Remarkable case report describing big impact of rapamycin for chronic pain. Off-label users report reduced anxiety, depression, and pain… connected?
Rapamycin Augmentation of Chronic Ketamine as a Novel Treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
This case report describes the dramatic clinical response of refractory chronic complex regional pain syndrome to combined immunomodulatory treatment. Ketamine and rapamycin markedly minimized pain historically associated with suicidal behavior, increased baseline activity, and allowed for a reduction in palliative polypharmacy. The piecewise mechanism of action is unclear given multiple postulated targets, such as microglia, astroglia, T-regulatory cells, B-regulatory cells, or neurons. Relevant laboratory and genetic information may allow the application of this treatment to other affected individuals.
Of course, everyone here knows I am 82. I have been taking rapamycin for almost two years. There are of course many other supplements that I take. But, I wake up daily and thank my lucky stars for being entirely pain-free. The astonishing thing is that I have so much less pain than when I was younger. Is it rapamycin? I don’t know.
I’m also pain free, however I take it for granted and don’t associate it with rapamycin. May be I should? I don’t know if it’s typical to have chronic pains at age 68, but I don’t have any besides a headache after an occasional glass of wine.
I suspect rapamycin plays a significant role… the “aches and pains” of aging are one of the most commonly referenced issues people have that distinguishes their lives when they get older:
Among older adults, persistent musculoskeletal pain is highly prevalent, with rates ranging from 40% to 60%.1 Multisite pain contributes to significant disability among older adults.2
Numerous epidemiologic surveys suggest that pain is most common during the late middle-aged phase of life (55–65 years) and continues at approximately the same prevalence into older age (65+). This is true regardless of the anatomical site or the pathogenic cause of pain. The one exception appears to be pain associated with degenerative joint disease (e.g., osteoarthritis) which shows an exponential increase until at least 90 years of age.
Not that I know of. All of my joint pains, including long-time knee pain, went away after a few months of rapamycin dosing and a high weekly pulse regimen. Since then I have continually reduced my dosage and have had no reoccurrence of pain. I must say, not just pain-free, but a general sense of well-being.
In addition, rapamycin stopped age-related “essential tremors”.
I’ve been in chronic pain, off and on (mostly on) for 30 years. Lots of WAG diagnoses, and only 1 ‘successful’ treatment that lasted 5 years. Long story, off topic.
I’m on rapa for pain relief. So far: when I got up to 4 mg once a week, my chronic neck/spine/low back pain started to lessen. With pulses of pain, but hours of no pain. However, the side effects were too much. I’m now taking 1 mg daily and will see what happens.
Unlike most of the forum members, I started with high doses of rapamycin. As high as 20mg with GFJ. I have since titrated downward to 5 mg/week with GF. I felt pain relief after just a few weeks. I am essentially pain-free. This might be dose-dependent.
Thanks for this. Did your pain stop on the high dose and then you titrated down to the 5mg as maintenance? Any side effects at the 20mg? How did you decide when to titrate down. Do you monitor blood levels at all?
I am on 6mg/wk and I think it helps with pain (usual 77yo aches and pains) but only for 1-2 days. So I am considering increasing the dose. I am a physician and still actively practicing so it is particularly frustrating and challenging to not have an accurate method to find the ‘right’ dose as I can with most other meds prescribed. It basically feels like guesswork based, mostly, on the studies by Joan Mannick.
Anyhow thanks for your response, much appreciated.
