How to best record what happens when trying Rapamycin

Depends on how “experimental” you want to get, keeping in mind that you may be getting side effects that you don’t “feel”, per se, such as increased LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin resistance, immunosuppression, etc. Some people have titrated up until they start getting mouth ulcers, but others seem to report no ulcers even at high doses.

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Right. I shall bear that in mind.

This week I did 5mg plus the old grapefruit juice. I can’t say that I’m noticing any kind of changes at all yet, neither good nor bad - certainly no side effects such as mouth ulcers. Maybe any positive changes take while to happen.

Some of my favourite exercise things end up giving me some lingering knee pain (Insanity, running). I was kind of hoping that one of the benefits of rapamycin might be reduced incidence of knee pain from such activities. Can’t say I’ve noticed any improvement yet, but I’m only 6 weeks into this experiment, and maybe the initial small doses might not have done much.

I’m going to continue to increase for now, I’ll be on 6mg next. This would be the same as taking approx 15mg without the juice so would this be considered a large dose? Continuing like this then the following week would be 7mg and this would be the end of my first 8 weeks. I’ll be taking a break after that and start another 8 weeks from the start of April.

In other news, I used the blood test results to plug some figures into the phenotypic age calculator. It gave me a score of 53.06 for the phenotypic age, and 52.28 on the est DNAm age (whatever that is). I’m was a few days past 52 years 5 months when I took the blood test.

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I’ve had a bit of sinus trouble and a hemorrhoid this week, things I’ve not experienced for a few years. Is this a sign of dose affecting things? It could just be coincidence, I’ve not heard mention of such things by anyone else.

I’m going to give it 10 days until my last dose for this first quarter, so that will be next Saturday.

I’m going to investigate the NAD+ thing next now that the mTOR suppression has begun.

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I think it’s likely to be coincidental.

Re: NAD
This article suggests that NAD supplementation is unnecessary if you exercise regularly:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00174-3

“… conversely, exercise-trained older individuals had NAD+ levels that were more similar to those found in younger adults”

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Thanks for that Maveric78. That’s good to know. I do tend to go through phases of exercising really well, then sometimes it’s intermittent, and sometimes I lose interest and get out of the swing of it for a few months. I’m kind of in that intermittent phase at the mo, I’m going to be doing some exercise today.

I think it might not do any harm to give the NAD+ thing a bit of a boost with some supplementation, if only to see if it makes any difference, but it’s good to know that it should be kept at a decent level during times of consistent exercise.

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As a dentist, I’m pretty familar with canker sores, technically called aphthous ulcers. They’re always on what we call unattached mucosa, which means the thin, moveable tissue in your mouth, such as the cheek and gumline but not right up to the teeth, which is thicker, attached mucosa. Canker sores are never on the roof of the mouth, but can be on the soft palate. Small super painful lesions on the roof of the mouth are usually viral, such as the herpes virus, and should not be related to Rapamycin. If your dentist uses lasers, they can help with the short term pain of canker sores. A silver nitrate solution can cauterize them and help with the pain, typically done by a dentist.

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Hi John. Thanks for that info. The roof of my mouth thing was at that area where the soft palate starts, I think I had just slightly scratched it with some food maybe, it never became anything.

Right - so I did my 8th dose on Saturday - 7mg with grapefruit. Can’t say I’ve really noticed any changes in particular just yet. What I did learn from another thread on here is that curcumin promotes the enzyme that the grapefruit juice should supress, and I’ve been using up some curcumin/vit D supplements recently - so now I know to not take any curcumin around rapamycin dose time.

I shall start back with the rapa in April. In the meantime I’ve been looking to source some dasatinib as I’m going to give that a go in June after my second round of 8 doses of rapa.

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Sorry for my delayed reply Michael.
You are right about Thriva. No FBC. I get that through my GP. I happened to have a low ferritin (longevity-wise no bad thing) and was able to justify a FBC and asked for the RDW-CV needed for the Levine calculator. Thriva offer wider iron studies though so Ive been able to
Monitor iron-binding, saturation etc.

As far as I can tell Rapa has had no effect on my WCC. My data pre-Rapamycin are no different.

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Did the Gandhi Medicos order arrive? How long did it take?

Canker sores are more correctly known internationally as aphthous ulcers. The back of the lips and the tongue are common areas for the ulcers. I got very uncomfortably afflicted in the early days of taking Rapa, after 6mg with olive oil plus a glass of GFJ. Nothing since then. The ulcers can be treated with Kenalog (Triamcinolone acetonide) in Orabase (an emollient dental paste). Kenalog comes in 5g tubes and lasts well.

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Michael

Wondered what testing you were using now. I have used Medichecks in the past and wanted to start testing regularly again. Have not come across anyone that tests of Rapa levels as yet though in the UK.

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Hi Colin. I haven’t used any tests recently. I’ve only used Medichecks once last year. I had a fall off my bike in April last year and injured my legs quite badly so focusing on any of this stuff went out of the window. I only started back on the rapamycin about 4 weeks ago.

I didn’t find any UK tests that would test for rapamycin. I was looking for tests that would give the required data to plug into the genetic age calculation thing in order to assess if taking rapamycin was doing anything. Obviously, as I got derailed last year, I haven’t repeated any tests to see if anything has changed.

Due to a chiropractor damaging my carotid artery a few years back and the resulting blood clot breaking off bits into my brain I had a few TIAs (mini strokes) and so the NHS system flags me up as vulnerable - usually TIAs are a poor health thing rather than a physical damage thing. This does mean I get a full blood test done each year at my GP that covers loads of things. I can’t exactly remember now but I think the paid-for test only gave me one thing that I needed for the age calculation that wasn’t in the NHS panel.

Michael - sorry to hear about your Bike accident - keep toying with idea of getting a bike but a high proportion of the friends who get into cycling seem to get badly injured.

I am also back on Rapamycin two weeks ago after trying it for 3 months and then just focussed on exercise for the last quarter. Now going to continue with the increased exercise and add in Rapamycin.

Will investigate other private testing in the UK otherwise will try and get something done in US but have found it difficult to become an international customer with regard to blood work.

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Colin - if you are actually traveling to the US at some point its pretty easy to get a blood test for siriolimus - you can easily order online with just your name and a credit card, and then go to the closes Lapcorp or Quest facility for the blood draw.

If you’re trying to get the blood test done by a US company when you are in the UK or other country, then yes, I suspect thats very difficult because the lab company has to do the blood draw. I don’t know if any of the companies like Quest or Labcorp have blood analysis facilities outside the US, the rules and regulations are so different in this area that I suspect not: How to get a Rapamycin (sirolimus) Blood Level Test

I tried it last time I was in New York and had the labs lined up but the blood draw company would not allow a non US to have their blood taken. If I cannot find UK company that does this test then I understand that I can get a UK private doctor that is registered with Quest labs to take the sample and get the test done.

That seems really strange… I can’t understand why they would care. Perhaps try a different lab (contact them before you go) and determine if this is something that is limited to that company, or that lab, or that city/state, etc. The US is one of the top destinations for medical tourism so I can’t believe that this is an issue everywhere in the US.

New York State doesn’t allow it - I think there are two other US states that don’t allow it though I don’t remember which ones. It’s possible in all the other states.

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Colin, if you live near London, DocTap charge £134 (+ the appointment fee) to do a Sirolimus blood test.

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That explains it - will do my medical tourism in other parts of the US in future.