Can Rapamycin repair your organs and therefore reverse aging?

So how could you know if rapamycin was improving your body?

There is a lot of evidence that rapamycin can slow aging in individual organs, and even reverse aging in some organs. Here is some of the data:

Dr. Richard Miller mentioned in the Dr. Peter Attia the podcast they did last year (see here: Podcast Petter Attia / Richard Miller), that the elderly (treatment started at human equivalent age 60) mice treated with rapamycin had numerous internal organs (that they looked at) that were like those in young mice. The organs were very different than untreated elderly mice. The information about the internal organs of the rapamycin treated mice (In the section of the podcast starting at 1:59:30):

  • Their tendons were youthful.
  • Their kidneys were youthful.
  • They did not have changes in the heart.
  • They did not have changes in the endometrium.
  • They did not have changes in the liver.
  • And they did not have changes in the adrenal that were characteristic of 22 month old control mice

Additionally, a new research paper digs deeper into the issue of how and where rapamycin can delay or repair 11 different organs “The Role of Rapamycin in Health span Extension via the Delay of Organ Aging” By: Yan Zhang, Jinjin Zhang, Shixuan Wang

In this summary they say that Rapamycin can alleviate aging in multiple organ systems, i.e., the nervous, urinary, digestive, circulatory, motor, respiratory, endocrine, reproductive, integumentary and immune systems.

Dr. Steve Horvath is best known for his work on epigenetic testing – he created the Horvath Clock looking at the biological age of a person compared to their birth or chronological age. Typically they should match.

What is Horvath’s Clock? Horvath used human samples to determine 353 biomarkers correlated with aging (CpG Sites). This study modernized biological age measurement and has remained the standard for biological age determination since.

Since Steve Horvath’s work many others have started work in this area of Biological age. You can get any number of tests using blood or spit at a variety of price levels.

Something for everyone here - link:

From the above list - I personally have tried TruMe based on the high rating of the test and scholarly background of the CEO Yelena Budovskaya .

Her Linked-In profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yelenabudovskaya/

TruMe is a service to those wanting to know how they are doing in the health arena… are my actions – supplements and activities helping me slow down aging or are my poor choices speeding up my aging? Dr. Budovskaya knows her tests are accurate within about 3 years either way. For the most part, people are biologically and chronologically close. You do healthy things maybe it shows you are 3-4 years younger than your chronological age. If you have bad habits maybe you are 4 years older than your chronological age.

With thousands of tests, Dr. Budovskaya has the opportunity to spot the extreme outliers. She can then personally find out what you are doing to have such an extreme difference. In my case with a 13-year biological difference (50-years) from the chronological age of 63. Yelena personally wanted to know my secret – it is Rapamycin and Metformin. Her familiarity with anti-aging (rapamycin and metformin)– she said my biological youth is accurate. Keep at it!

I just did my second test and it came last night and is consistent 12 ½ years difference 51 ½ biological just turned 64 years chronological. Again, Yelena is impressed, but not surprised at my continue biological youth.

FYI - I wish I had done the TruMe test before taking rapamycin for a baseline. I waited and only did it after my first year. So for you who recently started or are thinking about taking rapamycin – it might be worth getting a baseline biological age to see improvements. As this is my second test – I think rapamycin has taken me as far back as it is going to. But yeah, I will take the approx. 13 years difference. I know there are pros and cons to epigentic testing. I am just putting this up here for discussion. Pitter - patter - let’s get at her!!


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Well, I personally take metformin and rapamycin plus a few other “life extenders”.
At 81 I am a bit fatalistic: They either work or don’t work. I will rely on others like you to get the testing. I get basic blood work done to make sure I am not falling off a cliff.
Even if Horvath has more variables included in his tests it doesn’t appear to be any more accurate than the Levine age calculator. What does it mean? They may be predictors of age-related mortality, but neither are predictors of actual individual age-related physical performance.
My markers from the Levine’s test and my trusty “smart scale” indicate my epigenetic/phenotypic age to be 15 yrs younger than I am. Yes, I am more physically fit than most 81-year-olds, but I guarantee you that my physical performance isn’t nearly as good as 15 years ago. Mainly it is aerobic performance and stamina that have declined. I haven’t suffered a measurable decline in muscle mass. I perform resistance exercises at the same or higher levels than I ever have.
I admit I follow threads here and elsewhere and try to keep up with the current anti-aging scientific and medical literature, and then I set my sails to whichever way the wind is blowing.

Morgan Levine Presentation: A New Epigenetic Clock for Aging and Life Expectancy

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The full text on sci-hub is a great summary of the benefits of rapamycin for each of the organ systems.

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You don’t need to convince me. I am a “true believer” until some catastrophic evidence says otherwise. (LOL)

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Overview of the review:

In the present review, we systematically present the maximum lifespan extension of model animals at different levels of evolution. Given the complexity of the issue, we have attempted to systematically identify and categorize the effect of rapamycin on alleviating the aging of multiple organs to characterize pioneer insights into 10 human body systems:
(i) nervous;
(ii) reproductive;
(iii) urinary;
(iv) digestive;
(v) circulatory;
(vi) musculoskeletal;
(vii) respiratory;
(viii) endocrine;
(ix) integumentary; and
(x) immune.

…

4.1. Scientific data Few adverse effects of rapamycin in animals have been reported. A random controlled trial that evaluated the effects of short-term rapamycin treatment (10 weeks) in middle-aged dogs showed no clinical adverse effects in the rapamycin-treated group as compared to the placebo group. Hematological values remained within the normal range for all parameters studied; however, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was decreased in the rapamycin-treated dogs (Urfer et al., 2017). The adverse effects of topical rapamycin have not been reported in rapamycin-treated dog eyes, suggesting that 0.02% topical rapamycin might be an alternative treatment for canine patients with refractory dry eye (Spatola et al., 2018). In summary, animal studies have shown that rapamycin is relatively safe, with no significant adverse effects such as increased mortality or impaired organ function (Table 2).

Yes - here is the link on sci-hub:

The Role of Rapamycin in Healthspan Extension via the Delay of Organ Aging

https://sci-hub.hkvisa.net/10.1016/j.arr.2021.101376

And an overview table from the paper (click on image below to enlarge the table):


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Truly remarkable . I don’t think that anything else compares or even come close to rapamycin.

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Desertshores, consider adding 200 to 500 mg of pine bark extract to your rapamycin regimen. Take it daily. It worked wonders for my aerobic stamina.
I used metformin for several months. I do essentially the same exercises everyday for most of my life, so I was easily able to notice a measurable decline on metformin.
So I stopped it and returned to my baseline capacity, only to resume metformin and once again notice the decline.
It inhibits ATP/ mitochondrial function.
Just a thought.

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Yes, I have been taking pine bark extract on and off for several years. I recently started taking it again about two months ago.
I was diagnosed some 30 years ago with some narrowing of my left ventricle aorta (I think). In any case, I am scheduling an angiogram/angioplasty because I have no stamina.

I feel great and resistance training is no problem, but treadmill and jogging are no longer possible.
Thank you for the response and suggestion.

Let us know how it goes. Anything that at all interferes with cardiac functioning will have a significant impact on aerobic stamina. Alan Green and I have discussed his cardiomyopathy on several occasions and how badly it affected his stamina.

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