Is NAD your best shot at longevity?

Have you ever wished for a way to boost your energy, sharpen your focus, and even slow the effects of aging? This week, we’re diving into the fascinating world of NAD+, a coenzyme making waves in the wellness community. Touted as the ultimate biohacking tool, NAD+ has been endorsed by top athletes, celebrities, and longevity experts alike.

It’s the ‘super-supplement’, the ‘supplement of supplements’, the one true ‘panacea’ and it claims to help you sleep, perform, focus and heal on some unholy level!

Intro If by some stretch you haven’t heard or don’t know what NAD is, then we should start here.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide is a substance found naturally within every cell in the body, it’s a co-enzyme and it’s involved in over 500 processes within the body. Put simply, due to its involvement in so many processes places it immediately higher up on the pecking order of supplementation given the heavy implication at the most central level of all cells.

For those focused on biohacking, longevity or just getting an unfair (but legal) advantage on a mental and physical, NAD is being touted as the latest tool. Dr Abhinay Settipalli, a longevity and cosmetics doctor prescribes the latest, at-home injectable version to some of his elite athlete patients, including premier league football players. “We find their endurance is on another level” he says, “and they can sprint at maximum speed far longer in to the game”.

The hype extends to celebrities where this liquid gold is being snapped up across Hollywood to name a few; Kim Kardashian, Hailey Bieber and Joe Rogan all extolling the impact and benefits of NAD+.

From its original capsule / tablet form in which its now reputed to have little to no effect due to the digestion process and differing levels of assimilation of each individual, it then became the next injectable after B12 and D3 had become somewhat passe. But now the concept of ‘micro-dosing’ with a tiny needle forming part of a combi-pen, and a smaller 50mg dose every other day is said to be the optimal.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a coenzyme central to metabolism where its main role is the transfer of electrons from one molecule to another. Found in all living cells, NAD is necessary for over 500 enzymatic reactions.

NAD exists in two forms: an oxidised and a reduced form, abbreviated as NAD+ and NADH, respectively. In our bodies, NAD can be synthesised from simple building blocks (de novo synthesis) from either tryptophan or aspartic acid; alternatively, more complex components of the coenzymes are taken up from amino acids found in our diet like niacin.

The coenzyme NAD+ was first discovered by the British biochemists Arthur Harden and William John Young in 1906 while trying to understand fermentation better. Nevertheless, our current understanding of the importance of NAD+ began in the 1960s when French scientist Pierre Chambon identified a process called Poly ADP-ribosylation. NAD+ is broken down into two parts during that process, one of which gets recycled, while the other meets up with a protein.

That eventually led to the discovery that certain protein groups that perform essential cellular functions, like PARPs and sirtuins, can only function in the presence of NAD+.

NAD+: The benefits according to science

NAD+ is critical for human health and longevity as it plays a crucial role in various biological processes, including metabolism, DNA repair, and gene expression, among others. NAD+ also supports healthy ageing. Remember the sirtuin group of proteins mentioned earlier?

Sirtuins play a crucial part in regulating cellular homeostasis, which involves keeping the cell in balance and protecting it from age-related decay.

Sirtuins were first discovered in the 1970s, but their dependence on NAD+ wasn’t realized until the 1990s. That means that to work properly, sirtuins need to be activated by NAD+. On top of that, NAD+ is involved in DNA repair that has been damaged by day-to-day processes and exposures, and research has shown that it can also protect your cells from stress.

Sirtuins protect cells against oxidative stress, and NAD+ helps activate sirtuins. Sirtuin proteins, these mighty regulators, also play a significant role in maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm, also known as your sleep-wake cycle, determines when you feel awake and well-rested, when you feel tired, and even regulates your appetite by controlling the release of hunger hormones.

Sirtuins depend on NAD+ to work correctly, so a healthy circadian rhythm, sirtuins and NAD+ are all interconnected.

The Best Method to Supplement NAD+

According to Dr Sandra Kaufmann, she recommends that to inject pure NAD is more effective than swallowing an oral precursor supplement because it “provides an immediate supply of what the body needs in its ready-made active form”.

She also cites concerns about the body’s ability to digest the molecule. Yet Dr Settipalli says that “the extreme high dose” in NAD+ IV drips is largely “unnecessary and has the potential to tip the ration in the wrong direction”.

By the age of 40, NAD levels will have dropped in the body by 50% and continue to decline every decade and the most current up to date research suggests the subcutaneous, micro-dosing is by far the best way to correct this deficiency.

Reading the results and testimonials is clearly intriguing at worst and miraculous at best. Renewed levels of energy, super-charged cognition, enhanced healing and repair and superior levels of endurance while also improving sleep cycles are all being cited on a repeated and recurring basis.

As we draw this week’s newsletter to an end, I wanted to share a trusted source of NAD+ in liquid, micro-dose form. You can access this game-changing product at » »www.nadenhance.com «

Is there a downside? I think so, and it’s this; once you start taking NAD+ in this form you are not going to want to come off it - it’s that addictive, or at least I should say the tangible, noticeable and downright obvious benefits are.