SerpApi.Org
More women than ever are having children in their 40s. For many, waiting means greater financial stability and feeling more ready for parenthood. Advances in fertility treatments have also expanded the options for starting a family later in life.
But giving birth in your 40s still comes with some risks. Moms 40 and up are more likely than any other age group to give birth preterm, according to March of Dimes, which is associated with both short- and long-term health problems for babies.
Now, researchers have found a molecule that may be able to predict when women are at risk for premature delivery-and, potentially, help prolong their pregnancy to a healthier length.
The molecule is one you’ve heard of before: NAD+ (aka nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). It’s present in every cell of your body, playing a role in energy production, DNA repair and cellular function, and there’s a lot of hope around it for its healthy aging potential.
In this study, published last month in Science, researchers found that as mice got close to the end of their pregnancies, placental levels of NAD+ and its precursors dropped off fast. They saw a similar pattern in humans, examining placentas from women who gave birth via C-section: levels of NAD+ and its precursors dropped near the time natural labor would have started.
Further testing in mice-depleting NAD+ in some mouse placentas, supplementing models of others with NAD+ precursors-cemented the findings. Depleting NAD+ led to shorter mouse pregnancies; supplementing lengthened them.
The conclusion? NAD+ is essential for continuing pregnancy. Losing it triggers labor.
It’s not the first time loss of NAD+ has been linked to pregnancy complications. A 2024 study found NAD+ depletion was “central” to cases of inflammatory preeclampsia, a condition that causes persistent, high blood pressure during pregnancy or the postpartum period.
No, this doesn’t mean you should start supplementing NAD+ (or its precursors) if you’re pregnant-we’ll need other studies, especially in humans, to back up these findings first. Still, this research could go far. If it bears out, doctor may be able to monitor placental NAD+ to identify moms at higher risk or preterm labor-or even give full-term moms a more accurate timeline for labor. And perhaps there is a future where moms at risk of preterm birth take NAD+ precursors (like NMN or NR) to help prolong pregnancy, though we’re not there quite yet.
For now, count it as another reason to keep this hot supplement on your radar.
