Having hit the big 50 late last year, certain aspects of my health I have put down to the ravishes of aging, I creak a bit, all night festivities find me quietly leaving around 11 pm, strong hints of grey creeping into my beard and hair and the most annoying being that my eyesight is now augmented with reading glasses. The vibrancy of youth and the omnipotence has annoyingly diminished. Of course, this is to be expected the march of time and toil on our bodies has a representative impact on our vitality or at least that is how we have expected time to impact us.
Many things in our lives impact the quality of our ageing, such as diet, exercise, mental activity, spirituality, genetics and the environment to mention the core titles – each of these titles can be a huge topic just on their own. The far-reaching impacts of what we consume have never been so well understood than now. With scientific studies continuing to back it up the monumental importance of eating vegetables and the negative impact on our health from eating processed foods is absolute. Going for walks every day is great, but we now know that interval training is better, our amazing bodies respond well to being stressed slightly or rather put under pressure – the take away from this is that you can achieve allot by exercising for 30 minutes every day with this rule, no need to run a marathon. Of course, stretching and the practice of Yoga is extremely beneficial and something on my immediate to-do list as it has been for a couple of years I guess I should get on with it! Keeping your mind active, reading, learning, debating, all help to keep our neurons firing and ward of the mental deterioration. Spiritual practices whatever they may be from meditation to religious are now well researched to show positive effects on our well being. Is your father or mother vibrant with health or have they had diseases – these can also be your inheritance but we can target these areas with the aforementioned diet and exercise to reduce if not irradicate the threat of bad genetics or perhaps enhance the good ones! And when we live in cities, next to busy roads and airports invisible particles that are toxic in the air we breathe, or under an electricity pylon or radio transmitter with the magnetic radiation – we are bioelectrical creatures that science is only just starting to understand. You may have seen my earlier post on 5G. One very important topic I missed is your relationships, this is centred around how much love you have and are giving in your life – again a humungous subject but the importance of removing stress from your life and welcoming love in should go without saying.
Now all that’s great, but the problem is I didn’t get to hear or understand many parts of this until I was in my mid-40s!! Am I stuffed? Can I only look forward to neurodegenerative diseases and other disabilities as I grow older? We can of course make changes as hinted above which will greatly improve if not reverse many of the negative aspects of ageing, however certain discoveries in the last 10 years are beginning to make Scientist think we are on the verge of reversing some if not all of these less than charming traits of age and perhaps even extend our longevity. In my research on this subject, some are claiming that there is someone here walking on this earth today who will reach past the age of 120 and others make the bold claim that there is someone who will reach the age of 1000 (that’s scary right!)
But it is all science future or out of the reach of the everyday person? Not quite!
One of the core findings the scientists have identified is a molecule called NAD+ or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. This is a coenzyme that is found in all livings cells and is required for fundamental biological functions that make life possible. If we didn’t have this molecule we would die in about 30 seconds and of course, we have loads of NAD+ in our youth and from about the age of forty on, it rapidly declines. So scientists believe it to be extremely significant in ageing if not a root cause. Ageing is now being treated as a disease and not an inevitability.
Research sadly on mice and now tentatively on humans have shown remarkable effects of increasing NAD+ in ageing subjects. In mice they have observed age reversal as well as miraculously rebuilding damaged optic nerves, research on humans is of course early and as such tentative, but certainly biomarkers have been measured to show improved cardiovascular health as well as regeneration of such organs as the liver, kidney and pancreas fueling the possibility that NAD+ can help with such conditions as diabetes and heart disease. Now going into the science of all this would be above my pay grade so I will leave some links at the bottom of this article for further expansion. Certainly searching the internet for NAD+ will provide you with a wealth of information.
But can I take a pill full of NAD+ you may be asking? The subject is complicated but basically no as it’s not permeable thru the stomach lining, you can take it intravenously but I understand that can be quite painful and probably expensive. But we can safely take precursors which promote the production of NAD+ in our bodies.
Scientific developments in the nutritional supplement arena have brought forward molecules derived from vitamin B3 that have been shown to boost and support NAD+ levels in our ageing bodies.
There are currently two main contenders NR (Nicotinamide Riboside) and MNM (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide). The first has already had extensive scientific studies in humans that have shown boosted NAD+ levels and improved health and vitality. NMN is still relatively new but has shown dramatic changes in lab mice and anecdotally people are making wonderful claims from following a daily protocol of consuming this B3 vitamin derivative.
Not to be shy I have just started taking in the last two weeks NMN sublingual tablets myself – roughly around 500 mg a day, now, of course, placebo effects are extremely powerful so I will tentatively report on my experience thus far, that being increased energy and my mental acuity feels improved. But others who have taken it for longer make claims around improved skin, losing some wrinkles and some even losing their grey hair. It is not an overnight cure for ageing and perhaps never will be but initial experiences and reports show it as promising. It does need to be taken regularly perhaps for the rest of your life, together with other nutritional supplements such as Resveratrol, vitamin D and vitamin C all of which have been well researched as beneficial especially in our older years. I will post on my facebook page perhaps in 6 months to report on any other or maintained improvements.
The science, of course, continues to march on and several institutes including Harvard are researching ageing as a disease, Dr David Sinclair a PHD research scientist at Harvard has become somewhat of a celebrity on the subject and you can watch numerous youtube as well as Ted talks from him. He promises more molecules are being worked on in the same incentive to slow, reverse ageing and extend life.
Lastly, if you decide to get enthusiastic about this subject make sure you do your own research especially on any company providing these supplements and remember that most unbelievable claims are not true – so be cautious and cross-reference any claims with scientific evidence.
https://alivebynature.com/what-is-nad/
https://healthyfocus.org/nmn-for-longevity/
https://healthyfocus.org/benefits-of-nicotinamide-riboside/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/resveratrol#section2
https://peterattiamd.com/davidsinclair/
Nutrition for Life! 
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