FTV; Are NMN and NAD+ really the super supplements people claim?

After the episode from 2 weeks ago where I covered Protein, creatine etc.  This week I'm tackling some of today's talked-about/hyped supplements and explain why it's crucial to approach them with a healthy dose of skepticism. Promising to clarify the role of trendy options like NAD, NAD+, and NMN, 

Can boosting naturally declining NAD levels truly reverse aging? And should you trust wellness gurus who pivot from publishing to selling supplements with scant evidence? 
With non-human studies forming the backbone of much of the current research, you'll hear why investing in healthy lifestyle habits like exercise and diet might be your best bet. 

I also call out the pattern of wellness figures capitalizing on fleeting trends, urging you to stay informed and cautious about what's genuinely effective for your health.

Link to the study I mentioned

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BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.

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And, of course, you can always find us on our YouTube channel if you like your podcast in video form :)

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Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions, comments or want to suggest a guest/topic      

Playing us out; "I've got a whole lot of swing" by Thruline 

Transcript

Welcome And Why Part Two

Peter 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast. with your postnatal expert Peter Lap. That As always, would be me. This is a podcast for the 18th of April 2026. Doesn't time fly. Peter at healthypostnatobody.com if you have any questions or comments. This week we do part two of the supplements one. So uh this is I referred to it in the podcast as last week's episode. It's actually from two weeks ago. Um, this is from the vault. This is the one that hardly anybody listened to compared to the protein episode. But we see more and more commercials for this stuff. I'm discussing NMN and NAD Plus and all that type of supplement. Um, you see a lot of sales for this. Is it really the one the drug that people claim it is? I have some big, big, big doubts on this. Um, and you know, I'll go through them a little bit in this uh in this episode. Basically, it's another episode of why would you waste your money on this stuff when it's not proven at all to be that effective? So without further ado, here we go. So I hope you listened to last week's episode, and I hope you um you got something from it. That was the the um part one, so to speak, of of supplements. I wanted to do a little bit about supplementation. Um, and of course, as a uh as a personal trainer, we get asked an awful lot about this type of stuff, and to be honest, we are not always the most qualified to answer all these questions. So, what we can always only do when it comes to this uh sort of thing is tell you what the experts tell us, right? What the evidence actually says. And I think that's that's useful to point out in advance because a lot of the times you see adverts for supplements, they feature a personal trainer of some sort or some sort of coach, right? That does this, and the same goes for uh the supplements I'm discussing today, um NAD, NMN, and uh NAD plus NAD, NAD plus. Um you see an awful lot of ads on Instagram now, usually with uh someone in their 30s, 40s, that goes, ah, I started taking NMN and or NAD, and NAD is better than NMN, and I feel so much better now because you know this is what it does. It it's uh NMN is is an NED, they're involved in DNA repair, and I'm getting all down cellular metabolism and energy, and I have more energy now, and I'm a beast, and I'm a I feel phenomenal, and you should buy this as well. And um, nine out of ten times the people that say that don't actually have the quality and the qualifications to sell you anything, and 99 out of 100 times people that sell supplements um are more in it for financial gain than they are um to actually help people. And like I said, last week I covered the the more established supplements as protein, creatine, that that type of stuff, even pumpkin seeds. And I did get an email about the pumpkin one, um, the the bladder supplement, by the way, which was a fair point, uh, that pointed out to me that dosage matters, and sometimes it's easier for supplement to get a higher dose of something in than it would be to eat something in its natural form, such as pumpkin seeds, for instance. That doesn't go necessarily for jude and the bladder supplements that I discussed. In fact, that doesn't go at all for it, but for other supplements, that's true. If you're looking to get, I don't know, creatine in, for instance, you could just eat meat. Uh, but you'd have to eat a significant amount of meat to get the five grams of creatine that we kind of kind of think of uh works really well. So, you know, thanks again for pointing that out. All the other stuff, all the all the let's say new supplements or newer supplements that just haven't been around that long yet. They they tend to be they they tend to be like a new uh I'm trying to be very careful in how I phrase this because I don't want to be in in end up like Stephen Bartlett and be accused of spreading misinformation. Um but but it's they tend to be new inventions, and because the supplement market is relatively speaking completely unregulated, um they can make fairly wild claims, especially on social media. Um and and that can be really, really tricky. Like I said, the the the evidence for say protein supplementation is is is and what what whey protein does and soy protein and p protein and all that sort of stuff, what that does is very clear. That stuff is really well studied, has been kicking around for a long time. We know we know how safe it is and and all that type of stuff. With a lot of the newer supplements that have much bolder claims, we don't really have any of that uh of that testing. And and that is kind of what we come across with uh I'll start with with NAD um and and NAD plus. Now, NAD starts for and uh stands for, sorry, and I'm going to butcher this. Uh nicotinamide uh adenine dinocle dinucleotide. Jesus, see, I thought you I would butcher this. Um now like like NMN and and and um all the sorts of stuff, this you see this with a lot of the new supplements. There's a lot of there's a lot of well, if this occurs naturally in the body and and the levels in the body decline as we age, then it must be a good thing to to increase that and and that keeps you younger for longer, right? That that that makes sense. It passes the quick sniff test, so to speak. As in, I feel great in my 20s, my skin is younger in my 20s, I have more energy in my 20s. By the time I'm 40, I look a bit older, I have a bit less bit less energy, and and one of the things that that uh drops throughout uh throughout the years is is the NAD levels, and therefore if we supplement with NAD and bump that up, that could then that that that should then give us a boost, right? That that sounds that sounds sensible. That sounds like it kind of makes sense. Um the problem with that, of course, and there is always a problem, is that you could also say that people in their 20s are younger and and and I don't know, the body can withstand more battle. You haven't done as much damage yet in your 20s as you have done in your 40s, right? That that the the having less um having less energy is maybe down to having kids because you don't sleep as well and all that sort of stuff. It's down to lifestyle changes, it's down to working more than you did in your 20s. I don't know about you, but um, you know, in my 20s I had tremendous amounts of energy, mainly because I did bugger all all day, and now I have essentially two jobs and I work six days a week and and and I've got three dogs and I've got a house and I've got a cat, and I wake up in the middle of the night a couple of times to go to the toys, and therefore I am more tired now that I'm 50 than I was in my 20s, or at least that's how it seems, because I don't remember my energy levels in my 20s all that well. Maybe I was also tired all the time, right? So it it it's it sounds like a thing, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is a thing. Now the with regards to NAD, and which is also known as like NAD plus and NADH and and all that sort of stuff, um the there are some trials that have been run on on this, some some studies that have been done on this. Um but the the studies tend to be ridiculously um ridiculously limited and in very early stages, right? So this is this is quite often the problem with with what I call Instagram supplementation, is that they don't tell you that the study was done in a petri dish. Uh or they don't tell you that, or they say in that this is promising um anti-aging, right? Anti-aging effects, yeah, in mice or something like that. And and the reason we're testing in mice is not because mice are so remarkably similar to us, right? Animal studies are showing some promising things with with regards to NAD. Um but I have not really been able to find a human trial at any level that is um is remarkably, let's say, robust. So um what you find online with regards to NAD, I'll come back to this because a lot of these claims are are kind of are kind of um lauded on on Instagram. And again, I'm being very careful with how I how I face this. I'm thinking I'm picking my words a little bit, right? As you can tell, I don't write a script for this stuff, so I have to uh we know Pete, but 200 odd episodes in you've never written the script for anything. That's very, very true. Um so the the the claims are uh okay, cardiovascular health might might improve, right? Uh in especially in middle-aged and older people. Um aging skeletal muscle uh might have a benefit for anti-inflammatory effects, uh potentially helping to prevent the loss of muscle function, strength, and mass and all that sort of stuff, and mitochondrial mitochondrial functions uh might uh there might be an improvement in cognitive function and all that sort of stuff, right? Which they then claim oh, this also helped prevent um the um Parkinson's disease and and and all that all that type of stuff. Um and and this is where we're then really really moving into the what does it though, sort of thing. And we're talking skin aging and all that, basically anything. And this is how you know that that the science isn't there when one little thing is claimed to have all the benefits in the world, right? So in this case, uh I found one article that says it slows certain effects of aging, right? Some of which I gave you, uh improves cognitive function, uh, stops skin aging, and it increases your metabolic health, which regulates your insulin levels and your cortisol and all that type of stuff, your blood sugar levels and all that type of thing. As soon as someone goes, Hey, there's one little pill that you can take, fix this, all that stuff, we should start to get really, really suspicious. Because quite often that is just not really the case. Now, with NAD, so some of the things that I mentioned there, such as muscle function, but yeah, that is that is through exercise, right? Um, so because NAD is it occurs, like you said, naturally in in the body, and and you can increase that by living a healthier lifestyle. And do you now see kind of see where I'm going with this whole so chicken and egg thing? As in does the decrease in NAD does the decrease in NAD uh that comes with aging is that is are the effects of aging because of the decrease of NAD, or is this because you don't exercise anymore and your lifestyle goes to pot a little bit, you don't sleep well enough, you don't eat well enough? Right? So that that that is it is really tricky for someone to say no if you supplement uh with NAD uh but you're not exercising, then this will be massively beneficial to you. Right? Nine out of ten times the the people that you see making claims about this type of supplement, these early uh I call early uh early trial um lifestyle supplements, anti-aging stuff. They say, ah, I can now go to the gym. And yeah, you could already go to the gym and increase your natural NAD levels and feel better and feel younger and all that type of stuff. You drink enough water, you get enough sleep, and therefore you'll be healthier, right? You're supporting your metabolic health is something that we tend to start doing by improving our diet. Managing cortisol levels is is is managing stress levels. Can we take a pill for that? Yeah, there are some pills that are available, but will natural NAD supplementation be useful for that? Well, that is all of a sudden really, really debatable, right? When people start saying, um, I started doing a meditation class, I started doing an exercise class, and I started eating healthy. Oh, and also take an NAD supplement, and I now feel wonderful, but is that then because of that fourth pillar, right? And that is quite often what what the sales pitch is. The issue with um the NAD is that there are some promising results, like I said, in early studies, but everybody knows that you know if you've ever listened to Radio 4 in in the UK or or read any headline in in like in like the the the Daily Mail, um, which is a prime example of this, they always say early studies, so we can now cure cancer, certain types of cancer within 10 years because of XYZ. And you never hear of these things again, right? Because it turns out it doesn't actually work. Just because something is promising in a mouse or promising on uh in a Petri dish, that doesn't mean that translates to a into a living human being. Right? The the I will link to us to to a paper that um that I found, which is um clinical evidence for targeting NAD therapeutically by uh Dina Ranenkovich, PhD, of course, right? And Eric Ferdinand PhD. Um that has an interesting conclusion in that they're basically saying, should we do lifestyle stuff here or should we do um should we just supplement? And and what they're saying is that uh in addition, and I'll just read this bit out, which is why it sounds more more fluid. In addition, we sought medical indications that have yielded the most promising results in the limited studies to date. We conclude that promising yet still speculative results have been reported for the treatment of psoriasis and enhancement of skeletal muscle activity. However, further trials are required to determine the optimal method of raising NAD levels, as in supplement or lifestyle, identifying the target conditions and comparisons to the present standard of care for these conditions. Lastly, pharmacological methods that raise that increase NAD levels should also be directly compared to physiological means of raising NAD levels, such as exercise programs and dietary interventions that are tailored to older individuals and which may be more effective. So even uh you know, somebody is an expert when they're putting loads of caveats in. We've we've we've spoke about this before, we and you hear this a lot on um if you follow the right people, right? People that know what they're talking about tend not to make ridiculously bold statements about things, uh, because there's a caveat for everything. So let me just let me just um de-academize it, it's not no, it's not a word, de-expertise it, and then I will I will I will translate this back into Dom Peter language, so to speak. Right. So in addition, we sought medical education that have yielded the most promising results in a limited study studies. In addition, we have looked for medical indications, so they haven't found it yet. We conclude that promising yet still speculative results have been reported. Okay, so even the promising results that have been reported for the treatment in this case of psoriasis and enhancement of skeletal muscle, uh are still speculative. I think we don't know yet. It's way too early, way too early to start taking this stuff. It's it's the trials haven't even been run properly yet, the proper trials on humans and all that type of stuff. Further trials are required to determine the optimal method of raising NAD levels, right? So should you take supplements or should you exercise? And identifying the target conditions, when should you do what, and and all that type of stuff. Lastly, pharmacological methods that increase NAD levels should also directly be compared to physiological means of raising NAD levels, such as exercise programs and diets, um, which means I haven't been. That is what that means. The the supplement has not yet been compared to just going out and exercising. Right? Or or or or or eating better. Just let that sink in a little bit, right? The stuff you're taking a pill for has a not been tested uh well and extensively enough on humans for safety, right? That's how supplements work. If it hasn't killed you yet, they can sell it, right? Um hasn't been tested on people yet. The only um benefits that have actually been reported are like treatment of psoriasis. Well, that's a medical condition, right? So unless you have that, you're not taking it. Enhancement of skeletal muscle activity, but we don't know yet how that works and when that works, and when not. When we know exercise works, right? Unless you have a medical condition, and that's what they say here with regard to raising NAD levels, naturally, may be more effective, which may be more effective, is the final statement from that uh from that particular paper. Is that you can almost I'll I will translate that almost as is likely to be more effective because it is proven exercising works, right? We have all the studies in the world that back that up. Living and and by exercising I mean just living an active lifestyle, right? Uh for skeletal muscle, if you want to do, if you want to build some muscle, you need to lift things every now and again, but you at least need to move, you need to not be sanitary as uh as much as as other people are, right? So that that is really, really important. It is almost inevitable, like I said earlier on when someone someone promises to sell you something that will fix everything from metabolic health to anti-aging to skincare to stress levels and and and all that type of stuff to brain function and it will stop Parkinson's and help people with Alzheimer's and all that type of stuff, it's magic. Just buy it. And the only the only actual benefits in in potentially in people are that have been reported and have been have been studied at some level, at least in really, really early, crappy trials, so to speak. The early stage trials are um to see if they should progress along those lines. That's what these early trials are for. Um, is for the treatment of a medical condition psoriasis, unless your hair has fallen out, and mine already has a long time ago, male pattern boldness, not psoriasis. Um, and getting some more skeletal muscle, I always say enhancement of skeletal muscle like. right as as as I call it then then you have to wonder why you would you would spend 160 to 200 pounds or let's say 300 bucks a month on on on supplementation for this particular stuff now this kind of ties in and this is why I I I come to put them together with NMN um because they are so NMN is and I'm going to butcher this as well as well is uh nicotinamide um mononucleotide so NAD is uh I didn't mean dinucleotide and and so it's it's the the first word is already the same right nicotinamide so it has a similar it's it's a similar uh it has a similar function with to do with like I said um DNA repair metabolism sorry uh metabolism energy production and all that type of stuff now NMN is a precursor to NAD plus which then drives those molecular processes and NMN is again proposed to have the anti-aging properties as it increases NAD plus levels in the body now this is this is yeah some the reason I brought these together is not they're not just closely related a lot of the ads that that mention NAD and NAD plus are telling you it's better than NMN because NMN drives the the the the NAD plus is the thing that is directly responsible for all these all these wonders in the body and NN is just the shitty precursor to that right that's kind of how how that is sold. Now I did a thing um on NMN a long time ago part of a podcast episode uh when David Sinclair wrote about it in his book um and for those of you who don't know David Sinclair keep it that way I'm I'm I'm I'm half kidding um right David Sinclair is is is is someone who's a bit more on the fringes of um let's say of the health and and and fitness uh fitness field right he's written uh several books and that is how how I know of him because um one of my clients kept buying the books and and he's he's one of those guys that says yeah we don't need to age and he wrote like lifespan and all that so this is why we age and you can live longer if you just buy his stuff right it's it's it's one of those books it's it's it's one of those one of those guys that just says with the yeah no you know this is exactly the thing that I described earlier with guys NED or NAD plus in it this thing naturally declines in age therefore if we supplement with it you can live forever and be young forever and don't I look wonderful because it's always those guys right and we'll ignore the amount of work they have done and and all that type of stuff aren't their teeth gorgeous yeah they're not his teeth right that type of stuff those type of guys um and it is really difficult when someone like that who writes a book about this stuff and starts selling supplements because sooner or later they all do he at the time the book came out he wasn't selling an uh anime yet he wasn't associated with anything yet he was just one of those Instagram guys who who wrote a book and said ah I take an eman with my porridge every morning and there's nothing wrong with that people experimenting on themselves yeah go nuts as far as I'm concerned you can take heroin with your porridge every morning I genuinely don't care just don't subs don't tell people that there are benefits to taking that stuff when they are completely unproven but or at least it's it's all speculative at least explain to people that your thoughts process is what I described earlier. Well as I got older these levels dropped and therefore if I supplement with this the thinking is that I I can keep my energy levels and metabolism up and and all that type of stuff and nobody needs to get fat anymore. That type of thing is usually what what what what drives it as I as I said earlier you have to be really clear. So in the beginning when when David uh Sinclair wrote that book I would call him Dr. Sinclair but I really can't bring myself to do it um at some stage you need you need to take the title away from people um so at some stage you're going to have to say um it is this is not proven yet right and and you can't buy this stuff and and at the time he wasn't saying that this is how much he took or the company which he bought it from and all that type of stuff but you could already feel it in the air these people start off selling a book they create a bit of demand for it and then when they become the NMN guy or when other people become paleo mom and and and all that type of stuff that's when they start selling on the back of them right that is always what they what they do you build credibility first by not selling anything and just writing a book about it and how how brilliant you are and how you have the secret and and and the thing that is free and or at least that you're not selling is is is amazing and you build credibility and then all of a sudden boom here's your supplement okay and I also own a share of the company in Stephen Bartlett style. If you is amazing yeah you own Huels Steve you know that's a that sort of thing it is that it it is the grifter's funnel I can I can I call it start by writing a book make sure your title uh gets used doctor so in my case I could write the book as Dr. Peter Lap doesn't matter that my my my my PhD is not in in a relevant field I'm um I can insist on you using the title in in the book it's completely legitimate to do so I think it's immoral to do so but it's completely legitimate to do so um and and then before you then you promise solutions solutions simple solutions just take this little pill or take a scoop of something I don't sell and you'll feel better and then before you know it when you're the expert and you get invited a lot to speak on podcasts and then and and television shows and all that type of stuff Oprah and Dr. Oz and or Dr. Phil and all these other guys and then then all of a sudden ah you know what uh just just buy mine because mine is better than the others right and on and and and that is to get back to semi-original rather long-winded point kind of how these Instagram ads work NAD is better than NMN because NMN is trying to raise NAD plus levels and therefore and taking taking NAD plus must directly must be better than than NMN and there is nothing that I found that backs any of that up on any reliable level to the point that I say you should part ways with your money in the same way that I did for instance last week for uh for protein if you if you're looking to supplement for protein uh get your protein levels up a bit some protein supplementation with whey protein or pea protein soy protein whatever you take it's completely safe as long as you buy it from a good source and I just said just and don't spend too much money on it. Creatine supplementation again completely safe works for most people most people are happy with it. Some people get a little bit of a reaction they don't like it and they since weird in a tummy or something like that. I used to work with one guy that used to I don't know he he thought he got like heart palpitations because of it. I'm not sure it's true. It could just be that he was a really big boy who was unhealthy at the time but again that stuff is six quid a pop from from uh my protein not and and my isn't Peter Laps protein and my protein is just the myprotein.com website there isn't a better version of that stuff available so you don't never need to pay more right you don't need to go for the healthy postnatal body protein there is no such thing but you like you also you don't need to do it you don't need to buy healthy postnatal postpartum creatine you don't need to buy pink creatine or pink protein but at least that stuff is proven to work are there other ways of getting protein yeah sure but I'm just saying and should you take protein no maybe not probably not but if you decide that you do need it because you have a protein macro you need to hit then it's completely safe to do so and you know you're not wasting your money. With NAD plus and NMN and all that type of stuff almost everything that comes out that promises you like I said before all the answers you're just wasting your money and let me have a quick look for you to see just how expensive NMN or NAD plus plus supplements is £53 for a month for something called clean enemies clean this is what I mean clean and a man what the other stuff is dirty right energy plus supplements is 60 quid a month pure NMN energy plus longevity support 65 pounds a month I mean Jesus you're just wasting your money on this stuff you really are so don't buy it just spend your money on on something else buy nice food right buy it get a gym membership do some bicep goals that'll also increase your NAD levels right um yeah and ID plus levels I'm sorry I know someone's gonna email about it I I always miss pluses and stuff I know you know what I'm talking about that's all I'm saying anyways that's me done for another week I can't believe I spent half an hour ranting about these two crappy crappy supplements save your money that's the message if you listen to this podcast for half an hour save your money I just save you 60 quid a month right 700 pounds a year I save you by just by listening to this free podcast and by not buying garbage. Anyways Peter at healthypostnatal body dot com here's a new bit of music QA next week I think but anyways take care of yourself.

Speaker 1 32:42

Bye now, you can see