Hi everyone,
I’m 22 years old and I’ve been reading a lot about rapamycin as a longevity drug. I’m wondering whether it would be appropriate for someone my age to start taking it.
I’d also love to hear what other anti-aging or longevity strategies you’d recommend for someone in their early 20s — things I can start doing now while I’m young.
Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
If you do take it take it really infrequently (but I am a bit of a stuck record on that).
In my opinion 22 is too young. Your brain is still growing and developing until at least age 25. You are in no hurry. I’d wait until at least age 28 to 30 (perhaps 28 if you are female - but monitor the research coming out of Columbia University on this, as it may extend fertility by 20%). See: Rapamycin for Fertility and Menopause; Clinical Results
At your age, focus on health, exercise (cardio and strength), and basic good nutrition.
And you should have your lipids checked at least once.
I think acarbose would be a reasonable, safe choice at your age. Really a good bang for the buck longevity medicine with “buck” being potential downside. Fiber and fish also. Again, no real risk and pretty good longevity/healthspan data.
You may have gas with acarbose. You may have some blunting of muscle growth but you could always time that based on workouts. And use creatine as kind of an counterweight since that gives energy for more effective workouts.
I’d question what one is hoping to get from rapamycin at 22.
Given the incredible evidence behind a plant forward diet, no processed foods, exercise, sleep and stress optimization; plus management of cardiometabolic risks (e.g. HbA1C, Insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, Omega 3 optimization, Vitamin D, lipids, homocysteine if really high), I’d put 100% of my focus into those items and optimize.
Doing so lifelong, on average, will give at least 10 years additional life and health-span to the average male, and a bit less additional to the average female.
That’s what I’d be doing at 22 if I had the knowledge I have today. Sadly my youth was squandered on other things, but I can hopefully give you some sensible, evidence based, and practical advice.
And because this is a longevity site for adventurous biohackers I agree with Dr. David Cary wrt. acarbose, and explicitely extend that to a lipid lowering agent(s) to get yor ApoB within range (statin, bempedoic acid, ezetimibe), because atherosclerosis is exposure time dependent, so start early. Maybe even throw in an SGLT2i in there - a steady drain of glucose is quite salutary, I bet. So you can take a bunch of pills daily - that way you won’t feel left out of the longevity adventure. Keep up with the cultivation of your gut biome (variety of fibers, polyphenols, fermented foods etc.) a lifelong healthy gut can be established when young. Start rapa at any time - looking at animal models - and starting at age 30 seems like a good point of risk vs reward. That would be my choice if I could go back in time.
Get married and raise some kids. It’s a good review for you and by the time you are 50 they’ll be smarter and more capable than you (not to mention better looking). Life extension is interesting and also a long shot. You’re going to die. Get over it.