should work just as well as rapamycin
1 year+ of using external rapamycin:
Rapamycin, taken internally, greatly improved my actinic keratosis problem due to extreme sun exposure when I was young.
I was using rapamycin for approximately 1 year before I started using a self-made spray mixture of Trancutol, distilled water, and rapamycin.
The dosage I was using: 10mg in 100cc of ~30cc of Transcutol and 70cc of water.
I notice no additional improvement, fine lines, etc over taking rapamycin internally.
After ~ 6 months I increased the rapamycin to 20mg in 100cc of mixture.
No improvements were seen.
Maybe 20mg of rapamycin per 100 cc of mixture is not enough, but that is the max dose that I am willing to pay for at this time. If someone shows results from higher doses then I will reconsider.
Bottom line: No improvement with externally applied rapamycin over internally taken rapamycin.
RapAdmin said: āIām thinking of doing something similar with Dasatinib, transcutol, etc.ā
A few weeks ago I made the same mixture substituting 100 mg Dasatinib for the rapamycin with the hope of adding some skin elasticity (tightening). So far the results seem subjectively promising. I will order more Dasatinib and try 200 mg/100cc of water + transcutol.
I am looking for the magic elixir for some major skin tightening and/or wrinkle reduction.
(Meanwhile, Ponce is still in the Everglades) 
For fine lines and wrinkles, I find that 0.1% tretinoin works just fine and is cheap from India. Actually, less than the copay for my U.S. prescription which my insurance pays for.
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I think we came to the conclusion much earlier in the thread that even your ālow doseā protocol of 10mg per 100cc total volume is actually 10x the amount used in the published paper that showed anti-aging effects on the skin, so itās possible youāre actually overdoing it and just making it worse by going up to 20mg/100cc, etc. 0.001% rapa cream in the Drexel study is only 1mg per 100g (or 1mg per 100cc of liquid).
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But, on the other hand:
āFormulation and characterization of a 0.1% rapamycin cream for the treatment of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex-related angiofibromasā
So, 100ml of solution at .001% would be 1 mg of rapamycin or 0.01mg/mL x 100 for a 100mL 0.001% solution. They lost me when they were using uM in the study.
I am easily confused with the quantitative analysis of solutions.
Correct me if I am wrong. Should I use 1 mg of rapamycin in 100 ml of solution to equate to the percentage that the Drexel study used?
In any case, I am certainly willing to give it another shot at 1mg of rapamycin in a 100ml solution of Transcutol and water.
When I first started making the solution I was on board with Blagosklonnyās more is better approach to rapamycin.
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Thatās what Iād do, and was doing for a while (plan to restart very soon). The Drexel study specifically was for anti-aging of the skin, and they used the equivalent of 1mg per 100ml of solution (although they used a cream or ointment, not solution). The concentration of the topical medicine for tuberous sclerosis is much stronger (100 times stronger, from your chart above). I might use 2 or 3 mg per 100mg of cream, but at least we arenāt talking orders of magnitude higher than the anti-aging skin study.
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I donāt believe the Drexel study compared subjects taking rapamycin internally to the ones using it internally.
As I posted before, one of the first things I noticed after starting on rapamycin was a big improvement in my photo-damaged skin. The rapamycin taken internally stopped additional actinic keratoses from taking place and healed almost all of the ones I already had.
I have been treated for actinic keratosis for many decades because of my severe overexposure to the sun when I was young.
Because rapamycin works so well for my skin taken internally, I donāt really believe I am going to gain anything by using it externally. But I will try the 0.001% solution (1mg/100mL) a try.
My theory is that using rapamycin in creams etc, just wastes rapamycin because of the low absorption compared to the Transcutol and water solution. I like Transcutol because rapamycin dissolves in it easily and it penetrates deeply into the skin, but not too deeply.
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The Drexel study compared topical rapa to topical placebo. I donāt know of any studies looking at oral rapa and skin aging/actinic damage/actinic keratoses.
When I made my cream a couple of years ago, i dissolved the rapa into transcutol and then mixed it into CeraVe lotion instead of water, which likely further enhances absorption into the skin.
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Hello Rapa Admin, do you have any suggestions for ordering rapamycin powder besides LC labs? Iāve tried ordering from them without success because I donāt work in a laboratory. However, I am a practicing physician, but so far that hasnāt worked. I would really prefer to source a powder over pills for working with topical formulations if anyone has any suggestions. Thank you.
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Canāt you just call in a prescription (for yourself) for sirolimus capsules to your local compounding pharmacy? if they donāt have a source for rapamycin powder, you might have to settle for ordering it from overseas.
Yes - Iāve also ordered from the company mentioned at the top of the following thread (see link below), no issues. Fine for topical creams and toothpaste concoctions (from my experience): Here: Sirolimus Powder - 3rd party analysis
Sooooā¦ any updates on how your homemade Rapa cream worked on your skin? Any pictures? It is a little intimidating for me to try and make this on my own but I sure have a lot of sun damaged/ precancerous skin from years on a sailboat.
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Where can you buy rapamycin powder?
People have mentioned these two sources: (I wouldnāt trust China suppliers for oral use, but for skin use its probably ok).
Mesochem: See this post: Side Effects of Rapamycin (part 2) - #654 by dan_hayes
and HD Pharm: see this post: Sirolimus Powder - 3rd party analysis
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I recently read a couple of papers where researchers tested topical rapamycin and metformin on mice. They found that the treated mice regrew hair faster than the controls.
Impressed by these rodents, I decided to try myself. So I made up 2 solutions; a solution of 160mM metformin in water and a solution of 100nM rapamycin in ethanol.
I decided to use the metformin on my left forearm/hand and the rapa on my left leg below the knee. Right arm and leg are āpseudo-controlsā. 1mL/day.
My skin has lots of sun damage due to a misspent youth on the beach with no sunscreen.
Iāll be shouting from the rooftops if there is any improvement!
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Hi, Saw your post about the powdered Sirolimus from a compounding pharmacy.
Would you please be able to share their information?
Thanks
Cathy
It wasnāt my post. I donāt use or buy powdered rapamycin.
Iām new here, so Iām sorry if this is annoying but I was wondering if thereās any kind of wiki or summary of the methods to make the cream and the pros and cons. This thread isā¦ extensive! Hard to dig through.
Dear experts,
I am planning to make a skin cream based on products I have available.
Would anyone be so kind to comment on my suggestion below?
Should I add or change anything, in particular the dosing?
Suggestion for Skin Cream and Scalp Serum
I am based in Norway, and Propylene Glycol was easiest to get ahold of.
Thanks for any advice on both the skin cream and the scalp serum.
You can copy and paste your spreadsheet list like this, to make it easier for people to see:
| Type of molecule / product (%solution strength) | Purpose | Units / Quantity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rapamune | Active ingredient in skin cream and hair serum | 100 x 1mg |
| 2 | Hyaluronic Acid 99% | 100g | |
| 3 | Biotin Powder | 100g | |
| 4 | Astaxanthin 10% powder | 200g | |
| 5 | Retinol Vitamin A Powder | 100g | |
| 6 | N-Acetyl L-Cysteine 99% NAC Powder | 100g | |
| 7 | L-Methionine | 100g | |
| 8 | Fenugreek | 250g | |
| 9 | Ru58841 PSK3841 Powder | 100g | |
| 10 | Minoxidil (Rozino) Topical solution 5% | 2x30ml | |
| 11 | Minoxidil (Rozino) Topical solution 5% | 2x50g | |
| 12 | Nivea Soft Moisturizing Cream (Face/Body/Hands) | 200g | |
| 13 | Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream | 250g | |
| 14 | Propylene Glycol | 2x500ml | |
| 15 | Fisetin | Senolytics | 100g |
| 16 | Metformin |
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The Astaxanthin powder is probably unworkableā¦ its a very powerful red dye and would stain your skin red. So Iād skip that (while I do think it might be helpful from a biological standpoint).
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