NAD is found in all living cells. It’s critical for regulating cellular ageing and maintaining proper function of the whole body. Our NAD levels naturally decline over time—we’ve known this for a while. What Sinclair proved was that artificially raising levels of NAD in mice caused the ageing of tissue to reverse, leading the rodents to look and act younger, and live longer.

“Has Harvard’s David Sinclair Found the Fountain of Youth?” asked a breathless headline in Boston Magazine, in an article covering the discovery. “Is an Anti-Aging Pill on the Horizon?” asked Time. 

The short answer: we don’t know for sure yet. Since the discovery, studies have taken place in labs around the world to measure the efficacy of NAD in humans, to discover the extent to which it can lengthen life expectancy, slow the appearance of ageing, and improve cognitive function. Medical studies take a long time, and each study focuses on NAD’s impact on one particular metric, in one particular group of people, so it may be another few years before we have a clearer picture of exactly what NAD can do. 

In the interim, Silicon Valley biohackers have wasted no time, enticed by the purported benefits to boost energy and prevent burnout. Winston Ibrahim, CEO of water filtration startup Hydros, is one of them, telling Business Insider: “You are literally giving your body and brain the optimum, most bio-available fuel to power peak energy and performance.”

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing was another early adopter of NAD. In 2017, his Horizons Ventures invested US$25 million into ChromaDex, the Nasdaq-listed dietary supplement company behind a patented supplement, Tru Niagen, that contains the compound nicotinamide riboside (NR), which boosts the body’s natural level of NAD. The 92-year-old Li reportedly takes Tru Niagen himself.

Since then, evidence has surfaced that a new ingredient, nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), which is naturally found in low doses in fish, mushrooms and other vegetables, is much more effective at converting into NAD.

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LifeHub, a Hong Kong wellness centre co-founded by Gen.T honouree Candice Chan, has recently started offering NMN IV drips. Chan describes LifeHub as a “Starbucks for healthcare” in that they want to make preventative medicine accessible, affordable and transparent, with no hidden costs. 

“We are an evidence-based wellness centre that provides doctor-backed treatments and products to help urbanites achieve optimal health,” says Chan. “We help people with things like sleep, gut health, weight management or skin problems.”

True to its description, LifeHub’s treatments are available for all to see, price included, on backlit boards as you enter the clinic, much like a branch of Starbucks. The menu includes IV drips and treatments such as infrared saunas, as well as tests to measure food tolerance or even, one of the clinic’s latest offerings, a biological age report, which Chan invites me to try. 

The test uses AI to establish your “biological age”, based on 44 biometrics measured from a blood sample that determine your level of health compared to your “chronological age”. As a 36-year-old, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. I’m already too close to 40 for my liking; I didn’t want to reach the milestone prematurely.

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It’s already been proven as a remedy for addiction, depression and Alzheimers, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome—these are well researched and backed

Thankfully, Dr Ho, who delivered my results in a post-test consultation, had good news: my body is 32, which is an easily understandable way to communicate that I “have lower health risks compared to normal” for people of my age. 

Needless to say I was pretty satisfied, but also curious to see if I could slice off another three years and relive my 20s, so I booked myself in for an IV drip containing NMN, which my body would convert to the youth-inducing compound. 

“Both NR, [a key ingredient in Tru Niagen] and NMN are converted into NAD in the body,” says Chan before my treatment, by way of introducing the new therapy, “but NR is not as effective [at the conversion] as NMN if you compare the two.” It’s the reason why more and more labs are producing NMN over NR, says Chan, despite the increased cost of procuring the raw material.  

As for the effects, everyone takes to the treatment differently, says Chan. “In the short term, people tend to report having more energy and better memory, cognitive function and focus,” she says. “Some people don’t feel anything, and others say it’s like drinking a Red Bull without the jitters. For me, there was a noticeable effect on my memory. After a few treatments, when someone mentioned a restaurant I’d been to, I could remember exactly what was on the menu and the price of it, for example. That’s maybe not that useful,” says Chan with a laugh, “but it was part of a wider feeling of clarity and focus that I felt.”

Referring to the ongoing research into NAD, Chan acknowledges that there’s still some ways to go before we can call NAD a verifiable elixir of life, but there’s plenty of areas where NAD has already shown promising results in medical trials. “It’s already been proven as a remedy for addiction, depression and Alzheimers, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome—these are well researched and backed,” says Chan.

As for me, I definitely felt sharper, brighter and more energetic in the 48 hours after my first NMN IV drip. But younger? I think I’ll need a few more sessions before that starts to kick in. I hate getting older.

See more honourees from the Wellness category of the Gen.T List 2020.