Why I Started — And Stopped — Taking NMN (And What I Take Instead)

There’s a version of me that sounds like a very reasonable interior designer.

She talks about grab bars and lighting and floor transitions. She recommends beautiful products that happen to be safe. She writes thoughtful guides about how to make a home work for the long haul.

But there’s another version — the one who was awake at 3am reading neuroscience studies after her mother’s brain bled, trying to figure out if light therapy helmets were legitimate or snake oil, and whether the NMN research she was reading applied to stroke recovery or just to aging generally.

That version is also me. And honestly, she’s the one who built this website.

The Night Everything Changed

Nine years ago, my mother had a basal ganglia brain bleed.

I was the calm one in the room. While everyone around me was falling apart, I was already in problem-solving mode. I leaned down close to her and said: Don’t worry. I’ll help you recover.

I meant it. I just didn’t know yet what that was going to require.

What it required, it turned out, was becoming a researcher. Not a credentialed one — a desperate one, which is its own kind of thorough. I read everything I could find about basal ganglia hemorrhages, neuroplasticity, and what the brain needs to repair itself. I found myself in worlds I’d never visited before: recovery science, emerging wellness protocols, clinical trials for interventions that hadn’t made it into mainstream medicine yet.

And at some point I made a decision: before I’d suggest anything to my mother, I was going to try it on myself first.

Becoming My Own Guinea Pig

The first time I took NMN, I didn’t tell anyone.

I’d been reading the research on NAD+ precursors — the studies on cellular energy, mitochondrial function, the early data on cognitive recovery. NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) kept surfacing as one of the more promising compounds. Researchers like Dr. David Sinclair at Harvard had built a compelling case for its role in longevity. The mechanism made sense. The safety profile, at the time, looked reasonable.

So I bought some, started taking it, and paid close attention.

Why I Stopped

Here’s the part most wellness blogs leave out: I don’t take NMN anymore.

A few years in, I read a book by a female researcher — one of the people actually in this science — and what she said gave me pause. The studies showing dramatic results were largely conducted on mice. The long-term human data was essentially nonexistent. And there was an emerging concern that elevated NAD+ levels might, in people with undetected cancer cells, inadvertently help those cells survive and resist treatment.

That concern has since been validated. In 2026, researchers at Case Western Reserve University published findings showing that popular NAD+ boosters — including NMN — may help existing cancer cells thrive. The research doesn’t prove NMN causes cancer in healthy people. But in someone with undetected malignant cells, the picture is murkier.

I applied the precautionary principle and stopped. Nine years of following leading-edge science has taught me that the cutting edge cuts in both directions — and that pausing something when the research shifts is not a failure of commitment. It’s the whole point of paying attention.

What the Current Science Actually Says

For those who want to understand the landscape: NAD+ is a coenzyme your cells need for energy production, DNA repair, and hundreds of metabolic processes. It declines with age. The question is how best to support it.

The main NAD+ precursors being studied right now are:

NMN — efficacy data is promising but long-term human safety data is limited. The cancer-cell concern applies here most directly.

NR (Nicotinamide Riboside) — has received FDA Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status, which NMN has not. More human clinical trials completed. Currently considered the safer option by most longevity researchers, including Dr. Rhonda Patrick and Dr. Peter Attia.

Niacinamide / Niacin — older, cheaper, but a less direct route to NAD+. Niacin causes flushing in many people; niacinamide is gentler. Examine.com has a thorough, citation-backed breakdown if you want to go deeper.

The honest summary: the science on all of these is still evolving. Anyone who tells you they have definitive answers is ahead of the data. What I can tell you is how I approach it — with testing, with humility, and with a willingness to change course when the evidence does.

What I Do Now

Rather than chasing a single supplement, I now approach my NAD+ support (and all my supplementation) through data.

I test comprehensively twice a year through Function Health — full bloodwork, biomarkers, hormones, the kind of picture most annual physicals never give you. (Referral link: you get $25 off, I get $25 — I use this myself and recommend it because it changed how I think about my own health, not because of the commission.)

I take the results, put them into AI alongside my specific goals, and get a personalized daily protocol built around what my body actually needs — not what a generic supplement stack assumes. Then I retest, adjust, and repeat.

Some things I still take based on current research — and some things I’ve stopped. That’s the whole point of the process. It’s iterative. It should be.

Why I’m Telling You This on a Home Design Website

Because the same principle applies to homes.

The research on what makes a home safe and supportive for aging and recovery is also evolving. What we knew about lighting five years ago isn’t what we know now. What we understood about air quality has deepened. The way I think about a bathroom modification today is more informed than how I thought about it nine years ago — because I kept reading, kept paying attention, kept being willing to update what I thought I knew.

I’m not just a designer who talks about grab bars. I’m someone who has spent nine years at the intersection of wellness science and home environments, testing things on herself, caring for a parent through real recovery, and thinking hard about what it means to build environments that support the long game.

That’s what I bring to this site. And this is the kind of information I’ll keep sharing — including when the science changes, and including when I change my mind.

Rachel Blindauer is an interior designer and aging-in-place specialist. She is not a medical professional. Nothing on this site is medical advice. Please consult your physician before starting or stopping any supplement protocol.