Longevity pills like NMN and resveratrol add years
Short answerNo
On this page
No. No pill or supplement has been shown to add years to a human life. NMN and nicotinamide riboside raise NAD levels, and NMN improved muscle insulin sensitivity in a 10-week trial. Resveratrol did nothing for the lifespan of mice. Rapamycin does lengthen mouse lives, and nobody has tested it for lifespan in people.
What we’d do
Spend the money on walking shoes, a set of dumbbells or a blood panel first. If you want to try a supplement anyway, treat it as an experiment, tell your doctor, especially if you take other medicines, and don’t let it replace the habits that have years attached. Rapamycin is a prescription drug that affects the immune system, and it isn’t something to take on your own.
If you remember three things
- None has a human lifespan result. Not NMN, NR, resveratrol, rapamycin or any other.
- A better blood test isn’t a longer life. In a big mouse study, the changes that looked healthiest didn’t predict which mice lived longer.
- Mouse results don’t carry over on their own. Rapamycin added 9 to 14% to mouse lifespans, and resveratrol added nothing.
Why everyone believes it
The story is a good one. NAD is a molecule your cells need to make energy, and in rodents, aging and weight gain cut how much of it the body makes. Researchers proposed that raising it could help the heart and other organs work better with age. Pills that raise NAD are easy to buy, and a capsule is a lot easier than a workout.
A picture from daily life
Topping up the oil in an old car makes the dipstick look great. Whether the engine lasts longer is a separate question, and you’d want someone to drive a few hundred cars for years to find out. Most longevity pills have a better dipstick and no long drive.
What has each one shown?
| Pill | The best evidence | Lifespan in people |
|---|---|---|
| NMN | Raised muscle insulin sensitivity in overweight women with prediabetes, over 10 weeks, against a placebo | Not tested |
| Nicotinamide riboside (NR) | Raised NAD levels in healthy middle-aged and older adults over 6 weeks, with a hint of lower blood pressure | Not tested |
| Resveratrol | Didn’t lengthen the lives of genetically mixed mice, at two doses | Not tested |
| Rapamycin (a prescription drug) | Lengthened mouse lives by 9 to 14% when started late in life, and 10 to 18% from 9 months | Not tested |
| Dasatinib plus quercetin (clears senescent cells) | Walking improved in a first trial of 14 people with a scarring lung disease, with no placebo group | Not tested |
The NMN trial is the best of the human ones. It was randomized, placebo controlled and double blind, and the women’s muscles really did respond better to insulin. It was also 10 weeks long, in one group of women, and it measured insulin rather than years lived.
Why don’t markers settle it?
Because a marker can improve without the body living longer. In 2024, researchers put 960 genetically diverse mice on different levels of calorie restriction and fasting. Restriction did lengthen their lives. But the changes that looked healthiest, less fat and lower blood sugar, didn’t predict which mice lived longer, and the strictest diet cost them lean mass and changed their immune cells. The authors concluded that improving health and extending lifespan aren’t the same thing.
The biology also has more than one target. Scientists now list twelve hallmarks of aging, and they push on each other. A pill aimed at one of them, NAD for example, has a lot of other things to beat.
Isn’t it unfair to wait for a lifespan trial?
The sceptic says
A lifespan trial in people would take 30 years. Nobody can wait that long, so markers are the best we’ll get, and the mouse results are strong.
The reply
That’s true, and it cuts both ways. Without a lifespan result, nobody knows if these pills add years, take them away or do nothing. Meanwhile the habits already have years-lived results in people. In 123,219 US health professionals, five habits at 50 meant 12 to 14 more years. We’d start with those and revisit the pills when a real trial reports.
Five questions for any longevity claim
- Was it tested in people, or in mice, worms or cells?
- Did it change how long anyone lived, or a number in their blood?
- How many people, and for how long? Ten weeks in a few dozen people is only a start.
- Was there a placebo group, and did the researchers know who got what?
- Who’s selling it?
If you want to start without a pill, how to live longer naturally has the habits with years attached and where medicine fits.
8 sources
- Yoshino M and others, Nicotinamide mononucleotide increases muscle insulin sensitivity in prediabetic women, Science, 2021pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Martens CR and others, Chronic nicotinamide riboside supplementation is well-tolerated and elevates NAD+ in healthy middle-aged and older adults, Nature Communications, 2018pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Miller RA and others, Rapamycin, but not resveratrol or simvastatin, extends life span of genetically heterogeneous mice, Journals of Gerontology Series A, 2011pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Harrison DE and others, Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice, Nature, 2009pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Justice JN and others, Senolytics in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Results from a first-in-human, open-label, pilot study, EBioMedicine, 2019pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Di Francesco A and others, Dietary restriction impacts health and lifespan of genetically diverse mice, Nature, 2024pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- López-Otín C and others, Hallmarks of aging: An expanding universe, Cell, 2023pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Li Y and others, Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population, Circulation, 2018pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
