NAD+ might be the most hyped three characters in wellness right now. It's attached to enormous promises, more energy, reversed aging, extended lifespan, and it comes with a price tag to match. So I want to do something the marketing won't: separate what we actually know from what we're being sold, and be clear about which is which.
Let's begin with the real science, because there is some, and it's legitimately interesting. NAD+ is a coenzyme found in every single cell of your body. It plays a central role in how your cells convert food into usable energy, the fundamental metabolic machinery of being alive, and it's also involved in DNA repair and other essential processes. And here's the part that launched a thousand supplements: NAD+ levels do appear to decline as we age. All of that is established, solid biology. No argument from me.
Now watch the leap, because this is where the ground gets soft. The jump from "NAD+ is important and declines with age" to "therefore boosting your NAD+ will give you more energy and slow your aging" is an enormous one, and the human evidence simply hasn't caught up to the enthusiasm. A great deal of the exciting, headline-generating research comes from animal studies and laboratory work. Studies in actual humans, including those looking at NAD+ precursors like NMN and NR, are still relatively early, and the results have been mixed rather than slam-dunk. This is a genuinely promising frontier of science. But "promising frontier" and "proven treatment" are very different things, and good marketing is expert at blurring exactly that line, borrowing the credibility of the real biology to sell the unproven conclusion.
If you do decide to try IV NAD+, there's something practical you should know going in, because nobody warns people and it catches them off guard. It can be an intense experience. Infused too quickly, it commonly causes flushing, nausea, or a tight, uncomfortable sensation in the chest. That's not a sign something's wrong, exactly, but it's unpleasant, and it's precisely why NAD+ has to be given slowly and carefully, with someone monitoring you. That alone is a solid reason to only do it in a properly supervised setting and never from some pop-up offering rushed infusions on the cheap.
So where do I actually land? I treat NAD+ as an interesting frontier, not a settled miracle, and I'd rather tell you that than take your money under false pretenses. I won't promise you it'll transform your energy or add years to your life, because the evidence doesn't let me say that honestly, and I'm not willing to say things the science doesn't support just because they'd sell better. If you're genuinely curious and you want to explore it with realistic expectations, clear eyes, and proper supervision, that's a reasonable adult choice, and I'm not here to scold you out of it. Just go in informed rather than sold, knowing you're trying something promising-but-unproven, not buying a guarantee.
Here's my honest litmus test for this whole category. When someone describes NAD+ to you, listen for whether they distinguish between what's established and what's hoped-for. If they cheerfully collapse the two, "NAD+ declines with age, so this will reverse your aging!", that's a sales pitch wearing a lab coat. If they say something more like "the underlying biology is real and interesting, the human evidence is still early, here's what's reasonable to expect," that's someone actually leveling with you. The science deserves curiosity. The hype deserves skepticism. You can hold both at once, and frankly you should.