Mitochondrial NAD for Energy, Health & Longevity
Baran Dilaver
BARAN DILAVER (US)
Co-founder @ Wonderfeel / Entrepreneur / Inventor
Baran Dilaver is the Co-founder of Wonderfeel Biosciences, a longevity-focused company at the forefront of cellular health innovations. He previously led numerous start-ups successfully, served as CEO and COO at public and private companies, developed award-winning products, and collaborated with top scientists, visionaries, and medical experts. Baran is a frequent speaker at conferences like Tech Open Air, Brandweek, and CannaTech. At UC Berkeley, he studied economics and earned athletic and academic scholarships, and he gets a special thrill from enhancing people’s lives with the products he helps innovate.
Baran Dilaver delves into the critical role of mitochondrial NAD in energy
You are the biohackers and you actually end up being one or two steps ahead of science sometimes. You are daring, you're sharing your information, you are experimenting, and it actually sheds light on what science needs to look at.
Summary
- NAD is the cell's energy currency, essential for mitochondrial function and DNA repair, but levels decline by roughly 50% by age 50, contributing to various age-related diseases.
- Because NAD cannot directly cross cell membranes, precursors NMN and NR are used as they effectively enter cells and convert into NAD to restore youthful energy levels.
- Clinical trials indicate NMN supplementation improves physical endurance and muscle oxygen distribution, while also enhancing sleep quality and cognitive focus in aging populations.
- Research shows that boosting NAD levels can help manage hypertension by reducing blood pressure, increasing insulin sensitivity, and lowering bad cholesterol in overweight subjects.
- The primary goal of NAD precursors is to extend health span by slowing the biological aging process, thereby delaying the onset of chronic conditions like dementia and heart disease.
Article
Mitochondrial NAD And The New Frontier Of Healthy Aging
At Biohacker Summit 2023 Amsterdam, Baran Dilaver Made The Case That A Molecule Few People Know Could Sit At The Center Of Energy, Repair, And Longevity
In a conference hall filled with self-trackers, supplement experimenters and longevity enthusiasts, Baran Dilaver stepped onto the stage at **Biohacker Summit 2023 Amsterdam** with a message that sounded at once biochemical and existential. The presentation, delivered on **Saturday, 14 October 2023**, was titled **“Mitochondrial NAD for Energy, Health & Longevity”**. Its premise was stark: one of the body’s most essential molecules declines sharply with age, and with it may go a measure of vitality, resilience and repair.
Dilaver, the US-based co-founder of Wonderfeel Biosciences, spoke not only as an entrepreneur in the longevity sector but as a salesman for a larger idea now gaining ground in health science: that aging may be slowed not by chasing symptoms one by one, but by intervening earlier, at the level of cellular function.
“NAD is so crucial to life that without it you would be dead in ten seconds,” he said. “Your body produces billions of molecules every minute and seventy percent of it goes to the mitochondria, which creates all the energy you need to live and survive.”
The Molecule Behind The Hype
NAD, short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, has become one of the most discussed compounds in longevity research. Dilaver described it in almost primal terms, calling it “essentially the energy currency of the cell”. In his account, it does two jobs that help explain the excitement around it.
The first is energetic. Mitochondria, the microscopic structures often described as the cell’s powerhouses, depend on NAD to produce usable energy. The second is protective. NAD helps power PARP, a protein involved in repairing DNA damage caused by stress, pollution and sleep deprivation.
“NAD is essentially the energy currency of the cell,” Dilaver said. “It is also the first line of defense, acting as a major anti-inflammatory and helping to repair DNA damage caused by sleep deprivation, stress, and environmental pollution.”
That dual role matters because the decline of NAD appears to track with the decline of health itself. Dilaver argued that by middle age, this molecular drop may help set the stage for fatigue, metabolic dysfunction and age-related disease.
“By the time you reach fifty, you might be producing half as much NAD as you were when you were twenty-five years old,” he said. “Our goal is to get those levels back up to your youth levels using precursors your body already naturally produces.”
Why Scientists Turned To NMN And NR
If NAD is so important, why not simply take it directly?
That, in essence, was one of the core scientific points of Dilaver’s talk. He said pure NAD cannot readily cross the cell membrane. Instead, researchers have focused on precursor molecules, especially **NMN** and **NR**, which can enter cells and then be converted into NAD.
This distinction has become central to the commercial and clinical interest in the field. According to Dilaver, specialized transport mechanisms allow these precursors to bypass the barrier that blocks direct NAD entry. In practical terms, that means the body may be more effectively supported by feeding the system ingredients it already knows how to use rather than trying to force in the final compound from the outside.
The argument is elegant, even intuitive: if aging depletes a foundational molecule, restore the supply chain.
The Evidence So Far
Dilaver’s strongest claims rested on a growing, if still early-stage, body of human research. He pointed to trials suggesting that NMN supplementation improved physical endurance, reduced fatigue and enhanced muscle oxygen utilization.
Among the most striking examples he cited was research involving amateur runners, where supplementation appeared to improve oxygen distribution to skeletal muscle. The implication was not merely better performance on a track, but potentially more stamina for the ordinary mechanics of aging: climbing stairs, walking longer distances, resisting the slow creep of frailty.
He also highlighted studies linking NAD precursors to improved sleep quality, sharper cognitive function and better metabolic health. In some populations, he said, supplementation had been associated with reduced blood pressure, increased insulin sensitivity and lower levels of harmful cholesterol.
For a field often overrun by grand promises, these claims landed with a note of caution. Dilaver repeatedly acknowledged that the clinical trials remain relatively small. The science, he said, was only beginning to move from possibility to evidence.
Still, the direction of travel was clear. If the data hold, NAD precursors may prove relevant not only to athletes and biohackers but to the far larger public health challenge of chronic disease.
Health Span, Not Fantasy
The talk’s most grounded moment came when it turned from life span to health span.
Longevity culture can often drift into fantasy, with talk of radical life extension and future humans living to 150 or beyond. Dilaver did not entirely dismiss that horizon, but he placed it firmly in the distance. What mattered now, he argued, was extending the period of life spent in good health.
“What we are looking at is increasing the health span,” he said. “If we can slow down aging at its root cause, we can potentially slow the onset of diseases and extend the body's ability to maintain itself in a better state for longer.”
That framing may be one reason NAD research has resonated beyond the niche world of anti-aging enthusiasts. It shifts the emphasis from immortality to maintenance, from speculative futurism to a practical hope: fewer years marked by dementia, cardiovascular disease, metabolic illness and decline.
The Culture Of Experimentation
Dilaver also paid tribute to the audience itself. At **Biohacker Summit 2023 Amsterdam**, the relationship between formal science and lived experimentation was a recurring undercurrent. He suggested that users who track their bodies closely often generate signals before institutions know where to look.
“One of the reasons we connect with you is because you are daring and you experiment with new things,” he said. “Your feedback actually sheds light on what science needs to look at next as we work to break the ceiling of human longevity.”
That line captured both the promise and the tension of the biohacker movement. On one side lies curiosity, data sharing and a willingness to test emerging ideas. On the other lies the perennial risk that anecdote races ahead of proof.
Dilaver himself offered examples from consumer feedback, including reports of improved skin quality, better focus and even relief from chronic inflammatory conditions such as eczema. Such stories were compelling, but he treated them as prompts for further inquiry rather than settled evidence.
A Warning Against The Wellness Arms Race
In a supplement market crowded with aggressive claims, Dilaver drew a surprisingly firm line around what the evidence did not yet support. He warned against the growing hype around **liposomal**, **sublingual** and **intravenous NAD** approaches, arguing that standard oral precursor supplementation remained the method with the strongest clinical footing.
According to his presentation, there was no meaningful peer-reviewed clinical evidence yet showing that liposomal or IV delivery worked better, or even reliably, compared with established oral forms. He also raised concerns about product stability, especially in the less regulated supplement space.
That caution was notable. In a field where novelty often sells faster than scrutiny, Dilaver’s argument was that the plainest route may still be the soundest one.
The Long View
By the end of the session, the appeal of NAD research seemed to rest not in miracle claims but in its coherence. Energy production, inflammation, DNA repair, endurance, cognition, sleep, metabolic control: all were presented as pieces of the same aging puzzle.
Whether the science will ultimately justify the excitement remains uncertain. But in Amsterdam, Baran Dilaver made a persuasive case that NAD belongs at the center of the modern longevity conversation, not because it promises eternal life, but because it points toward something more immediate and more human: the possibility of staying stronger, sharper and more resilient for longer.
For a room full of people trying to outthink time, that was enough.
Part of Biohacker Summit 2023 Amsterdam