Why NMN Alone Isn't Enough — And What's Coming Next

By Lisa Tamati | Pushing The Limits

I've been deep in the NAD+ space for years now. I've interviewed some of the world's leading researchers on it — Professor Joseph Baur, Dr Elena Seranova, and others — and I've personally used and sold NMN products through my store for a long time.

So what I'm about to say might surprise you: I now believe single-ingredient NMN is only the starting point — not the complete picture.

Don't get me wrong — the science behind NAD+ is extraordinary. It powers your mitochondria, activates your sirtuin longevity genes, and its decline with age is one of the most well-documented drivers of biological ageing. David Sinclair's work brought this into the mainstream, and he wasn't wrong about the importance of NAD+.

But we're now four years on from that initial wave of excitement. We have more data, more studies, and a much deeper understanding of what's actually happening inside the cell. And the picture is more complex than "take NMN, boost NAD+, job done."

The Problem With a Single-Pathway Approach

Here's what most people don't realise: your body has multiple pathways for making and recycling NAD+. The salvage pathway is the primary one — it recycles nicotinamide back into NAD+ via an enzyme called NAMPT. NMN and NR feed into this pathway, and they do work.

But there are enzymes actively working against you.

NNMT (nicotinamide N-methyltransferase) is one of the biggest problems nobody talks about. This enzyme methylates nicotinamide — the very substrate your salvage pathway needs — into 1-methylnicotinamide, diverting it out of the salvage pathway. When NNMT is overexpressed (and it is, increasingly, as you age), it's essentially stealing the raw material your body needs to make NAD+.

Worse, NNMT overexpression is associated with senescent cells, cancer cells, and fat cells. It's not just a NAD+ problem — it's a marker of cellular dysfunction.

CD38 is the other major NAD+ consumer. This enzyme sits on immune cells and its activity increases dramatically with age-related chronic inflammation — what we call inflammageing. CD38 directly consumes NAD+, and in an inflamed system, it can chew through your NAD+ stores faster than any precursor supplement can replenish them.

So if you're taking NMN into a body with overactive NNMT and elevated CD38, you're filling a bucket with holes in it.

Watch: The Full Deep Dive

I recorded a detailed episode breaking down exactly how these pathways work, why the single-precursor approach falls short, and what a truly holistic NAD+ strategy looks like:

What's Coming: Re:NRG (previously announced as NAD+ Next Gen)

We've spent over a year developing the next piece of the puzzle.

Re:NRG is a multi-pathway NAD+ biosynthesis formula.

This isn't another single-ingredient NMN capsule. It's a formulation that addresses the NAD+ pathway from multiple angles simultaneously — supporting biosynthesis, inhibiting CD38, the enzyme that consumes it, and activating the longevity genes (sirtuins) that NAD+ powers.

It's New Zealand-made, GMP-manufactured by Pharma NZ, and built on the same clinical reasoning framework that informed Re:juvenate Pro.

Re:NRG is expected to launch in late November 2026.

I'll be sharing the full formulation breakdown, the science behind each ingredient, and exclusive launch pricing for our community before it goes live to the public.

Re:NRG and Re:juvenate Pro

Re:NRG stands on its own. You don't need anything else to start it. Re:juvenate Pro works on different systems, immune and gut, so if you already take it, the two pair well. Start with whichever fits where you are.

👉 Shop Re:juvenate Pro

Be First to Know

If you're currently taking NMN, NR, or any NAD+ precursor — or if you've been thinking about starting — you'll want to see what we've built. This is what a next-generation NAD+ approach actually looks like.

👉 Join the Re:NRG Waitlist

You'll get:

• Early access before public launch
• Exclusive founding-member pricing
• The full formulation and science breakdown before anyone else
• Priority shipping on launch day

No spam. Just the launch details when they're ready.

Lisa Tamati is a longevity specialist, functional health practitioner, co-founder of Aevum Labs, and host of Pushing The Limits — with over 500,000 downloads. She is based in New Zealand.

Related:

• Shop Re:juvenate Pro
• Why Your Immune System Is the Real Key to Ageing Well