Two compounds, one marketing bundle
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is a coenzyme every cell needs for energy metabolism and DNA repair, and it does decline with age. Sermorelin is a growth-hormone-releasing hormone analog that prompts the pituitary to release more of the body's own growth hormone. They're frequently sold as a combined 'longevity protocol' by telehealth clinics, but they don't share a mechanism and the evidence for each has to be evaluated separately.
What the NAD+ evidence actually shows
NAD+ levels reliably fall with age, that part is well established in human tissue studies. What's far less established is whether infusing NAD+ intravenously raises usable cellular NAD+ in a way that produces the energy, cognitive or anti-aging effects being marketed. Human trials on IV NAD+ specifically are small, short, and mostly look at withdrawal or fatigue symptoms rather than aging outcomes.
Oral NAD+ precursors (NR and NMN) have more human trial volume than IV NAD+ itself, and even those trials show reliable increases in blood NAD+ levels without yet showing consistent downstream benefits on the outcomes people are actually paying for, energy, cognition, lifespan markers.
What the sermorelin evidence actually shows
Sermorelin has a longer clinical history than NAD+ infusions. It was originally studied and used for children and adults with confirmed growth-hormone deficiency, where the trial evidence for restoring GH levels is solid. What's thinner is the off-label use case it's now marketed for: healthy adults seeking anti-aging or body-composition effects without a diagnosed deficiency. That population has far less trial data. Effect sizes there run smaller too, which tracks mechanistically, you're nudging a system that isn't actually broken.
What actually matters before starting either
Baseline bloodwork (IGF-1 for sermorelin candidates, standard metabolic panels either way) is the difference between a monitored protocol and guessing. Growth-hormone secretagogues are generally avoided in anyone with an active or recent cancer diagnosis, since GH pathways intersect with cell growth signaling.
If the goal is genuinely 'more energy' or 'feeling less fatigued,' it's worth ruling out sleep debt, iron deficiency, and thyroid dysfunction first, all of which are cheaper to test for and have stronger trial-backed fixes than either of these compounds.
