How does Biohacking work

So, the biggest hype in biohacking supplements is about NAD+/NADH molecule with the full name of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. I first learned of biohacking by reading about some exciting research done with that molecule on mice ( more on that in later articles).

So NAD+ and NADH are almost the same molecules present everywhere in our body, literally in all our cells. They are in different forms one is oxidized, the other is reduced form and bla bla bla….. They are involved in many processes in our cells, changing from one to another and back. Now one of the most interesting things is they are engaged in the work of mitochondria.

Bodys own power plant

Mitochondria is like a cell’s power plant; our cells run on the energy made by them. And in the beginning, we are young; our cells are happy and full of NAD. Mitochondria

are making enough energy to make us strong and hopefully healthy… But around the age of ( my age ) 40 NAD levels start to drop.

Why do they drop? Well, because our body is basically a machine, and like a car, when the mileage gets high, the parts get broken. Everything we do with our body, it remembers. It tries to repair itself, and it does. But it causes stress on cells. When our body repairs itself, it causes cells to divide.

Zobi cells… om nom nom braaaiiinnnn

Our cells can divide about 60 times before they go bonkers and become senescent cells. Senescent means a broken cell that can not divide anymore, and that does not mean the cell is dead, noo… It is just completely bonkers, and it messes up all the cells in the neighborhood. It starts to spew poison around, and now one of those poisons is called CD38. And one CD38, according to my research, destroys about 100 NAD molecules. So what now? We have dropping NAD levels, and our body produces less energy because mitochondria are not functioning as we would like them because there is insufficient NAD.

So scientists tried a solution, and they genetically disabled the production of CD38 in mice!!! And the mice got horrible tumors and died… yikes !! Seems CD38 is needed in our body, but just not as much. It seems to have some function in our body that helps it from, you know, making a ton of harmful tumors. Soo, what do we want to do? Ideally, we want to drop down CD38 levels (not remove them) and raise NAD levels. That is the goal of my take on biohacking.

Anything else we could do?

The other goal is to remove senescent cells, to destroy them, which apparently is possible with the use of molecules that are called senolytics. But if we keep destroying senescent cells, what will replace them?

Well, stem cells, of course! It is a cell that can become any other cell and ( as I understood it ) is actually rejuvenating itself when dividing.

So if my understanding and these assumptions are correct, we want to raise NAD levels, lower CD38 levels, kill senescent cells with senolytics and hope our body can replace them from its stock of stem cells. Easy enough, right?

Take care and enjoy your life