NAD+ is my new Fountain of Youth dream supplement

It's only been three days since I started taking NAD+, which grabbed the attention of my wife and me when we read about it in a TIME magazine piece, "Is an Anti-Aging pill on the Horizon?"

Anti-aging products from skin creams to chemical peels are part of a $250 billion industry, but scientists have yet to discover a longevity elixir that stands up to medical scrutiny. A group of researchers believe they’re getting closer, however, thanks to a compound called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+ for short.

“NAD+ is the closest we’ve gotten to a fountain of youth,” says David Sinclair, co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School. “It’s one of the most important molecules for life to exist, and without it, you’re dead in 30 seconds.”

NAD+ is a molecule found in all living cells and is critical for regulating cellular aging and maintaining proper function of the whole body. Levels of NAD+ in people and animals diminish significantly over time, and researchers have found that re-upping NAD+ in older mice causes them to look and act younger, as well as live longer than expected. In a March 2017 study published in the journal Science, Sinclair and his colleagues put drops of a compound known to raise levels of NAD+ into the water for a group of mice.

Within a couple hours, the NAD+ levels in the mice had risen significantly. In about a week, signs of aging in the tissue and muscles of the older mice reversed to the point that researchers could no longer tell the difference between the tissues of a 2-year-old mouse and those of a 4-month-old one.

Well, that was enough to convince us to order some NAD+ from Life Extension. So this is our new hope for staving off aging as well and as long as possible.

I'm a big believer in the placebo effect.

So I'm going to say that NAD+ is making me feel more youthful and energetic. Hey, even if it isn't doing anything -- and I'm taking 500 mg a day, so it should be doing something -- I'll let science perform its future doubleblind experiments and bask for now in my belief that NAD+ is doing its thing for me.

This is the same attitude I had in 2011 when I started taking Astragalus, as described in "Do my telomeres look longer? (I'm taking astragalus)."

Hey, if I feel like my telomeres are longer, maybe they actually are. (Please compliment me on my pleasingly lengthy telomeres if you see me in person; that'll help with my placebo effect.) Dr. Oz is big on astragalus, for what that's worth.

Well, somewhere along the line I decided to stop taking astragalus. Which fits with a long-term trend of mine -- culling the herd of the supplements I take. 

In 2008 I was taking 22 supplements, as listed in "Behold, my sacred supplements list." By 2011 I was down to nineteen. And as shown below, my 2018 list consists of sixteen supplements.

Acetyl-L-carnitine 620 mg
Align probiotic
Aspirin 81 mg
Bilberry extract 500 mg 
Blueberry extract
Bone Restore
Celadrin 1050 mg 
Co-Q-10 60 mg 
Lutein 12 mg 
MacuGuard ocular support
Melatonin 1 mg
Multi-vitamin ("Doctor's Choice for 50-Plus Men")
NAD+ cell regenerator 500 mg
Resveratrol 500 mg 
Ultimate Omega 1380 mg 
Vitamin D 400 IU

Our supplements cabinet is still chock fill, but I feel like the quality of what I've taking has improved now that I've gotten rid of some products with questionable benefits and focused more on products like Bone Restore and MacuGuard that have a better chance of benefitting specific parts of me (in these cases, my bones and eyes).

Comments

[Rain Trueax]

All i can say is Holy Mackerel lol. I hadn't even heard of most of these but do take a few supplements-- Qunol, which is a kind of CoQ10, Vit D because mine is always low when it's tested. Calcium off and on; Ocuvite which has Lutein and Vit A. I don't take a multivitamin because of the A in Ocuvite for seniors. Off and on I take Vit. B and some C. None of mine are oriented to being younger but protecting eyes or heart. I also take some magnesium in a power, as many don't get enough but if you eat a lot of dark green vegies, you might. magnesium is good for muscle spasms if you get those. I also though have a couple of prescription meds for cholesterol and high bp (none of mine were that out of line but they were heading that way. :)

[irene]

it is not a placebo effect. starting taking 100mg. yesterday, and feel a difference immediately. mine is a long drawn out story, but the short form is I am deformed, which has gotten worse with age. not a candidate for an operation and boy the leg hurts. well, the pain is subsiding and returning to a younger time/pain period. the depression of not being able to do a thing, has abated. because now I am. slowly, but started walking, cleaning etc., that was very much psychological, but the pain was not is not. and truly has lessened. good luck to you.