Can you share your Longevity / HealthSpan Regime?

Trunature for vision

And, from Costco (but I’m unsure of quality)

https://www.costco.com/youtheory-ashwagandha-1%2C000-mg.%2C-150-capsules.product.100494260.html

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@Rapasailor - I am 58. I have not tried any of the age comparison metrics since I don’t think there is a strong consensus age markers that most agree with. I have used many of the current and historical approaches for anti-aging / longevity for about 25 years.

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As far as supplements go you should do your own research to find what is best for you. We each have individual body chemistry and needs. I will list my ant-aging routine in the order I feel is the most important.

Diet: Not everyone has the ability to exercise. So, for me diet is number one. Avoid harmful things and do time-restricted eating. I am not a purist as to diet. Mainly I follow loosely what would be the South Beach Diet. I have done keto in the past to get past a stubborn weight plateau.

Exercise: I go to the gym 5 - 7 times a week. I only do heavy resistance training on muscle groups once a week. I do 30 minutes of bike cardio each time I go to the gym. Except for the heavy resistance training frequency I have been doing this regularly for 15 plus years. I was always active before I retired when it was possible. I also do either dry sauna or steam room 4 -6 times a week.

Sleep: 6.5 to 8 hrs of good sleep so that the body and mind have a chance to repair themselves.

Longevity supplements. I am not here to argue the merits of any supplement, just what I feel is important to me.

Rapamycin: I have been taking it for 6+ months. Currently, I am " experimenting with 12mg/week with the grapefruit protocol along with piperine and olive oil. ( No adverse effects from this dose to report so far)

Metformin: 500mg morning and evening. One of the most proven life extenders. I have been taking it for years.

Atorvastatin: 40mg, once in the evening. Keeps my lipid panel in the normal range.

Melatonin: The first “life extension” supplement I tried. I have been taking it in various doses for forty years. Currently, I take 1 to 3mg sublingually 1 hour before bedtime.

Lithium: In the form of lithium orotate 390mg for 15mg elemental lithium. This has been my favorite subject supplement, especially from a mental health aspect. I have been taking this for many years.

Then all of the usual suspects: D3, C, etc, and whatever we are experimenting here with. I currently am taking Jardience 10mg, 1 hour before meals. (doing nothing for me so far. I may have to up the dose.) I am adding D-ribose and Trehalose at least for a while.
What we are trying of course is to lower our epigenetic age on various calculators.

I am 81 and doing just fine.

You mention DHEA. I have tried it on and off over the years with no noticeable subject result of increased energy etc. This is somewhat paradoxical as it steadily declines with age, yet most studies indicate that supplementation doesn’t do much. I did find one paper that claimed that the dosages people were taking are way too low. Unfortunately, I can’t find this paper again.

Today I took a big dose of l-tyrosine… It makes me go blah, blah, blah.

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Rap Admin. Thoughts on this combined product of Lutein and Zeaxanthin?

See Amazon.com

I think Now Foods generally has a very good reputation - so thumbs up.

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Many people do take Metformin - and I did for about 8 months but then I stopped. I describe my rationale in this post here on Rapamycin + Metformin.

My testosterone levels are good so I don’t feel any need for it. I have not spent much time researching DHEA and melatonin - my go-to reference is really the National Institute on Aging’s ITP group and their 3 simultaneous studies they do in their longevity compound tests. I rely much more on them, than other research.

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Ah - dosing is an ongoing discussion here with little research to go by. Most of us here use a combination of side effects (if they are really bad, slow down and perhaps drop back to a lower dose), and regular blood testing to check all the key measures (we also do CBC and CRP to do Levine Phenotypic Age / bio age calculations). Here is a good thread on dosing.

Most people take the safe approach of dosing around 6 to 8mg per week. In the mouse clinical studies the higher doses resulted in increased longevity - so there is an argument for high doses, but the mice in the studies live in sterile environments so lower immune system function is less an issue for them than people who live in the real world. The trade off of higher doses is higher risk of mTORC2 inhibition and immune system suppression - and serious infections…

Off the top of my head I don’t recall papers on young vs. old mTOR regulation… that has not, to my knowledge, really been investigated directly. That is sort of implied in the studies by way of the starting point of the different rapamycin intervention studies - some start when the mice are 9 months of age, some when the mice are 20months or older, then the NIA ITP has also varied by dose. We have a list of all the mouse studies, and details on them - so I recommend you review that thread - which is here: List of all the Mouse Studies for rapamycin.

And generally - I recommend you review our Rapamycin Frequently Asked Questions and Answers list, as a good in-depth review of all the topics people are most interested in.

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@desertshores Wow! Impressive and comprehensive. Thank you for taking the time to share. I agree with you on the DHEA. Most of the anti-aging longevity conferences I have gone to through the years promote DHEA. I have found more benefits in women than men, but I think if you are using quality of life as your metrics, then not as powerful as other options. Have you tried Testosterone, peptides like Sermorelin / CJC-Ipamorelin or nootropics? I am not familiar with the supplement form of Lithium, but will have to research more since @RapAdmin also uses a form of it.

Thanks again!

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@RapAdmin Yes, I have read the dosing threads and in short it seems that starting low and moving up is what most are doing. If no side effects (infections or mouth sores) then increase the dose. I did not see much on the “Sweet spot” where people feel like they are at the right dose since it may mean different for what the expectations are. Knowing some of the ideal metrics would be good with the most common I have read in the threads and experienced personally are the vague, but relatable of not feeling old. I noted significant relief of joint, muscle and body aches that I associated with aging. I like CRP, but it is an acute phase reactant which makes it hard to be a short term predictor, but if elevated CRP for years and comes down and stays down with a treatment, then more reliable.

strong text So in short - No side effects and No improvement then consider increasing the dose. If No side effect and desirable improvements stay at the current dose. If side effects then hold or lower the dose - all common sense approaches. Our youthful crew may have a hard time since they are hoping to get in early on longevity, but many times do not have the 'old age" symptoms to give feedback.

The youthful vs. older age mTOR regulation fascinates me and I have not been able to find anything that address that directly. As we age, the mTOR pathway seems to get stuck in perpetual ON position and exerabated by many of the age related exposures many make worse with poor diet, exercise and poor sleep. Taking Rapamycin allows the body to cool down and take a break from overheating - like many of the cars in my past did with overheating. In our youth, we don’t seem to have this problem and that may be part of the clue in how to help regulate mTOR since in our youth we do it naturally. Obviously, there many other things at play than just mTOR regulation as you pointed out in the studies comparing Rapamycin and CR on longevity.

I will start my research on your suggestions and thanks again for providing a platform of dialogue and information sharing :slight_smile:

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@RapAdmin All of those reasons are very practical. Hormones can be tricky and our data is poor on objective findings, but can be strong on subjective. If symptoms that a hormone could help with are not an issue then we just have risks. If symptoms are life changing improved on hormones then risk becomes reasonable to consider. It sounds like your approach is working for you and highest on my list on treating patients in balance of safety.

Hi David,
Welcome. I’m Ross Pelton, The Natural Pharmacist. I’ve been taking 6 mg of rapamycin weekly; am just starting to boost my dose to 10 mg weekly and will track my progress. I also inject 100 mg testosterone IM once weekly; take 500 mg of metformin bid, 100 mg of allopurinol qam, 5 mg of selegiline bid, + lots of supplements (mostly from Life Extension). AND exercise 5x/week weights & aerobics + healthy organic food diet & intermittent fasting 8 PM-noon on most days. My website, bio & blog are at naturalpharmacist.net

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This is the way I have begun to consider the benefits and side effects of rapa. Ageing is slow and insidious. Do you feel any older today than yesterday? Than last week? Last month? I think Rapamycin is the same but in reverse, very slow and subtle improvements that you can’t detect but which accumulate over time. I don’t think you should have unrealistic expectations and I don’t think you should ‘rush’ things by escalating dose above 1mg/kg.

In my 5 month journey the two benefits I’ve seen are the near elimination of a previously large/growing mole and 5kg of weight loss from an already healthy BMI.

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@DrRoss Hey Ross! Thanks so much for your regime. Its nice to see where so many people have similar approaches. Have you tried any GH stimulators - Sermorelin or CJC/Ipa? I know the back and forth on IGF-1 levels create an interesting dialogue for the balance of quality of life vs. longevity. Any nootropic experience in your personal journey? Since you are on testosterone, I would guess that you feel the mTOR stimulation is still worth the benefits over possibly slowing the progress of Rapamycin? Thanks again for sharing :slight_smile:

@Maveric78 Great advise and what I was hoping for both for my personal interest and my patients that look to me for their journey. The benefits section of the FAQ that @RapAdmin was very helpful to see what possibilities that Rapamycin has seen. The most quantifiable benefit I have experienced is that I don’t feel as old. The aches, pains and soreness I have acceptable as my new normal seem to be much better. I recover from workouts faster. If this is the only thing that changes, I would happy with just this relief. Thanks again for the advice and your experience.

Is there a reason why you are doing 100mg of the SGLT2 inhibitor instead of 10-25mg?

Each SGLT2 inhibitor has different dosing… the dose is 100mg to 300mg for canagliflozin, 10 to 25mg for empagliflozin.

Its all about risk reward I think - higher dosing, lower the glucose spikes… but it depends on your diet too - if you’re mostly a low carb person, there may be minimal differences in the spikes between different doses. I originally ordered a mix of the lower and higher doses - started low, went high, then went back to low when I ran out of the higher doses. The only side effect you really see is increased urination with the drug… not sure if I saw any difference in that variable at different doses, it wasn’t clearly obvious.

Table 1: Recommended Dosage

estimated glomerular filtration rate eGFR (mL/min/1.73 m2) Recommended Dosage
eGFR 60 or greater 100 mg orally once daily, taken before the first meal of the day. Dose can be increased to 300 mg once daily for additional glycemic control.
eGFR 30 to less than 60 100 mg once daily.
eGFR less than 30 Initiation is not recommended, however patients with albuminuria greater than 300 mg/day may continue 100 mg once daily to reduce the risk of ESKD, doubling of serum creatinine, CV death, and hospitalization for heart failure [see INDICATIONS, Use In Specific Populations].
On dialysis Contraindicated [see CONTRAINDICATIONS].

Source: https://www.rxlist.com/invokana-drug.htm#dosage

For Empagliflozin its:

The recommended dose for JARDIANCE is 10 mg once daily

  • For additional glycemic control, increase to 25 mg once daily in patients who tolerate 10 mg

Source: https://pro.boehringer-ingelheim.com/us/products/jardiance/t2d/dosing

David,
Yes…I’m 79…and I definitely feel that testosterone supplementation is beneficial. I do not use GH stimulators. Here is a link to my testosterone article posted on my blog:

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New study summary on the supplement for the eyes / vision:

In a new report,1 funded by the National Institutes of Health, scientists analyzed 10 years of AREDS2 data. They show that the AREDS2 formula, which substituted antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin for beta-carotene, not only reduces risk of lung cancer due to beta-carotene, but is also more effective at reducing risk of AMD progression, compared to the original formula.

“Because beta-carotene increased the risk of lung cancer for current smokers in two NIH-supported studies, our goal with AREDS2 was to create an equally effective supplement formula that could be used by anyone, whether or not they smoke,” sEmily Chew, MD, director of the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Application at the National Eye Institute (NEI), and lead author of the study report, noted in an NIH news release “This 10-year data confirms that not only is the new formula safer, it’s actually better at slowing AMD progression.”

AMD is a degenerative disease of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Progressive death of retinal cells in the macula, the part of the retina that provides clear central vision, eventually leads to blindness. Treatment can slow or reverse vision loss; however, no cure for AMD exists.

According to the NIH release, the original AREDS study, launched in 1996, showed that a dietary supplement formulation (500 mg vitamin C, 400 international units vitamin E, 2 mg copper, 80 mg zinc, and 15 mg beta-carotene) could significantly slow the progression of AMD from moderate to late disease. However, two concurrent studies also revealed that people who smoked and took beta-carotene had a significantly higher risk of lung cancer than expected.

The release also noted that in AREDS2, begun in 2006, Chew and colleagues compared the beta-carotene formulation to one with 10 mg lutein and 2 mg zeaxanthin instead. Like beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin are antioxidants with activity in the retina. The beta-carotene-containing formation was only given to participants who had never smoked or who had quit smoking.

At the end of the five-year AREDS2 study period, the researchers concluded that lutein and zeaxanthin did not increase risk for lung cancer, and that the new formation could reduce the risk of AMD progression by about 26%. After the completion of the five-year study period, the study participants were all offered the final AREDS2 formation that included lutein and zeaxanthin instead of beta-carotene.

Full Paper:

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SGLT2’s are expensive. What is your source? Thanks

$60 per month for sglt2 inhibitors…

Where many of us get them