Today Dr. Nichola Conlon explains the truth on NAD – a molecule found in the human body that regulates aging. She explains why it declines with age and how activating NAD can clean up our bodies to give us more energy.
ABOUT DR. CONLON
Dr. Conlon is an accomplished molecular biologist specializing in the study of aging as a biologically complex disorder. She received her PhD in Physiology from Newcastle University, home to the largest institute for aging research in Europe. She is also a trained Cosmetic Scientist.
Building on her expertise in molecular biology and years focused on early stage drug discovery with a leading biotech firm, Nichola founded her own company called Nuchido to bring potent, life-enhancing scientific discoveries and education to the public with speed and transparency.
Along with leading scientists, Dr Conlon has identified the right combination of targets to restore cellular NAD+ production back to youthful levels, leading to the development of a breakthrough NAD+ booster called Nuchido TIME+.
Nichola is an expert in the science of aging and founded Nuchido to bring potent, life-enhancing scientific discoveries and education to the public with speed and transparency.
I have been taking NR to increase my NAD, but there is something wrong about this that Dr. Conlon shares about this good intention, but not the best way to increase NAD and energy levels in the body. I guarantee you probably never heard of this before.
Use code Zora10off for a discount at Nuchido
WHY DR. CONLON LEFT BIG PHARMA
Dr. Conlon is trained in epithelial physiology – the study of how drugs and molecules go from being outside the body passing the gut wall and travel into the cells where they have an effect.
She was interested in how can we influence our insides from the outside.
Drug development – she started to work in the early stage drug development. Try to understand how to impact a disease with drugs.
Worked for a large biotech company with advanced approaches where she was introduced to the field of aging.
Aging is the biggest risk factor for all diseases.
She was the leader on a project to slow aging.
PROBLEM IN DRUG DEVELOPMENT
There needs to be a disease that the drug is treating for it to be developed. If aging isn’t a disease then you cant make clinical trials and create drugs, so “pharma” is wary to invest money in this area.
Takes 10 – 15 years and 100s of millions of pounds to create a drug. This is an inefficient process. Its frustrating. People aren’t benefiting from this as there is so much red tape.
Dr. Conlon’s job was to gather data, see if molecules killed cancer. The top 10 molecules often would be put in the bin even though they worked, because they cannot be patented. This was an ethical dilemma.
This led her to create her own company, Nuchido.
WHAT IS NAD?
- NAD has a huge impact on aging.
- It’s a natural molecule in all cells in body. Important for many reactions, but mainly:
- Critical to help cells unlock energy from food. For the metabolic cycle that creates ATP. Without NAD it couldn’t happen and you would die in 30 seconds. Critical for energy production.
- Involved as a cell signaling molecule. Signals cells to switch things on and off. Especially repair and maintenance. When NAD levels are high, sends signals to the cells to switch on repair and make sure it’s in good health. When NAD is low, tells the cell it can be more wasteful and no need to repair, then switches off repair.
- NAD rises and falls while we age. Also rises and falls throughout the day. Never completely stable and influenced by health status of the cell.
- NAD is high when we are young and declines throughout the life. You can get accumulation of damage in the cell and associated with signs and symptoms of aging.
- If you don’t let NAD decline as you get older and keep it at youthful levels, you can even pause and reverse signs and symptoms of aging and extend healthspan.
HOW TO KEEP NAD HIGH?
3 main ways
- Exercise – best to hit it hard. Need to create an energy deficit. Need to sweat. Activates AMPK in the cell, the global energy sensor activated with exercise and fasting. When activated it switches on NAD production by increasing enzymes that increases NAD.
- Intermittent fasting, time restricted feeding and caloric restriction – influence energy status. Causes energy in cell to go down and cell responds by pushing NAD high to switch repair and maintenance. No nutrients are coming in. 14 – 16 hours of fasting is 8 – 10 hours of time restricted feeding daily, which is good enough to promote NAD. We don’t know if longer fasting is better. But there are other great benefits of fasting – autophagy, removal of senescent cells – for aging.
- Supplements – In animals, supplemented precursor of NAD is used to create NAD. Supplemented mice did well. Control group got old.
HOW DO WE KNOW HOW MUCH NAD WE HAVE?
- NAD is linked with your energy status.
- Redox reaction – the movement of electrons from one state to another. NAD is a carrier (empty bus) shuttling electrons in the mitochondria back and forth (filling and emptying). Creates more energy and more ATP.
- If we feel sluggish, then we probably don’t have enough NAD.
WHY NOT TAKE NAD STRAIGHT UP INSTEAD OF A PRECURSOR?
Straight NAD can’t move across membranes without the precursor. The majority of cells won’t let NAD in. Cells need to take building blocks that are smaller that are used to make NAD and then cross over.
Then, within the cell it has the enzymes and machinery to put the building blocks together and create NAD, so it is made directly in the area where it is needed (the cell).
Avoid taking NAD capsules. They don’t work.
NAD PRECURSORS
The most popular precursors are NR (nicotinamide riboside), NMN (Nicotinamide mononucleotide) and niacin. They are all different derivatives of vitamin B3. They’re all ingredients the body can use to make NAD. Can use different ingredients to make it. Can also make NAD out of tryptophan, although its inefficient.
They all work. Theres a lot evidence of positive outcomes.
But we can only put so much raw material to create more NAD.
If “NAD factory” in our body becomes old and needs to increase production, it wouldn’t make sense to bring in more raw material and expect more NAD.
Dr. Conlon’s company Nuchido created Nuchido Time+ to approach the problem by “fixing the factory” (enzymes and NAD production) rather than just bringing in new raw materials (NR and NMN). This gets to the root cause of the problem.
Nuchido Time+ uses precursors and boosts NAMPT the main enzyme that recycles NAD in the cell. Body and cells have a capability to recycle NAD. When its used up, it gets broken down into the precursor (nicotinamide) and then it’s recycled into fresh NAD via the “salvage pathway” that declines with age. By how much? Cells generate most of the NAD by this pathway.
This is a “whole systems” approach. Put in the raw material, improve the machines, fix leaky pipes that waste NAD, fix the cells natural ability to recycle to make and maintain its own NAD.
CD38 is the biggest consumer of NAD. It is an inflammatory protein that wastes NAD. For every molecule it has to use 38 molecules of NAD. Nuchido Time+ inhibits this process and you can boost NAD by 50%.
DOES NUCHIDO WORK ON EVERYONE EQUALLY?
Any drug, food or supplement will work differently on different people.
HOW EFFECTIVE IS NMN AND NR?
In Nuchido’s clinical trial with 2 human volunteers (age 25 and 45), they found an increase of NAD of 242% within 16 days of taking Nuchido Time+. On average the increase in NAD is 40% – 60% with just NR or NMN.
Now a clinical trial is underway with 28 people to validate these results. Ages 20 – 80 years.
WHEN TO START NUCHIDO TIME+?
NAD decline is exponential. 50% decrease every 20 years. By the age of 80 you only have 10% NAD levels of what you had. You can boost it at an early age, but can’t put a number on it as the studies aren’t finished.
WHY DO WE LOSE SO MUCH NAD?
Inefficiency of the salvage pathway. NAD decreases with age. Uses NAD but can’t replenish it.
CD38 causes lots of NAD waste.
Related to your lifestyle that damages DNA from sunbathing, burned with radiation, bad diet, smoking. This means repair process needs to upregulate and this uses a lot NAD as a fuel. The longer we live, the more exposure to toxins, the more damage and the more NAD you need to repair it.
CAN YOU MEASURE NAD?
- Measure in a lab
- NAD is unstable molecule and can degrade easily when not in the cell and breaks down quickly.
- Needs to be very quick and controlled to measure it.
- Home kits are not credible or accurate.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF NUCHIDO IS WORKING?
Currently only through clinical trials proving NAD boosts within 2 weeks.
Looks at levels of damage and mitochondrial function, DNA damage and activation of sirtuins (proteins that are very involved in healthspan as they switch on healthy aging genes). Sirtuins need NAD as fuel. Sirtuins linked to epigenetics.
EPIGENETICS – which of those genes you’re born with are switched on and off and they change all the time. They’re more important than genetics.
Sirtuins are histone deacetylases that take away tags on the genes and decides which genes are switched on and off.
Without NAD nothing happens.
CORRELATION OF MEASURING B3 AND NAD LEVELS?
B3 is a precursor and not measuring how much NAD you have.
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
- Healthier fitter people don’t see the difference as much as they have less damage. They have a more subtle effect
- Those with already low levels of energy or metabolic syndrome or older give the best feedback.
- Peri-menopausal women have great results
- LOW NAD LEVELS associated with lyme disease and chronic fatigue syndrome also have great feedback.
RECOMMENDED EPIGENETIC AGE TESTERS
DON’T MIX NUCHIDO WITH OTHER PRODUCTS
Supplements and other ingredients that contain the same as in Nuchido Time+ should be halted in order to not exceed daily dosage.
NAD IN PILL VS IV DRIP
Testing of NAD in pills and sublingual don’t show results, because NAD breaks down in the gut. It’s unstable.
NAD in IV form needs a precursor to make it through the cell.
Caution : you can put as much NAD and precursor in the body, but it may only get used initially to repair and give a little energy, but its broken down into precursor and if the body doesn’t have a good salvage pathway, its chucked out of the cell because the body cant recycle it. That’s why its better to fix the factory.
METHYLATION PROBLEMS WITH NAD SUPPLEMENTS
Some take trimethylglycine with an NAD supplement because it shows if you get a high level of NAD in the cell, the precursor needs to be excreted. So the cell methylates the precursor to try to get rid of them.
It’s a problem, because if the cells are using all of the methyl groups to get rid of the raw material that it can’t recycle, then the methyl groups aren’t being used for your epigenetics to switch genes on and off.
Solve this by fixing the factory. This is why you have to look at the whole system.
NUCHIDO INGREDIENTS
- Nicotinamide – The raw material. It is the NAD precursor. It’s a derivative of niacin.
- Sophora japonica –For the salvage pathway. It’s natural extract with powerful flavonoids like quercetin, rutin and troxerutin which upregulates nM NAMPT enzyme in the salvage pathway that decreases with age
- Alpha Lipoic Acid – activates AMPK energy center (exercise and fasting also activate it to increase NAD). ALA mimics these.
- Note: If you use other ALA supplements. Make sure you get the right form. Take RLA. RLA is the natural form of ALA and works, but more expensive. Don’t use SALA – the synthetic version as it does nothing in the body.
- Parsley – contains apigenin, which inhibits the inflammatory protein CD38 which is a cell membrane protein that chews up and wastes NAD. Expression of XCD38 goes up with age and NAD drops. Apigenin inhibits CD38 boosts NAD by 50% alone. Lots of active ingredients are absorbed better in their raw form, so parsley is better than raw apigenin. Can’t eat enough raw parsley alone.
- Green tea – Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), It inhibits cellular enzyme that methylates and excretes the raw materials from the cell. Salvage Pathway isn’t working once NAD is used it’s broken down to nicotinamide and if not recycled. It gets a methyl group attached and then chucked out of the cell to be metabolized by the liver and excreted. This extract inhibits this process to promote recycling rather than methylation and excretion problem.
- Zinc
- Vitamin C
- Black pepper extract improves absorption in the gut
6 CAPSULES TO TAKE
3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon not too close to bedtime, because of the EGCG and green tea extract. It’s usuallynot a problem to take at night, but guidance from EU demands to split the dose.
4 hours before bedtime because of small amount of caffeine. It has 1mg per pill. Coffee has 90 – 100+mg per cup.
Can split the dosage in 3 times a day.
Some say its better to take it with food. But it’s a personal preference
It’s important to take the full dose for the results.
Many customers take half dose and still feel results, but it isn’t tested or proven.
FATIGUE AND COVID
Yes, Covid affects NAD levels.
In cells infected with Covid or SARS2 virus variant, you see sharp decrease in NAD levels.
Cells actively try to upregulate the pathways to make and recycle more NAD to recover
Older people have lower NAD, so if they’re infected then it’s at a worse starting point and it’s harder to pick it up.
CELIAC AND NUCHIDO
No customers with feedback and no research
Celiac people can take Nuchido Time+. It’s gluten free.
NAD AND CANCER
Senescent cells are a device the body has to prevent cancer. With DNA damage, alarm goes off and need to repair, but sometimes can’t repair the damage, so cell is told to shut down and go to sleep.
These cells accumulate with age and they are leaking toxic waste inflammation and makes other cells go bad and creates a mess.
A study shows a link between senescence and NAD. With cancer cells, can NAD help a cancer cell? It’s molecular reductionism. It shows a small part of the picture. As NAD declines, risk of cancer goes up. Benefits outweigh any risks.
Senescent cells increases levels of CD38 inflammation and reduces NAD. It’s a vicious circle. Having higher NAD levels is a good thing to do.
CAN NAD BE TOO HIGH?
Body is used to having lots of NAD. Age 0 – 20 is at peak NAD levels, when humans have very low rates of cancer. Higher NAD is not unnatural.
Body is good at controlling is own NAD levels.
SHOULD NMN BE ADDED TO NUCHIDO ROUTINE?
Don’t use products with the same ingredients. NMN is not in Nuchido, but it still is a derivitive of B3 so don’t take any precursors with Nuchido.
RESVERATROL AND NUCHIDO
Dr. Conlon is not personally convinced how much resveratrol actually gets into the gut
INGREDIENTS SOURCED
Nuchido ingredients are sourced from all over the world and they are routinely tested for heavy metals, identity testing, microbe testing. They then make the formulate and redo all tests again to be sure nothing gets contaminated in manufacturing. Its Good Manufacturing Practice regulation, which is very strict on quality.
WHO SHOULDN’T TAKE NUCHIDO?
If you have health conditions or take medication, consult your doctor
DO YOU TAKE NUCHIDO FOREVER?
No evidence that you need a break or wash out period
ANY FUTURE PRODUCTS?
Soon to get ones that affect senescent cells
BRAIN AND NUCHIDO
No direct research on brain with Nuchido Time+..
Anecdotal evidence around brain fog. Better sharpness, clarity and focus.
NAD is important for the brain, especially if damaged neurons in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinsons disease.
Hearing loss and traumatic brain injury lots of evidence that NAD helps.
CAN NUCHIDO HELP SPINAL CORD INJURIES?
NAD is important in repair and helping disorders associated with low energy.
But no research
NUCHIDO AND GRAY HAIR
Many testimonials for people having 90% of their gray hair return to natural color.
WHERE TO BUY NUCHIDO TIME+?
Nuchido Time+ is sold online from the US and the UK at Nuchido.com
Use code Zora10off for a 10% discount at Nuchido
FOLLOW DR. NICHOLA CONLON
Instagram: @drnicholaconlon
Instagram: @nuchido
Facebook: @nuchido
Twitter: @nuchido
LinkedIn: @nuchido
Website: @nuchido
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