We know practitioners want to test biomarkers in their patients to guide the treatments they recommend. While there is no commercially available NAD+ test that we recommend, there are several other tests that can be used to assess your patients cellular health and rate of aging.

The problem with NAD+ tests

We are commonly asked if there is an in clinic or at home blood test that can be used to measure NAD+ levels. Unfortunately, to date, we have not found a commercially available NAD+ test kit that is reliable. This is because NAD+ by its very nature is an unstable molecule. In the body it is constantly changing structure as it accepts and donates electrons. Therefore, outside of the body NAD+ degrades rapidly after blood sampling, so transport and storage of blood to preserve NAD+ is an issue.

During our clinical trials when we measure NAD+ levels, blood is taken from participants and immediately processed and put on ice to preserve the NAD+. This process is hard to replicate outside of an academic setting, if a blood sample is taken and sent in the post to a lab, by the time it is processed the NAD+ will be degraded.

We appreciate that people want to test their NAD+ levels before and after using an NAD+ supplement to assess its efficacy and while we do not recommend NAD+ tests, there are several other markers that we would recommend testing to indicate cellular health.

CRP and IL-6 

High levels of these inflammatory biomarkers indicate excess inflammation that can be damaging to overall health and accelerate the aging process. The release of IL-6 is also mediated by CD38, therefore high IL-6 levels indicate high levels of CD38 and potentially senescent cells. This is because senescent cells increase the expression of CD38, which promotes chronic inflammation and is one of the main causes of NAD+ decline.

NAD+ is known to regulate inflammation and Nuchido TIME+ was shown to reduce inflammatory cytokines in our clinical trial. Nuchido contains the active ingredient apigenin to inhibit CD38, reducing inflammation and preventing wastage of NAD+. Several of the ingredients in our formulation also have anti-inflammatory properties. 

Homocysteine

In patients that have reduced NAD+ recycling ability (loss of the salvage pathway activity) the breakdown product of NAD+ consumption, NAM (nicotinamide) cannot be recycled. The accumulation of NAM must be prevented by methylation and excretion. High levels of NAM methylation can cause methyl donor depletion leaving other critical processes with insufficient methyl donors.

Homocysteine is produced as a biproduct when nicotinamide is methylated. A dysfunctional Salvage Pathway would mean more methylation of nicotinamide and increased homocysteine levels.

Nuchido TIME+ works to restore the recycling ability of the salvage pathway, preventing dysfunctional methylation.

GlycanAge 

GlycanAge is biological age test based that measures levels of pro-aging and anti-aging IgG glycan levels in blood. Based on years of scientific research into glycans and how they are influenced by the aging process, GlycanAge gives patients an accurate reflection of how well their cells are aging and how much damage they have accumulated.

Those patients with a biological age higher than their chronological age indicates they are aging at an accelerated rate. These individuals will benefit from Nuchido TIME+ as part of a biological age reversal protocol. Nuchido TIME+ was shown to reduce GlycanAge by 1.26 years following just 28 days of supplementation in our clinical trial. This aligns with the role of NAD+ which is known to positively impact the hallmarks of aging and reduce inflammation to promote cellular health.

We hope this article provides some suggestions in terms of what to test in yourself or your patients to determine if the supplements they are taking are having a positive impact.