{"id":30482,"date":"2022-10-02T14:56:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T19:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30482"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:47:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:47:56","slug":"nad-a-potent-anti-aging-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/02\/nad-a-potent-anti-aging-therapy","title":{"rendered":"NAD+…A Potent Anti-Aging Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There have been major breakthroughs on a worldwide scale when it comes to understanding how we age and steps, serious steps, we can take to not only slow it down but to all appearances, reverse the process. Over history, seekers after a Fountain of Youth came, literally and figuratively, to dead ends, but Ponce de Leon had no internet down in Florida back then. I do, and after a few clicks I am reading solid research from universities around the world: Japan, Israel, the United States. Some of the most interesting work is coming from a place you probably never heard of, the Wistar Institute of the University of Pennsylvania<\/a>, whose website describes itself as \u201ca world leader in early stage scientific discovery\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cBig Boys\u201d of scientific publications, \u201cNature\u201d, \u201cScience\u201d, and \u201cAging Cell\u201d, accept only peer-reviewed scientific research, quality over hype. If you\u2019re put off by too much scientific jargon, graphs and tables, the well known Life Extension Foundation, writes very accessible prose although admittedly a little prone to hyperbole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big news of the past couple of years has been a substance produced in our own bodies, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, NAD+ for short. <\/strong>It is classified as a \u2019cofactor\u2019 meaning that it helps all the parts of your metabolism run efficiently. Imagine your metabolism as billions of gears running constantly, 24\/7, from your conception to your final breath. NAD+ lubricates everything. <\/strong>Without NAD+ you\u2019d be dead, instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists have spent decades trying to figure out exactly how we age<\/a>, why some people are \u201cold before their time\u201d and die quite young, while others are mentally and physically fit and nearing 100, even enjoying a daily cigar and a martini. The current thinking is that over the years, we age because we\u2019re exposed to a variety of yucky substances (\u201cfree radicals\u201d is one, for example) that slowly but relentlessly damage our cells. When we\u2019re young, we\u2019ve got plenty of a very specific second substance, NAD+<\/strong>, to do damage control. Unfortunately, over the passage of time, our bodies simply don\u2019t make the amount of NAD+ <\/strong>capable of keeping up with the damage to important things, like our DNA, like our mitochondria. At 50, you have only half the NAD+<\/strong> you enjoyed as a callow youth. At 80, you\u2019re lucky if you have 5% left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how NAD+ acts as an anti-aging agent<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a little complicated, but not impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n