The Secret Role of NAD in Your Mitochondria

12 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, the narrator explains that NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is a vital coenzyme that enables mitochondria to produce cellular energy; without it, energy generation halts. Beyond energy, NAD+ serves as the essential fuel for sirtuin proteins, which act as cellular supervisors regulating repair, inflammation, metabolism, stress responses, and gene expression, and also protect mitochondrial function. Additionally, NAD+ is consumed by PARP enzymes that repair DNA breaks caused by radiation, oxidative stress, and replication errors. Each DNA repair event draws from cellular NAD+ stores, linking NAD+ availability to both mitochondrial health and genome integrity.

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What exactly is NAD+? Well, NAD+ stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. I'm much better at that than I used to be. It's a coenzyme, meaning it doesn't do things on its own. It helps other enzymes do their job. Its most fundamental role is helping your mitochondria produce your energy. Without NAD+, you cannot make energy. So what's the point in having mitochondria if they don't even work? Energy production is actually the boring part of NAD+. NAD+ is also the required fuel source for something called called sirtuins, proteins that act like cellular supervisors. They help control cellular repair, inflammation, metabolism, stress response, and even which genes get expressed. Sirtuins even protect mitochondrial function. NAD+ also fuels enzymes that repair your DNA when it breaks, called PARPs. Your DNA breaks thousands of times a day from radiation, oxidative stress, and just normal replication errors. So PARPs are enzymes that repair DNA, and they use NAD to do that. Every time your DNA gets repaired, you're pulling from your NAD stores to do it.