NAD+ – the essential molecule that offers a metabolic boost to your skin.
Some things get better as we age—but the changes that show up on our skin tend to make us wish we could stop the clock. We can’t control time, but we can impact how we age. By incorporating habits and choices proven to support longevity into our daily routines, it’s entirely possible to look and live our best—healthy, active, and glowing with vibrant vitality—lives longer.
Editorial Contribution
Stephen Kennedy Smith, JD,
Founder and Chairman at Aramore
Stephen Kennedy Smith is a cofounder of Aramore along with experts in stem cell biology, dermatology chemistry and nutrition from Harvard, MIT and UCSF. Stephen is also a principal at Park Agency- Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, the Kennedy family office, and an Investor and entrepreneur.
The Kennedy family has a long history of involvement in healthcare Stephen’s current investment and business focus is supporting innovative neuroscience and health-oriented companies that improve human health and longevity using natural approaches.
Stephen has taught at Harvard and MIT and is also the author of JFK – A Vision for America. Stephen and the team at Aramore believe that focusing on health and longevity is the best scientific and moral foundation for the future of the beauty industry.
What is longevity?
Longevity refers to the length of your lifespan—but there’s a big difference between a long life and healthy longevity. A longer-than-average lifespan marked by suffering and illness may technically constitute longevity, but this isn’t necessarily the life well lived we all hope for. But here’s the thing: Our lifestyle choices have a big impact on whether we enjoy healthy longevity as we age, or simply live as many years as our physical bodies will let us.
A healthy diet, regular exercise, and solid sleep all boost longevity, and making these changes at any time in your life has a big impact. So can supplements that supply your body with essential nutrients and molecules—like NAD+—that decline as we age.
What does longevity mean for skin?
Our skin speaks volumes about our health and wellbeing. Like a soot-covered canary emerging from a coal mine, common signs of aging, like wrinkles, dryness, and skin tone or pigmentation changes that show up on our skin can signal health issues inside our bodies.
Our skin is made up of different types of cells that form a protective barrier from environmental factors, such as sunlight exposure and air pollutants [2, 3].
Excessive sun exposure can weaken this barrier and increase the risk of premature skin aging, skin cell damage, and skin cancer [4]. Nicotine released while smoking breaks down collagen in the skin, making skin less elastic and leading to wrinkles and sagging [5]. An unhealthy diet, poor sleep habits, and constant stress can all make skin cells age faster—and ultimately show up as visible signs of aging [6, 7].
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Age-related skin changes
As we get older, genetic conditions, declining cell turnover, and slower skin cell development, impact what our skin looks like, inside and out [8]. Our skin slowly retains less water and produces less collagen and fewer natural moisturizers like hyaluronic acid, which affects hydration and suppleness.
How do supplements help support longevity?
Aging happens across multiple biological pathways in an interconnected system. Some of these pathways include mitochondrial function, cellular senescence, stem cell function, and DNA repair.
With age, these pathways begin to malfunction – resulting in visible signs of aging, like thinning skin, wrinkles, loss of firmness, and uneven skin tone. Topical skincare alone can’t fix this.
Serums, creams, and sunscreen help protect skin from environmental stress, but not all necessary nutrients can be absorbed through the skin.
A nutritious diet, good sleep hygiene, and regular exercise support skin rejuvenation and have the strongest antiaging impact, but taking supplements offers the body a second way to get the nutrients it needs to continuously repair and revitalize your skin [6, 7].
Most biological activities of the skin occur in the deep inner layer of the skin called the dermis (like collagen and elastic production). Skin supplements are “carried” in the blood, move through tissue and into our cells in the dermis, where they energize cells from within.
NAD+ revitalizes skin from within
Our skin needs all the nutrient support it can get as we age—but one breakthrough molecule stands out: NAD+.
This powerful enzyme is rapidly gaining popularity, and for good reason. NAD+ molecules enhance cell energy, accelerate recovery, and promote skin health and overall longevity.
Natural NAD+ production gradually decreases with age, making it vital to replace NAD+ precursors that support sustained NAD+ levels as you get older. Low NAD+ precursor levels can lead to chronic health problems, weak immune responses, and aging skin, among other issues [19].
Regularly taking a supplement containing NMN or other NAD+ precursors activates a cascade of protective enzymes that help extend the lifespan by providing full-body revitalization [15, 20]. NAD+ precursors are especially useful because they protect your DNA from damage.
The Aramore NAD+ Vitalize supplement is formulated with NAD+ precursors (NMN, niacinamide) combined with 3 powerful antioxidants (CoQ10, astaxanthin, vitamin C) and hyaluronic acid to support 8 pathways of skin aging to slow down the aging process at the cellular level so skin looks and acts younger.
The impact of optimizing nutrition
Eating antioxidant-rich vegetables and fruits, beans, seeds, whole grains, nuts, and healthy fats, is directly linked to healthy longevity [23]. Avoiding processed foods and swapping red meat [22] for foods with proven anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties is another way to boost healthy longevity [22, 24].
Even just adding at least one leafy green salad a day—along with healthy fats and protein like avocado, fish, and nuts, can help boost longevity and lower your risk of chronic health issues, debilitating mood fluctuations, heart problems, and cognitive impairments [22, 23, 24].
How exercise supports longevity
Physical activity supports healthy aging and longevity—and you don’t have to be a super-athlete to make daily exercise part of your routine [22, 26]. Walking, gardening, and other low-impact movements all benefit overall health and longevity.
Regular exercise keeps our cellular DNA—our blueprint for cell development, growth, function and reproduction—healthy, and helps keep our DNA telomeres intact. Telomeres are special protein structures at the end of our DNA that minimize the damage caused by environmental and biological stressors [26]. Telomeres naturally shorten as we age, making them less effective, which leads to permanent cell damage, premature aging, and illness [26, 28].
Endurance exercises like cycling boost energy-producing particles that support telomere integrity in skeletal muscle, which helps us sustain muscle mass as we age [26, 29]. Studies show that staying physically active improves reflexes, balance, muscle memory, and metabolism as we age [29], and protects the brain, heart, lungs, and skin by increasing oxygen circulation and longevity-boosting nutrients [30]. In short, your daily workout ups your longevity game too.
Sleep well
Adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night to support overall wellbeing and maintain healthy longevity [31]. Sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality accelerate cell aging and can trigger hormonal imbalances, slow metabolism, increase fatigue, mood fluctuations, weight problems, and visible signs of skin aging [31].
When you’re sleep deprived, your body deprioritizes skin rejuvenation to focus on other organs, which causes undereye circles, dryness, and other signs of skin aging—even when they may be premature [31, 32].
If your lifestyle makes it hard to get at least 7 hours of consistent, restful sleep at night, consider taking occasional naps. Rejuvenating sleep that adds up to 7 or more hours promotes protective benefits and longevity.
Breakthroughs in longevity are more frequent, advanced, and accessible than ever, which means a longer life lived well is within our control. Whether you start by adding exercise, better diet and sleep routines, longevity-boosting supplements or all four into your lifestyle, you’ll see and feel the benefits inside and out—and especially on your skin.
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