It’s safe to say that in 2024, many people are looking for ways to boost their health and their well-being. Of course, having a healthy diet and engaging in exercise is a part of boosting your health. However, for many people, adding supplements to a diet can be beneficial, too. It can be hard to know which ones would be the most useful, so most people opt for a kind of blanket approach to their supplements and take multivitamins every day.
What if there was an option to add a supplement or compound to your diet that had a vast range of benefits that you may have never even heard of? The compound known as nicotinamide mononucleotide has gained a lot of attention in recent years for its health benefits, in particular relating to anti-aging properties, as well as cellular health.
Granted, you’ve probably never heard of nicotinamide mononucleotide or NMN, but here, we’ll walk you through some of the benefits of adding it to your diet.
1. Brain Function
A lot of people in 2024 are experiencing a phenomenon known as brain fog. In some cases, this can be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the fog almost being an after-effect, and for other people, it might be linked to things like fibromyalgia or chronic stress. Either way, many people feel that their brain is operating at half-capacity a lot of the time.
Nicotinamide mononucleotide, or NMN, has been found to be beneficial for brain function and overall neurological health. It has been linked to a reduction in depression symptoms and other mental health issues, as well as preventing age-related issues in the brain, such as strokes and Alzheimer’s. It also offers a protective effect, with studies finding that it can also protect the brain against many of the neurological issues that can come with diabetes. It can also help to heal the brain if it has been injured due to a stroke or hemorrhage.
Of course, the research into this is at its basic level, but in animal studies, the use of nicotinamide mononucleotide has been found to help rats and mice to recover from neurological problems, as well as offer a protective element.
2. Immunity Support
OK, so a lot of people say that they’re looking for a way to boost their immune system, seemingly wanting it to fire on all cylinders all the time. However, an average immune system is already doing that, and a boosted immune system is an autoimmune disorder!
However, for people who may be suffering from chronic flu, colds, and general illness, it may be worth adding something to your diet that can help to support the immune system. Nicotinamide mononucleotide has been found to help people who’ve had COVID-19 to recover quickly, as well as reduce inflammation responses that can cause pain and discomfort linked to stress and other illnesses.
Indeed, nicotinamide mononucleotide has even been found to be beneficial when someone suffers from allergies, as the consumption of this molecule has been linked (again, in animal studies) to a gradual decrease in the severity of allergic reactions.
3. Niacin Absorption
Ever heard of niacin? Most people haven’t unless they’re big on looking for vitamins on product labels.
Niacin is important in a diet and is found in chicken, tuna, salmon, and turkey. However, if someone doesn’t eat meat or doesn’t want to eat meat, then they may develop a niacin deficiency.
This deficiency is called pellagra and comes with a range of very unpleasant effects, with the most visual one being inflamed, dry, and scaly skin. Secondary effects of pellagra include sores in the mouth (think of chronic ulcers and cold sores), dementia, and a link has also been found between having a niacin deficiency and symptoms of schizophrenia. Unlike typical schizophrenia, however, these symptoms stop if the person consumes niacin as part of their diet.
Nicotinamide mononucleotide has been implicated in not only preventing pellagra but also in treating it. So, if you have a diet that’s low in protein from animal sources for religious or ethical reasons, then it can well be worth looking into adding nicotinamide mononucleotide to your diet.
4. Eye Protection
Many people, during their workday, will look at a computer screen for hours at a time. This can cause their eyes to feel dry and itchy and can even cause issues with vision. The average person will then take themselves to an optician, where a blue screen or adapting the settings on the computer will be suggested.
However, dry and itchy eyes can also be due to a lack of oil secretion, which is what causes that sheen on the surface of the eyes. As you may have guessed, nicotinamide mononucleotide has been found to boost the production of oil around the eye, thereby ensuring that it remains in good condition and is protected.
Also, if you have recently had trauma to your eye or have had an operation, nicotinamide mononucleotide can help speed up the recovery process!
5. Cancer
Cancer is one of the world’s most hated and deadly conditions, with as many as one in three people having it at some point in their life.
Now, it’s worth noting that it would be a lie to say that nicotinamide mononucleotide can treat cancer. However, if you have a diagnosis of cancer and are currently going through chemotherapy, adding nicotinamide mononucleotide to your diet can help you to better manage the side effects of the treatment.
One part of the immunosuppression part of cancer treatments is to stop any more tumors from developing, and studies have found that nicotinamide mononucleotide helps with this. In animal studies, the addition of nicotinamide mononucleotide to the diets of rats and mice was found to help reduce the size of tumors.
Also, while it does save lives, chemotherapy does have some very unpleasant side effects, such as vomiting, epilepsy, and anemia. Adding nicotinamide mononucleotide to your diet helps to reduce these symptoms by helping the body to keep its metabolism and energy levels up.