NAD+ for Health & Longevity

NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) infusions have gained popularity as a potential anti-aging and health-boosting therapy. It is a coenzyme found in all living cells. It is involved in nearly EVERY metabolic process in our bodies. As we age, NAD+ levels naturally decline, which has been linked to various age-related conditions. Some proponents claim that NAD+ IV therapy can enhance cognitive function, increase energy levels, and support longevity.

So, let’s dive a little deeper into the topic of NAD+ for health and longevity and how it fits into the services we offer at our clinic.

What is NAD+? A Substance Involved in Nearly Every Metabolic Process

It is a substance found in every single living cell. Our bodies create it from the nutritional building blocks we consume. We get it from what biologists refer to as a “salvage pathway” where the “used up” version of it is rebuilt using vitamins like B3. These processes use a complex array of cofactors, enzymes, and other building blocks to make the working version of it.

What is its Function? Cellular Energy Creation

The primary function of NAD+ is as a critical component of cellular energy creation. A good, if not-quite-perfect, analogy is to think it as the fuel for the power plant of our cells. It’s involved in almost all vital functions of all our organs and plays a role in preventing depression, age-related cognitive dysfunction, autoimmune disease, and regulation of metabolism (fat / obesity in particular), metabolic dysfunction, DNA repair failure, genomic instability, inflammation, cellular senescence, and neurodegeneration.

How NAD+ Improves Health & Longevity

Levels of NAD+ decrease due to age, stress, and environmental factors. They are linked with the development of age-related conditions. Many of these ageing-associated diseases can be slowed down and even reversed by restoring these levels. Thus, it has emerged as a therapeutic approach to slow or reverse aging by helping support cell health and integrity, correcting DNA damage, energy metabolism, brain health, and more.

With a focus on the benefits related to longevity in particular, we wanted to highlight the research a couple of areas where it is especially potent:

Cognitive function

The “decline in NAD+ levels is linked causally to numerous ageing-associated diseases, including cognitive decline, cancer, metabolic disease, sarcopenia and frailty. Many of these ageing-associated diseases can be slowed down and even reversed by restoring NAD+ levels.” (full article)

Neurodegenerative disease

“Ageing is strongly associated with most neurodegenerative diseases and is accompanied by decreased cellular NAD+ levels in the mammalian brain. NAD+ depletion is reported in several models of accelerated ageing which exhibit neurodegeneration, as well as in neuro-degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).” (full article)

Increasing Your NAD+ Levels

The most efficient way to increase your NAD+ is through IV supplementation. It’s available in oral forms, but these are expensive and don’t generally make it through the GI system to the cells where it can be effective. In contrast, an infusion has these benefits:

It’s effective immediately.
It is nearly 100% bioavailable (directly into the blood stream).
Finally, it does not require other compounds or enzymes to create the final product.

In addition, benefits which may occur over time due to increased levels include: improved tissue and organ function, protection from cognitive decline, improved metabolic health, reduced inflammation, and increased physiological benefits, such as increased physical activity, which may collectively extend a person’s lifespan.

Indeed, there are so many ways it can improve your health.

Lifestyle is Important, Too

Lifestyle strategies can also boost NAD+ levels. These include:

increasing exercise
reducing caloric intake
eating a healthy diet
following a consistent daily circadian rhythm pattern by conforming to healthy sleeping habits and mealtimes

Yup, all the things that we already know would be good for us to do – turns out they boost our NAD+ levels.

Our Approach to Integrative Medicine

In our clinic, we rely on NAD+ infusions in our patient’s treatment plans (where indicated), and they align with our philosophy and values in the following ways:

Good medicine is based in good science. It is inquiry-driven and open to new paradigms. Our services are selected from evidence-based quantitative results.
All factors that influence health, wellness, and disease are taken into consideration, including mind, spirit, and community, as well as the body. Treatment plans often include lifestyle practices and nutrition recommendations.

As for our practice, along with the health benefits already mentioned, we have found NAD+ infusions to be very helpful in our treatments for patients suffering from:

long covid
POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome)
mitochondrial dysfunction

It can truly be a game-changer in improving overall health as well as a host of ageing related conditions.