I Tried the $5 Longevity Supplement - Here’s What Happened

Most people think you need expensive supplements like NMN or NR to increase NAD levels and slow down aging. We're talking 80 or even 100 dollars per month. But when I dug into the research, I kept seeing the same thing pop up. A cheap, boring, generic supplement that most people aren't aware of. Nacinamide, also called nicotinamide. It's been around forever, it costs almost nothing, and on paper it does the same fundamental job as NMN or NR. It raises NAD levels. NAD being a major coenzyme that regulates energy production, metabolism, and DNA repair. I've taken all of these supplements, NMN, NR, and nicinamide. But in this video, I want to share and compare nicinamide to NMN and NR. Let's answer the most important question. Does nicinamide raise NAD levels in the first place? Taking 200mg of nicinamide has been seen to increase NAD by about 10% in 12 hours. Blood nicinamide levels increased by up to 30-fold within 30 minutes in this study, gradually decreasing until 6 hours. However, NAD levels peaked after 12 hours, and gradually decreased to baseline over 48 hours. A dose of 100mg of nicotinamide doesn't appear to raise NAD levels in a significant manner, whereas a dose of 500mg continues to do so beyond 48 hours. So, at least 200mg of nicotinamide is necessary to raise NAD levels, and up to 500mg does so as well. So yes, there is evidence that nicinamide raises NAD levels. The effect isn't that massive, it's around 10% increase. But it's still significant. The limitation of these studies is that it's done on a small amount of people. That's why I wanted to also try it out on myself to see how my body responds. Now, first of all, I'm quite young, I have high levels of NAD to begin with, and I'm not going to expect to notice a major difference in terms of my energy levels, my sleep, or just how I function. But in the past when I've taken NMN or NR, I noticed that my body needs a little bit less sleep, and I'm also able to recover faster from things like jet lag, or circadian rhythm mismatch, or even sleep deprivation. So what was my protocol with nicinamide? I took 200mg of nicinamide every morning for 2 weeks. The reason you want to take any NAD booster like B vitamins, NMN, NR, or nicinamide in the morning is because of the way they raise NAD. If you take them in the evening or before bed, you might have troubles falling asleep because of the increased NAD that gives you energy. What I noticed was that taking nicinamide did provide me with the similar effects as NMN or NR. I was able to sleep a bit shorter, and I was recovering faster from shorter sleep. You might also wonder if there are any direct comparisons between these three NAD boosters. Yes, there is actually a recent 2026 study published in January that compared NMN, NR, and nicinamide in terms of raising NAD. From the clinical data, the biggest increase in NAD was seen from NR, or nicotinamide riboside, with a 2-3x increase in NAD from baseline. NMN, or nicotinamide mononucleotide, was second, with a 1.5-2.5x, and nicinamide was the third, at 1.2-1.5x increase. NR has the most studies, and it has the highest bioavailability out of these three. However, it doesn't mean that I would argue that nicinamide is even better of an NAD booster for the general population who doesn't have any health conditions. They don't have low NAD levels because of some comorbidity. Because NAD isn't a molecule that you just want to keep increasing as high as possible. It has a point of diminishing returns, and high NAD levels can also be harmful. More isn't always better, and some cancers can actually utilize NAD for their own survival. This doesn't mean that high NAD levels would inherently cause cancer, it's just that cancers are just very tricky and they can hijack NAD for their own survival. It's just better to not have super high levels of NAD for no reason. I'm mostly talking about supplementing high amounts of NR or NMN, or getting IV NAD or NAD injections. Especially if you don't have problems with NAD, if your baseline NAD is already normal. Plus, nicinamide is about 20x cheaper than NR. One bottle of nicinamide will cost you around 5-10 dollars, whereas it's going to be up to 80 dollars for NR. Don't get me wrong, NR is a good supplement, it has clinical evidence, but the benefits you get from NR aren't that significantly higher than nicinamide. NR definitely isn't 20x better than NR, it might be 2-3x better. What I'm going to be doing is using nicinamide a few times a week, just to support baseline NAD levels and maybe catch up on some lost sleep. There's also research that nicinamide protects the skin against UV radiation, and it has skin anti-aging effects. Part of the reasoning is that it increases NAD, since NAD is used to counteract DNA damage caused by sunlight. Taking nicinamide has also been seen to reduce the risk of skin cancer, so even as a generally healthy person, you can benefit from nicinamide, which is why I'll continue to take it on and off. I want to take a break to invite you to our online community called Youspan Society. Youspan Society is an evidence-based online community on school, where we have a ton of online courses and mini-courses on health optimization, longevity, and anti-aging. Starting with things like exercise, fitness, body composition, and ending with things like skincare, sleep, and nutrition. Youspan Society just launched three of the introductory courses. A 7-day free longevity kickstarter challenge, a 14-day body composition challenge, and a 30-day longevity consistency challenge. You can join the community for free for 7 days, and cancel any time. In addition to the courses, you'll get access to the online discussion board, where you can ask questions from me and other members of the community. We have live weekly calls, where we discuss new research, talk about our most cutting-edge protocols for anti-aging and longevity, and just answer questions. So if you like my videos and want to learn more, then our online community Youspan Society is the best place to do so. Check out the link in the description and start the challenge. Another big reason why I am a fan of nacinamide over NMN and NR is the way NAD is being produced. Nacinamide increases NAD through the Salish pathway, which recycles NAD. You see, the body produces NAD in different pathways. You have the Price-Sander pathway that makes NAD through niacin, you have the de novo biosynthesis pathway that makes NAD from tryptophan, but then you have the recycling pathway that recycles all of the NAD you make. So it makes up the most of your NAD. Even taking NMN or NR results in your NAD being recycled in the NAD-Salish pathway. NAMPT is the rate-limiting step in the Salish pathway, which determines how much NAD gets recycled. Nacinamide supports the Salish pathway, and it helps with NAD recycling. So nacinamide feeds into the NAD-Salish pathway, which is arguably the most important pathway for increasing NAD, at least in terms of sustainability. It doesn't matter how much NAD boosters you take, if your Salish pathway isn't working properly, then you're just dependent on the supplement. But a healthy person and a healthy body should be able to recycle their NAD continuously. That's why things like exercise or cadian rhythm alignment, having good body composition and good health is important to keep the Salish pathway working actively. But nacinamide supports that pathway at a fraction of the cost as NR or NMN does. Overall, I'm a big fan of nacinamide because of these reasons. And I'll be taking 200mg of nacinamide every few days or a few times a week. Especially if I've changed time zones, if I'm having some sleep deprivation, or I'll be exposed to more sunlight to protect my skin against UV damage. A final word of caution, taking over 3000mg of nacinamide has been seen to cause liver damage. Supplementing 500-1500mg of nacinamide a day for several months may cause diarrhea or low platelet count. But a dose of 200-500mg is the most optimal for increasing NAD and supporting skin health. So nacinamide is a very cheap and effective alternative to NMN and NR. It helps with NAD's recycling and it has some skin and aging benefits. If you want to know how I rank 100 other supplements from worst to best, then check out this video next.