This article describes how and why NAD (Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and the so called “NAD-boosting molecules” (such as niacin, niacinamide, nicotinamide riboside, nicotinamide mononucleotide) are so important for human health and metabolism.

This article describes the beneficial effects of NAD and its precursor niacin (Vitamin B3) to human skin, and how niacin deficiency in humans causes several dermatological diseases and sun sensitivity, indicative of DNA damages. Furthermore, the authors report on various studies which have provided links to niacin’s role as a potential skin cancer prevention agent, sustaining proper DNA damage repair and maintenance of genomic stability, as well as driving skin differentiation to create a proper skin barrier and function.

This article describes an in-vivo study on the percutaneous penetration of several organic chemicals, including nicotinic acid (niacin) and niacinamide, after application to the human forearm and quantitating the penetration of each chemical through the skin by its appearance in urine.

Vitamin B3 may have been made on icy dust grains in space, and couriered to us here on Earth by meteorites and comets.

The results of laboratory experiments involving Vitamin B3 by a team of NASA researchers support a theory that the origin of life may have been assisted by a supply of ‘biologically important molecules produced in space and brought to Earth by comet and meteor impacts’.