What to expect from your NAD+ loading series.
Five infusions over two weeks. Here is exactly what each one feels like, how we keep you comfortable, how to prepare — and an honest word on what the science does and does not promise.
Request a consultation What it feels likeFive infusions, two weeks, one goal.
NAD+ — nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide — is a coenzyme every cell uses to turn fuel into energy and to run its repair machinery. Levels decline with age. The loading series is the front-loaded part of restoring them: five intravenous infusions of 750 mg, spaced across roughly two weeks. After loading, most patients transition to a lower-effort subcutaneous maintenance dose at home — 100 to 200 mg, daily or every other day — which keeps cellular stores topped up without returning to the chair.
The reason for the loading-then-maintenance shape is practical pharmacology. Intravenous delivery raises circulating NAD+ quickly; the clustered loading infusions establish the baseline, and maintenance holds it there. This page is about the loading two weeks specifically — the part that is new to you.
Budget the time honestly
Each NAD+ infusion runs roughly 2 to 3 hours. NAD+ is delivered slowly on purpose — that is what keeps it comfortable. Plan the visit like an appointment with a book, not an errand. Do not schedule it tight against something you cannot be late for.
Before the first drip: the physician part.
Nothing gets mixed for you until a physician has seen you. That is not a Limitless policy — it is what Georgia requires. The Georgia Composite Medical Board's May 7, 2026 position statement on IV therapy holds that an IV is the practice of medicine, that generic standing orders are prohibited, and that a prescriber must complete a history and physical before anything is compounded or administered.
In practice, here is what that means for your loading series:
- Your order is written for you. Joshua Hare, DO, signs an individualized order with the indication and dosing rationale documented in your chart. There is no standing order and no staff-filled template.
- Your H&P and screening labs come first. Comprehensive metabolic panel, hematocrit, and a baseline blood pressure, reviewed by the physician. Significant hepatic or renal compromise means a modified protocol — or a hard no.
- A physician is on the premises for every infusion. Not on call, not a signature on a fax. In the building.
- You are told who is responsible. Georgia requires the supervising physician's identity to be posted where the public can freely see it. Ours is Joshua Hare, DO — founder, owner, and the person who wrote your protocol.
- How you tolerate it is recorded — and it counts. Every infusion is logged with the pharmacy, lot, dose, and rate, and anything you feel goes into a structured register, including the minor and the ambiguous. Serious events are reported to the dispensing pharmacy and filed voluntarily with FDA MedWatch. Because the lot is on every record, if a problem ever surfaces with a batch, we can reach everyone who received it the same day.
Worth asking anywhere you go
The Board began unannounced inspections of Georgia med spas and IV clinics in August 2026, and found clinics operating with no physician oversight, no medical exam before treatment, and no adverse-event tracking at all. Before your first infusion at any clinic, ask three questions: who signed my order, are they here today, and what happens to a side effect if I report one? A clinic that cannot answer all three plainly is telling you something.
On that third question — the reporting gap is real and it is not the clinic's invention. We wrote up why we think the criticism is correct: Nobody is counting →
The flush is normal. And we control it.
The single most important thing to know before your first infusion: NAD+ given intravenously produces a set of sensations that are expected pharmacology, not an adverse reaction. Knowing this in advance is most of what makes the first visit easy.
A wave of warmth
Many patients feel warmth move through the chest, face, or whole body. It rises, plateaus, and settles. It is the most common sensation and the most benign.
Chest or facial pressure
A mild "pressure," tightness, or fluttery feeling can accompany the warmth. It is dose-rate dependent — it tracks how fast the NAD+ is going in.
We slow the drip
This is the whole trick. The instant a sensation becomes more than mild, we reduce the infusion rate. Within a minute or two it eases. You are in control of the pace, and we will tell you that out loud.
A brief GI flutter or lightheadedness
Some patients notice transient stomach awareness or a light head if the rate is high. Same fix — slow down, sip water, breathe. It passes. Tell your nurse the moment you feel anything; that is what they are there for.
There is no prize for finishing fast. A comfortable three-hour infusion is a better infusion than a rushed two-hour one. The drip rate is a dial, not a fixed setting — and it is set to you.
What to feel, infusion by infusion.
Responses vary — this is a typical arc, not a guarantee. Some patients feel a lift early; many notice the difference most clearly in the days after the series ends, once stores are full.
Infusion 1
The orientation visit. You learn your comfortable drip rate. Expect the warmth and flush; expect to finish a little tired. Hydrate after.
Infusion 2
Familiar now. The flush is usually easier the second time because you know what it is. Some patients report steadier energy between visits 1 and 2.
Infusion 3
Midpoint. This is where many patients first describe clearer focus or a more even mood. Equally normal to feel nothing distinct yet.
Infusion 4
Routine. The chair time feels shorter. Sleep quality is the change patients mention most often by this point.
Infusion 5
Series complete. Stores are loaded. We set up your subcutaneous maintenance plan so the gains hold — and review how you actually felt.
Week 1 (infusions 1–3) is mostly about getting comfortable with the process and finding your rate. Week 2 (infusions 4–5) is where subjective changes — energy, sleep, focus — are most commonly reported. If you feel nothing dramatic, that is within the normal range too; NAD+ is a substrate, not a stimulant.
Five things that make every infusion easier.
- Eat a normal meal first. Arrive fed, not fasted. An infusion on an empty stomach is the most common reason a patient feels lightheaded.
- Hydrate the day before and the morning of. Well-hydrated veins are easier to access and a hydrated patient tolerates the infusion better.
- Budget 2–3 hours and bring something to do. A book, headphones, work you can do one-handed. The time passes easily when you are not watching it.
- Wear comfortable layers. The warmth wave is real, and the clinic is cooled for it. Short sleeves or a sleeve that rolls up cleanly help with IV access.
- Don't stack it against a hard commitment. Some patients feel a little tired afterward. Leave yourself an easy hour on the other side of the first one or two.
Tell your nurse about any prior IV reactions, your medication list, and anything that makes you anxious about needles or infusions. None of it is a problem; all of it helps us pace your visit well.
What NAD+ therapy does — and what it doesn't.
Limitless is a physician-led practice, and that means you get the real version, not the marketing version.
Solid biology. Honest uncertainty.
The cell biology of NAD+ is well established — it is genuinely central to mitochondrial energy production and DNA-repair pathways, and levels genuinely fall with age. Intravenous and precursor studies reliably raise measurable NAD+. Early 2026 research, including a major expert review in Nature Aging and work on fatigue states, is encouraging on energy, sleep, and recovery.
What the evidence does not yet show is a proven anti-aging or disease-prevention outcome in humans — the large, long, hard-endpoint trials simply do not exist yet, and a 2026 systematic review said exactly that. NAD+ IV is not an FDA-approved treatment for aging or any wellness indication. We prescribe it as Dr. Hare's considered longevity intervention, with that uncertainty stated plainly. If you want the full picture, read our NAD+ clinical-evidence brief — the same honest map, in depth.
Set your expectations accordingly: most patients describe better energy, sleep, and mental clarity. That is a reasonable thing to hope for. A guarantee of reversed aging is not — and any clinic that offers you one is selling, not practicing medicine.
NAD+ loading, answered.
- Does it hurt?
- The IV placement is a standard needle stick. The infusion itself does not hurt — the sensations are warmth, flush, and mild pressure, all controlled by the drip rate. If anything is uncomfortable, we slow down.
- Why does it take so long?
- NAD+ has to go in slowly to stay comfortable. Pushing it faster only increases the flush. The 2–3 hour window is the comfortable speed, and it is time well spent.
- Can I work during the infusion?
- Yes — most patients read, take calls, or do light laptop work. One arm is occupied; the rest of you is free. We have Wi-Fi.
- How will I feel afterward?
- Most patients feel normal to mildly tired right after, and well the next day. Hydrate and eat as usual. We suggest an easy hour after your first one until you know your own response.
- What happens after the five infusions?
- You transition to subcutaneous maintenance dosing at home — a small self-injection, 100–200 mg daily or every other day. It is quick, you are trained in clinic, and it keeps your NAD+ stores where the loading series put them.
- Who should not do an NAD+ loading series?
- That is a physician decision made at your consultation. Certain conditions — significant kidney disease, for example — call for adjusted dosing or a different approach. This is exactly why the series begins with a doctor's visit, not a sign-up form.
Your loading series starts with a consultation.
Now open · Dalton, GA · By appointment. Every NAD+ protocol at Limitless begins with a physician visit — so the plan fits your physiology, not a package tier.
Request a consultation Call Dalton IPC 706-847-0826