I am 58 and in good health. Exercise regularly. I take daily low dose aspirin plus vitamin D, C, K2, magnesium, citrulline, lysine, proline, glucosamine.
I have taken 6mg rapamycin a week for the past four weeks. I expected to feel “something” when I first started, as others have reported initial side effects such as fatigue, but so far nothing. What should I be feeling if anything? Is there any way to know it’s working other than if I don’t die soon?
Do a Sirolimus blood test.
But very early days, takes a while for full steady state tissue distribution and effects to begin impact on your normal set points. Huge inter-person variation with mTOR inhibitors.
Real change didn’t start until 3 months on for me - and major changes - visceral fat loss, arthritis reduction, allergy resistance, memory improvement took a a full year. You could do a BIological look like TruMe for a baseline and test again at one year - look for improvements.
Welcome to the forum. Good questions - but you may not feel anything noticeable and different. Many of us do notice things, but it frequently take 3 to 6 months or longer to see the benefits. See here some examples from others: Anti-aging Benefits of Rapamycin, Personal Experiences (part 2)
But many people also feel absolutely nothing. I saw this post this morning by Peter Attia who has been using rapamycin for 5 years now - and he says he feels nothing different (other than the occasional canker sore / apthous ulcer). He also suggests that perhaps people in less fit/active condition may see more noticeable differences than those who are already in great shape. See here, if you have instagram: peter attia on Instagram: "The only downside I can appreciate of taking rapamycin for “geroprotective” gain… right here ladies and gentlemen."
I didn’t start noticing things until 3 to 6 months after starting - better sleeping, more energy all day, fewer aches and pains after workouts, etc. Its all pretty subtle.
Well, maybe this will encourage you.
I have a friend in the UK and he’s been on rapamycin for 5 years like myself. He’s only on 2 mg’s per week because 3 mg’s gives too much fatigue and acne. He does, however, religiously follow his epigenetic data.
Over 2017-2018 he didn’t age more than 3 months. So instead of 12 months, he aged 3 . Extrapolate that out and it will take him 4 years to age one year. Twenty years to age 4 years. And that’s on 2 mg’s! And in an actual human, not a mouse.
He’s now trying out everolimus but that’s a different story.
Exactly… 2 years at 6mg… mostly… epigenetic test says I am 50 years… not 64.
What would you pay or do… to get back 14 more years .
Will retest in 6 months at 20 mg. Grind that aging to a halt. Lol
Nice job. My friend’s response and yours suggests a very significant benefit from relatively low doses.
This is true of many meds. Low dose hctz can work as well as high dose for hypertension. Prozac 10 mg is every bit as effective for many patients as 20 mg’s.
Not at all certain that in humans more rapamycin is necessarily better.
Agreed, we don’t know this in humans, but longevity is a very long feedback signal.
Dr B says “take as much as you can tolerate”. Is he saying 1mg, 2 mg, 5 mg/week…no, he’s saying max out. So there seems to be a side effect translation issue limiting his true belief in the ultimate human benefits of rapamycin.
What do we know in mice and other smaller species. More rapamycin = more mTOR reduction = greater longevity. Now, is this because of their super high metabolism…more rapamycin was needed to keep up with the rapidly cycling blood levels and mTOR and/or is it actually the increased mTOR inhibition in and of itself?
I would like to explore ways to increase mTOR (rapalog, formulation, method of delivery), yet not have the normal side effects…change the paradigm. That would be a meaningful translation hack, and perhaps increase my odds. This is a worthy endeavour.
Is there a review or aggregation of available epigenic tests? Here or elsewhere?
GlyanAge… has a good reputation for biological age. So much so the PEARL rapamycin clinical trial is using them as a baseline pretest for reverse aging.
TruMe from Ageless has solid reviews for a spit test.
A good review and price of the most highly regarded tests:
That’s good news! I’ll feel better about paying for the next Rx. No canker sores for me yet thankfully. 
I noticed changes most when I stopped talking it.
What happened when you stopped taking it - please explain what you noticed…
2 or 3 weeks after stopping, at 63 yrs old, I felt my age again. Fatigue, stiffness, joint pain. All normal for my age, but the Rapa had lessened them all.
Dexter,
This recently released RichRoll podcast interview with Peter Attia has Peter talking about his and patients personal results and feelings upon taking rapamycin - I think you might find it interesting:
I would question whether or not we actually know that those symptoms are normal for your age, Sure, lots of people your age have those symptoms, but it might be dues to their poor lifestyle habits and not their age.
What poor habits would those be?
Fair enough. We can’t even truly define aging, so how can we possibly define with precision the symptoms of aging.
But that said, there are common health conditions that are highly correlated with increased age - like joint pain, short time until fatigue, poorer and shorter sleep quality, etc.
And while there can certainly be debate about whether these are truly symptoms of aging, I also have seen these symptoms greatly diminished with rapamycin use over the past 3 years. Placebo effect? perhaps. Impossible to know until we get some good clinical trials completed on rapamycin, which is many years away.
Yes it makes sense that an unhealthy patient would notice a greater effect from rapamycin than would a healthy patient. The preceding discussion of the benefits of exercise relative to drugs was important, too. Exercise is the best thing to prescribe to yourself!