ATP is your cells' energy currency, and NAD is required to make it. During a heart attack, the enzyme PARP burns through NAD in seconds, starving the heart of ATP and causing irreversible damage. Preserving NAD in those first minutes could save cardiac tissue.
Talk about ATP for a minute and what it does in the gut. ATP is the ultimate means. It's a currency in every cell that is there. And it is the final common molecule that provides energy to various processes, whether they're metabolic processes, hormonal processes, movement of muscle, activity of neurons. In our brain, NAD creates the ATP. So if you don't have nad, you don't get ATP. And why did I care about this? As an intensive care specialist, we're not worried about longevity in the long term in the icu, we're worried about whether you live the next hour or two. When someone comes in with a heart attack, for example, they have an acute interruption of blood flow and oxygen to their heart. What happens when you have no oxygen coming into your heart? You don't have enough NAD. PARP is activated within about 5 seconds. NAD is massively consumed, and there's no ATP made. Because there's no ATP made, that heart muscle which is at risk in the first few minutes, sadly, it goes on to die. So if you maintain nad, you maintain ATP during the heart attack, you won't die.
