Compounds › Longevity and mitochondria

NAD+

Central coenzyme — the route of administration changes everything

Not approvedLongevity and mitochondria

AI-generated illustration. Not data, and not an image from a study.

Experimental material. Read before using anything from here.

Nothing on this page is a medical recommendation, prescription or treatment plan. It is an organized translation of protocols circulating in research communities and, where it exists, of what published trials tested. The two are marked differently — and they are not equivalent.

Most of the compounds here have no FDA approval for human use. Several are sold labeled "research use only", which means they have not gone through purity, sterility or dosage controls for human consumption. A community-reported dose is not a validated dose: it is what someone reported having done.

Talk to a licensed health professional before considering any of these compounds. If you already use one and feel anything unexpected, seek care — do not wait for the next routine test.

Summary

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide: a coenzyme present in every living cell. The body uses it to convert food into cellular energy (ATP), for DNA repair and to fuel the sirtuins. It exists as subcutaneous, intravenous, intramuscular, oral and pen — and bioavailability across these routes is very different.

Quick reference

Is it a peptide?: No. NAD+ is a coenzyme. It is here because it shares the injectable research format.
Routes: SC, IV, IM, oral (NMN/NR), intranasal/sublingual and pre-mixed pen.
Schedule: SC is usually 2–3×/week. IV is weekly to monthly. Oral precursors are daily.
Status: Injectable NAD+ is not approved as a therapeutic.

NAD+ Injection Dosage and Frequency

Route	Amount per session	Common frequency	Evidence or planning note
SubQ	50-100 mg	2-3 times weekly	Clinic and community planning; direct SubQ evidence is limited.
Intramuscular	50-100 mg	1-3 times weekly	Clinic and community planning; direct route-comparison data are limited.
Intravenous	250-500 mg; 500-1,000 mg in higher-dose clinic protocols	Weekly or every other week; loading schedules vary	Published pilot research and supervised clinic practice.
Pen or premixed format	Label-dependent	Label-dependent	Concentration math only; confirm the listed concentration before calculating.

NAD+ Protocol Formats

Phase	Dose	Frequency	Notes
Assessment	50 mg	1x weekly or 3x weekly	Inject slowly over 5-10 seconds; assess tolerance.
Titration	75 mg	1-3x weekly	Increase by ~25 mg if assessment phase is well tolerated.
Standard maintenance	100 mg	2-3x weekly	Morning timing is commonly preferred.
Loading (intensive)	100-200 mg	Daily for 7-10 days	Higher side-effect potential; supervised settings only.

NAD+ Protocol Formats

Approach	Per-session dose	Schedule	Notes
Maintenance	250-500 mg	Weekly to bi-weekly	Slow infusion over 2-4 hours.
Loading	500-1,000 mg	3-5 consecutive days, then weekly/monthly	Clinic-supervised only.

NAD+ Protocol Formats

Precursor	Dose	Frequency	Trial signal
Nicotinamide Riboside (NR)	300-1,000 mg	Daily	Multiple human RCTs raised blood NAD+ with favorable tolerability.
Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN)	300-900 mg	Daily	60-day dose-response RCT showed dose-dependent NAD+ rise; 600 mg gave the largest effect.

NAD+ Protocol Formats

Format	Concentration	Dose example	Volume per dose
Pre-mixed vial	100 mg/mL	50 mg	0.50 mL (50 units)
Pre-mixed vial	100 mg/mL	100 mg	1.00 mL (100 units)
Pre-mixed vial (high-conc.)	200 mg/mL	100 mg	0.50 mL (50 units)
Pen device	Set per device	Click-set per dose	Per device label

NAD+ Subcutaneous Injection Dosage Chart

Planning phase	Amount per injection	Frequency	Weekly total	Draw-volume note	Evidence type
Assessment	50 mg	1× or 3×/week	50 or 150 mg	Calculate from the final vial concentration	Community and clinic planning
Titration	75 mg	1-3 times weekly	75-225 mg	Calculate from the final vial concentration	Community and clinic planning
Standard maintenance	100 mg	2-3 times weekly	200-300 mg	Calculate from the final vial concentration	Community and clinic planning
Loading (intensive)	100-200 mg	Daily for 7-10 days	700-1,400 mg during a 7-day week	Calculate from the final vial concentration	Supervised clinic practice; not a proven SubQ schedule

NAD+ Reconstitution Chart by Vial Size

Vial amount	BAC water added	Concentration	25 mg	50 mg	75 mg	100 mg
500 mg	5 mL	100 mg/mL	0.25 mL / 25 units	0.50 mL / 50 units	0.75 mL / 75 units	1.00 mL / 100 units
1,000 mg	10 mL	100 mg/mL	0.25 mL / 25 units	0.50 mL / 50 units	0.75 mL / 75 units	1.00 mL / 100 units
100 mg	1 mL	100 mg/mL	0.25 mL / 25 units	0.50 mL / 50 units	0.75 mL / 75 units	1.00 mL / 100 units
750 mg	7.5 mL	100 mg/mL	0.25 mL / 25 units	0.50 mL / 50 units	0.75 mL / 75 units	1.00 mL / 100 units
1,500 mg	10 mL	150 mg/mL	0.167 mL / 16.7 units	0.333 mL / 33.3 units	0.50 mL / 50 units	0.667 mL / 66.7 units

NAD+ Cycle Length: 4, 8 and 12-Week Research Planning

Planning framework	Loading or maintenance context	Review or adjustment point	Evidence type
4-week SubQ planning	Assessment or titration phase	Review at week 4	Community and clinic planning
8-week SubQ planning	Titration followed by a regular planning phase	Review at weeks 4 and 8	Community and clinic planning
12-week SubQ planning	Titration followed by maintenance planning	Review every 4 weeks	Community and clinic planning
IV loading plus maintenance	3-5 daily sessions, then weekly or monthly	Review after loading and every 4-8 weeks	Supervised clinic practice
Continuous or ongoing planning	Frequency may be adjusted instead of using a fixed break	Review every 4-8 weeks	Clinic and community planning

NAD+ vs NMN vs NR (and IV vs SubQ)

Feature	NAD+ Injection (SubQ)	NAD+ Infusion (IV)	Oral NMN	Oral NR (Niagen)
Mechanism	Direct coenzyme delivery	Direct coenzyme delivery	NAD+ precursor (converted in vivo)	NAD+ precursor (converted in vivo)
Typical research-planning dose	50-100 mg, 2-3x/week	250-1,000 mg per session	300-600 mg/day	300-1,000 mg/day
Speed to systemic NAD+ rise	Hours	Minutes to hours	Days to weeks	Days to weeks
Strongest human evidence	Limited	Pilot PK and historical case reports	Growing RCT base	Strongest RCT base
Convenience	At-home injection technique required	Clinic visit, 2-4 hour infusion	Daily oral capsule	Daily oral capsule
Regulatory status	Not FDA-approved; compounded only	Not FDA-approved; compounded only	Not currently a dietary supplement in the US	GRAS/NDI dietary supplement
Cost (research-context)	Moderate per cycle	High per session	Moderate monthly	Moderate monthly

NAD+ Cycle Lengths Used in Human Research

Study	Route	Schedule	What it tells us
Grant et al., 2019 pilot	IV infusion	One 6-hour infusion; 750 mg total	Acute NAD+ metabolism during one infusion. It did not test a multi-week cycle.
Yu et al., 2026 randomized trial	IV infusion	10 mg 1×/day for 7 consecutive days	A 7-day disease-specific research course in adults with ischemic cardiomyopathy. It does not establish a general wellness cycle.
Reyna et al., 2026 retrospective pilot	IV infusion	500 mg daily for 4 consecutive days	A commercial four-day loading pattern with 30-day follow-up. The authors said longer-term dosage and effectiveness still need study.
Nkrumah-Elie et al., 2026 preprint, Trial 1	SC, IM, or IV bolus	Three consecutive administration days, then a 7-day washout	Short-term injection tolerability across routes. This was an acute pilot, not proof of a repeating cycle.

What About 4-, 8-, and 12-Week NAD+ Cycles?

Cycle length	Evidence status	How to interpret it
4 weeks	Not an established injectable standard	Longer than the direct NAD+ administration periods in the human studies summarized above. Treat four-week schedules as clinic or community practice unless a specific study is cited.
8 weeks	Not an established injectable standard	A common online cycle length, but direct human NAD+ injection trials do not validate eight weeks as the preferred duration.
12 weeks	Not an established injectable standard	Sometimes used as an extended cycle in community material. Direct long-term injectable NAD+ evidence is not strong enough to call twelve weeks a standard.
Continuous use	Not established for injectable NAD+	Current direct injection studies are too short to define an evidence-based indefinite schedule.

Human Research Schedules

Research context	Evidence note
Single 6-hour infusion
3-day injection pilot
4-day IV loading period
7-day IV research course

IV, Subcutaneous, and IM NAD+ Cycles Are Not Interchangeable

Route	Human evidence example	Cycle interpretation
Slow IV infusion	750 mg over 6 hours in the 2019 metabolic pilot	Useful for acute infusion metabolism; not a subcutaneous cycle template.
IV infusion	500 mg on four consecutive days in the 2026 retrospective study	Documents a commercial loading pattern, not a universal cycle.
IV infusion	10 mg daily for 7 days in a heart-failure trial	Disease-specific clinical research; not a general cycle standard.
SC / IM / IV bolus	Three consecutive days in the 2026 injection pilot	Short-term route comparison and tolerability research.

Published Research vs Community NAD+ Cycles

Source type	What it can show	What it cannot prove
Randomized human trial	What happened under a defined schedule in a specific study population	That the same schedule is best for other populations, routes, or goals
Pilot human study	Early pharmacokinetic, route, or tolerability data	A mature long-term cycle standard
Retrospective clinic data	How a real commercial protocol was used and what was observed	That the protocol is superior or clinically established
Clinic protocol	How one practice structures care	That the schedule has been validated in controlled research
Community-reported cycle	What people say they commonly run	Safety, effectiveness, or an evidence-based cycle length

Storage and handling

The rules below apply to practically every lyophilized peptide in this reference. Where a compound has its own requirement, it appears in the table in the previous section.

Lyophilized powder, sealed: refrigerator, between 2 and 8 °C, protected from light. Many tolerate room temperature for short transport periods, but that is tolerance, not a recommendation.
After reconstitution: always refrigerated, between 2 and 8 °C. The stability window drops to days or a few weeks, depending on the compound.
Never freeze after reconstituting. The freeze–thaw cycle degrades the peptide.
Do not shake. Swirl the vial slowly. Shaking breaks the peptide chain.
Bacteriostatic water down the wall of the vial, in a slow stream, not squirted directly onto the powder.
Cloudy solution, with particles or a color change: discard. There is no recovery.

Lab tests and monitoring

This list is the one that appears recurrently in the source, with small variations by compound. It serves as a starting point for a conversation with a professional — not as a substitute for that conversation.

Before starting: complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, lipid panel, fasting glucose and HbA1c, TSH and free T4, blood pressure and resting heart rate.
Depending on the compound: IGF-1 (GH axis), lipase and amylase (VIP and the incretin agonists), serum copper and ceruloplasmin (GHK-Cu and blends containing it), CRP.
Reassessment: most protocols review between week 4 and week 8, and then every 8–12 weeks.
Do not wait for the routine lab test in the face of abdominal pain, visual changes, a change in a mole, shortness of breath, asymmetric swelling or any new and persistent symptom. That is a reason to seek care, not a spreadsheet item.

Evidence limits

What these numbers are and what they are not. The values above were preserved exactly as they appear in the source, without reinterpretation. What the source describes as community practice is marked as such in the tables; what came from a published trial is too. A dose repeated by many people does not become a validated dose by repetition.

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