So here I’m again. Lying on my back, a syringe strapped to my vein and a little bit yellow bag of fluid slowly leaking down the tube and into my arm.

My brain is wobbling. That familiar feeling of nausea that sweeps across you the moment the fluid hits, the effect immediate. It’s funny, irrespective of how well researched you’re, how eager to live longer, look higher, feel younger, irrespective of what number of scientific papers have proclaimed the advantages of this drug, I still get that human response of hesitation as my body eases into the discomfort, similar to the primary time. 

The primary time I got here to see John at his clinic in central London, I had been gripped by a desire to try to repair a number of the damage that I’d greater than likely incurred on myself from mega sleep deprivation. After coming across the book Science of Sleep, and it’s terrifying findings concerning the correlation between sleep deprivation and, well, early death, NAD+ (termed the ‘miracle molecule) and it’s quite a few anti-age advantages appeared to seem like a guardian angel of hope within the hellish wake of non-public regrets (boozy nights, bad habits, sun damage, a tab of e or two!) and I devoured any articles,  scientific journals, papers and anything in the sector of research around NAD+.

This time, John – that’s Mr John Gillen  – had invited me to the quite luxurious Bionad Clinic in Kensington, which is visited recurrently by oligarchs, celebrities, high flyers and athletes alike, all of whom have researched the advantages of NAD+ and use it as a part of their healthy lifestyles.

Simply to recap (in case you haven’t examine my first encounter with the miracle molecule), NAD+ stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. Its a coenzyme present in all living cells that’s required for the basic biological processes that make life possible, from metabolism to DNA repair. It’s present in all living mammals, yeasts, bacteria and even plants. Nothing can live without NAD+.

“The body has the flexibility to repair itself, nonetheless, studies have shown that the addition of NAD+ can radically help speed up this process.”

NAD+ has two general functions within the human body: It helps turn nutrients into energy (an element of the metabolism process) and works as a helper molecule for proteins that regulate other biological activity, most notably and necessary for us, cell repair. NAD+ is of course formed within the body, but like most good things, its production begins to say no with age – from about 30 years onwards, NAD levels decline exponentially, ultimately causing our cells to grow to be weaker and eventually die. Cellular health, i.e. your cell performing at an optimum level, requires NAD, so lower levels may cause cells to perform badly, which ends up in things like cancer, degenerative diseases and particularly, but not exclusively, age-related illnesses reminiscent of Alzheimers and Dementia – all of which might, in turn, put mounting pressure on our hospitals and our health services. 

Oxidative stress, which is largely damage done to cells through environmental or personal habits reminiscent of smoking, drugs, blah blah – mainly whatever puts your body under some form of mild trauma at a cellular level – can actually be repaired or reversed by NAD+. The body has the flexibility to repair itself, nonetheless, studies have shown that the addition of NAD+ can radically help speed up this process. NAD+ given to a 2-year-old mouse can have such drastic effects that after a course of treatment, the mouse’s cells resembled a 3-month-old mouse. In addicts, NAD+ has incredible effects, even reversing a number of the damage brought on by alcohol and narcotic abuse and there are a lot of notable clinics the world over that use NAD+ as a part of their recovery programme. 

Research has shown that NAD+ can contribute to repairing and even lengthening telomeres. Amazing news when telomere degradation is the idea of most major health issues, especially age-related ones. Imagine your DNA is sort of a shoelace, with rubber caps at each end that stop the lace unravelling. Telomeres are the rubber caps and as we age, the rubber shortens. When it gets too short, it might probably not hold the DNA strands together and it essentially unravels causing the DNA to be totally defunct. Cue curtain. The End.

John is my NAD+ guru and desired to introduce me to 2 of his colleagues working in the sector of NAD+ and who’re currently working on products to expand the opportunities of utilising NAD+ for human longevity. 

Steve McNerlin and Martha Moe own an organization called NADCeutical Laboratories and were keen to inform me about their findings in NAD+, pattern hair loss and its links with colon cancer. Apparently, one in all the primary signs of ageing in men and girls is hair loss or thinning. Latest findings show that hair loss is closely related to a decline in NAD+ production and has an interesting correlation to the predisposition of developing colon cancer and heart disease, especially in men.

Those individuals who do experience hair loss earlier in life than most have over a 60% greater risk of getting the disease. Colon cancer, as with other cancers, occurs partly resulting from cellular inflammation (cells performing badly), but NAD+ works directly in contrast with inflammation by directly reducing it. Subsequently, studies have shown that not only does NAD+ make your hair thicker, it also reduces your risk of getting colon cancer (especially should you are someone who’s high risk). NASA has even mentioned giving NAD+ to astronauts going into space to cut back inflammation and the damage brought on by radiation exposure. I mean, if NASA is behind it, perhaps we should always be too…

Steve and Martha have been attempting to make use of NAD in a less invasive way – quite than ingesting or intravenously taking within the molecule, they wish to localise the realm that needs extra NAD+,  and in doing so deliver NAD on to the positioning. Now, unless you’ve been literally living under a rock, we’ve all heard of micro-needling (in reality, I documented my last ‘vampire facial’ on Instagram which was me getting spiked within the face by 1000’s of tiny needles after which having my blood plasma smeared across my puckered skin within the hope that I’d look 12 again. It worked actually but that’s an entire other article). Well, it seems that micro-needling could also be a latest solution to delivering NAD+ to the specified area. Micro-needling creates tiny holes or ‘channels’ within the skin that allow higher absorption of a product, whether it’s your individual blood plasma, vitamin C or now, NAD+. And at NADCeutical Laboratories, they’re aiming the miracle molecule straight to the scalp!

“NAD+ isn’t low-cost, nevertheless it appears to be some of the progressively researched processes for anti-ageing and cellular repair.”

Targeting your scalp with NAD+ appears to have improvements on hair growth and hair lifespan and might be a much-needed solution to many expensive treatments reminiscent of hair transplants, and our must keep our locks luscious. I asked when the product can be available on the market and Steve suggested it might be available inside the following few months together with micro needling solutions for body and face. 

NAD+ isn’t low-cost, nevertheless it appears to be some of the progressively researched processes for anti-ageing and cellular repair. If you happen to can’t get to one in all John’s clinic to take NAD+ intravenously, NADceutical Laboratories even have a spread of products available soon that deliver it on to the bloodstream reminiscent of sublingual melts you set under your tongue and nasal sprays – each which I’ve tried and can proceed to make use of. Other ways of encouraging the body to supply NAD+ include fasting and taking NAD+ precursors (things which encourage your body to make NAD+) that are Nicotinamide riboside, or niagen which is an alternate type of vitamin B3, also called niacin. 

So why isn’t everyone using this miracle treatment? Firstly, cost. On the Bionad Clinic prices start at £500 for a 2-hour session.  There’s also the problem that there hasn’t yet been enough time for clinical trials on humans to find out the longer term of the NAD molecule and its distribution. To date, nonetheless, there was no negative research along with NAD+ treatments, perhaps because it is a naturally occurring chemical within the body. 

I suppose it’s a bit like having a elaborate racing automotive. Irrespective of how good the automotive body looks, if the engine and components are rusty, it ain’t going nowhere. The identical applies to our body. I’ve began my NAD+ journey and until the science proves it flawed, I’m going to complete it… hopefully, NAD+ will keep me within the race for so long as possible. 

The Bionad Clinic is in London. Visit www.Bionad.co.uk