Where to Inject NAD+: Routes, Sites and Volumes

Where NAD+ is injected, from the record: no label, one trial comparing routes, what compounders state, and why the volume decides the route.

Medibact Guides · Published 2026-10-04

Illustration: A partially filled glass vial of pale blue liquid next to an empty insulin syringe on a white surface. — Illustration

Searches for "where to inject NAD" ask a question that no label answers, because no NAD+ injection has one. The sites in circulation come from compounding pharmacies and clinics, and the only registered trial that compares routes measures how much the injection hurts, not how much NAD+ reaches the blood. This page reports what each of those sources states (read 2026-10-04) and does the volume arithmetic, which turns out to decide more than the body site does. It describes; it instructs no one.

What NAD+ is, the amounts described and the evidence for them are on the NAD+ dosage page; water volumes for each vial size are on NAD+ reconstitution. The general record on injection routes for research compounds is on how peptides are injected.

What the record holds, by source

Source	Routes	Sites named	Amount and volume
FDA label	—	—	None exists (DailyMed, zero records)
NCT06919328 (route trial)	Subcutaneous, intramuscular, IV push	Not stated in the record	100 mg in 2 mL (50 mg/mL)
Empower Pharmacy (compounder)	Subcutaneous, intramuscular	Arm, abdomen, thigh; deltoid, gluteal	100 or 200 mg/mL aqueous
Clinic pages (09-18 read)	Subcutaneous, intramuscular, IV	Not consistently stated	10–100 mg SC, 50–100 mg IM, 100–1,000 mg IV

The clinic figures are those recorded on this site's NAD+ dosage page from pages read on 2026-09-18. Every row in this table is either a trial protocol or a seller's description; none is a regulator's.

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The one trial that compares routes

NCT06919328, run by the Nutraceuticals Research Institute and registered as recruiting since 2024-10-31, has nine arms: nicotinamide riboside, NAD+ and plain bacteriostatic water, each given intramuscularly, subcutaneously and by intravenous push. Every active arm uses 100 mg in 2 mL. The primary outcome is the McGill Pain Questionnaire one minute after the injection; the second is open-ended questions about discomfort. The record was last updated on 2025-04-09 and holds no results.

Two things follow from the design. The trial asks how the injection feels, not how much NAD+ is absorbed by each route, so even when it reports it will not say which site delivers more. And it uses 2 mL for a subcutaneous injection, a volume this site has not seen in any peptide protocol — the arithmetic below shows why that matters.

The volume decides more than the site

NAD+ is dosed in tens to hundreds of milligrams, where peptides are dosed in micrograms to a few milligrams. The same amount occupies very different volumes depending on how the powder was made up or how the compounder supplied it:

Amount	50 mg/mL (100 mg + 2 mL)	100 mg/mL	200 mg/mL	250 mg/mL (500 mg + 2 mL)
20 mg	0.4 mL · 40 units	0.2 mL · 20 units	0.1 mL · 10 units	0.08 mL · 8 units
50 mg	1.0 mL · 100 units	0.5 mL · 50 units	0.25 mL · 25 units	0.2 mL · 20 units
100 mg	2.0 mL · 200 units	1.0 mL · 100 units	0.5 mL · 50 units	0.4 mL · 40 units
250 mg	✕	2.5 mL	1.25 mL	1.0 mL · 100 units

Units are on a U-100 insulin syringe (1 unit = 0.01 mL); ✕ = more than the 100 mg vial holds. Arithmetic by this site.

Read across a row and the same 100 mg is two full syringes at the trial's concentration and half a syringe at the compounder's stronger one. The table also checks one figure in circulation: Empower's page describes a 20 mg starting amount as "typically around 0.1 mL depending on concentration", but at the 100 mg/mL it lists, 20 mg is 0.2 mL. The 0.1 mL figure holds only for its 200 mg/mL strength. The mg to ml page sets out the conversion and the NAD+ calculator handles any vial and volume.

What the compounder and clinic pages describe

Empower Pharmacy's page describes subcutaneous injection "into the fatty tissue (for instance, the back of the arm or the abdomen) using a small insulin-type syringe" and intramuscular injection into "larger muscle groups such as the deltoid or gluteal region". It states that subcutaneous use is "more common due to better tolerability", and lists the local effects as redness, tenderness or "a brief burning sensation". A telehealth page read the same day describes the same subcutaneous areas and the thigh, glute or deltoid for intramuscular injection, and adds that research on NAD+ absorption by route "is limited". Neither page cites a study for its site list.

That last statement is accurate as far as this site could find. A PubMed search on 2026-10-04 for NAD+ and subcutaneous or intramuscular injection in humans returned 78 records; none of the 20 most recent, whose titles were reviewed, was a study of where injected NAD+ goes or how fast. The human pharmacokinetic data that do exist are intravenous: a 6-hour infusion at 3 micromoles a minute in which plasma NAD+ did not rise for the first two hours (Grant et al., 2019, PMID 31572171).

What the animal safety data show at the injection site

The most detailed injection-site data are from animals. A GLP-compliant programme published in 2026 gave rats intramuscular NAD+ at 10 to 100 mg/kg once daily for four weeks and recorded injection-site and sciatic-nerve lesions, which reversed during a four-week recovery; a 14-day muscle-irritation test in rabbits was negative (Gu et al., PMID 42748828). The study used intramuscular injection only and says nothing about subcutaneous sites or human tissue.

Glutathione, the other milligram-scale injectable sold alongside NAD+, meets the same volume problem at larger amounts; its routes are set out on how glutathione is injected.

What is not established

No regulator has reviewed an NAD+ injection, its sites or its volumes. No published human study compares absorption by subcutaneous and intramuscular injection; the one registered route trial measures pain and had no results on 2026-10-04. Whether burning varies with concentration or volume has not been measured. A 2026 systematic review found no outcome trial of injected NAD+ for anti-ageing or wellness (PMID 41655607). Medibact's NAD+ guide covers the molecule and its evidence. Nothing on this page is an instruction; route, site and amount belong with a clinician.

Sources and dates

Opened 2026-10-04: ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT06919328 (arms, outcomes, status, last update); Empower Pharmacy, "NAD+ Injection (Aqueous)" product page; Strut Health, "NAD+ Injections: Subcutaneous vs Intramuscular Compared"; PubMed abstracts 41655607 (Gallagher and Emmanuel, Ageing Research Reviews 2026), 42748828 (Gu et al., Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy 2026) and 31572171 (Grant et al., Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2019); a PubMed search for NAD+ with subcutaneous or intramuscular injection in humans (78 records, the 20 most recent titles reviewed). The DailyMed result and clinic amounts are as recorded on this site's NAD+ dosage page (2026-09-18). Volumes and units are arithmetic by this site. Corrections go to the contact page.

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Medibact Guides facts

No NAD+ injection has an FDA label, so no label names an injection site: a DailyMed search for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide returned zero records (this site's NAD+ dosage page, 2026-09-18). The sites in circulation come from compounding-pharmacy and clinic pages, not from a regulator.
The only registered trial that compares injection routes for NAD+ (NCT06919328, Nutraceuticals Research Institute, started 2024-10-31, recruiting, 70 planned) gives 100 mg of NAD+ in 2 mL of bacteriostatic water intramuscularly, subcutaneously or by intravenous push, alongside the same routes for nicotinamide riboside and for water alone. Its primary outcome is pain on the McGill Pain Questionnaire one minute after the injection (ClinicalTrials.gov, read 2026-10-04).
Empower Pharmacy's NAD+ injection page (read 2026-10-04) lists an aqueous solution at 100 mg/mL (5 mL and 10 mL) and 200 mg/mL, describes subcutaneous injection into the back of the arm, the abdomen or the thigh and intramuscular injection into the deltoid or gluteal region, and mentions 'a brief burning sensation' at subcutaneous sites.
The same page describes a starting amount of about 20 mg as 'typically around 0.1 mL depending on concentration'. At its listed 100 mg/mL, 20 mg is 0.2 mL (20 units on a U-100 syringe); 0.1 mL is 20 mg only at 200 mg/mL (arithmetic by this site).
The trial's 100 mg in 2 mL is 50 mg/mL, and 2 mL is 200 units, two full 1 mL U-100 syringes. The same 100 mg is 1 mL at 100 mg/mL and 0.5 mL at 200 mg/mL (arithmetic by this site).
A 2026 systematic review of 113 studies found no eligible outcome trial of intravenous or intramuscular NAD+ for anti-ageing or wellness and called the clinical effectiveness 'inconclusive' (Gallagher and Emmanuel, Ageing Research Reviews 2026, PMID 41655607, abstract read 2026-10-04).
In a GLP-compliant animal programme, daily intramuscular NAD+ at 10 to 100 mg/kg for four weeks in rats produced injection-site and sciatic-nerve lesions that were reversible; a 14-day rabbit muscle-irritation test was negative (Gu et al., Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy 2026, PMID 42748828, abstract read 2026-10-04).

Frequently asked questions

Where is NAD+ injected?

No label exists to say. Compounding-pharmacy and clinic pages describe subcutaneous injection into the abdomen, the thigh or the back of the upper arm, and intramuscular injection into the deltoid, thigh or gluteal muscle. The one registered trial on routes compares subcutaneous, intramuscular and intravenous-push injection of 100 mg in 2 mL and measures pain one minute afterwards; it had posted no results when read on 2026-10-04.

Is NAD+ injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly?

Both are described. Empower Pharmacy's page calls subcutaneous 'more common due to better tolerability'; other clinic pages describe both. No published human study comparing how much NAD+ reaches the blood by each route was found for this page, and one route-comparison trial (NCT06919328) measures pain, not absorption.

Why does an NAD+ injection burn?

Compounding-pharmacy pages describe a brief burning or stinging at subcutaneous sites, and the only registered trial on NAD+ injection routes uses pain as its primary outcome. No published human study measuring that burning against concentration or volume was found for this page, so any explanation in circulation is untested.

How many units is 100 mg of NAD+?

It depends on the concentration: units equal milligrams divided by mg/mL, times 100. At 50 mg/mL (100 mg in 2 mL) it is 200 units, two full 1 mL syringes; at 100 mg/mL it is 100 units; at 200 mg/mL it is 50 units; at 250 mg/mL (a 500 mg vial with 2 mL) it is 40 units.

Is there an approved NAD+ injection?

No. DailyMed held no label for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide when this site last searched, and NAD+ injections are supplied by compounding pharmacies or sold as lyophilised research powder. A 2026 systematic review found no outcome trial of injected NAD+ for anti-ageing or wellness.