Everything To Know About NAD+, The Longevity Treatment Celebs Swear By

NAD+ is everywhere right now. The buzzy anti-aging treatment has been bubbling up in Hollywood since 2022, when Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner were spotted hooked up to IV drips on The Kardashians. The trend gained more mainstream attention the following year when Jennifer Aniston shared her weekly peptide routine, sending wellness enthusiasts into a tailspin. Now, big names like Gwyneth Paltrow, Justin Bieber, and Kathy Hilton swear by it.

Hilton admits she went down the “NAD+ rabbit hole” over a year ago — and hasn’t looked back. “So many of my friends ask what I’m doing, and once they start, they love it too,” she tells me. With luxury wellness clinics and even Equinox Hotels incorporating NAD+ into facials and drips — plus brands like Thorne and Cymbiotika introducing the ingredient into their product lines — it’s clear this is the anti-aging treatment du jour. But what actually is this seemingly magical health-boosting panacea?

What Is NAD+?

NAD+ stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a coenzyme found in every cell of our body. Lauren Hawkins, BSN, RN, CCRN, founder of Elix Wellness, a luxury medical treatment clinic in New York City, likens it to an “electron transport shuttle” that takes energy from food and delivers it to your mitochondria.

Aside from breaking down food into usable energy, it also plays a key role in repairing DNA damage — both of which are functions crucial for long-term cellular health, notes Hawkins.

NAD+ & Longevity

While there are plenty of benefits of NAD+ therapy, the treatment mainly comes up in anti-aging conversations — specifically those on longevity. This is because there’s a finite level of it in the body, according to Hawkins, and it starts to naturally decrease as you age.

Environmental factors can also exacerbate the decline in NAD+ levels, according to Andrew Shao, PhD, SVP of Global Regulatory & Scientific Affairs at Niagen Bioscience, a company dedicated to NAD+ research and innovation. Shao lists drinking alcohol, lack of sleep, a sedentary lifestyle, and sun exposure as examples.

“Research shows that this decline in NAD+ is associated with the development of age-related disease and dysfunction,” he says. Plus, “energy-demanding tissues such as our brain, heart, and muscles are heavily NAD+-dependent and — not surprisingly — are those most affected with age.” Therefore, supplementing with NAD+ is thought to mitigate age-related symptoms like tiredness and poor sleep by helping your body function more efficiently.

How To Increase Your NAD+

While it technically is possible to increase your NAD+ levels naturally through caloric restriction, regular exercise, and B3-rich foods like meat and nuts, it isn’t easy to chalk those positive effects up to a substantial increase in the molecule.

IV therapy is the most effective method for the job, says Shao, because the delivery “bypasses gut absorption to deliver [it] directly into the bloodstream.” The standard IV dose at clinics tends to be 500mg, though some people will start with a lower dose and gradually work their way up since the effects can feel uncomfortable as your body gets used to it. These not-so-ideal symptoms — including nausea, chest tightness, and brain fog — however, level out after the first few minutes of the typical two-hour treatment.

Injections are a faster alternative that delivers NAD+ at smaller doses in less time. Then there’s oral supplementation, which is more complicated — Hawkins says direct NAD+ often breaks down in the digestive tract. But incorporating precursors like NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) and NR (Nicotinamide Riboside) can make it more effective, according to some promising preclinical findings. Because the research is so preliminary, healthcare providers typically recommend a regimen including daily oral supplementation paired with monthly IVs, weekly shots, or a combination of them all.

The Benefits

Because it’s helping your cells create more energy so your body can function more efficiently, it makes sense why NAD+ is so popular. Hilton, for example, credits Tru Niagen’s IV with improving her mental clarity. “My hair is also thicker and my nails are stronger,” she tells Bustle.

Users often report a sense of rejuvenation. Shao says it can feel like running on “10 cups of coffee —without the jitters,” while Hawkins adds that it can boost focus and even improve sleep quality, with measurable increases in REM cycles on devices like the Oura Ring.

A huge draw of NAD+, of course, is that it increases lifespan — a metric that’s impossible to track. “You can’t do these studies in humans because there can’t be a control group where lifespan is decreased,” Hawkins explains. “It’s not legal.”

That being said, most of its devotees care more about the immediate benefits than the long game. “It's great if it's increasing lifespan, but ultimately, I have found that I feel different,” says Hawkins. “That’s enough for me, and I think that's enough for most people.” The same is true for Hilton: While she often abandons treatments that don’t work, NAD+ is the exception. “I really stick with it, and I’ve seen — and felt — the results.”