CHANGING ‘ANTI-AGING’ TO ‘HEALTHY LONGEVITY’

We’re living in a time of major, worldwide breakthroughs when it comes to understanding how we age and also the steps we can take to not only slow down aging, but even reverse it a bit. A reader suggested she was tired of the term ‘anti-aging’. She wasn’t against ‘aging’, and in fact, rather enjoyed many of its aspects. She wanted to live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible to the very end.

Seems reasonable to me.

NAD+

The most significant news of the past couple years has centered on a substance produced in our bodies called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, NAD+ for short. It’s classified as a co-factor, meaning that it helps all parts of your metabolism run efficiently. Imagine your metabolism as billions of gears running 24/7, from conception to your final breath. NAD+ lubricates everything. Without NAD+ you’d be dead, instantly.

Scientists have spent decades trying to figure out exactly how we age, researching why some people become old before their time and die quite young even as others are mentally and physically fit as they near 100, sometimes even enjoying a daily cigar and martini.

The current thinking is that, over the years, we age because we’re exposed to a variety of harmful substances (free radicals, for example) that slowly but relentlessly damage our cells. When we’re young, we’ve got plenty of NAD+ to handle damage control. But with the passage of time our bodies simply don’t make enough NAD+ to keep up with the damage being done to our DNA (cancers form, for example), or the linings of our arteries (strokes, heart attacks) and so forth.

At 50, you have only half the NAD+ you enjoyed as a callow youth. At 80, you’re lucky if you have 5% left.

Here’s how NAD+ acts as an anti-aging agent…

It’s a little complicated, but you’ll follow.

• NAD+ is needed to maximize the efficiency of certain proteins called sirtuins that contribute to longevity by maintaining the length of your telomeres. Telomeres are lengths of DNA at the ends of your chromosomes—like the plastic tip of a shoelace. Telomere shortening is the key marker of cellular aging. When telomeres reach a critically short length, cell renewal stops, leading to accelerated aging and cell death. NAD+ appears to extend telomere length.
• On a cellular level, whenever DNA is damaged (age, illness, etc.), your body activates systems for quick DNA repair which need a lot of NAD+.  As you age, however, because of declining levels of NAD+ your ability to repair your wounded DNA declines. Your immune system falters, making you more vulnerable to infection and cancers, and you accumulate toxins, with the result that your arteries harden or plaque accumulates in your brain or your entire body smolders with inflammation. 
• NAD+ maximizes how we get energy from food. As we get older our energy levels can decline. Watching a group of children at play, you wonder aloud where they get all of that energy. Basically, they have far more NAD+ than their parents and can extract a lot of energy from just several bites of food. 
• NAD+ was recently discovered to not only restore nervous system neurotransmitters but to act as a neurotransmitter itself. Here’s a very unscientific but enthusiastic article about having a “brain reboot” with intravenous NAD+.

Raising your NAD+

The fastest and most efficient way to raise your NAD+ is to begin a series of intravenous (IV) treatments, usually a total of five to seven, over a period of ten weeks, followed by a combination of maintenance IVs (one a month) and nutritional supplements you take by mouth.

There are two NAD+ IV potencies, regular strength and high strength. For people looking for an anti-aging (i.e., ‘health longevity’) therapy, the regular is fine. If you have a chronic health issue of virtually any kind, however, the higher-strength NAD+ IV treatment is probably a better choice.

NAD+ delivered via IV is offered worldwide and you can find treatment centers near any urban area.

Lifestyle changes can boost NAD+ as well. The process will be slower and the results less dramatic than with IV infusions, but considering the benefits of healthy NAD+ levels, you might as well get started on all of these, which have been shown to raise NAD+.

• Regular exercise. Numerous studies confirm that regular exercise slows down and even reverses the aging process, including telomere length.
• Vitamin D 2,000 IU a day or more. Hot off the press! Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on May 21, 2025, healthy levels of Vitamin D by protecting telomeres added approximately three years to a person’s lifespan. Vitamin D is best taken combined with Vitamin K. Here’s an excellent choice.
• Eating foods high in NAD+ including milk, fish, chicken, yeast, green vegetables, crimini mushrooms, and fermented foods like kombucha and sauerkraut. If you need help with an NAD+ eating program, schedule with our nutritionist Olivia Darrow.

Supplementing with an NAD+ precursor (building block) called nicotinamide riboside, a variation of vitamin B3. The main NAD+ product I recommend (and we stock) is the Quicksilver NAD+ Platinum Liquid because it’s the only one where the delicate NAD molecule is absorbed directly through the mouth and not (possibly) destroyed by stomach acid as is the case with capsules. FYI, pure NAD+ itself isn’t available as a supplement because the delicate NAD+ molecule is destroyed during digestion.

The other Anti-Aging supplements I have been recommending for years:

• Curcumin (turmeric)  as Curalieve by Integrative Therapeutics
• Resveratrol Ultra by Integrative Therapetics
• UBQH 100 mg (highly absorbable Co Q 10 several brands)
• Vitamin D with K 5,000 IU
• Collagen by OrthoMolecular and other brands

But most importantly, you need to work on your NAD+. Follow the lifestyle changes, consider scheduling infusions, start a precursor like the Quicksilver product, and you might have already guessed that we offer NAD+ IV infusions (and injections!) at WholeHealth Chicago. We’ve priced our NAD+ series competitively, but two advance warnings: the infusions (and injections) are not covered by insurance and you need to allow three hours for each session, so bring your phone, laptop, or book or just plan a long meditation. We offer two different doses in IV form. Injections are second best effective with a lower cost point and a quicker visit.

You don’t have to be a WHC patient to schedule regular dose IV NAD+ and injections. You can buy online.

Be well,

David Edelberg, MD