Welcome to our blog about NAD therapy!  At Pacific KLN Infusions (www.pacifickln.com) we offer NAD along with many IV nutritional items that can be used to optimize your health. Here are 7 benefits of NAD therapy.

NAD+ is a co-enzyme found in all cells and is essential for cellular function and viability.  NAD Therapy (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide) is collective and includes NAD+ and it reduced form NADH.  These two promote the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which the body uses for energy.  ATP production takes place at the cellular level by a process called oxidative phosphorylation and can account for 90% of the body’s energy.

This process is complex but the main takeaway is that NAD+ and it’s partner NADH are vital for energy production.  With infusion therapy we can promote these levels.  In fact, NAD therapy is commonly recommended for chronic fatigue, jet lag, and exhaustion.  It will help boost your energy levels and keep you moving!

NAD Therapy can help optimize your body for strenuous activity.  It promotes endurance, increases strength, and improves stamina.  All of this is accomplished by infusing NAD+ which, in turn, facilitates mitochondria to use cellular respiration and the electron transport chain to pump out more ATP.  The more ATP you have, the better your athletic performance will be.  Additionally, NAD+ will help reduce soreness and fatigue while promoting metabolism, cognitive focus, and memory.  It really is a win-win situation for anyone who wants to increase activity.

As we get older we see and feel the effects of our body changing.  We might see more wrinkles, we don’t recover as well from strenuous exercise, and it’s not unheard of to gain weight while decreasing our activity.  We may also see health problems and many consider this to be part of the normal aging process.  We can slow down and maybe even prevent some disease by taking proper care of ourselves.  Unfortunately this isn’t always enough and that’s when NAD Therapy can help.

NAD levels drop with aging and may lead to many ailments as we get older.  In fact, NAD levels drop by 50% every 20 years (Johnson et al, 2018).  By the mid 70’s, seven to eight out of 10 adults have unmeasurable levels.  Low levels lead to less energy for your cells, an increase in free radicals, and consequent cellular malfunction.  This culmination of events is what most people call aging leading to symptoms like decreased muscle activity, lower brain function, and disease.

NAD Therapy can slow down the aging process and has the potential to partially reverse the process when it has been accelerated by low levels (Yahyah et al, 2018).  This is accomplished by returning your cellular metabolism back to an optimal state where mitrochondrial function and ATP production is once again optimally fueling your body.  This helps with energy, metabolism, cognition, mood, muscle activity, and may help defend your body against disease.  It’s a big topic and definitely worth the time to consider.

I know we have already discussed how disease and aging are associated with each other but it’s worth a closer look.  There are many research studies that are looking at the effects of low NAD levels and illness.  Two topics of major interest is Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.  One study was able to show that NAD supplementation normalized neuroinflammation while improving synaptic transmission resulting in improved learing, memory, and motor function (Hou et al, 2018).  That study was looking at potential uses for Alzheimer’s.  In another study, on Parkinson’s disease, NAD was demonstrated to have beneficial clinical effects for 80% of patients receiving supplementation (Birkmayer et al, 1993).  All of this is very encouraging news!

Additionally, NAD Therapy may be capable of preventing or alleviating other disease states.  It has been implicated for use in heart disease, diabetes, vascular dysfunction, and any age related process (Pillai et al, 2005) (Wu et al, 2016) (Csiszar et al, 2019).  As aging is marked by decreases in NAD, it makes sense that supplementation may be a course of prevention.  It is, indeed, a potential target in the treatment of disease as we age (Johnson, Imai, 2018).

It’s hard to talk about other benefits of NAD Therapy without mentioning cognition.  We already mentioned its potential use with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.  However, it has potential benefits in other situations as well.  For example, do you suffer from brain fog?  This is when you have trouble concentrating, have trouble focusing, and may have memory impairment.  Everything seems hazy and there is an overall decrease in mental clarity.  This may be a symptom of oxidative stress, poor diet, lack of sleep, and overall poor health.

If you are unable to improve the way you feel with things like exercise, sleep, and diet then NAD Therapy is an option.  And even if you are able to improve your health in other ways, NAD Therapy still has beneficial effects.  It can restore appropriate neurotransmission in the brain, help fight oxidative stress, optimize your body with ATP production, and give you that extra kick you need to get moving again.  Matter of fact, it has been said that the “greater amount of usable NAD energy the higher the quality of life and functioning” (Verway, 2002).  By replacing or replenishing your levels you are encouraging health at the cellular level by promoting neuroprotection, DNA repair, and ultimately genome stability (Canto et al, 2015) (Belenky et al, 2006) (Johnson et al, 2018).

The first thought most have when looking at this title is, “How can it help with pain?”  Well, let’s take a look at this topic.  There’s a family of proteins call Sirtuins and this family plays an important role with inflammatory response and antioxidant behavior (Guang-Zhi et al, 2020).  Certain Sirtuins can reduce inflammation and, cosequently, alleviate pain.  Ironically, these proteins require NAD+ to function properly so when our body is lacking sufficient quantiities of NAD, there is a real possibility of increased pain.

This provides yet another use for NAD Therapy.  It has great potential with fibromyalgia, CRPS, and any neurodegenerative state.  There’s even research out there showing its use for Multiple Sclerosis.  The fact that NAD+ is in every cell in our body and is able to optimize how our cells work tells us that it has utility in treating pain and promoting overall wellness.

Last but definitely not least is the use of NAD Therapy for addiction recovery.  It has been studied extensively for this purpose for a long time.  Dr. O’Hollaren use NAD Therapy in 1961 to successfully prevent, alleviate, and treat acute and chronic addiction (O’Hollaren, 1961) (Braidy et al, 2020).  This included heroin, morphine, cocaine, and amphetamines to name a few.

You may be wondering how is it possible that NAD+ treats addiction as I originally was.  First, individuals suffering from addiction have depleted levels of NAD+.  This leads to a state of oxidative stress, overall inflammation, and poor health.  By replenishing levels the body is able to regenerate and operate correctly at the cellular level.  Moreover, recent findings show that NAD+ metabolism and NAD-dependent enzymes can influence major signaling processess associated with the neurobiology of addiction (Braidy et al, 2020).  That may seem like a lot of information but it helps to remember that NAD+ is everywhere in our body and has major effects on cellular processes.  The pathways are complex but the take away is that NAD Therapy can alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal and restore the body’s functions.  This helps detoxify, renew, and promote recovery.  This is not a substitute for traditional alcohol and drug addiction treatment but it will assist in the overall healing process.

Summary

NAD therapy may be the most all-encompassing infusion we offer at Pacific KLN (www.pacifickln.com). It has potential benefits with energy, athletic performance, brain function, and much more. It can also help with anxiety, sleep disturbances, auto-immune disease, and even hangovers. The topic is very large and research is ongoing but it has been safely administered for decades.  At Pacific KLN we have the expertise to administer NAD+ safely while promoting health and wellness. We hope to see you in our clinic and we are proud to offer such great options! Please visit us at www.pacifickln.com to learn more and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions.

References

Belenky P, Bogan KL, Brenner C. NAD+ metabolism in health and disease. Trends Biochem Sci. 2007;32(1):12-19. doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2006.11.006

Birkmayer JG, et al. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH)–a newtherapeutic approach to Parkinson’s disease. Comparison of oral and parenteralapplication. Acta Neurol Scand Suppl. 1993. PMID 8101414

Braidy N, Villalva MD, van Eeden S. Sobriety and satiety: Is NAD+ the answer? Antioxidants. 2020;9(5). doi:10.3390/antiox9050425

Cantó C, Menzies KJ, Auwerx J. NAD+ Metabolism and the Control of Energy Homeostasis: A Balancing Act between Mitochondria and the Nucleus. Cell Metab. 2015;22(1):31-53. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2015.05.023

Csiszar A, Tarantini S, Yabluchanskiy A, et al. Role of endothelial NAD+ deficiency in age-related vascular dysfunction. Am J Physiol – Hear Circ Physiol. 2019;316(6):H1253-H1266. doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00039.2019

Guang-Zhi Z, Ya-Jun D, et al. Sirtuins and intervertebral disc degeneration: Roles in inflammation, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial function. Clin Cim Acta. 2020 Sep;508:33-42. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32348785/

Hou, Y., Lautrup, S., Cordonnier, S., Wang, Y., Croteau, D. L., Zavala, E., Zhang, Y., Moritoh, K.,O’Connell, J. F., Baptiste, B. A., Stevnsner, T. V., Mattson, M. P., & Bohr, V. A. (2018).

NAD+ supplementation normalizes key Alzheimer’s features and DNA damage responses in a new ADmouse model with introduced DNA repair deficiency. Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America, 115(8), E1876–E1885.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718819115

Johnson S, Imai SI. NAD + biosynthesis, aging, and disease. F1000Res. 2018;7:132. Published 2018 Feb1. doi:10.12688/f1000research.12120.1

O’Hollaren P. Diphosphopyridine nucleotide in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of drug addiction. West J Surg Obstet Gynecol. May 1961.

Pillai JB, Isbatan A, Imai SI, Gupta MP. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1-dependent cardiac myocyte cell death during heart failure is mediated by NAD+ depletion and reduced Sir2α deacetylase activity. J Biol Chem. 2005;280(52):43121-43130. doi:10.1074/jbc.M506162200

Verwey, T. 2002. NAD Therapy! Too Good to Be True?. Retrieved fromhttp://www.brainrestorationtherapy.com/download/i/mark_dl/u/4011312489/4599726821/NAD%20Therapy%20Too%20Good%20to%20be%20True.pdf

Wu J, Jin Z, Zheng H, Yan LJ. Sources and implications of NADH/NAD+ redox imbalance in diabetes and its complications. Diabetes, Metab Syndr Obes Targets Ther. 2016;9:145-153. doi:10.2147/DMSO.S106087

Yahyah A, Yumin Q, et al. 2018. Therapeutic potential of boosting NAD+ in aging and age-related diseases. Translational Medicine of Aging. 2018;2:30-37.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tma.2018.08.003