When 40-year-old Lauren ‘Loz’ Antonenko found herself battling crippling fatigue and weight gain in spite of her diligent health and fitness regime, she knew something was wrong.
‘I’d had a pituitary tumour about ten years earlier,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘But with treatment I eventually shrank it. Once these symptoms started up again, I went for a blood test and they found I had really elevated prolactin. Doctors said it can mean one of two things – either you’re breastfeeding – which I wasn’t – or you’ve got another tumour.’
After an MRI, Loz was diagnosed with a new tumour on her pituitary gland again, as well as a growth on her pineal gland.
‘The pineal gland regulates wake and sleep cycles, so the growth there was really contributing to my fatigue.’
On top of severe exhaustion, Loz’s immune system faltered, leaving her battling a continuous stream of viruses and infections.
‘Because my sleep was so out of whack with the pineal gland growth, my immune system had become a joke and I seemed to catch one thing after the other.’
Loz turned to an integrative medicine doctor she had been working with for years.
Loz was battling crippling fatigue and weight gain, despite a diligent exercise routine and healthy diet
After being diagnosed with a tumour on her pituitary gland, Loz’s sleep suffered and she was unable to have conversations early in the morning or late in the afternoon
‘He said, “Look, the main thing is we have to get you feeling less like s***.”
‘He put me on a supplement called NMN. Within a couple of weeks, I felt absolutely amazing.’
NMN, or nicotinamide mononucleotide, is a naturally occurring molecule found in all living organisms. It serves as a direct precursor to NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), a critical coenzyme involved in hundreds of metabolic processes. Think of NAD+ as the body’s energy currency, fuelling everything from DNA repair to cellular metabolism.
The scientific community has long been aware of the importance of NAD+, but it’s the discovery of NMN’s role in the process that has ignited recent research.
Dr David Sinclair, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-author of Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To, found that supplementing with NMN could significantly boost NAD+ levels in mice, effectively reversing age-related blindness.
This, says the professor, was a defining moment.
‘It wasn’t just about restoring vision,’ he explained.
‘It proved that ageing is not a one-way street. We turned back the clock in complex tissues without causing cancer, which lent credence to the “Information Theory of Ageing” – the idea that the body ages due to a loss of youthful information, which can be reinstalled, like software.
After using a $2 supplement called NMN given to her by an integrative medicine doctor, Loz’s energy levels soared
‘So, if we learn to reboot this software safely, ageing may be reversible in humans, too.’
So, how does NMN work?
It helps to think about the process as supply and demand.
As we age, our NAD+ levels naturally decline, leaving cells with less of the fuel they need to function optimally. When NMN is introduced, the body readily converts it into NAD+.
By replenishing NAD+ levels, NMN is believed to support cellular health, potentially slowing some aspects of the ageing process.
The implications of this are significant, with ongoing clinical trials exploring its potential benefits in humans.
The explosive popularity of the supplement in recent years has led to a number of different brands hitting the market. Here in Australia, a 120-day supply can cost between $79 and $200, which means you’ll pay between 60c and $2 per day. (Over in America, 120-day supplies start at around US$60, or 50c per day).
Loz says her sleep evened out soon after taking the supplement NMN and she was able to throw herself into her work as a public speaker and life coach
‘Before I started taking it, all of my cognition had been compromised by this tumour,’ explained Loz.
‘I literally couldn’t have a conversation before ten o’clock in the morning or after four o’clock in the afternoon. It felt as if my brain was stuck buffering, like an old dial-up modem.’
‘I’m a professional speaker, so you can imagine what it was like getting up on stage and not being able to remember your own freaking speech,’ she added.
‘It was so debilitating professionally as well as personally.’
After NMN, however, the brain fog lifted almost immediately for Loz.
‘Suddenly, my sleep evened out. I could remember everything again. I had so much more energy and it even changed my body composition. My training finally made a difference and even my hairdresser exclaimed, “What are you doing? This is amazing!” My hair had actually outgrown its extensions.’
Buoyed by her results, Loz began exploring whether or not she could also supplement with NAD+ itself. After all, if the NMN helped replenish NAD+ levels, surely supplementing directly with NAD+ would yield even better results?
This, as it turns out, is a slightly more complex proposition.
‘I learnt NAD+ can’t be taken orally as a supplement,’ Loz said.
She’s correct. NAD+ is a delicate molecule, and the process of travelling through a human digestive system means it’s essentially destroyed before it’s able to be converted into a useful tool.
A growing body of research suggests taking NAD+ subcutaneously – as an injection under the skin – makes it more bioavailable for your body to use.
‘I began cycling NAD+ boosters subcutaneously,’ Loz said.
‘The improvements, again, were amazing.’
Loz will continue to cycle on and off the NAD+ while consistently taking her NMN supplements to have the maximum benefit.
‘With the health issues I’ve had over the years, I’ve spent $600,000 over two decades just to stay alive – just to stay on this side of the ground, let alone to be thriving,’ Loz says.
‘If I’d only listened to the mainstream advice, I never would have explored the NAD+ or NMN. Now, I don’t take medications for anything, and I feel incredible.’
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