What's the difference between NMN and NAM?

In recent years, the huge profits of the NMN market have made many enterprises enter the market, willing to take a share of the pie. However, the complex production process and high R&D costs have discouraged some companies. Both NAM, short of Nicotinamide, and NMN are NAD+ precursors, both of which can be converted into NAD+, and have similar parts in the name. These make some manufacturers turn to using NAM to take the place of NMN to reduce the cost.

NMN and NAM are quite different. NMN is the most direct precursor of human coenzyme NAD+ and is a naturally occurring substance. The normal intake of the human body comes from fruits and vegetables, such as broccoli, cucumber, cabbage, avocado, etc.

NAM, also known as nicotinamide, is an amide compound of niacin and a vitamin derivative. Compared with NMN, the production process of NAM is simpler and the production cost is lower. The price of NAM from the largest manufacturer is less than 100 yuan per kilogram, which means it is less than 1 cent per gram, which is far cheaper than NMN and welcomed by some companies.

However, replacing NMN with NAM to increase NAD+ may be a bad strategy for three reasons besides possible side effects:

1. Synthesis of NMN with low efficiency. Oral NAM becomes NMN after being catalyzed by NAMPT and is converted into NAD+ by the catalysis of NMNAT1~3 enzymes. Since NAMPT is the rate-limiting enzyme of the complementary synthetic pathway, NAM supplementation cannot bypass the rate-limiting bottleneck of NAMPT. 

2. Inhibits NAD+ consumption. Since NAM is both the raw material for NAD+ synthesis and the metabolite after NAD+ is depleted, excess NAM will inhibit the NAD+ depletion pathway. 

3. The human body itself does not lack. This is the most terrifying. NAM itself increases with age, and levels in the body tend to rise. NAM levels in older adults are already higher than those in younger adults, suggesting that increasing NAM levels do not help NAD+ synthesis and supplementation is simply not necessary.

Tag: NMN

Supplier Introduction: China glutathione supplier and NMN manufacturer GSHworld, the company mainly develops biotechnology and industrialization. As a global pioneer in enzymatic catalytic ATP regeneration technology, our company advocates green production and is committed to providing customers with better and more environmentally friendly products and services. Glutathione Manufacturer,NMN Factory,Citicoline Sodium supplier,China NMN manufacturers