The old adage "you are what you eat" captures today's wellness thinking perfectly. After all, what you put into your body is just as important as what you put on it. Got your sunscreen, antioxidant serum and retinol treatment routine waxed? Now, pair that with a nutrient-rich diet and think what a powerhouse you're creating. But what if you're skipping those critical nutraceuticals? It's sometimes just impossible to graze on everything we need for healthy glowing skin. And because it will always require an inside-out approach, finding those highly potent antioxidants can be tricky. Not to mention learning how to combine them, so they enhance each other's effects – all in the name of chasing complexion perfection.
Anti-ageing's A-Team
Have you heard of anti-agers like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and Resveratrol? For those beefed up on antioxidants, Resveratrol may be familiar. It's a plant compound found in the skin of grapes and blueberries, and studies have shown it may help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. It also improves insulin sensitivity, suppresses cancer cells and can have a protective effect on your brain cells too. It's also a great natural anti-inflammatory. And that means good things for skin!
As for NAD+, this antioxidant co-enzyme is found in all living cells. It's essential for producing energy and rapid DNA repair. NAD+ also supports your immune system. So the more you have, the more youthful your body functions and feels. While we can manufacture NAD+ from eating more vitamin B3, this won't create the enormous amount our bodies need to operate at their best. So, most of our NAD+ is made from the recycling systems in our cells. Sadly, as we get older, these pathways aren't as effective, and the amount of NAD+ we require to help our ageing bodies means our natural supply starts to fade. And then there's the sirtuin connection.
Sirtuins – Simply Put.
These are a family of enzymes "powered" by NAD+ that play a critical role in how we age. For example, SIRT1 protects the walls of your veins, and SIRT3 is protective against high cholesterol. So, when your NAD+ levels decline, so does your sirtuin activity. This accelerates the ageing process, reduces your overall energy and slows down your ability to fight off infections and repair tissues. Basically, you want more NAD+ for happy, healthy sirtuins.
So, how to increase your NAD+ levels? As we said, it's not possible to get enough vitamin B3 through your diet alone. Either you need to use less NAD+ or boost its production. One way to reduce how much you use is to look at conditions causing inflammation – this drains your body of NAD+ faster than a battery of a car with the light's left on. And that means lifestyle changes and careful nutrition. Want to boost NAD+ creation? That simply means supplementation!
The Supplement For You
Do you find choosing tricky? Us too! However, with NAD+, it's pretty simple; the best will contain NAD+ pre-cursors and Resveratrol. Why? Resveratrol enhances the activation of sirtuins, so, when taken together with a NAD+ booster, you get to "switch on" more anti-ageing pathways and then keep them powered up! Clever science, right?
Think of this power couple as a way of de-ageing from top to toe through a potent antioxidant combination. This means cellular health and repair and energy production, brain function and cognition support for your system. More is sometimes more.