I Thought NAD IV Therapy Was a Scam. Then My Skeptical Friend Tried It.

I thought NAD IV therapy was a scam for like two years.

Two years! Every time someone mentioned it I'd do this little internal eye roll. Four hundred dollars to sit in a chair while vitamins drip into your arm? In what world. There were so many better things to spend that money on. Actual vacations. A really good facial. Literally anything else.

And then. Then my friend Talia started doing it.

Not some wellness influencer Talia. Real Talia. The one who's skeptical of everything and once spent twenty minutes explaining to me why most supplements are basically expensive pee. Talia, who has a PhD in something biology-related that I still don't fully understand. That Talia walked into a clinic in Santa Monica and handed over $650 for her first session.

Which made me think okay wait, maybe there's something here I'm not getting.

So I asked if I could come watch. She said yes (she's weirdly unbothered by stuff like that). And I spent an afternoon in a leather recliner next to her trying to figure out: is NAD IV therapy actually doing something? Or have we all just collectively agreed to pretend it is because the clinics are nice and it feels like self-care?

Quick Background on NAD+ (Skip If You Already Know This)

Right, so. NAD+. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. I had to practice saying that and I still mess it up sometimes. It's a coenzyme that exists in every cell of your body. Handles energy production, DNA repair, cellular metabolism, all these background processes that keep you functioning.

The thing is your NAD+ levels drop as you age. Like significantly. By your 40s or 50s you might have lost half of what you had at 25. Which I only learned recently and felt kind of alarmed about honestly. That decline shows up as fatigue, brain fog, all the stuff we just accept as "getting older."

The IV part bypasses your digestive system entirely. You're getting NAD+ straight into your bloodstream instead of making it survive stomach acid first. Clinics say this means way better absorption into your cells.

Price is around $400 to $750 for a standard 500mg session. Goes up from there for higher doses. Takes two to four hours. Sometimes longer. Has exactly zero FDA approval for treating anything, which, we'll talk about that later because it's A Thing.

What the Session Actually Felt Like (This Is the Part That Surprised Me)

The thing everyone talks about with NAD IV is how you feel after. And I always kind of dismissed that because like, okay, every expensive wellness thing claims to make you feel amazing. But then I actually watched Talia do it and... something happened. I think.

It's hard to describe without sounding woo-woo but I'll try. About an hour in, she got this flush in her face. Said she felt warm, kind of tingly. Not unpleasant but noticeable. The nurse came by and slowed the drip a little. By hour three Talia was weirdly calm. Not sleepy calm. Alert calm. She's usually checking her phone constantly and she just... wasn't.

"I feel like my brain is working," she said. Which sounds like nothing but Talia is not the type to say stuff like that.

I don't know exactly what happened in her cells. I'm not going to pretend I understand the science well enough to explain it. But something shifted. You could see it. Whether that was the NAD+ specifically or just three hours of forced stillness with a heated blanket, genuinely couldn't tell you.

The clinic was on Montana Avenue. One of those places that looks like a really clean living room. White walls, those trendy curved sofas, a receptionist named something like Meadow who offered us both sparkling water. Talia changed into soft gray clothes they provide and settled into what was basically a very expensive recliner. There was a heated blanket. She made a whole thing about the blanket.

The Stuff That Made Me Skeptical (Because I'm Still Not Fully Sold)

Okay but here's where I have to be honest because this treatment has issues and I feel like the clinics don't really talk about them.

No FDA approval. Like, for anything. NAD IV therapy is not approved to treat any medical condition. Not fatigue, not aging, not addiction, not cognitive decline. Nothing. The FDA hasn't reviewed it. When I asked the nurse about this she said "it's a naturally occurring compound" which is technically true but also not an answer.

Also the research is thinner than you'd think. I went down a PubMed rabbit hole after Talia's session. (For research. Obviously.) A 2020 systematic review found only a small number of randomized clinical trials even exist. Most of what we know comes from case studies and patient testimonials. One researcher literally described the results as "promising, yet still speculative." That's scientist speak for we don't really know yet.

And here's the part that really got me. Some experts think the $50 a month oral supplements might actually work better than IV. A 2024 clinical study found that IV nicotinamide riboside boosted NAD levels by about 20% compared to baseline. The theory is your cells need building blocks to make their own NAD+, and just flooding them with the finished molecule doesn't stick around long enough to matter.

Talia shrugged when I told her that. "Maybe," she said. "But I feel better so." Hard to argue with that I guess.

The other thing nobody mentions: it takes FOREVER. Talia's session was three and a half hours. Higher doses can take four to six hours. You're just sitting there. You cannot do this on a lunch break. You cannot squeeze it in between meetings. You have to actually clear half your day.

And the cost adds up fast. Talia does monthly maintenance. At $650 per session that's $7,800 a year. She pays with her HSA and acts like that makes it basically free which is not how money works but she's a scientist not an accountant.

Does NAD IV Therapy Actually Work? Let's Look at What We Know

Alright let's talk evidence because I know that's why some of you are here.

I went through the actual published research last week. Here's what I found: there IS science behind some of the claims. Just not as much as the marketing suggests.

Energy and fatigue: NAD+ is genuinely central to how your mitochondria produce ATP. That's your cellular energy currency. A 2024 review in the American Journal of Physiology found NADH may help with chronic fatigue syndrome management. That's real. That's a legitimate journal. But "may help with management" is not the same as "will transform your energy levels" which is how some clinics phrase it.

Cognitive stuff: NAD+ does support cellular repair in the brain. Some patients report feeling sharper after. Studies suggest neuroprotective effects. Key word being suggest. Early findings, not settled science.

Anti-aging: This is where everyone gets excited and I mean, I get it. NAD+ promotes DNA repair. Fights oxidative stress. Better cellular health might slow aging. PubMed has research showing promise for age-related conditions. But promise and proven are different words for a reason.

To compare: the oral supplements like NMN or NR have actually been studied more. You can buy them for $40 to $100 a month online. Some longevity researchers take them daily. If bang for your buck matters, that might be the place to start.

Where the math actually starts to work is if you're Talia. Someone who can afford it without thinking about it. Who has tried the oral stuff and didn't notice anything. Who likes having three hours of forced stillness built into her month. For her specifically, it seems worth it. But Talia's situation is not everyone's situation.

Okay So Who Should Actually Consider This

Look, I'll just be direct about this.

Talia's profile makes sense for NAD IV. She'd already tried the oral supplements for months, felt nothing. She has chronic low energy that her doctors couldn't explain. She can drop eight grand a year without it affecting her life. And honestly I think she likes the ritual of it. The three hours in that recliner with the heated blanket and the sparkling water and the forced phone break. It's like her version of the cold plunge thing, another wellness ritual that's as much about the experience as the science. For her it's not just about the NAD, it's about the whole experience.

If that sounds like you then yeah, maybe worth exploring.

But I know people who would hate this. My sister for one. She'd be checking the clock every ten minutes, stressed about what she's missing, defeating the whole point. She's also the type who researches everything and the lack of FDA approval would drive her crazy. She'd do better with the $50 a month pills and a meditation app.

My friend Marcus asked me about NAD IV last month and I told him honestly, start with oral supplements first. He's not made of money. The pills might do the same thing for way less. It's like figuring out if something's actually worth the investment or just expensive for the sake of it. If they don't work after three months then maybe consider the IV route. There's no shame in trying the cheaper thing first. Most longevity doctors would actually recommend that.

The people I'd really steer away from this: anyone who's expecting some kind of dramatic transformation. Anyone who saw a celebrity looking amazing and assumed it was the IV bag. Anyone who can't sit still for four hours without losing their mind. And honestly, anyone who's going to stress about the money. If $650 per session makes you wince, that's your answer right there.

So Did I Try It? My Honest Conclusion

I watched Talia's session. And I didn't book one for myself.

Not because I think it's fake. I don't anymore. Something was happening. Whether that something was NAD+ doing its job or placebo effect or just the power of three hours of stillness, I can't say. But Talia felt better after and she's not the type to imagine things.

Here's what I realized though: I was attracted to the IDEA of being someone who does NAD IV therapy more than I actually wanted to do it. My life is chaos. I can't sit still for four hours. I check my phone constantly. I'd spend the whole session anxious about what I was missing.

Maybe someday. When I'm different. Or maybe this will always be the thing I'm curious about from a distance. I think that's okay too.

Is it worth the money? If you're the right person for it, probably. The clinics are legit. The science is real even if it's early. It seems to help some people. But "worth it" is personal. Kind of like deciding whether a luxury watch justifies its price tag. And the only way to know is to be really honest with yourself about how you actually live, not how you want to live.

Talia's going again next month. I told her I'd come watch again. Maybe this time I'll actually try it.

What about you? Have you done it? Thought about it? I'm curious where other people landed on this.