How does Rapamycin make you feel?

I have not yet taken Rapamycin but I am considering doing so.

I am a 53 year old and I think I might have CFS and fibromyalgia but I do not have an official diagnosis. I often feel very tired and I get random pains which come and go in various parts of my body seemingly without any explanation. I also sometimes get nasty headaches.

From your experiences, do any of you think that taking Rapamycin might aleviate some of what I have described above? If yes, how many days after starting to take it do you think I might notice a difference?

Does Rapamycin give you a sense of wellbeing?

Or are you just taking it in the faith that it is extending your life?

Thank you very much.

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Hey Tim,
Of course the potential of improvement depends on the person. For me the neurological problem of dysphagia (choking) was alleviated in about 6 months from rapamycin use. I can now wolf down the driest bread or thickest, dry chunk of meat with no liquid and no problem. Your neurological pain might get fixed too. Would like to see - knowā€¦ if it helps you. For many, significant changes are noticed after 3 months use.

As to youthful euphoriaā€¦ got it constantly nowā€¦ nothing brings me down. Laugh constantlyā€¦ almost obnoxiously for some. Hahaha.

Been on Rapamycin for 2.5 years. Nothing but good from it, memory, muscles, strength, libido, skin qualityā€¦ and no pain anywhere.

Go for it bud.

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I feel great on my rapamycin day. Lots of energy, no pains, no aches. Makes me wish I could take it every day, but I know more is not better for our use case.

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Hi Agetron and Jakexb

Thank you both very much indeed for your very helpful replies.

Jakexb, why are you not able to take it every day? What would happen if you did?

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Daily use is for organ rejection. Most on here dose 6mg to 8mg weekly for health, longevity. Daily use could be problematicā€¦ but to be honest we are all experimenting. Seems 6mg to 8mg weekly is a good averageā€¦ by most noted researchersā€¦Dr. Peter Attia and Matt Kaeberlein.

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I feel tired and weak for a few hours after taking rapamycin. Thatā€™s it, no other effects, still gray hair, no weight loss, no aphteous lesions etc

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Hi Tim, Welcome to the forums.

Iā€™ve been taking rapamycin for going on 3.5 years now. It removed all the aches and pains and stiffness I used to have, I sleep deeper and better on a regular basis, and I find I have a lot more energy through the day (from 7am to 9pm+) every day. I feel like I did 20 years or so ago, and my biological clock measures seem to confirm something similar (about a 15 year lower biological age vs. chronological age), though I donā€™t put much weight on biological clocks right now because they are still in their infancy in terms of development and validation.

I would take rapamycin just for the benefits Iā€™ve experienced, and continue to experience. if it extends my life, then thats all an extra benefit. If not, its certainly increasing my healthspan (at least so far).

Please read up on our Frequently Asked Questions to better understand all the issues and details on rapamycin - dosing, etc. is all covered here: Rapamycin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Like any drug, there are risks associated with rapamycin use and I encourage you to read up as much as you can to make an informed decision on whether its right for you. Some people have bad reactions and for whatever reason its not a good fit. Be careful about possible drug interactions if you are already taking anything else, and work with your doctor (ideally). Sadly, this can be a little more complex than it should be: Do you tell your doctor you are taking rapamycin?

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I dont notice any side effects from 6 mg with a naringin capsule beforehand every 7 days. I think my knee and hip discomfort are starting to improve, but I cant say definitively that it is helping either.

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How many months after starting rapamycin could you state, with certainty, the benefits that you outline in the first paragraph?

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You know, thats an interesting question. Iā€™m a pretty fit, active person and always have been. I regularly run, mountain bike, road bike, hike, ski, whitwater kayak, rock climb, etcā€¦ and generally what we see here is that the more fit you are, the more subtle the benefits of rapamycin.

I think the sleep benefits are likely the first thing I started noticing - perhaps 3 to 6 months after starting. Just a lot deeper sleeps, fewer wakings during the night, feeling more refreshed in the morningā€¦ I think of it as a more youthful sleep phenotypeā€¦ basically I started waking up in the morning feeling like I did 20 years ago. I also noticed that I used to get phlegm buildup while sleeping, and would have to clear my throat and spit in the morning. That went away with the rapamycin. Similarly, I used to get quite a bit of ā€œsleepā€ buildup (not sure of the medical term), the crud that builds up near your tear duct of the eye over night ā€œsandā€ from the sandmanā€¦ you know what Iā€™m talking aboutā€¦ that all went away after I started rapamycin.

At the same time, as my quality of sleep improve, my energy levels improved. I used to be tired in the afternoon (and didnā€™t feel that well rested when getting up in the morning). If I had the opportunity, I could easily have a nap in the afternoon. Over time (3 to 6 months after rapamycin initiation) I found I had a lot more energy. My energy did not slow in the afternoon - I could keep going to 9pm or midnight without a problem. I could even pull all-nighters, working through the night or getting minimal sleep (e.g. 3 to 5 hours) and get up and be fully functional (just like in college days). I had not been able to do that in many, many years. If I had a bad sleep during the past decade, my day was largely shot. After starting rapamycin I felt much more resilient to shorter sleep nights.

One more functional example; I do road trips occasionally with my kids. After using rapamycin for a year+ I started doing something I havenā€™t done since college - I started driving all night during longer road trips, so my family could sleep while I drove to the destination. I would not have done this 10 years ago because Iā€™d have been too wiped out the next day to function. But, now this wasnā€™t much of a problem. I was still tired the next day, but would not get the headaches, complete loss of focus ability, etc. that sleep deprivation typically caused me.

The slow reduction of aches and pains over time is subtle and takes many months in my experience. But at some point I realized that wow - I donā€™t have the same aches and pains I had a year ago. All my joints feel like they did 20 years ago. No more aches when getting out of bed in the morning, faster return to baseline after exercise, etc. All of this is hard to quantify, and some is likely placebo effect, but 1 year out from starting rapamycin I felt a lot different as an athlete. My body just felt more together, like it did 20 years ago. When I started doing my more regular blood testing and then calculating my biological age as measured by the Levine Phenotypic calculator and Aging.ai online calculator - my biological age was about 12 to 15 years below my chronological age. Sadly, I did not do this prior to initiating rapamycin, so its not a well controlled measure.

Oh and one other thing. The longer Iā€™ve been on rapamycin, and the more I believe in the effects, the more I believe that there are second-order psychological effects, which Iā€™ve outlined here: Rapamycin Changes How you Think About Aging

Hope this helps.

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Thanks, very helpful.

In my own case, after one month (2->5mg, weekly increase), no discernable psychic benefit. The only apparent physical impacts are on-going skin breakouts, particularly on the scalp, and a general low level itchiness. (Perhaps skin is drier?)

So, in the very short term, no upside, and some aggravating downside. Of course, there may be many benefits that become apparent over the longer term. Weā€™ll see.

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RapAdmin, was your dose constant through these 3.5 years? 7mg weekly?

For the record, since I started Rapamycin 8 weeks ago my eyesight has returned to 20/20 after about a year of needing reading glasses, my gums are healthier than ever before, and I feel great. There may be other subtler effects at play as well, but Iā€™ll need longer to evaluate them.

I began with 1mg a week and am now up to 6mg. At 6mg I switched to biweekly to give my body more recovery and growth time between treatments. I plan to build up to 7-8mg every 10-14 days.

Best of luck to the OP (original poster). If you do have a diagnosable disorder I would want to work with an open minded physician on Rapamycin dosage. Otherwise Iā€™d suggest you begin, like many of us, with 1mg a week then 2mg etc, while monitoring your health. Take a pause if anything concerns you.

(Iā€™m not a doctor so these are not medical recommendations, just one laypersonā€™s suggestions).

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Iā€™m up to 8mg per week now and have noticed no effects at all, good or bad.

One word of warning: I suspect that a lot of the ā€œeffectsā€ people say they are getting from Rapamycin in this forum are completely placebo.

There are lots of ā€œI think I feel more energeticā€ and other wishful comments about ā€œfeelingsā€ that probably have absolutely nothing to do with rapamycin.

People like @Agetron who are sharing actual meaaurable data (weight loss, blood biomarkers etcetera) are much more believable.

Also, there are some completely ridiculous claims being made constantly in this forum about rapamycin, like saying it makes you not need reading glasses anymore after a few weeks of use. Or that it brought your dog back from the grave after one pill. I mean, gimme a break guys.

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Like many here I have experimented with higher doses. Iā€™ve taken as high as 8mg with grape fruit (I eat the whole fruit) so effectively somewhere around 24 to 40mg dose given typical GFJ multipliers people are seeing here. I did that for a few months with two weeks between doses. Did not have any noticeable side effects at that level, but then decided to go back down to 8mg in part due to high lipid levels (ApoB). The first six months I slowly ramped up to 6mg/week and then stayed there, then slowly edged up. Most of the 3 years have been around 8mg to 10mg. Iā€™m currently on a 4 month hiatus because Iā€™m in a parabiosis clinical trial that didnā€™t want rapamycin users, so I paused rapamycin until I complete the trial next month.

Then Iā€™ll restart, probably start at 4mg/week, then move quickly back up to 8mg/week.

Good to hear your results. Track it over time and report if you see any changes, positive or negative. As others have mentioned here, its hard to parse out the placebo effect, but if you are off reading glasses for good, I find that very interesting. Lets see if it holds going forward!

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I take 5 mg + GFJ +EVOO every other week. After dosing I feel a euphoric fatigue. I feel great but tired. The effect lasts only about a day though. Usually just the day after dosing. The rest of the time, I feel amazing, but it may not have anything to do with Rapamycin for that.

My memory is also better in some regards. I find I am more positive, cheerful, and happier than before, but that could be attributed to other supplements I take such as lithium or NAC. Or it could be because I love my job and family and am generally a lucky guy. Who knows for sure? Feelings are hard to quantify.

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How you ā€˜feelā€™ isnā€™t an especially useful metric since we know the placebo effect is real and powerful. If I look at quantifiable markers then 12 months of Rapamune has caused significant improvements in body composition and in sleep duration but all other markers are neutral.

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Thank you, all of you, very much indeed for all of your replies, especially RapAdmin who very kindly welcomed me to the forum and who has given very extensive replies.

Some of you have suggested that it may be the case that placebo might be responsible for some of the benefits in how people feel when they are taking Rapamycin. I agree that this may be the case to a limited degree. However, if, letā€™s say, someone has had really terrible pains for several years before starting to take Rapamycin and just a few weeks after starting to take it, they are almost completely pain free then I would find it very difficult indeed to believe that placebo could be 100% responsible for that sort of pain relief. What do you think?

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No, that could absolutely be placebo.

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Hi Maveric78

Thank you very much fo your reply.

I would be amazed if what you say is correct.

My own experience is that I have tried lots of different supplements and all of the standard OTC pain killers and they have had absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. I therefore suspect that I maybe somewhat unplaceboable.

EDIT: I have just remembered that Solgar Niacin 500MG did succeed in making me flush.

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https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18511

Placebos expert Kathryn T Hall: ā€˜The effect can rival painkillers like ibuprofen or even morphineā€™ | Placebo effect | The Guardian.

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