Introducing myself....finally!

#1

Hi everyone!
I wanted to introduce myself as I’ve been lurking on the site for the while trying to soak up as much information as I possibly can. I’m a 47-year-old based in LA. I am sadly, not as educated as most of the members on the site, but I do have a passion for longevity science and overactive curiosity.
I’m incredibly grateful that this site exists and while I haven’t commented I really appreciate everyone’s thoughtful, helpful comments and posts.

I’m intending to start Acarbose and a low dose of Rapa within the next month, probably around 2mg and build from there. I received my prescription a couple of months ago from Dr. Rosen but I’ve been out of the country on business and didn’t feel like it was the right time to start as my routine was thrown out and I wouldn’t be able to track my biomarkers.

If anyone has any advice or tips before I start, I’m all ears!

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#2

Welcome Paul… the only regret I have is not doing a pre rapamycin biological age test… in particular GlycanAge as they are using it in the PEARL clinical trial. And a DEXA… bone, fat and muscle scan.

I know I have improved… but having the undeniable evidence of how much would be important. Once you miss that opportunity… you won’t get another chance.

If I could go back… if only. Even doing it 1 month in on rapa results would be comparable. So nothing stopping you to go.

Nevertheless, been on this journey 2 years and seeing improvements is amazing every day. Euphoric feeling, memory back… and physically being back to my 40’s I am 64 +.

Good journey. Jason

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#3

Concur with Agetron, baseline as many of your bioparameters as possible…it’s the only way you can separate the effect of an intervention(s) going forward.

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#4

Welcome, Paul!

I am based in LA as well. If you are interested in baselining:

DEXA scans are available through BodySpec - DEXA Overview
It’s also fairly easy to order blood work from Lab Testing Services – Unlock Better Health - Life Extension and get your test done through a LabCorp.

How was your experience with Dr. Rosen. Is he prescribing both the Acarbose and Rapa?

(Perhaps worth noting I have no financial interest in BodySpec, Life Extention Foundation, or LabCorp)

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#5

Hi Paul, and welcome to the forums. Sounds like you’ve got the basics of a good plan of action.

We probably need to come up with a full list of implementation ideas. What Agetron has suggested is a great start. We have a bit of a quantified self orientation here in the forums - the more measuring you can do before you start, so that you have a good baseline, the better to decide on how things are working out for you and what adjustments you may need to make… of course ,the sky is the limit when it comes to testing, but everyone can adjust based on their interest level and budgets…

Also - because many of us here made the mistake of starting rapamycin before realizing all the tools there are out there for tracking biological age, etc. - its good to know this before you start. For example, the blood tests can be good input for a free biological age calculator from Yale that many of us use regularly to track what we hope is progress…

So, here is my quick and dirty list of things to consider testing prior to starting rapamycin… and additionally, if you’re also adding on acarbose, you may want to first start rapamycin, then after a few months, do some more testing prior to starting acarbose, just to keep things simple. Changing more than one variable at a time between testing makes it pretty much impossible to know which drug is doing what to your body.

Pre-Rapamycin Testing:

Dexa Scan - for total body composition, eg.

Rationale: In the PEARL rapamycin clinical study they are looking at visceral fat as one of the key endpoints of the trial. From other research, the expectation is that reductions in this area are one of the most likely benefits the researchers expect to see in using rapamycin over the longer term.

Bood tests (CBC, HRP, CRP, etc.), so at a minimum you have enough information to calculate your Levine Phenotypic Age, and some of the Aging.AI tests.
For details see: A Friendly, Biological Age Reduction Competition?
AgingAI Free Online Test: http://aging.ai
More reading: Impressive Biological Age Reductions with Rapamycin (anecdotal)

Other Biological Age measures - like GlycanAge, etc.

I’d recommend doing the one leg standing test, each leg, eyes closed and eyes open - do it 5 times to get an average. Details here: Balancing on One Leg, Good Test for Your Longevity

For fun - you might try this too: https://futurself.ai
News story on it here: What is your psychological age? Free online test from Hong Kong-based longevity firm gives answers and tips | South China Morning Post

You can see a little more on what they do in the Pearl study and get as aggressive as you want in testing: Tracking your Rapamycin Results - From the PEARL Study

Inexpensive labs for getting blood work done quickly and cheaply include:

Anyone have any other ideas to add here?

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#6

I would add a cognitive test for sure, quick, easy, free.

See one option here:

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#7

Hi Jason,
Thanks for this. All good advice. I usually test my blood every three months’s through my doctors office andI’ve shied from biological tests up to now, but actually I think it’s a great idea to get a solid baseline.

Much appreciated.

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#8

Thanks so much for this. This is great, and hugely helpful.I t’s probably a fantastic resource to have for anyone noobs like me. I do regularly check my blood markers, and actually the reason I’m delaying starting Rapa is that my work trip was extended at the last minute for an extra month. I’d only planned to bring enough of my stack for a month. I was bouncing between hotels, was barely able to out and was eating out most of the time-I’m celiac- so it became impossible to maintain my regular diet. I’ve lost weight and muscle mass. Now I’m back I’m spending this month getting back to my usual baseline. I feel as though if I start now I’ll be seeing too much noise. I’ll look in Glycan age test and a Dexa scan at the end of the month. Thanks again!

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#9

Not a problem Paul. I wish I had your age and good looks. My glycan age is actually 27 years younger. They say I’m 37 biological years based on my proteins and lack of Inflammation.

I just would have loved to know if I’d taken a test prior to Rapamycin… would I tlhave been 50 or 60? I certainly would not have been 37 years old the same For the TruMe test it says that I was 14 years younger 50 biologically…and it completely blew away The CEO who is a molecular biologist.

I’m happy with the results .And no doubt it’s due to the Rapamycin …it’s just I don’t know have evidence to prove that change to anyone.And my goal would have been to help move Rapamycin to the main stream for all people. Good journey.

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#10

Yes, Dr. Rosen prescribed both and he was great. He’s very knowledgeable and our call went over by a considerable amount of time. He also gave me food for thought about reevaluating my approach to my cardiovascular risk, suggesting that instead of basing it on 10 years I should instead look at interventions over a 30 year period, which I hadn’t considered. Thanks for these links, very helpful.

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