BBHC Unfiltered

NAD, Energy Metabolism, and Why Addiction Is Not a Moral Failure

Nick Howarth

Published on: 14/01/2026

Addiction is often framed as a failure of willpower, character, or discipline. This framing is convenient, emotionally satisfying, and biologically wrong. Whether the substance in question is alcohol, nicotine, recreational drugs, or compulsive eating behaviors, modern research increasingly points to a shared physiological underpinning: impaired cellular energy metabolism. At the center of this problem sits a molecule most people have never heard of, yet cannot live without—NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide).