Best NR Supplement

We still haven’t found the fountain of youth. One or two positive research results for a given nutritional supplement make their way into the media cycle, and you’d think the search was over, but even the most promising anti-aging gurus can take over 100 supplements per day and only see mixed results.

So, among supplemental ingredients, are there any that truly defy the aging process? Proponents of nicotinamide riboside (NR) would say so. After all, NR has been shown to boost levels of a critical component of cellular health and energy, addressing energy and aging at the source.1 But is this enough to make a meaningful difference, and if it is, is it even safe?

We set out to understand the complex science of NR supplementation so we could translate it to you in straightforward language and make responsible recommendations for products if you’re interested in trying NR for yourself. We’ll take a deep dive into the science below, but you can check out this brief summary if you’re pressed for time.

At Innerbody Research, we thoroughly investigate all of the products and services we review, including NR supplements. The process involves everything from thorough analyses of published, peer-reviewed scientific research to actually ordering and trying products for ourselves.

In the case of NR supplements, our team has spent more than 500 hours reading and scrutinizing research devoted to anti-aging and pro-energy supplementation, with a particular focus on products designed to increase cellular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). We’ve ordered and tried many of these products for ourselves, including each of the products in this guide.

Additionally, we conferred with Dr. Jennie Stanford, Board Certified family medicine physician and member of our Medical Review Board, to confirm the accuracy of this piece. We will continue to monitor the space for updates by our editorial team.

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.

When we set out to evaluate NR supplements, we applied the same criteria we used to compare other NAD+ supplements like nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN): effectiveness, safety, cost, and convenience. There are some similarities between these results and the results in our other guides, but there are also some stark and important differences to consider.

Let’s look closer at each criterion to see which products fared the best.

Effectiveness

Winner: Renue by Science NR 1000

When it comes to establishing effectiveness for any NAD+ booster, the gold standard of measurement is plasma NAD+ after administration. In other words, by how much does an NR supplement boost cellular NAD+ after you take it? The majority of research we’ve seen looking into NR’s ability to boost NAD+ revolves around powdered NR in regular capsules.

In one such prominent study from 2016, researchers established a dose-dependent relationship between NR and plasma NAD+, as well as between NR and a measurement known as the area under curve (AUC). For NR, AUC measures how long the increase in NAD+ lasts. In this study, 300mg and 1,000mg doses reached the same maximum plasma NAD+ concentration, but the 1,000mg dose held that concentration for more than twice as long.1

That extended exposure time is likely a result of the specific metabolic processes that translate NR into NAD+ (which we’ll detail more later on). Simply put, the greater supply of NR in a 1,000mg dose allows it to metabolize for a longer period before its stores expire.

Another product from Renue by Science almost won this criterion and could be considered a strong runner-up for efficacy: LIPO NR Capsules. These deliver a 300mg dose of NR, the powder granules of which are encased in liposomal shields, which are essentially high-tech fats that protect the ingredients and are designed to break down only in proximity to intended target tissues.2 It’s an incredibly promising delivery mechanism, but research specific to its role in NR delivery is more limited than research into traditional capsule delivery. It may be more effective than Renue’s NR 1000, but we’ll reserve that judgment until more research is available.

Safety

Winner: Renue by Science LIPO NR Capsules

While there are certain safety concerns affecting NAD+ boosting in general, neither correlations nor causations linking supplemental doses or plasma concentrations to specific potential adverse effects exist. We’ll discuss those potential risks in a dedicated safety section further down this guide, as this criterion exists to compare available options in safety terms.

To that end, we found that Renue by Science offered the best safety profile in its LIPO NR Capsules. Other companies and other Renue products typically increase their doses in an attempt to increase efficacy (we discussed this dose-dependent relationship above), but as with most things, an increased dose can increase side effect risk.

Also, in selecting a winner for safety, we didn’t want to simply choose the product with the lowest suggested dose. Renue by Science’s LIPO NR Capsules provide a reasonably small 300mg dose, but the product’s liposomal coating helps ensure the delivery of NR to target tissues, which should limit adverse effects from collateral interactions between NR and other parts of the body.

You could get a similar dose from something like Tru Niagen or Thorne NiaCel 400’s 400mg serving, but non-liposomal NR might increase NAD+ absorption in the liver more than in target tissues.

Cost

Winner: Renue by Science LIPO NR Capsules

Despite also having what we consider the best safety profile, Renue by Science’s LIPO NR Capsules also prove to be the best bang-for-buck option in our guide, though the reason for this might not be apparent at first. Here’s how the top products in our guide (that feature only NR) compare in their cost per gram of NR:

Now, Renue’s LIPO NR Capsules are the most expensive per gram of NR of the company’s three entries here, despite still being less expensive per gram than other companies.

But it’s important to remember that liposomal delivery should translate to less wasted NR and more targeted delivery to specific tissues. Renue claims that its sponsored studies show a tenfold increase in absorption for certain ingredient types when delivered liposomally, but the company doesn’t link directly to those studies. That said, independent research into liposomal NR delivery saw a nearly threefold increase in plasma concentration and more than a fivefold increase in AUC.6

That difference means that a 300mg dose of liposomal NR is around the equivalent of a 900mg dose on the low end and a 3,000mg dose on the high end, depending on variables like the specific construction of liposomes in use.

Therefore, we think it makes more sense to consider Renue’s LIPO NR Capsules on a cost-per-dose basis:

In this light, Renue’s LIPO capsules are easily the best deal in our guide.

Convenience

Winner: Renue by Science

We didn’t give this win to any one product from Renue by Science, but the company as a whole took the category for the diversity of its offering. Whereas its competitors typically only offer one product each, and that’s a simple capsule, Renue has products containing NR that come as capsules, powders, and oral and nasal sprays.

Having multiple delivery methods to choose from allows you to find what works best for your regimen, and it potentially improves bioavailability. Renue employs liposomal delivery mechanisms to help protect NR from degradation through first-pass metabolism. Nasal sprays and sublingual powders partially bypass this by allowing the NR to enter the bloodstream through oral and nasal membranes.

It also doesn’t hurt that the powdered NR supplement tastes pretty good. All of our testers appreciated its mild citric flavor and lack of overt sweetness. It was like a slightly watered-down Gatorade with just enough tanginess.

Renue is also tied in our guide for the longest money-back guarantee, offering 60 days for you to try its products. Thorne has a similar policy.

NR stands for nicotinamide riboside, a form of vitamin B3 that’s been studied for its potential as an energy-boosting and anti-aging treatment. But NR doesn’t offer these benefits directly. Instead, it acts as a precursor for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), and studies have shown a direct relationship between NR supplementation and increased NAD+ in the blood and certain target tissues.1

So anyone hoping to boost their NAD+ levels can look to NR as a solution. There are other supplemental means for boosting NAD+, but NR is one of the most reliable and well-researched out there.

NAD+ is a co-enzyme, meaning that it serves numerous functions in support of other enzymatic activities. This mostly occurs in the mitochondria of cells that have absorbed some NAD+.7 And the mitochondria are often referred to as the “powerhouses” of the cell, specifically regarding their role in turning the food we eat into energy.

You might see NAD+ carelessly written without the plus sign as NAD, but there’s an important difference. NAD can refer to either NAD+ or NADH, both of which are forms of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide that convert into one another as part of the process that generates cellular energy. An imbalance of more NADH than NAD+ in the body is often associated with things we’d consider to be harmful oxidizing processes or events, like a night of excessive drinking or aging itself.8 9

Boosting NAD+ creates an environment in which those conversions can occur at greater rates and at a greater abundance, contributing to an increase in overall cellular energy.

The potential benefits of increased NAD+ levels include:10

• Cellular health
• Anti-aging support
• Increased energy
• Heart health
• Metabolic boost
• Improved cognition
• Better sleep
• Faster healing

The evidence supporting some of these benefits is stronger than others, but the general thrust of NAD+ boosting is that it can improve your whole-body functioning, especially as it relates to aging.

When you take an NR supplement, it becomes NAD+ through a complex metabolic course known as the salvage pathway. There are three such pathways associated with NAD+ production in the body, depending on the source material at hand:8

• Salvage pathway: Used to convert NR and nicotinamide into NMN, then into NAD+
• Preiss-Handler pathway: Used to convert nicotinic acid into NAD+
• de novo pathway: Used to convert tryptophan into NAD+

The exact degree to which a certain amount of NR will translate to NAD+ is likely to be different for every individual, as things like body weight and metabolism have influences. Researchers have more recently understood the critical role that gut microbiota play in this conversion process, as well,11 and variations between individuals’ microbiomes can be enormous.

NR chloride vs. NR hydrogen malate

Depending on the brand in question, you’re either going to get your hands on NR chloride or NR hydrogen malate. NR chloride is, by far, the more commonly used and more widely studied of the two NR forms. Simply put, NR chloride is an NR salt made with NR and chlorine, and NR hydrogen malate is made with NR and malic acid.

NR chloride was the first commercially available form, developed and marketed by a company called Chromadex under the brand name Niagen. Niagen is available in a wide variety of NR supplements, but it’s unclear whether all forms of NR chloride on the market are subject to Chromadex’s patent, as certain companies list their NR as Niagen, while others do not.

NR hydrogen malate was developed a bit later, and it may present a lower risk of side effects than NR chloride.

In separate animal studies, NR chloride was shown to produce no observable adverse effects at 300mg/kg in rats, whereas NR hydrogen malate boasted a threshold of 2,000mg/kg.12 13 Aspects of these studies make them difficult to compare head-to-head, but the gulf between 300mg/kg and 2,000mg/kg is significant nonetheless. To make matters more complicated, the fact that these are animal studies makes them less translatable to human interventions.

NR hydrogen malate tends to be harder to find and more expensive than NR chloride, however. There is also far less research confirming its efficacy than you can find for NR chloride, and both should be safe for most consumers at average doses. Therefore, we typically recommend NR chloride for all but the few customers who are willing to risk some efficacy for the lowest possible side effect risk.

Who are NR supplements for?

NR supplements are a potential source of increased cellular health and energy for just about anyone. If you have specific age-related concerns about your health and wellness, you might look to NR for support. These concerns can include:10

• Decreased energy levels
• Dull or unpleasant skin appearance
• Cardiovascular issues
• Cognitive impairment
• Pain conditions

That said, plenty of perfectly healthy people take NR supplements to stave off the aging process, even if they aren’t aware of any specific age-related conditions.

Who might want to look elsewhere?

While everyone is always aging, young people aren’t likely as concerned with the process as older individuals. If you’re 22, you have boundless energy, and your skin practically glows in the dark, you probably don’t need to invest in an NR supplement.

As we’ll discuss in our safety section below, there are specific concerns about NR supplementation and NAD+ boosting that could give some people pause. These include a potential unsafe drop in blood pressure for those currently on medication for hypertension, as well as potential cancer risks that researchers have yet to define clearly.14

In short-term research, NR appears to be mostly safe for most people. But there are caveats to that short-term safety, including some noteworthy contraindications. There are also significant concerns about the role NAD+ can play in cancer management, both as a tool to potentially thwart cancer and as a contributing factor in its emergence and growth.

One of the biggest concerns among NAD+ boosters is flushing (a rush of blood to the face with a feeling of overheating), as some forms of B vitamins (a category to which NR belongs) have been shown to cause. While niacin is particularly prone to causing flushing, NR doesn’t appear to cause the same kind of flushing that other B3s do, at least according to some research studies.3 4 That said, a high-dose study involving patients with Parkinson’s disease saw the following adverse effects in patients taking 1,500mg daily for four weeks:5

• Extrapyramidal disorder
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Dyspepsia
• Muscle cramps
• Tremor

Some similar effects were seen in the placebo group from this study, so it’s unclear which ones may have been caused by NR supplementation.

In most cases, that’s a much higher dose than our top recommendations provide, but some companies offer doses approaching 1,000mg/day, increasing the risk of adverse reactions.

NR has also been shown to have potential as a blood pressure treatment for people with hypertension. But if you’re already taking medication for hypertension or you deal with hypotension (low blood pressure), NR supplements may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure.14

As always, it’s wise to talk to your doctor before introducing NR (or any other new supplement) into your regimen.

NAD+ and cancer

One thing your doctor may not be able to speak to is NR’s potential to increase or decrease your risk of certain cancers. That’s not your doctor’s fault, either; the scientific community hasn’t drawn firm enough conclusions here to know where to stand. So, here’s what we know:

• Researchers have confirmed that cancer cells utilize NAD+ at a higher rate than noncancerous cells, indicating a complex relationship that may be exacerbated by increased NAD+ from exogenous NR supplementation.15
• Other research points toward increased NAD+ potentially acting prophylactically against tumor cell formation for liver and breast cancers.16 17

Does this mean that increasing your NAD+ levels can prevent cancer? Or does it mean that increasing your NAD+ levels could exacerbate cancer? These questions remain unanswered.

Ultimately, you’ll want to talk with your doctor before beginning an NR supplement, especially if you’re at increased risk of cancer due to lifestyle or genetic predispositions.

Best for most people, best budget pick, best high-dose capsule, and best powder

Renue by Science has been on the front line of NAD+ boosting for years, and we’ve closely followed its growth, both as part of our editorial efforts and out of a personal interest in the field shared by members of the team. To date, we’ve tried well over a dozen of its products, and we’re confident that there isn’t a company out there offering the same variety and quality for similar prices.

Central to numerous Renue products is liposomal delivery, which is the microencapsulation of ingredients within fat-based structures that are designed to break down in the vicinity of target tissues.6 The simplest of these can make it through the harsh acidic environment of the stomach and get to the small intestine unscathed. More complex liposomal structures can remain intact as they enter the bloodstream, releasing their ingredients only when they’ve reached the place where they might do the most good.

Renue offers three NR-only products and another three products containing NR alongside other NAD+ boosters like NMN or NAD+ itself:

Among the NR-only products, each one contributed to a different recommendation point in our summary at the top of this guide. Here’s how it breaks down:

• Best for most people: LIPO NR capsules
• Best budget pick: LIPO NR capsules
• Best high-dose capsule: NR 1000
• Best powder: NR powder

Our reasoning here is simple. LIPO NR offers the lowest cost per dose among our top picks and a slightly lower risk of side effects than NR 1000, while NR 1000 offers a high dose in an enteric-coated capsule that can withstand stomach acid. Finally, Renue’s NR powder, while not protected from stomach acid, is a great way to get a low cost per gram with a flexible dose and a great citrus flavor that was universally enjoyed by our testing team.

As for the rest of the NR-related lineup, while we’re big fans of what NMN has to offer, we haven’t seen convincing evidence that exogenous NAD+ can meaningfully increase NAD+ levels in the blood. To be fair to Renue, research into intranasal and liposomal delivery of NAD+ isn’t yet available, so it could take a direct route to the bloodstream and be effective there. But we reserve our recommendations for products with more specific scientific support. Thus, for the time being, we advise our readers to invest in NR or NMN supplements, but not NAD+ itself.

Renue by Science pricing and returns

While Renue’s sticker prices can initially appear higher compared to other companies, many of its products come in two- and three-month supplies that bring your cost per dose well below the competition. You can also save an additional 10% on any order by subscribing, and you can set your subscription interval for 30, 45, or 60 days. In the case of products offered in three-month supplies, like the LIPO NR Capsules, this isn’t quite as convenient as it could be. That particular product should be available in a 90-day refill window, but it isn’t. By comparison, Thorne has a much more flexible subscription-customization system.

Here’s a quick look at the prices with and without a subscription for Renue’s three NR-only products:

Depending on how much you want to spend, you could end up with the lowest cost per dose from the LIPO NR Capsules, the lowest cost per gram of NR in the NR Powder, or something in between the two with NR 1000.

Shipping from Renue by Science costs $4.95 in the U.S. if you spend less than $50 on an order. Orders of $50 or more (which is any of the three NR products we recommend) ship for free. Renue has the most generous return policy in our guide (tied with Thorne), offering you 60 days to try its supplements and still ask for a refund.

Best NR-based anti-aging complex

Perpetua.Life is a relatively young supplement company (founded in 2021), with only a half-dozen products in its current catalog:

• AEON, an anti-aging complex
• Magnesium gummies
• Lion’s mane gummies
• Ashwagandha gummies
• Creatine gummies
• Novaxidil, a novel, minoxidil-based topical hair growth treatment

We’re not always crazy about the gummy approach, as dosing can be really difficult to control.40 Gummy supplements can contain far more or far less than what’s listed on the label, depending on numerous variables like the time elapsed between manufacture and purchase, temperature exposure, and more. Board Certified family medicine doctor and member of our Medical Review Board Jennie Stanford also points out, “It is hard (if not impossible) to create a palatable supplement gummy without added ingredients you may not want, like sugar.”

The company’s hair growth foam is also almost comically overpriced compared to its competition, which we’ve studied extensively for the better part of a decade.

That leaves us with AEON, which is undeniably the company’s best product.

AEON starts with what Perpetua.Life calls Nicotinamide DUO, a liposomal blend of NR and NMN delivered in a 500mg dose. The company says it’s a proprietary blend, but fortunately, it’s up front about the ratio between NMN and NR, so you know what you’re getting. Specifically, the 500mg of Nicontinamide DUO in AEON delivers 400mg of NMN and 100mg of NR.

Here’s a look at AEON’s ingredient list:

• Vitamin B2: 1mg
• Vitamin B6: 5mg
• Vitamin B12: 2mcg
• Nicotinamide DUO: 500mg (400mg NMN, 100mg NR)
• Quercetin: 250mg
• Trans-resveratrol: 150mg
• Fisetin: 100mg
• Astragalus: 100mg
• L-Theanine: 100mg
• EGCG: 100mg
• TMG: 85mg
• Piperine: 10mg
• Spermidine: 10mg

Some of the ingredients on this list serve important purposes, either as anti-aging components themselves or as supportive ingredients for other anti-aging substances. For example, piperine doesn’t boast any anti-aging properties, but it’s been shown to improve the absorption of nutritional supplements, increasing the amount of the other ingredients your body will end up using.

Here’s a closer look at some of the ingredients in AEON that have genuine anti-aging potential and appear at doses research says should be effective:

Other ingredients in AEON show promise, like L-theanine and astragalus, but much of the research looking into these has been conducted in rats using liquid measures that don’t cleanly translate to human dose recommendations. And things like EGCG from green tea are better served up in higher doses — closer to 200mg-300mg, as opposed to the 100mg in AEON.

Perpetua.Life AEON pricing and returns

AEON is available at a relatively reasonable price when you compare its contents to other competitors offering nothing but NR. You can also save 20% when you sign up for automatic deliveries. A one-time purchase costs $59/bottle, and a subscription will run you $47.20/month.

Let’s compare those numbers to another product containing NR, NMN, and a couple of other ingredients with a liposomal delivery from Renue by Science:

As you can see, AEON is the pricier product per dose, even with a lower sticker price. But it also has a higher NMN dose and six times as many supportive anti-aging ingredients. We still advise most people to start with a simple NR or NMN supplement from Renue, which is even less expensive than the company’s NAD+ Complete, but if you want to start with a larger arsenal of weapons in your fight against aging, AEON might be the way to go.

Perpetua.Life doesn’t stipulate its shipping policy anywhere, but any time we’ve been on its website, a banner has told us that we’d unlocked free shipping, and all of our orders from the company have shipped for free.

Compared to Renue or Thorne, Perpetua.Life has a shorter money-back guarantee of just 30 days. That might still be enough for you to feel something from the supplement and know you want to stick with it, but we prefer to see at least 60 days in this product category.

Best Niagen alternative

If you have any reason to be significantly concerned with the safety profile of NR chloride — a.k.a. Niagen, the most widely used NR supplement — Thorne’s NR hydrogen malate could be a nice alternative. NR malate is somewhat rare on the market, with Thorne’s version being the one we found to offer the best dose and manufacturing standards.

In addition to 415mg of NR malate, NiaCel 400 contains 85mg of TMG, which we discussed in the AEON section as being a methyl donor in the NAD+ production process. Essentially, its presence here facilitates a greater rate of NAD+ production from the same amount of NR than you could get from NR on its own.23

NiaCel 400 is also the only product in our guide to be NSF Certified for Sport, indicating that a product has met certain safety and manufacturing standards and has nothing in it that would get flagged by international anti-doping agencies that test athletes for performance-enhancing substances.

Thorne NiaCel 400 pricing and returns

NiaCel 400 has a pretty straightforward pricing structure, though the company’s claim of up to 20% off for subscribers is a little misleading. You can certainly save 20%, but only if you have active subscriptions to two other Thorne products. Otherwise, you’d only get 10% off for subscribing. That’s still as good as the subscription discount Renue by Science offers, but it pales in comparison to the 20% off you can get on a Perpetua.Life or Tru Niagen subscription.

Here’s what NiaCel 400 costs:

Thorne is one of only two companies in our guide to offer free shipping on all orders, regardless of how much you spend (the other being Tru Niagen). That said, the free shipping thresholds the other companies have are all below the cost of a single bottle of the products we’ve highlighted, so you should get free shipping from any of them.

Where Thorne does stand out is in its 60-day money-back guarantee — tied with Renue by Science for length.

Tru Niagen didn’t crack into the summary of recommendations in this guide, nor did it find a spot in our comprehensive NAD+ booster guide. It’s not that the product is lacking in potential efficacy — it should be as effective as any other NR supplement at a given dose — but the company’s standard dose of 300mg is undeniably on the low end of what studies show might be effective. And you can find NR from other companies in this guide that is more potent, less expensive, or both.

So, why include Tru Niagen at all? Because its parent company, Chromadex, developed NR chloride, known commercially as Niagen and found in most NR supplements. It’s likely the most recognizable name in NR, and it’s important to understand in case you fit within the narrow band of consumers for whom it could be the right fit — specifically, people looking to NR for immune support who won’t mind spending a little more on a bundle of multiple Tru Niagen products to maximize their benefit.

Tru Niagen offers four NR products in all:

• Tru Niagen
• Tru Niagen Pro
• Tru Niagen Stick Packs
• Tru Niagen Immune

The first three items on that list include only NR as a therapeutic ingredient. Original Tru Niagen is available in 150mg and 300mg capsules, while Tru Niagen Pro provides a 500mg dose per capsule (with a two-capsule recommended serving size). And the Stick Packs come with 300mg of NR per serving.

Things get a little more diversified on Immune’s ingredient label:

• NR: 150mg
• Theracurmin: 30mg
• Vitamin C: 180mg
• Vitamin D3: 50mcg
• Zinc: 20mg

Let’s look closer at each of these ingredients to see whether there are good reasons to include them and to use these particular doses:

That’s not a bad collection of ingredients and doses to support immunity. You have something like vitamin C to stave off a cold alongside zinc to mitigate a cold’s symptoms if one sets in. As Dr. Stanford points out, “Zinc has not been shown to successfully prevent common colds; in contrast to zinc, adequate vitamin C has been shown to reduce the incidence of the common cold.”

but the 150mg dose of NR is interesting here. It’s unlikely that you’d use Tru Niagen Immune as your sole source of NR. Either the original 300mg formula or the 1,000mg Tru Niagen Pro for daily use might be something you support with Tru Niagen Immune during times when you either want to stave off illness, know you’ve been exposed to something, or have started to develop symptoms.

Tru Niagen pricing

Tru Niagen’s pricing gets a little complicated, as the company offers both bulk and subscription discounts on some products. Below, we use some handy charts to break down the pricing for each of Tru Niagen’s product lines:

Tru Niagen (300mg capsules)

Tru Niagen Pro (500mg capsules)

Tru Niagen Stick Packs (300mg each)

Tru Niagen Immune

Tru Niagen + Immune bundle

As we discussed earlier, the likelihood here is that you’ll take these supplements together — a 450mg dose of NR alongside the immunity-enhancing ingredients in Immune. So the following table breaks down the bundle pricing based on 30 total servings, as there are 30 servings of each in either bottle:

Shipping from Tru Niagen is free on all orders, but the company doesn’t offer any kind of money-back guarantee. You can only return products that are unopened. That’s a stark difference from the other companies in this guide, like Thorne and Renue by Science, both of which offer 60-day guarantees.

Given some of the unknowns surrounding NR’s long-term use, it’s understandable that people might be curious about alternatives. We’ll confine our investigation here to the most promising alternatives to NR to fight the aging process or increase energy, with a particular focus on NR’s cousin, NMN.

NR vs. NMN

If you’re interested in a deep dive into the science comparing NR and NMN for NAD+ support, you should check out our complete guide to NAD+ supplements. Here, we’ll try to keep things as concise as possible, and you can use that guide or our specific guide to NMN supplements to explore more products.

In a nutshell, NR and NMN achieve the same thing. Along the complex metabolic pathways that turn certain foods or supplements into NAD+, NR actually converts into NMN before it can play its role in synthesizing NAD+. That might seem like all you need to know. NMN is one step closer to NAD+, so why not take it instead?

Well, for years, scientists believed that NMN had to be converted back to NR before it could enter a cell and then be turned back into NMN to be useful. There was just no evidence that NMN could enter cells on its own. But that changed in 2018 with the discovery of a dedicated NMN transporter that acts like a friendly bouncer to let NMN into the cell without having to convert to NR first.31

The existence of this transporter is why our NAD+ guide recommends an NMN product as the best option for most people over any NR product. That said, we’re aware that NR boasts a greater degree of research into its safety and efficacy, so it remains an important option for a wide variety of consumers.

Other anti-aging supplements

If we decided to dedicate any page to comprehensively cataloging the available anti-aging supplements on the market, new ones would emerge as we were writing, likely faster than we could keep up. But there are some tried-and-true options that have been on the market for years and can boast some degree of reliable success for most users. We dove into a handful of these in our section breaking down the complex of ingredients in Perpetua.Life’s AEON, but let’s look at a few more here:

These options may not be the flashy fountains of youth some supplements claim to be, but they stand the best chance of slowing aging and improving quality of life in the long run.