs.