Maybe I’m out of the loop, but suddenly, supplements seem to be everywhere. Like, if you’re not taking GLP-1s or peptides, then you’re living in the stone age.
Enter, of course, Kelly Slater. He has spent most of his life making aging look optional. Now, at 54, the 11-time world champion has partnered with Tru Niagen, a supplement brand built around one of wellness culture’s favorite new acronyms: NAD+.
Check out the announcement of the collab, linked here, and below:
“Getting old is a state of mind. Aging is something you can take control of,” Slater said while announcing Niagen Bioscience’s new “Don’t Get Old. Age Better.” campaign. He added that he takes Niagen products daily and believes:
“I truly believe at 60, I’ll be better than I was at 50.”
That’s pretty bold. So, what exactly is he taking?
Tru Niagen contains nicotinamide riboside, or NR, a form of vitamin B3 that the body converts into NAD+, a molecule involved in cellular energy production and DNA repair. NAD+ levels tend to decline with age, which has fueled a booming market for supplements promising to restore them.
(No, nicotinamide isn’t related to nicotine…in case you were wondering, like I was.)
The science is real — but the leap to “anti-aging” is less certain.
A 2019 randomized trial from the National Institution of Health found that Niagen increased blood NAD+ by as much as 142 percent at the highest dose and reported “no significant differences in adverse events” versus placebo. But there’s an important caveat: ChromaDex, the company now known as Niagen Bioscience, funded the study; two authors were employees, and another was a company adviser and patent inventor.
More broadly, a 2026 systematic review of 33 human intervention studies found that NR and similar supplements reliably raise NAD-related biomarkers, but concluded that their actual benefits for healthspan and aging remain “inconclusive.”
There’s also some baggage. In 2020, the FDA and FTC warned ChromaDex over marketing that regulators said implied Tru Niagen could help prevent or treat COVID-19. The warning concerned those disease claims — not a finding that the supplement itself was unsafe.
Related: Kelly Slater’s Ayahuasca Retreat Reports 98.07% ‘Miracle’ Success Rate
And this isn’t Slater’s first unconventional wellness venture. He has also served on the board of Rythmia, a Costa Rican retreat centered partly around ayahuasca ceremonies.
Slater has been fighting Father Time for decades.
Whether a daily NAD+ pill helps him win that battle is another question entirely.
TBD.
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