I'm 23. Should I start taking rapamycin?

At time 33:08 of his podcast with Matt Kaeberlein, Peter Attia makes the following claim:

I have no honest clue what’s the right age to start rapamycin, but it wouldn’t be before 25.

My chronologic age is 23, but according to a recent epigenetic test that I’ve done, my biological age is in the early 30s. Obviously this is not great news, but I know the causes: I had a poor diet for the vast majority of my life, I slept poorly during high school, and I did not exercise for ~4 years after finishing high school. At 22 I had an epiphany about my health, which has completely changed my lifestyle. Nowadays I would describe myself as a full-blown longevity junkie.

Should I start taking rapamycin, or should I just focus on maintaining my healthy lifestyle (good diet, restful sleep, regular exercise) for the time being?

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In the recent AMA Dr Green arbitrarily suggested 38 as the age to start though all agreed ‘we just don’t have the data’.

Intuitively I think the benefits seen from rapamycin are inversely correlated to an individual’s starting health. By that rationale a 70 year old may see a profound effect but a 25 year old, ‘no change’.

That said there could still be an aggregation of marginal gains that are undetectable over short time frames.

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FWIW if I where the same as you stated above, I would add rapamycin for 12 week on 12 week off for a year and recalculate to see if there is a change. Your statement says you are 30% older biologically.

“If you wait until you are ready, it is almost certainly too late.” ~Seth Godin

Above quote in Mikhail V. Blagosklonny paper;

Rapamycin for longevity: opinion article

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I would say to wait until 30, and in the meantime focus on behaviors
There may be some downsides to shutting growth off in any way at your age.
I would also assume that by the time you hit 30 we will know a lot more.
So I see your potential upside fairly minimal by starting now

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So I am 24 ( I turn 25 in August), and I have been taking rapamycin 1mg/week for about a month now. My epigenetic test says I am 16( I use the levine phenotypic sheet) , I am pretty sure the sheet does not accurately depict younger individuals. But I am taking rapamycin more so to prevent degradation and maintain health. I am not expecting any results more so as it wouldn’t hurt.
I would continue what your doing in regards to healthy lifestyle and then figure out what your phenotypic age is after a couple months, then after doing that , maybe think about rapamycin in a year or two. But if your age is that high phenotypically, I think the healthy lifestyle is going to bring about the bigger changes.

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I would first focus on getting my healthy diet/exercise program fully established and in practice for a year or two, doing periodic blood tests to track progress, and only after that - perhaps when you are in your late 20s, consider adding rapamycin to the mix.

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Thanks everyone for your feedback :pray:

Very helpful.

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There are large error margins and confounding factors in epigenetic tests. Don’t believe the age 30 “estimator”. The site itself has so many disclaimers that people tend to not read.

I heard about rapamycin when I was 25 and I was already a huge biochemistry nerd at the time. I didn’t take it for many reasons. There are risks with any drug and rapa is no exception when it comes to a developing adult (i.e. bone deposition and resorption ends in late 20s).

I personally focused on the low-hanging fruit first - diet, exercise, sleep, and high socioeconomic status/chronic stress before taking it at age 30. That being said, nobody knows what the best age is. Period.

Consider WGS from a CLIA-certified lab or join a clinical trial. Don’t waste your time on DTC labs that are not well validated.

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Thanks for your remarks, @tongMD.

Yeah I’ve also grown more skeptical about epigenetic tests in the meantime.

I wasn’t even finished growing at 23…, I think I added 1-2 cm between 23 and 25

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