By Zoe Bingley-Pullin, clinical nutritionist & WelleCo educator
I’ve been a practicing nutritionist for 25 years and one of the biggest things I hear from women in their 40s is, “I just don’t feel like myself anymore and I’m exhausted.” Energy feels different, recovery takes longer, sleep becomes lighter, brain fog appears out of nowhere, motivation drops, sounds familiar?? You can be eating well, exercising, doing all the right things and still feel like your body is working harder than it used to.
As a 48-year-old woman myself, I understand how deeply fatigue can affect every part of your life. In my late 30s I had Ross River virus and the fatigue that followed was enormous. It was not just tiredness, it affected my energy, my mood, my anxiety levels, and I felt very depressed. I remember thinking, I spend my life helping people feel better so why did I feel so exhausted, anxious, and flat in myself?
That experience taught me that energy is not something we should take for granted. It also made me realise that ageing is not something that suddenly happens at 60.
Often, the signs begin much earlier, and they often begin at a cellular level long before we notice them physically. This is where the conversation around NAD+ becomes incredibly interesting.
NAD+ stands for Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide, and while it sounds very scientific, its role is actually quite simple. It helps your cells create energy. Every single cell in your body relies on NAD+ for energy production, DNA repair, mitochondrial function, and healthy cellular ageing. It powers the body’s estimated 37.2 trillion cells and plays a major role in how we age, recover, and maintain vitality.
I often explain NAD+ as the battery support system for your body. When NAD+ levels are strong, your cells are better able to produce energy efficiently, repair damage, and support healthy ageing. The challenge is that NAD+ naturally declines as we age, particularly after 40. This is one of the reasons many women begin to feel that noticeable shift in energy, resilience, and recovery as they move through their 40s and beyond.
Stress, poor sleep, inflammation, illness, alcohol, poor nutrition, and hormonal changes can all accelerate NAD+ depletion. After an illness like Ross River virus, when the body has been under prolonged stress, that sense of depletion can feel even more obvious. You realise quickly that this is not about simply needing more coffee, it is about deeper cellular support.
This is where Nicotinamide Riboside, or NR, comes in. NR is a precursor to NAD+, which means it helps the body naturally produce and replenish NAD+ levels. It is one of the most exciting longevity ingredients right now because it supports healthy ageing where it actually begins, inside the cell.
Compared to other NAD+ precursors like NMN, NR offers superior bioavailability, meaning the body can absorb and utilise it more effectively. Rather than chasing symptoms on the surface, NR supports the systems underneath energy production, cellular repair, and mitochondrial health.
This is particularly important for women because so much of the ageing conversation becomes focused on symptoms: skin, weight, hormones, or appearance. But cellular health is the deeper conversation. When we support cellular energy, we are also supporting better recovery, brain clarity, physical vitality, resilience, and how we move through the different stages of life.
You will often hear me say “longevity is not about looking younger, it is about maintaining strength, healthy mental health and keeping you independent for longer”. Watching my own mother live with dementia changed the way I think about ageing forever. It made me realise longevity is not simply about lifespan, it is about protecting brain health, clarity, independence, and dignity as we age. It made prevention feel urgent to me.
That is why I always look at longevity through a full body holistic approach. NR is powerful, but no supplement works in isolation. The healthiest and longest-living communities in the world are not built on one miracle ingredient. They are built on movement, community, purpose, strength, sleep, and consistency.
This is where supplementation becomes incredibly valuable. Magnesium supports nervous system regulation, muscle health, and energy production. Vitamin D3 helps maintain muscle strength and bone density. Vitamin K2 supports bone mass and helps direct calcium where it belongs. NR supports cellular energy and vitality from the inside out. Together, they create a much stronger longevity foundation.
This is exactly why I love this combination of supplementation for longevity. It is not about taking more supplements, it is about good quality well sourced supplements designed for healthy cellular ageing. When ingredients like Nicotinamide Riboside (NR), magnesium, vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 are brought together, we are supporting the body holistically, not simply reacting to symptoms after they appear but listening for the signals and responding correctly. That way we are supporting energy, muscle strength, bone health, cardiovascular health, and cellular health. In my professional options, this will help create real longevity, not extreme biohacking or unrealistic wellness trends.
Zoe Bingley-Pullin is a Sydney-based clinical nutritionist, author, and WelleCo educator. A trusted voice in nutrition for over two decades, she co-hosts the national House of Wellness radio show and has written three books, including Eat Your Way to Healthy Hormones.