Starting My NAD Journey
Nobody likes getting shots.
Unless you’re Drago from Rocky IV, I suppose.
I’m definitely not. Whenever a needle comes out, I turn my head and look the other way. I don’t need to watch it enter my skin. To be fair, shots have never caused me much pain. During COVID, I got my vaccines like a good boy, I guess. I can handle needles when I need to. I’ve just always preferred to keep the number of times someone sticks me with one as low as possible.
Today, I’m at Soft Touch Med Spa with my sister, Yulia.
We’ve had plenty of conversations about GLP-1s, peptides, and the other treatments that have become extremely popular. Our clients and patients ask us about them regularly. Still, both Yulia and I tend to be skeptical whenever something becomes the newest answer to the “make me skinny, RIGHT NOW” problem.
I’ve never been someone who believes fat can simply disappear because you found the latest trend. At some point, your body still has to deal with stored fat through its normal metabolic processes. There is no magic melody you can sing to it and no mental force from God that makes it vanish.
Sometimes the truth is less attractive than the beautiful story.
Sorry!
When we opened the spa, Yulia positioned our IV drip towers beside the massage chairs. IV therapy is popular, but I quickly noticed one practical problem: many of our clients simply don’t have an hour available to sit in a chair with an IV attached to their arm or wrist.
Then I learned that some of the same supplements could also be administered by injection in only a few minutes.
Now that caught my attention.
What NAD+ and B12 Actually Are and Why I Started
Before trying anything, I spent plenty of time debating the advantages and disadvantages of IV therapy versus injections with Emily, our registered nurse.
There are similarities between the two approaches. Both are methods of administering nutrients without relying on the digestive process, and both can produce noticeable reactions in the body, whether positive or uncomfortable.
One major difference is the amount that can be administered. An IV infusion can deliver a larger volume gradually over time, while an injection is limited by the amount that can safely and comfortably fit into a syringe and be administered into the body.
Sorry for getting slightly technical, but I want you, the reader and potential client or patient, to understand how I actually arrived at the decision to try these injections.
As I started learning about NAD+, I discovered that NAD is a compound naturally found in the human body and that its levels change as we age.
Naturally, this got me thinking about being young.
Remember being a kid and somehow having enough energy to stay awake until 2:00 in the morning, get up at 6:45 AM, eat breakfast, jump on your bike, and still race to school early enough to talk with your friends?
That was me.
We had Mount Everest-sized energy. The Energizer Bunny would have looked lazy next to us. Give twelve-year-old me a little more momentum and I probably could have launched into orbit beside a SpaceX rocket.
And then there was puberty.
My voice changed.
There were some embarrassing situations involving pants.
We will not be discussing those.
At 49, however, I was much more interested in whether adding NAD+ to my routine might make any noticeable difference in how I felt.
The way the regimen was explained to me, this was not something I should expect to notice immediately. It could take repeated doses over several weeks before I personally noticed much of anything.
That was important because, as someone who has spent years in marketing and sales, I knew that NAD+ was going to be difficult to talk about if the entire pitch was basically:
“Hey, trust me.”
That’s when I called Yulia and told her I thought the better approach for us was NAD+ and B12.
Vitamin B12 plays important roles in the body, including normal energy metabolism. I was already familiar with B12 and had experienced the way I personally felt after receiving it.
My thinking was simple: the B12 might give me something I could notice sooner, while I could give the NAD+ more time and see whether anything else changed over the following weeks.
That combination made more sense to me.
One more thing before I continue: I never went into this expecting NAD+ to turn me into a superhero.
It is already a naturally occurring compound in the body. For me, the point of trying the regimen was to see whether supplementation produced any noticeable changes in my energy, mental clarity, digestion, or general well-being.
So if you already added a red cape to your Amazon cart, maybe leave it there for now.
Weeks 1–3: The Skeptic Phase and One Small Victory
I need to be completely honest.
Before all of this, I had never even heard of NAD+.
My original expectation was that I was about to waste both my time and a considerable amount of money. NAD+ products purchased by clinics and med spas are not exactly cheap.
Week one?
Nothing.
Week two?
Still nothing.
At least, nothing I could clearly attribute to the NAD+.
I was frustrated.
I started thinking I had somehow allowed myself to be talked into buying bottles of NAD+ for the clinic with no realistic way of getting that money back.
Of course, I was also receiving B12 injections.
I already knew what B12 felt like for me. In my experience, I would usually notice more energy for roughly four to six days. Because I was taking NAD+ and B12 together, any additional energy was difficult for me to separate between the two.
What I was waiting for was something different.
Something beyond energy.
During the first two weeks, I didn’t notice it.
Damn.
Then came week three.
And suddenly, things became interesting.
It happened around one of our Tox Parties. On Tuesday, we held one of our special Tox events where we scheduled multiple patients for neurotoxin treatments at a special per-unit price. I’ll explain more about our Tox Parties in another blog.
The following day, our team was talking about everyone who had attended.
And suddenly, I became Sherlock Holmes.
I wasn’t simply remembering names and faces. I could recall what individual patients had been wearing. I remembered details from their appointments, including the number of neurotoxin units we had recommended and approximately what time they had arrived.
I’ve always considered myself someone with a good memory.
This felt different.
Information seemed easier to retrieve. I wasn’t digging around in my brain trying to remember things. The details simply came back to me.
That was the first moment I thought:
Wait a minute. Is this the NAD+?
For me, this was the first noticeable change that wasn’t simply about feeling more energetic. I felt mentally clearer and less bothered by the type of brain fog I had become accustomed to.
At that point, I was officially ready to become a contestant on Jeopardy!
I would still lose shamefully, of course.
But I’d remember it clearly.
Weeks 4–5: The Turn
Weeks four and five brought another change, and this one got my attention very quickly.
As I’ve gotten deeper into my late forties, with my 50th birthday coming this February, I’ve started dealing with some of those annoying things many men begin noticing around this age.
One of them was interrupted sleep.
I would wake up during the night needing to use the bathroom.
And what made those bathroom trips even more irritating?
A slow stream.
Sorry for the visual.
During weeks four and five, though, I started having nights when I slept straight through without getting up.
Not every single night.
But most nights.
The first time it happened, I noticed immediately the next morning.
For a 49-year-old man who had gotten used to interrupted sleep, this felt worthy of celebration.
Naturally, my idea of celebrating involves Chuck E. Cheese and several questionable decisions.
Yeah, boy!
For me, getting more uninterrupted sleep was one of the biggest improvements I had experienced up to that point. I woke up feeling less groggy and less like I had spent the night repeatedly restarting my sleep cycle.
Better sleep also seemed to coincide with improvements in how I felt overall, including my digestion and general sense of recovery.
At that point, my skepticism was starting to weaken.
Weeks 6–8: The New Normal
Weeks six through eight were when the changes I had been noticing began to feel less unusual and more like part of my regular routine.
And I’m happy to report that the slow bathroom stream I mentioned earlier was no longer feeling so slow.
Again, apologies to the ladies reading this.
It reminded me much more of what I remembered from when I was younger. A bathroom break became closer to a 30-second interruption instead of something that felt like it took three or four minutes.
I also noticed that I seemed to settle down more quickly when I wanted to rest.
My heart rate felt like it came down more easily when I sat or laid down instead of making me feel as though I had to wait for my body to catch up with the fact that I was trying to relax.
By this point, you could fairly call me a believer.
Based on my own experience, I felt better while NAD+ was part of my routine.
And there was another major advantage.
The injections were quick.
Emily could administer my NAD+ and B12 in roughly four or five minutes.
Done.
Much easier for me than sitting beside an IV tower for an hour.
At this stage of my experiment, part of me wanted to shout:
“Everyone should do this!”
Of course, my experience is exactly that: my experience. What I noticed personally isn’t a guarantee of what someone else will experience.
The Removal: Going Cold Turkey
Now we arrive at the betrayal.
Emily, our registered nurse and the person who had been helping me through this entire NAD+ experiment, suddenly had the nerve, the absolute audacity, to take a vacation.
For almost two weeks.
TWO WEEKS!
Apparently, she wanted to see her family on the East Coast.
Bah humbug!
I’m kidding, Emily.
Mostly.
But her vacation meant my NAD+ and B12 routine stopped for about two weeks.
I don’t want to exaggerate what happened next.
It wasn’t as though the NAD+ disappeared from my routine and I immediately shriveled into the old woman from Snow White, wandering around with a red apple looking for the fairest woman in the land.
The changes were much more subtle than that.
After roughly one week without my normal regimen, the first thing I noticed was my energy.
It dropped.
That caught my attention.
I also felt like getting my heart rate to settle when I rested wasn’t happening quite as easily as it had while I was following the routine.
I’m not claiming that NAD+ gave me complete control over my resting heart rate. I certainly wouldn’t expect that.
But during the weeks I was taking it, I personally felt as though my body settled into rest a little more easily.
Without it, I noticed the difference.
Emily has now returned, which means I can restart my NAD+ regimen.
More importantly, I’ve begun developing a perfectly reasonable plan to move her entire family to Roseville so I never have to hear the word “vacation” again.
NO VACATIONS, EMILY!
Seriously, though, she has a wonderful family, a great husband, and amazing kids. She should absolutely travel with them whenever she gets the chance.
Everybody loves Emily.
C’mon.
A Word of Caution: This Is Not a “More Is Better” Situation
I’ve had some clients and patients tell me they don’t need our NAD+ and B12 regimen because they know a “guy” who can get them NAD+ at doses as high as 500 mg.
That is exactly where I think people need to slow down.
My experience with NAD+ has taught me the opposite lesson.
I didn’t chase the highest number possible. I followed a gradual regimen and paid attention to how I felt over several weeks.
The changes I personally noticed appeared little by little.
That’s why I don’t believe this should become a competition over who can take the largest dose.
For our regimen, I received a supervised 100 mg NAD+ injection.
Taking more does not automatically mean experiencing better results, and higher amounts may also increase the chance of unpleasant reactions such as nausea, flushing, or cramping.
If you are considering NAD+ or thinking about taking an amount above what has been recommended for you, speak with a licensed medical provider first.
This is something I believe should be approached sensibly and under proper medical supervision.
Why I’m Going Back on NAD+
I know many of our clients and patients share my skepticism when something in health and wellness suddenly becomes popular.
I understand it.
Trends come and go. Some fail to live up to expectations, and people can get hurt when hype gets ahead of responsible care.
That was one reason I approached NAD+ with so much skepticism in the first place.
But after going through this experiment myself, I became much more interested in continuing it.
I’ve also had the chance to get to know many of the wonderful clients and patients who support Soft Touch Med Spa. Yulia and I have become genuinely close with many of you.
You matter to us.
Our business only exists because people in our community choose to trust us with their treatments and services.
Based on my own experience, I’ve become a believer in NAD+, and I’m going to continue sharing what happens as I keep using it.
That doesn’t mean my results will automatically become your results.
It means I’m willing to be the guinea pig.
I’m happy to try these treatments, pay attention to what happens, and report my experience as openly as possible.
More than anything, I want Soft Touch Med Spa to give people options they can discuss with qualified medical professionals and decide whether those options make sense for their own goals.
To me, a successful business isn’t measured only by the profit it produces.
It’s also measured by how important that business becomes to the people it serves.
Disclaimer
The information in this post is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and reflects the personal experience and opinions of the author. It is not medical advice and is not a substitute for professional diagnosis, examination, or treatment. Reading this post does not create a physician-patient relationship.
Always consult a licensed healthcare provider before beginning, changing, or stopping any supplement, injection, or treatment, including NAD+ and B12 therapy, and especially before taking any dose higher than the amount recommended for you.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. NAD+ and B12 injections are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual results vary and are not guaranteed. The author’s experience is personal and may not be typical.
Disclosure: The author is a co-owner of Soft Touch Med Spa, which offers the NAD+ and B12 treatments described in this post.