Hot Topics In Longevity Circles

“I’m going to NAD for the rest of my life, and I’m never going to age,” said Hailey Bieber to Kendall Jenner on a 2022 episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Both were hooked up to IVs pumping NAD into their bloodstreams. Jennifer Aniston also touted her weekly NAD IVs in a Wall Street Journal article in which she said, “I do think that’s the future.” The Four Seasons Resort in Maui and longevity care clinics such as Modern Age in New York offer NAD catering to the elite of wellness enthusiasts (The Four Seasons charges $1250 a dose).

If Aniston thinks NAD is the future, then Baran Dilaver believes the future is now.

Dilaver is the founder of Wonderfeel, a wellness technology company specializing in NMN products which boost the body’s NAD levels. NAD, short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is the latest viral must-have amongst athletes, celebrities, fervent anti-agists, and biohackers. It’s a naturally occurring substance in the body which aids in cell regeneration and impacts key critical functions of cells, both directly and indirectly, including DNA repair, mitochondrial function, cell repair and immune cell function–all crucial for “maintaining tissue and metabolic homeostasis for healthy aging.”

NAD is said to help with everything from slowing of the aging process, preventing age-related diseases, hair growth, and even fertility. It’s the 2020’s era’s fountain of youth. The outcome? Looking and living better, for longer.

Dilaver has challenged himself and his company to create the most-effective and accessible NMN products on the market to support his mission to help repair a broken health care system by empowering human cells to prevent disease. He’s become a bit of a Robin Hood of sorts in the space, bringing what was once only for a few–high quality NMN—to the masses at about $2.50 per dose.

What exactly is NMN, though?

According to a report published by the National Institute of Health, nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) is described a potent precursor for NAD. Most interestingly, though, the report says: “Taken orally, NMN is rapidly absorbed and converted to NAD,” which tackles the existing perception that NMN pills are inferior to the IVs preferred by the likes of Bieber, Jenner and Aniston.

“The adaptation of these supplements at the moment are very insular within the functional health community, however not necessarily as popular or widely known to the everyday consumer. We want to power our community to treat the root cause of chronic health issues, rather than only treat symptoms. This is why we created Wonderfeel Youngr NMN,” says Dilaver in an interview.

Let’s pause and revisit Bieber for a moment and assume part of her motivation for NAD-ing (yes, it’s used as a verb) is to retain her youthful looks for longer. While the impact of NAD on aging, disease, and overall health are becoming widely accepted, it’s the improvement of one’s beauty that’s the biggest gateway to its supplementation (and wellness in general). Attempting to stall or reverse the signs of getting older is what gravitates many people towards using NMN to boost NAD.

​​”The benefits of NMN include boosting skin elasticity, hydration, and firmness by increasing hyaluronic acid and ceramides. It reduces inflammation activates enzymes, repairs DNA and fights the effects of UV,” Dilavaer explains. “For hair, NMN promotes growth and reduces thinning by reversing follicle atrophy and oxidative damage. Visible effects can be seen within a few months of consistent daily use.”

Although if beauty is the gateway and the result increased overall health, Dilaver is satisfied. “A preventive approach to health offers substantial financial advantages by averting illnesses at a fraction of the cost incurred by symptom based treatment,” he says. “Moreover, the psychological toll of prolonged hospitalization underscores the immense value of prioritizing prevention.”

Forbes.com has reported on the FDA’s position that NMN cannot be marketed as a supplement in the United States, and because research on NMN has mainly been conducted on animals, its “efficacy has yet to be confirmed.” This has not stopped the medical community from calculating that one plus one equals two: NAD occurs naturally in the body, its role is to aid in critical cellular functions, and its levels decrease as people age. Ergo, increasing NAD levels repairs damage to the body caused by aging.

Famed medical media personality and fifteen-time New York Times Best Selling Author, Dr. Mark Hyman is a fan. Hyman hosted Wonderfeel’s Chief Medical Officer, Andrew Salzman MD, the scientist behind Wonderfeel Youngr NMN, on Hyman’s podcast to share insights and enthusiasm for NAD.

“Scientists are talking about if we address the underlying root causes and hallmarks of aging, which NAD does, we do a huge job in preventing and even reversing some diseases,” said Hyman on the podcast. He specifically refered to diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and dementia. “That is what is so exciting to me. We are reaching a turning point in health care in medicine where we’re understanding root causes.”

Dilaver founded Wonderfeel with Salzman by his side whom he met at a medical conference. With over 50 patents and 170 scientific publications to his name, Salzman is a Harvard Medical School trained physician, inventor, professor, and a biomedical entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development. He specializes in inventions that combat damage done to the body by stress inflammation, oxidative stress to human cells and DNA, and damage caused by decreased mitochrondrial production.

It was Salzman who formulated Wonderfeel’s NMN recipe to include other ingredients such as reserveratrol (an already popular longevity supplement also found in topical beauty products), ergothioneine (prevalent in mother’s milk) from lion’s mane and porcini mushrooms, and potent polyphenols (antioxidants) from olive oil. It’s a combination designed to not only raise NAD levels, but also work synergistically to reduce wear and tear in the body and turn on repair mechanisms.

“It’s pretty wild to think that one of the smartest people in biomedicine is now working with us on nutraceuticals to help people stay healthy,” Dilaver says of his business partner.

What’s next on the NAD frontier? Fertility.

The trend of women taking NMN for fertility seems to have started with research by Dr. David Sinclair, co-director of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School. While initial studies were positive, three clinical human trials are in the works that should shed quantitative light on NAD affect on fertility. So far, everything from improving the quality of immature eggs, better fertilization, less oxidative stress in immature eggs, follicular development, and DNA repair have been attributed to increased NAD levels.

Dilaver stresses the foundation of everything regarding longevity and proper healthcare are very basic; physical activity and human connection to support a healthy mind are a couple of the most impactful things you can do to increase lifespan.

“After all, we can’t fix you with a magic longevity pill if you have a poor diet, or you are not physically active, and in a bad mental state,” he says. But of course, NMN can be the hero here, too. “Through research we know adding NMN to your supplement ritual can help with all of the above.”