Transcript
Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:00:00]:
What's been really surprising is the fact that the root causes of aging seem to boil down to only 12 key things, and these are actually called the 12 hallmarks of aging. So they are essentially 12 key processes that have been identified over the last 10 years that drive the entire aging process from within the cells. So I think an important thing, or, you know, an important mindset shift that we need to have is that whilst we traditionally think of aging in terms of seeing it on the surface or the effects of aging, actually everything to do with aging is starting in

Claudia von Boeselager [00:00:39]:
the cell. As we get older, our NAD levels do naturally decline, and this is quite a significant decline. It's estimated that your NAD will half every 20 years. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the longevity and lifestyle podcast. I'm your host, Claudia from Berzelager, here to bring you the latest insights and learnings to improve your health, live a longer and happier life in the meantime too. Before we dig in, I just wanna take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for each and every one of you. Your unwavering loyalty and dedication mean the world to me. Thank you for tuning into the episodes, for sharing your feedback, for being part of this amazing tribe and wanting to improve your life and your health for longer.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:01:27]:
Please make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel or our Apple Podcasts and Spotify, wherever you check out this episode. We'd love to hear from you. It also enables me to bring you more free content from amazing speakers. So having your support in that way would be hugely grateful. Again, so grateful for you as this community and tribe keep growing and growing around the world. Thank you. Welcome to the longevity lifestyle podcast. Today, my guest is doctor Nicola Conlon.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:01:55]:
So excited to have you on.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:01:57]:
Hi, Claudia. Thank you for having me.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:01:59]:
It's exciting to be here. My pleasure. So for my people listening and watching, can you give a brief background to yourself, Nicola? And, yeah, would love to to if you could share that.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:02:10]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So I am a scientist. I specialize in cellular aging. So what exactly it is that goes on inside our bodies, specifically inside our cells, that causes us to experience everything that we see as part of the aging process on the outside and also how we feel on the inside. And I actually worked in drug development, developing drugs that were designed to slow cellular aging because age is actually our biggest risk factor for pretty much every major disease that drugs companies are trying to treat. Now, however, I have a supplement company, and I'm trying to incorporate a lot of the, you know, the expertise, the research, the testing from the world of drug development, but into dietary supplements that everyone can have access to, but that have really good clinical testing and research done on them because, unfortunately, a lot of dietary supplements don't.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:03:12]:
Yes, exactly. So, and that's why I'm so excited to have you on too, because as we know, there's a lot of claims out there and what is, you know, that it can do this and that and the other. And I love that you come from a very scientific perspective. And maybe just for people who aren't so familiar, can we just dive in a little bit to cellular aging, essentially? Like, what exactly is happening there? Why does it, happen as we age get worse as well? So maybe just to touch on that, to to set the background a bit.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:03:41]:
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, this is something that is relatively new, even within the scientific field, this idea that actually we may be able to slow or even reverse the aging process at cellular level. Certainly, when I first got into this field around a decade ago, there were still scientists that argued that it wasn't possible and that you couldn't slow cellular aging. But now you won't find a single scientist within the field that will argue that this is not possible because the evidence is so strong. And I guess what's been really surprising is the fact that the root causes of aging seem to boil down to only 12 key things, and these are actually called the 12 hallmarks of aging. So they are essentially 12 key processes that have been identified over the last 10 years that drive the entire aging process from within the cells. So I think an important thing, or, you know, an important mindset shift that we need to have is that whilst we traditionally think of aging in terms of seeing it on the surface or the effects of aging, actually everything to do with aging is starting in the cells. Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:04:53]:
You you know, you name any sort of process of aging, and there is a cellular root cause. And that surprising thing is that it seems to all go back to these 12 hallmarks of aging, and these hallmarks cover things like DNA damage, shortening of our telomeres, inflammation, senescent cells. Now we could go into a whole science lesson on each of those things. Yeah. But I know we don't have time for that today, but, essentially, there are these 12 key processes that are failing at the cellular level. And as they get worse, it speeds up the aging process. And if you can actually make those processes better, it slows down the aging process.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:05:34]:
Mhmm. Beautiful. Thank you for summarizing that as well. And so I guess the big question is, you know, as we age, why are these processes slowing down? And I'd love to take a closer look at, you know, NAD. Maybe you can also explain NAD's role, what it is and what its role is in in cellular aging, and what's, what's happening, in the, for the longevity space.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:05:58]:
Yeah. So there are many things that are acting to either speed up or slow down these cellular hallmarks of aging. Mhmm. And I guess one important thing is that the reason that we now know that aging is something that can be slowed or reversed is that for for a long time, we didn't believe it was possible because we believed that aging was this programmed fixed thing. Now once it started, you know, the the march of time it started, there was absolutely nothing you could do to stop it. But what we now know is that actually the reason that a lot of these aging processes speed up in ourselves is actually not because we've we've lost some part of our biology, but it's just been turned off. You know, we have everything in our bodies to keep us young and healthy, and that is why when we're young, we are young and healthy because there's processes in ourselves that are keeping us like that.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:06:55]:
But as

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:06:55]:
we get older, they all become turned down or switched off. So a lot of focus within the space is actually looking at ways that we can switch back on some of these cellular processes that keep us healthy. Many of these processes are things like repair, things that are repairing our DNA, repairing any damage in our cells. We have an army of repair proteins and enzymes that are constantly trying to keep on top of any repair in our bodies before we ever even notice that it becomes an issue. Mhmm. And it's these things that seem to slow and get turned down. And this is where NAD comes in. So NAD has been a a molecule that's incredibly exciting within the longevity space because it's something that is being found to, basically, in our cells, have a big impact on how fast this the cellular process of aging will happen.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:07:51]:
Mhmm. And so sorry. Continue. Yeah. Because I wanna tell everyone yeah. What's happening exactly there, and what impact does NAD have?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:08:01]:
So so, basically, NAD is a natural molecule, and it's it's not something that we're adding to the body. NAD is something naturally found in every single cell. Mhmm. And it's critically important in 100 of different reactions, but I guess the two things that it's most famous for are, firstly, energy production. Mhmm. So NAD plays a very key role in basically taking our food and turning it into the ATP, which is the energy currency of ourselves.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:08:32]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:08:32]:
And this happens in our mitochondria, which are our tiny little energy powerhouses, that that create all of this fuel. And NAD is a critical part of this pathway. So, literally, if you had no NAD in your body, you'd be dead in 30 seconds because our bodies couldn't produce cellular respiration to keep us alive. Mhmm. So that was the thing that NAD was originally famous for. But, actually, much more recently, it's been found that NAD acts as a fuel to drive a lot of these repair processes that I just mentioned in our bodies. Mhmm. So as a general rule of thumb, if you have high levels of NAD, you have lots of energy so your cells can function correctly.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:09:12]:
And, also, you have lots of repair going on, meaning that your cells are kept in good health. Mhmm. Now if you got low NAD, you get exactly the opposite. Energy levels in the cell decline. Mhmm. Repair isn't functioning as well. Damage starts to build up, and this manifests as a lot of the signs and symptoms of aging. Now the reason that NAD is, so exciting within the longevity field is it's it's linked with aging is that, unfortunately, as we get older, our NAD levels do naturally decline.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:09:43]:
Mhmm. And this is quite a significant decline. It's estimated that your NAD will half every 20 years. Wow. So this is even from birth. So by the time you're 20, it's halved.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:09:56]:
Oh my goodness. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:09:58]:
By the time you're 40, that amount is halved again and so on and so on, which is is scary. Like, you know, when I've just said, if you didn't have any, you'd be dead. So, you know

Claudia von Boeselager [00:10:07]:
30 seconds. Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:10:09]:
Yeah. So And, you know, that means that, basically, our cells can't produce the energy that they used to. They cannot drive the repair that they used to. It's not because those processes have disappeared. They're just getting turned down because the NAD that is not there to fuel these processes. So you start to get lack of cellular energy. You start to get a buildup of damage, and this drives these hallmarks of aging. Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:10:36]:
And, you know, this is a cellular level, but on a more, you know, body level, low NAD will contribute to things like tiredness and fatigue that you get as you get older, not having as much energy and stamina in general as you did when you were younger. You know, when you see kids running around and, like, how have they got so much energy? Because they've got loads of NAD.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:10:58]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:10:59]:
And then, you know, also cognitive function, brain fog, all of these sorts of things start to manifest as NAD declines. And also your general, you know, your general resilience, throughout the body starts to decrease as well. Mhmm.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:11:16]:
So so fundamental. And and when you came across it originally, like, I'd love to maybe take us to to that moment where you're like, well, this is this is huge. I wanna focus on it. And then even to go and and create a supplements company, where you also incorporate clinical research, which I'd love if you could touch on as well. So what was that sort of moment, and and what made you decide, like, okay. This is what I wanna focus on and then go to create a supplements company. So can you share share that story?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:11:41]:
Yeah. So so I my background was working in drug development. And, originally, I worked in cancer therapy. And then one day, my my boss said to me, okay, Nichola. We're gonna put you on a different project. You're gonna look at drugs to slow aging. And I was like, really? Is this a thing? This a thing? Okay. Because, you know, this was this was everyone's talking about longevity and things like this now.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:12:06]:
But back then, it was really not something that was very spoken about. It was very, very new. So, essentially, I, was given the job of looking into all of the scientific research that was happening in the longevity space to understand whether this science was strong, was it solid, was there anything in it, and was it worth pursuing a development program within that company looking at drugs to slow cellular aging? So I had an amazing opportunity where I spent a whole year going through all the science, all the detail, meeting all the key scientists in the field, and deciding, yes. Absolutely. This science is mind blowing. What is going on in this space is is the future. And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, age is our biggest risk factor for everything that we're trying to, you know, cure or treat, with a drug. Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:12:58]:
You know, way bigger risk factor than any of the other things that we're told are bad for us. Mhmm. So this idea that if we could just slow cellular aging just a little bit and reduce the onset of all of these age related diseases, it would be massive. Mhmm. So one of the things during this time of research that really stood out to me was NAD, because that seemed to be something that, first of all, had a huge amount of research already done. That was very, very promising. It was something that seemed to affect not just one of the hallmarks of agent as many areas do, but actually all of them. So as NAD went down, all of the homeworks get worse.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:13:40]:
As NAD goes up, all of them get better. So it was this way of potentially having a huge impact with 1 molecule, which is is quite unusual.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:13:49]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:13:49]:
And then finally, it was actually something that could be, you know, changed using a dietary supplement. It didn't have to be a drug.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:14:00]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:14:00]:
And that was the bit that really stood out to me, was that we had all of this fantastic research, all of this evidence. But if we were gonna wait until we were developing a drug to boost NAD, we're gonna be waiting another 15 years because that's how long it takes to get a drug to market. And then you've got the old problems of, is this accessible to everyone, you know, and things like that. So when we were looking at all the different molecules, a lot of things that worked really, really well were natural molecules, not your typical drug molecules. And, unfortunately, a drugs company is not interested in them because they can't be patented.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:14:36]:
Yep.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:14:36]:
So, commercially, made total sense. Ethically, I was like, actually, somebody needs to be doing something with these more natural molecules. So in 2017, I decided to leave the world of drug development and start a supplement company.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:14:51]:
And how has that path been? Because, obviously, people have heard some people listening to the podcast will have heard about NAD and heard that there's, you know, different forms and some are patches and some are injectables. And why focus on a dietary supplement. And, you know, by the way, for everyone listening, I do take my new cheap one. So we'll talk about that specifically, but I really wanted to share the science, from doctor Nicola Conlon here as well. So why did you decide to focus on the area that you did, and what were some of the compelling reasons that you thought that this would be the most promising route?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:15:27]:
Yeah. So, you know, as as a company, you know, we're very much known as an NAD company, but, actually, a lot of our research is is not only on NAD, but on all the different hallmarks of aging. And we're developing things to look at different hallmarks. But for me, the, you know, the first thing the target was NAD because it's something that has such a profound effect

Claudia von Boeselager [00:15:49]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:15:50]:
On our cellular health because it's found in every single cell. That means that when it goes down, it affects huge amounts of the body and huge amounts of cellular function. And equally when it's increased, it also has a massive benefit across the entire body.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:16:05]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:16:05]:
And, you know, longevity is a very new world for a lot of people. And there were a lot of crazy ideas going on in the longevity space about how we may be able to alter our genes or, you know, do some crazy therapies. And, you know, I don't think the world's quite ready for them, and I don't think the science is quite ready. But this idea that maybe we could do something with a supplement was something that really stood out to me as a way of getting this science accessible, to the everyday person. And there were companies that were already starting to sell ways to boost NAD, you know, supplements, drips, all sorts of different things.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:16:46]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:16:46]:
And when I looked at all of these different options that were already available

Claudia von Boeselager [00:16:51]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:16:52]:
Quite a lot of them don't make scientific sense based on what we know about the reasons why NAD declines and the chemical nature of NAD. A lot of these ways that people were using to boost their NAD didn't really make sense. So what I set out to do was develop something that was based on the latest science and actually did make scientific sense.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:17:15]:
Can you expand on that, why it didn't make sense? I'd love for people listening so that, you know, if they have the opportunity to to, look at NAD a bit closer and and to take supplementation that they know what to look out for. What are some of those factors?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:17:30]:
Yeah. Well, when everyone in the scientific community realized that NAD was something that we wanted to elevate in our bodies, there was a big flurry of activity of how can we do this. And the first obvious choice was, well, let's just put pure NAD in a capsule and swallow it. You know? If we've got something short in the body, just eat it. And, unfortunately, it was realized very early on that that's not a good way because NAD is a very unstable molecule. And so not only will there be no NAD left in the capsule because it just degrades in room temperature, even if there was, it wouldn't get through the gut. Mhmm. So then people started saying, okay.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:18:09]:
Well, if we can't you know, if this NAD doesn't last very long, well, then why don't we do an IV? We can put it in a bag, make it up fresh, put it through an IV drip, or we can inject it, you know, into the muscles or subcutaneous, whatever. Mhmm. And that will avoid this issue of stability. It will avoid the gut, and we'll just get it straight into blood. Mhmm. So a lot of companies are are doing this, but the issue that we have with those types of therapies is that NAD itself is a very large molecule. Mhmm. And that means that it can't actually freely pass into our cells.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:18:47]:
It's too big to just diffuse through the cell membrane.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:18:51]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:18:51]:
And whilst an IV or an injection will get it into the blood or, you know, into the interstitial space

Claudia von Boeselager [00:18:58]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:18:58]:
It it doesn't do anything there. NAD does not do anything in the blood. It needs to be inside of the cells because that's where their mitochondria are that produce our energy. That's where all the pathways and repair processes are. Mhmm. So some cells do have little channels that are big enough to allow NAD to get in, namely the heart cells, some of our neuronal cells. But NAD is required in every single cell in our body. So that means there's a huge amount of our cells that aren't able to access these dNAD if it's given via IV or or via an injection.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:19:34]:
And, also, for anyone that's ever had these, they will tell you how unpleasant it is to have an IV of NAD, and that is because NAD should not be found in that amount in the blood. So your body's massively trying to metabolize it, get rid of it. You know? So that wasn't the best way. So then the next sort of we're going to, like, the history of NAD here. And the next thing that happened

Claudia von Boeselager [00:20:00]:
took, like, the deep dive, though, so people understand. Yeah. Offering and there's noise in the space. So thank you for breaking it down from a scientific perspective.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:20:07]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Because I think a lot of people don't understand. So the next thing that happened was they said, okay. Let's go back to the dietary supplements again. Let's think how we can do this differently. And probably to date, the most famous way of NAD is using an NAD precursor. And if you followed the NAD space, you will have heard of something called NMN or NR.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:20:29]:
And these are basically vitamin b 3 derivatives that are precursors to NAD, and what that means is they are like the building blocks So the raw material that your body will use, to stick together to make the bigger NAD molecule. Mhmm. And these are better because they can be given orally, Mhmm. And it also means that they are small enough to be absorbed and small enough to get into the cells. Not all cells still, but enough. And then once in the cells, your cell has a special pathway called the salvage pathway, which basically makes and recycles these these precursors into the big NAD molecule.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:21:09]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:21:09]:
So that was kind of, the, at the time, the the best way that we thought we could boost NAD. But, obviously, with any area of science, the science is constantly changing, and we're constantly learning new things. Mhmm. And over the last, well, good few years now, probably since 2017 when I started this, all the science started to show that actually the reason why NAD declines in our cells is for two reasons. First of all, because that pathway that actually takes those raw materials, those precursors, and turns them into NAD, that actually declines with age.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:21:48]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:21:48]:
And secondly, inflammation. So inflammation degrades huge amounts of our NAD. Mhmm. So that made me think, and it was like, okay. So if I if we're trying to boost NAD, but we're ignoring the reason why it's going down, it's not gonna be very effective. And I always get people to think of it with, like, a factory analogy. Using something like a precursor, a raw material, is kind of like going into this NAD factory and saying, why has my NAD production gone down? And then looking and seeing that the machines are broken, the pipes are leaking, you know, the stuff's spilling out all over the floor, and then going, we don't need to worry about that. Let's just order some more raw material, and somehow we'll get more NAD out the end.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:22:36]:
Like That's a great analogy. Yeah. Just

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:22:38]:
a second. Do that. You go, oh my goodness. We need to stick to the machine. We need to stop all this stuff leaking out. We need to clean it all up. Mhmm. So that's exactly what I've spent a huge amount of time researching.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:22:53]:
Now I've published several papers on it, talking about all of the root causes of NAD decline in different ways that you can actually combat these to effectively switch back on your cell's own natural NAD production.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:23:08]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:23:08]:
Because your body's very good at making NAD. A lot of a lot of people don't realize we do not get any NAD from our diet. It all is made inside of our cells.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:23:19]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:23:19]:
And it just gets turned down. So all we need to do is turn it back up again.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:23:24]:
Beautiful. So how do we turn it back up again? What do we do,

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:23:28]:
Nicola? Well, this is exactly the for the supplement, you know, the way the supplement that we've designed exactly how it works to target these root causes of any deep decline. But, actually, I think it's important to note that, actually, you know, whilst I have a supplement company, I'm a big advocate of, like, getting the life style and things like that in place first. You know? It's it's pointless. You're spending money on supplements if your lifestyle is terrible.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:23:55]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:23:56]:
Because first of all, NAD is declines naturally with age, but also your lifestyle will will influence that. So anything that's damaging in our bodies, things that we all know about, like, drinking excessive alcohol, smoking, an inflammatory diet, sunburn, these things massively deplete our NAD levels. On the other hand, things that we know are good for us actually increase NAD. So in particular, exercise and fasting. Mhmm.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:24:29]:
Both of those things we know naturally elevate NAD. And the way

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:24:30]:
they do this is, under a state of energy stress

Claudia von Boeselager [00:24:42]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:24:42]:
Where your cells are like, oh my goodness. We don't have any you know, our energy's going down. We don't have any nutrients coming in. We need to go in a sort of conserve and protect mode. Mhmm. And what they do is they say, we need to switch on more NAD production.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:24:59]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:24:59]:
And that pathway that I spoke about, those enzymes, those machines in the factory, they actually naturally are elevated when you do exercise and fasting.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:25:09]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:25:09]:
So there's a particular enzyme called NAMPT, which is the key rate lim limiting enzyme in NAD production in our cells.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:25:17]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:25:17]:
And there are clinical human studies that demonstrate that both exercise and fasting increase levels of this enzyme naturally. So that is always a good place to start.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:25:30]:
And

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:25:30]:
then the second place would be a supplement that has been designed to do this, which is exactly what our supplement has been designed

Claudia von Boeselager [00:25:37]:
to do. Yeah. So exciting. I think that's such a key part. I think there's people out there, you know, if I'm in touch with this, well, like, oh, is there not like a magic molecule? Can I not just take a pill? Right. And it's like the lazy route. And it's at the end of the day, it's like start with lifestyle. I feel like normally, I say start with testing to understand where you are.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:25:55]:
Start with lifestyle, and then look what's missing, what's depleted, and what you can can support from there. And that's where you really get that exponential upgrades, depending on what your baseline is as well and starting to feel better too. You mentioned fasting, Nichola, and I'd like to just touch on this point because there was a point where I was like, oh, fasting's amazing. Gotta do intermittent fasting, longer periods of time. And then I realized that, you know, sometimes I would feel great and energized and mental clarity. And other times I'm, like, beyond exhausted or whatever, and it was, not really supporting the energy levels and and how I was feeling to do. So can you discuss, you know, fasting for women and what are you seeing in terms of also the research? Maybe you can share a bit about that, as well that might might not be for everybody, or what type of fasting would you recommend for women versus men? Let's say.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:26:43]:
Yeah. So we know, a lot of the clinical studies have always focused on men, and, clearly, we are very different to men. And now, luckily, there is more research coming out showing that maybe some types of fasting, you know, especially the more prolonged fasting is not good for women, just because of our biology. Now when I talk about fasting, I I I don't really say it's gotta be a specific number of hours or it's gotta be this or it's gotta be that because everyone is biologically unique even between different women. Yeah. But when it comes to to something like NAD Mhmm. What we know is that it's it's just trying to get away from our modern lifestyle as much as possible. Okay? Because I always get everyone to think about aging through the eyes of evolution.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:27:34]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:27:35]:
So the way our bodies have evolved is not for the lifestyles that we're living today. Mhmm. Our body has evolved, you know, still for how our ancestors were living, this idea that we were having to forage, hunt for food. Mhmm. Our our life purpose was actually to reproduce, and everything in our bodies in terms of our cellular biology only makes sense when you view it through these eyes.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:28:00]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:28:00]:
So everything in our bodies is geared towards either survive or reproduce.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:28:06]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:28:07]:
And when you look at a lot of

Claudia von Boeselager [00:28:09]:
the beneficial pathways in our cells, so things that actually keep our

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:28:09]:
cells in good health, DNA repair, autophagy, which recycles damaged proteins, things that reduce inflammation. These pathways are all sitting in our bodies, but they don't get switched on unless there's a a threat, shall we say, a threat that we're not gonna survive to reproduce. And this this, fasting is considered a threat. It's telling our bodies, okay. There's no food coming in. Actually, we're gonna have to, you know, be not be wasteful and actually repair things and look after these cells until our next meal comes in.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:28:49]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:28:50]:
So when we're going for an extended period, and this can be as little as, you know, 12 hours. So that's not a great deal if you think if you just have your your last meal at 7 PM and don't have any breakfast till 7 AM.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:29:03]:
That's

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:29:03]:
done. Overnight fasting, essentially. It's nothing crazy, but, unfortunately, you know, as a society, we are now told that, oh my goodness, we can't possibly leave the house without having our breakfast cereal. And we have to have supper

Claudia von Boeselager [00:29:17]:
and pack,

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:29:17]:
and, you know, you must eat every 2 hours. And because of that, our bodies just are like, oh, this is great. You know, we can be wasteful. We don't need to repair anything. Even though these pathways are all sitting there waiting to be switched on, they just don't. So, yes, I think people have to be careful with fasting. You know, I think there has been a a bit of a a thing in the past where everyone's just like, the longer the better and 3 day fast and water only and, you know, 1 meal a day. And I don't think it needs to be as complicated as that.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:29:50]:
I just think we need to be mindful that we shouldn't be constantly snacking

Claudia von Boeselager [00:29:54]:
all the

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:29:54]:
time as well.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:29:55]:
Yeah. I've I've had doctor Sachin Pandan as well who's runs circadian rhythm rhythms, etcetera, and a a few other also. And I think the the baseline consensus, what I've gauged and we're at a podcast episode, a 100 and 63 or 64, whatever it is now. Right? So from different experts and things is that that minimum of 12 hours overnight. Yeah. And then ideally, 2 to 3 hours. Ideally, 3 hours before bedtime, you stop eating so that you can digest and then allow that repair, to happen overnight while you are resting as well. So I think that's, like, what I've gauged so far as the consensus of, like, the minimum, that that humans can do, men, women, or whoever alike.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:30:35]:
Right? So yeah. Mhmm. Thank you for expanding on that. Yeah. I'd love to discuss your clinical research and the trials that you've done and the results. Can you walk us through, some of the maybe surprises in terms of what didn't work and then what actually came about that the successes, if you will, as well?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:30:55]:
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, when I left drug development to start a supplement company, everyone thought I was crazy. They were like, you know, why on earth would you give up your career and all the training and everything you've done to start a supplement company, and supplements don't work, and there's snake oil, and da da da da da. Mhmm. And I was like, hang on a minute. Your body has no idea what is the difference between a drug, a nutrient, a supplement, a mineral. Like, they all have an equally powerful physiological effect.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:31:27]:
Yeah. It's just someone's put them on a different list, in which as a society, we're trained to think, well, it's not as strong enough. It's not it doesn't work. So from the very outset, I was very passionate about whatever we did, that it was gonna have a full clinical trial done on it.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:31:42]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:31:43]:
And that's unusual for supplements because there's no legal requirement to do that. And Yeah. Because of the time and the expense, many companies just simply don't bother. Mhmm. So when we were developing and formulating the product, we did a this is all a pilot study. Mhmm. And then we went on to do a full double blind placebo controlled crossover study, which as far as clinical trials go is the gold standard design. Yes.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:32:10]:
And we, also wanted to do a few other things differently. First of all, we wanted to include women in this trial. Oh, never. So, actually, we have both men and women. Mhmm. And the second thing was we wanted to include a very broad age range. Because if you look at any of the papers that were investigating, well, pretty much anything to do with aging, but in particular, NAD boosting methods like NR or NMN. They were all using 55 to 65 year old obese men, simply because that is a cohort where you're gonna get a result.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:32:50]:
Yeah. We know obesity massively drives down NAD. We know by, you know, in a man by 55 to 65, they should have low NAD anyway. So on top of the obesity, you know, it's probably gonna boost it. Mhmm. So we did, actually age 20 to 80 Mhmm. And men and women. So it was a bit of a risk because, you know, technically, someone in the twenties or thirties is already gonna have fairly high NAD.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:33:18]:
You know, NAD production method should be working still okay.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:33:22]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:33:22]:
We might not see as strong as a re of a result.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:33:25]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:33:26]:
But, again, we were like, this actually needs to be relevant to the average population and also the average population that is a consumer who could potentially benefit from this. So we set up that trial. And the first thing we obviously wanted to look at was, did

Claudia von Boeselager [00:33:44]:
it

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:33:44]:
boost NAD? Yeah. And it did. Thank goodness. Goodness. And, you know, very, again, very exciting that we we managed to see this result across all age ranges. Mhmm. And, you know, we to begin with, we thought, well, maybe we see a bigger effect in the older people than the younger people, but actually we saw there was no correlation between age. All of these people were benefiting from Elevate and NAD, and I think that is due to the fact, as we mentioned earlier, that NAD is already halved by the time you're 20.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:34:16]:
So you you know, even at the younger ages, you've already got a significant depletion. But

Claudia von Boeselager [00:34:21]:
Can I ask one quick question, Nicola, just for my understanding? So you said across the board, the levels were elevated. But does that mean across the board from the 20 year old to the 80 year old, they were elevated? Everyone had a 10% increase because I assume that the base line pre supplementation was varied, I assume. Right?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:34:38]:
So Yeah.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:34:39]:
Was it everyone has a 10%, 20% increase, or can can you just break down just so for my understanding of the science, like, what what came about?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:34:46]:
Yeah. So this was an average increase across the entire population. So, obviously, some of the study, which was 28 people, by the way. So, obviously, some people had had bigger increases up to I can't remember the exact numbers. Some people had up to 200% increase. Some people had smaller increases. This was the average across all of them. But what we were surprised by was we really expected

Claudia von Boeselager [00:35:09]:
that

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:35:09]:
it was the older people that would have the biggest increases and the younger people that would be the smallest, but there was no correlation. It was actually quite varied, and we think, again, this is because even the younger people, some of them could have been quite depleted. You know, some of the younger people had quite low baselines, which was surprising. Again, shows the impact of lifestyle on NAD as well. And certainly whenever I do a talk on NAD and I show the you know, I always show a graph saying NAD declines with age, I don't show this smooth graph. I show this funny graph that goes like a mountain range, and I always say the reason I show this graph is because, yes, it declines with age, but your lifestyle will have a massive impact on this. Mhmm. So it's important to understand that.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:35:58]:
So so that was the the NAD measurement. But I guess the more exciting bit for us was Mhmm. We actually have designed this supplement not just to boost NAD by giving the factory raw more more raw material. We had designed this supplement with ingredients that were gonna fix the factory. So ingredients that we're gonna switch back on, that n AMPT enzyme, that key enzyme in our salvage pathway that declines with age. So we actually measured the levels of this enzyme, on the placebo before and after and on the real thing before and after and demonstrated that with, supplementation with Neutito time plus, we actually elevated levels of this key enzyme. And this is the first human study that's demonstrated that a supplement can actually fix the root cause of NAD decline rather than just mask it by trying to, you know, top up with a precursor. So for us, that was really exciting because it not only showed, yes, we're elevating NAD, but, actually, this is actually how it's working.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:37:02]:
We actually know we're fixing one of the the root problems. And then the other things we went on to measure were much more what is, you know, biomarkers of aging. So, yes, we're elevating NAD. Yes.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:37:15]:
We're switching back on your cell's natural production, but what is this

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:37:15]:
actually doing to our back on your cells' natural production, but what is this actually doing

Claudia von Boeselager [00:37:18]:
to our cellular health? What is it doing

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:37:18]:
to the hallmarks of aging? So the next thing that was measured was, something called SIRT 1, which is a Sertuen. And anyone, again, following the longevity space has probably heard of the Sertuens. They're a very controversial area. But generally

Claudia von Boeselager [00:37:39]:
for those exactly that. Might be

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:37:41]:
a Yeah. Mhmm. But but generally, what we know is that the the sirtuins are they're they're commonly nicknamed longevity proteins, and this is because they basically sit at the very top of a cascade in your cells, which when the sirtuins are active, switch on lots of downstream pathways that are beneficial for cellular health. So multiple things that reduce inflammation, that's kick start repair, that's, you you know, just generally good things to have switched on. Mhmm. And certainly in long lived, animals and humans, it seems that overexpression of these these, proteins promotes longevity. So, again, we know that the link between the sirtuins and NAD is that NAD is absolutely required to power these sirtuins as a fuel. So without NAD, the sirtuins do not work.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:38:34]:
So Yeah. We actually looked at levels of sirt 1, which is one of the family, And, again, saw that levels of this, this protein increased.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:38:43]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:38:43]:
So that was again exciting. And then it was okay. So we've got all the enzymes, the proteins. What about some clinical markers?

Claudia von Boeselager [00:38:51]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:38:52]:
So one thing that we really wanted to look at was inflammation. Because we know a key limitation of some current NAD booster methods, particularly NMN, is that it can actually inadvertently drive inflammation.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:39:07]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:39:08]:
And this is an area that a lot of people really don't understand. It's something that I talk about a lot because I think it's hidden

Claudia von Boeselager [00:39:15]:
Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:39:15]:
By a lot of researchers and scientists. But, effectively, if you boost NAD in a cell but you've got chronic low grade inflammation Mhmm. Some of these inflammatory processes also use NAD as a fuel. Mhmm. So they start to compete with our repair for the NAD fuel. But the interesting thing is that these inflammatory processes have what we call a much higher affinity for NAD than the repair processes. And all that means in simple terms is if NAD is available in the cell, the inflammatory processes will grab it and take it before the repair process even get a look in.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:39:54]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:39:54]:
And this is why there's actually been a lot of papers coming out recently going, oh, NMN is driving inflammation, and NMN is, you know, causing this issue. And this is why. So what we have in our product as well is some ingredients in there that actually inhibit these inflammatory processes.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:40:12]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:40:12]:
So, again, what we did was we we measured levels of inflammation in these people.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:40:18]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:40:18]:
And we demonstrated that after 28 days supplementation, levels of of particular inflammatory cytokines actually went down.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:40:26]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:40:26]:
So for us, it shows we're confident that this NAD is going towards beneficial things rather than going towards driving inflammation. Otherwise, we would have expected to to have seen that go up.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:40:38]:
So exciting, Nick. I love how thorough you are too. And it's like, oh, there's a potential issue here. Okay. We're gonna solve that too. Yeah. And we'll solve. Yeah.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:40:47]:
Really, really, fascinating. So I I don't know. Did you wanna continue on something there? Or or Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:40:52]:
I guess I guess that we there was a lot of things. And, I mean, this paper is published. You know? Anyone could go on online and find this paper.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:41:00]:
We'll link it in the show notes. Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:41:02]:
Yeah. Then read the whole study. Yeah. But I guess the most exciting bit was we also measured biological age. Mhmm. Yep. We measured your biological age, which is the the rate at which your cells are aging on the inside. Using which

Claudia von Boeselager [00:41:16]:
test? Maybe you can just expand on that because there's different

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:41:19]:
So for this test, we actually use a test called GlycanAge.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:41:22]:
Mhmm. And and the podcast for a while will be familiar. They know Nicklin. They know mine is my age has decreased to 26 years old. So now let's see where we get to. Perfect.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:41:31]:
Yeah. Well, I I love GlycanAge. I think it's a very, very credible test. Amazing science.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:41:36]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:41:37]:
And it was the GlyconAge test that we used, on all of the participants. Mhmm. And when they took the placebo, you know, didn't see any change to age. It went up slightly, actually. Mhmm. And then, using the supplement, we saw a reversal of biological age of 1.26 years in the Wow. So You've put had done a test over a longer period of time?

Claudia von Boeselager [00:41:59]:
I wonder what were you left for 6 months?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:42:01]:
Is something yeah. That is something we wanna do. So, you know, we we're we do I mean, just myself and and people that I know that have been taking it for for much longer. Mhmm. We know I mean, my biological age is 20. Amazing. I'm 37. Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:42:18]:
So I've, you know, I've been taking it for the longest person in the world. Exactly.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:42:24]:
So be 5 years old soon. Yeah. Since we're making it up in the lab. I know. Okay.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:42:31]:
But, yeah, no. We do wanna do some longer term testing as well on that because it's just simply because it's it's super interesting. Mhmm. But, again, it's a way of actually demonstrating that this is having a real impact on the biological age within the cells. It's reversed in cellular agents. So, again, we're really proud that, you know, we've managed to develop something that has great science, has good testing, and actually does what we want it to be doing in the cells.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:42:56]:
Yeah. That's really, really exciting. And I think that we are at such a phenomenal time in terms of the science being there to prove, different modalities and theories as well, and that you have the facts. And I know some people like, oh, it's all snake oil or not, but it's like, read the research papers.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:43:14]:
Yeah.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:43:14]:
Check how the clinical trial was actually done and who's funding it, by the way. Yeah. Big big important factor is at pharma. Yeah. And, you know, how it's done and double and placebo, etcetera, like you did it, like the gold standard. Mhmm. And it's just really, really exciting there. So, yeah, we will definitely link all that research, in in the show notes.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:43:34]:
And and, Nick, like I said, I'd love to ask you as well. You know, is there a profile of person that NAD is not for supplementation now specifically? Are there any risk factors?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:43:47]:
Yeah. So I I always say for NAD, because it's not something that we are artificially adding like a drug where there's, like, a contraindication, Our bodies are used to naturally having high levels of NAD. Mhmm. So people say to me, well, you know, can your NAD go too high? Like, it's actually quite difficult to get it back to the levels that we had when we were young even through methods such as this. So there's no risk of it going too high again. It's actually more abnormal for your body to have low NAD than it is to have too high NAD. So NAD itself is something that is is this, you know, there's no contraindication because we naturally have high levels when we're young.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:44:27]:
What

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:44:28]:
I would say is if anyone's gonna start taking a dietary supplement, particularly something like AZ that has lots of different ingredients in and they have a specific condition where they are taking drugs, to deal with that, they would wanna check with their doctor for any interactions, or anything like that. Obviously, I I can't go through every single individual drug, but, you know, we all say just check double check with the doctor before you start taking any supplements. Yeah. But, yeah, in terms of NAD itself, again, not something that you artificially add in. Your body's used to having naturally high levels as well. Mhmm. And we know that NAD is incredibly beneficial for driving a lot of beneficial processes in the cells, but causes havoc when you don't have it at the same time.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:45:17]:
Yeah. So potentially and, obviously, with the huge disclaimer, speak with your medical professional. But then it's almost if you're taking the there's no issue with it. You potentially could get off of the medication if you're able to your body in that treat to to heal certain processes. Obviously, huge disclaimer there and speak to your medical professional, but I think it's important to retest. Where I do hear from some clients, as well is that they like, yeah. I checked with my doctor, but they have no clue what this is. Like, they don't understand.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:45:44]:
Yeah. So they're just like, better not. So what would be how could people become a a bit more educated about what it is so they can have a better conversation with their doctor and potentially share those links and that information, with their medical professional.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:46:01]:
Yeah. Un unfortunately, it's a huge issue. You know? The the medical medical doctors are, I'd say, around 15 years behind what the science actually shows, and it's, you know, it's not their fault. You know? They you know, they're great in emergencies and things like that, but in anything preventative, generally, certainly in the UK, it's nonexistent. Mhmm. And, you know, I I do know people that even taking research papers, etcetera, etcetera, to the doctor will still go, we don't have time for this. We're you know, we're not gonna read it. Functional medicine doctors, very, very different.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:46:36]:
You know? Somebody that is actually actually trained in preventative medicine will absolutely understand what NAD is

Claudia von Boeselager [00:46:43]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:46:44]:
And, you know, why it's beneficial.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:46:47]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:46:47]:
And, you know, so maybe in if you can even have a a consultation with somebody that is more on the functional side, especially if you're concerned about preventative health. Mhmm. And as you said earlier, I think testing is you know, pretesting and things like that is is very, very important. Mhmm. A key thing to mention, though, actually, is that, I always get asked, can people do, like, at home blood tests for any test and NAD? Mhmm. The answer is no. Mhmm. NAD is very unstable, and that means that you can't take a, you know, blood sample and put it in the post or drops of blood on a card and send it away like you can with the glycan h test Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:47:29]:
And because the NAD just degrades. There are a lot of companies out there that say they can test it. And I spoke to all of them and said, you need to explain how you get around this stability issue

Claudia von Boeselager [00:47:42]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:47:42]:
And none of them can answer it.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:47:44]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:47:44]:
And so I'm not confident that any of the companies out there are offering something that's reliable Mhmm. Just from, you know, being a scientist working in the lab and physically testing NAD myself.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:47:56]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:47:57]:
I know that if you leave a sample of blood out on the lab bench within 30 minutes, the NAD is gone.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:48:02]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:48:03]:
That's how how much of a how unstable it is. So yeah.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:48:08]:
Nicola, can you share what are the test slash biomarkers that somebody should request or could request from their health care professional to be looking at. Right? So just maybe to share that so they have the vocabulary, they have the right names. Could you go off the list of, like, what are the the those biomarkers and and and the test the labs that they should be

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:48:28]:
looking for? I mean, for for us, I think it's we we prefer to advocate using the biological age test.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:48:38]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:48:39]:
You know, I will talk all the time about actually looking at measuring glycan age. Mhmm. Because we know that, obviously, is a reflection of levels of inflammation in your body, but also general cellular health.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:48:50]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:48:50]:
So in in terms of if the person is is trying to increase their cellular health, increase their health span, definitely something like the biological age test.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:49:00]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:49:00]:
If you did wanna go to your doctor, you know, they wouldn't have a clue what a biological age test was, and would probably look at you very strangely. But if you wanted something, you know, more available from a doctor if they take requests, you'd be looking at something inflammatory like CRP. Mhmm. Again, because we know the link between NAD and inflammation is there. We also know the link between inflammation and aging is huge, so much that we call we call inflammaging

Claudia von Boeselager [00:49:30]:
Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:49:30]:
In our space. Mhmm. So I think those tests are important.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:49:34]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:49:36]:
Just generally, though, when we're talking about supplements, a lot of people will ask me, what supplements do I take?

Claudia von Boeselager [00:49:42]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:49:42]:
And I always say, it doesn't matter what I take. It matters what your body needs. So, you know, general testing, because so many people are taking, you know, huge doses of vitamin d and b 12 and vitamin d and this and that. And, actually, not everyone needs everything.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:49:58]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:49:59]:
Or you may need some things more than others. A lot of the the the common vitamins, minerals, things like that that you can test for, your biology will affect how you absorb them and things like that, so they can be very different between different people. So I always say that if you're gonna invest in supplements, do some basic blood testing to work out what you need. Mhmm. One exception, though, and this obviously sounds super biased, but is NAD? Because we know that in every single person Mhmm. Male, female, and every single animal, and every single species that has been studied

Claudia von Boeselager [00:50:34]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:50:34]:
It declines with age.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:50:35]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:50:36]:
So it's kind of like one of those things where if you can't afford everything, it's like a safe bet. Mhmm. Because not only do we know it declines in everyone, but also it's in every cell, and it's absolutely critical for cellular health. So it's kind of one thing that you can get a a lot of a big result from just one thing.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:50:53]:
Mhmm. And I'd also like to ask you about the dosage. Right? So it says, it you recommend to have 3 in the morning and then 3 at least certain amount of hours. I think it's 4 hours before bedtime. Why is that? Why the split? So

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:51:09]:
first of all, it the 6 capsules daily, everyone goes,

Claudia von Boeselager [00:51:13]:
oh my goodness. Six capsules. That's so it's it's such a huge amount. Supplements, so I'm like, oh, this is okay. Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:51:19]:
Some people are fine, but quite a lot of people, are like, oh my goodness. That's a lot. And Yeah. You know, because a lot of people are used to getting a supplement, and it's saying, oh, take 1 or 2 pills a day. Mhmm. And, actually, if you look at a lot of supplements, the the amount that is in this dosage that they give is so low compared to the amount that's actually needed to have the effect. Mhmm. Because a lot is lost in the gut.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:51:40]:
A lot is lost in metabolism, things like that.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:51:43]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:51:43]:
When we develop this, we were like, we wanna make sure there's enough of all the active ingredients in there to actually be bioavailable. Mhmm. So my my PhD is actually in bioavailability of nutrients and drugs, which is why I'm so particular about it being right. Mhmm. And and that was the amount. So there's no fillers. There's no nothing in there. That was the amount that was actually needed to have the effect, and we know that actually works.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:52:07]:
Mhmm. So hence, 6 capsules. We split it into 3 and 3, because it can help people get over that and and and split them up and take them. The reality is you can take all 6 in one go if you want to. Mhmm. We say not 4 hours before bedtime just because one of the ingredients that we do use in there is, is green tea extract. And the reason we use a green tea extract is because we're interested in a very particular molecule in it called EGCG, which is essentially fixes part of the pathway in the cell that is broken and causes some methylation issues with NAD. And, some green tea extracts can have natural caffeine in them, and this is a very, very small amount.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:52:56]:
We're talking 1 milligram per capsule, which compared to a cup of coffee, which has around a 100 milligrams

Claudia von Boeselager [00:53:03]:
Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:53:03]:
Is so tiny. But just in case anyone is super sensitive to caffeine, we we kind of have to state that. Mhmm. But actually we're working on some reformulations where we we're gonna have a vision that doesn't even have a milligram of caffeine in, so that will not be an issue any longer.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:53:21]:
Mhmm. Super exciting. What's your vision for the next year, 2 years out with Nocido and and the supplementation that you're doing, Nicola?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:53:28]:
So our vision is looking at, you know, when it comes to aging, I always say NAD is not gonna fix everything. I think, you know, this it's always gonna be a multi targeted approach, look at all those different hallmarks of aging. Mhmm. We're really interested in an area called senescence.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:53:43]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:53:44]:
So senescence cells are these zombie cells that have become damaged. They go to sleep, but they don't sleep quietly because they secrete a lot of inflammation, and we we know how bad inflammation is.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:53:56]:
Yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:53:56]:
So we're actually doing a lot of research, in in collaboration with a few different universities looking at different molecules that could potentially get rid of some of these troublesome cells out our bodies.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:54:08]:
Beautiful. Yes. And in general, what is exciting you about the future of longevity and health, Nicola? What are you seeing, and, what's, giving you a spring in your step?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:54:19]:
I I just think this is such an exciting time to be involved in anything to do with aging. You know, anything, whether that's a scientist, whether that's, you know, someone researching it, talking about it, practicing it, doctor, anything like that, because the science that's come through certainly over the last decade is gonna completely rewrite the way we think about aging in the future. Mhmm. It is it is gonna completely revolutionize it. And the exciting bit for me is this is something that I have banged on about for years years years and got very strange looks. But now everyone's like, oh, yeah. I've been reading this book on longevity, or I listen to a podcast. And yeah.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:54:59]:
And and I'm like, yes. This is what I've been talking about for a

Claudia von Boeselager [00:55:03]:
long time. Look crazy. I swear. Hey. Talk and do this.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:55:06]:
You know, but now everyone is generally like, okay. This is a thing. And, like, you know, the average person is now getting interested in it. Yeah. And that is great because that's only gonna help push forward the research and help get some of this this beneficial science out to actually benefit people, which is what we all want to do.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:55:24]:
Yes. Exactly. I believe so too. Where can people follow, you, Nicola, what you're up to, what you're doing, where would you send them, and about Nuchido, obviously, as well. Where would you like them to, to check you out?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:55:38]:
Yeah. So for me, personally, I talk not just about NAD, but everything to do with aging. Okay. And I I do a lot of my content on Instagram.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:55:47]:
Mhmm.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:55:48]:
So my Instagram handle is just doctor Nicola Conlon, just my name. Mhmm. And, for Nichido, you can go to our website, which is ww.nuchido.com, or you can go to our Instagram, which is just nuchido. So I should probably say it's spelled nuchid0. Mhmm. It's actually loosely translated from Japanese, a path to long life based on the saying from Okinawa, one of the famous blue zones Mhmm. Where people live to great age in good health,

Claudia von Boeselager [00:56:19]:
Uh-huh. Which is

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:56:19]:
where the name

Claudia von Boeselager [00:56:20]:
come from. Great thing. Well done. Yeah. Beautiful. We'll link everything in the show notes as well. Nicola, do you have a final ask or recommendation or any parting thoughts or message for my audience today?

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:56:33]:
I think, as as I just mentioned, this is really an exciting time, and just try and learn as much as as you can. Mhmm. Because, unfortunately, still, it's not advice we're gonna get from our doctors or, you know, government policy or anything like that, but it's there. So keep listening to podcasts like this. Read books. Learn, because it will just help you get ahead of the curve. So when everyone else suddenly is like, oh, this is a thing.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:56:57]:
Exactly as well. Thank you everyone so much for joining us today, and, Nicola, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show.

Dr. Nichola Conlon [00:57:03]:
You're very welcome. Thank you, Claudia.