All sounds on track and amazing.
Curious about your dog update?
Thanks
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Happy Holidays, HigoMe33 and everyone! First of all, I realize that this site is dedicated to rapa-related health and longevity reports/stories/research, but I just have to say…I LOVE your writing, HugoMe33! (I’m a writer myself, and I practically swoon when I read great prose. Yours rocks.)
On a more official level, I really appreciate your detailed reports. I haven’t had any side effects from my rapa dosing (yet), but your reports are reminding me to pay careful attention to what’s happening with my body. I’m at 5mg/once per week, and so far, so good. It hadn’t been my intention to increase the dose any further, but since I’m tolerating 5mg so well, I might try 6mg and see what happens. (However, Agetron just recently shared his “More rapamycin might not be better” post, which is definitely food for thought.)
I, for one, appreciate your reports on your partner’s experiences. (I’m a female, so I relate to her.) And your dog’s experiences, as well! (I’m not a dog, but I have a dog. And a cat. Has anyone given rapa to a cat?)
I read “Rapamycin News” the same way other people read the WSJ or the NYT…with such excitement, interest, and fondness for my fellow rapa adventurers.
Thanks again, HigoMe33, for keeping us informed and inspired.
Sunday is my dosing day, so here I go. Cheers!
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I have taken by second 5mg dose yesterday 12/25/22. Scooter is in the TRIAD study and took his first dose of rapamycin of placebo Wednesday (12/21/22) the prescribed day for his pills. I have notice no effect yet. I did just get an email from WU they are starting a human trial of rapamycin.
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Watch for the skin tags…
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Sunday the1st of Jan I will have my 3rd full dose, i.e 5mg. Scooter our soon to be 10 year old Goldendoodle has taken his second dose of rapamycin or placebo as part of the Dog Aging Project. I have noticed no significant change or side effects in myself or Scooter, so far.
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Weeks 5 & 6
Last night was my worst night’s sleep in years. The big learning? Don’t take Rapamycin if sick.
I spend a lot of time around children and the elderly in my work. In recent days I picked up a mild illness from one of the kids. It got my sinuses going, but nothing a few Sudafeds couldn’t handle. For two days my throat was slightly red, but not much pain to speak of.
This was happening just as I was scheduled to take my week 6 dose. I put off the dose for a day. My throat was still a little red but diminishing. I put off the dose for another day and found myself feeling great. Throat looking fine, no sinus issues to speak of.
So I took my next dose, upping it to 5mg.
Big mistake. All I can think is that I didn’t wait long enough and wasn’t actually over the illness. The next day the sickness came back more and more. With every passing hour I felt worse. By the end of the day I took a COVID test, which was negative. This was just the creeping crud.
Last night was harrowing. I woke up with chills that took an hour to break. I constantly awakened through the night. I woke up with chest congestion, a “frog” in my throat, and general body aches.
My hypothesis is that 5mg of Rapamycin told my cells to stop growing (healing) and in this gap a basic infection was given second wind. The whole thing is tragic in that it seems to have been entirely avoidable. I should have waited longer to take my next dose. In retrospect I could easily have skipped a week.
For those who may be wondering about antibiotics, I have been tending my microbiome for years and couldn’t bear devastating my “internal rainforest” for a bit of an infection. I believe I have a strong immune system and I believe it is revving up every day as the rapamycin works itself out of my body. So I’m going to wait and watch closely.
I will certainly go to Urgent Care and get a Z-pack if I notice things getting worse. Right now it seems to have stabilized. Besides, I do believe it’s a mild pathogen, judging by how quickly my body dealt with it pre-rapa.
Conclusions on previous side effects
In previous posts I mentioned several potential side effects of rapamycin. I have more data on those.
Concerning eye spasms, I had lots of eye spasms last week around Christmas, and hadn’t taken rapamycin in nearly a week. I am now convinced that it was the stress of the holidays and not rapa.
Concerning the slight rash on my arms, that appears to have been due to an unrelated experience I had during that particular week. Nothing like that has happened before or since. I am now convinced that it was not the rapa.
Concerning the splitting headache I had one week, I now repent of throwing OneSkin under the bus, because I happened to have used it the night before. I did several experiments over these past two weeks, applying that skin cream (as I mentioned, my partner loves it and is noticing pleasing results). Not once did I get anything even close to a headache. I am now convinced that I had a bit of a sinus infection that day (I get those) and the rapamycin kicked it into high gear.
I will absolutely be watching for any signs of illness in future weeks before taking a dose. Technically these aren’t side effects, but “effects.” If I take rapa when sick it does not help and actually appears to make things worse in the short term.
My Partner and my Dog
My partner is on a regimen of anti-fungal cream for something she wants to get rid of over the winter so her toe nail is clear by summer. To be safe she is taking only 1mg of rapamycin a week during these 45 days. She hasn’t noticed any other effects to speak of over the past few weeks.
My dog continues to react positively to rapamycin. Around Christmas some friends came to the door to drop off a present. They remarked at my dog’s perky demeanor. “How old is she, again?” They asked. “Twelve years old,” said we. “Wow, she looks so great!” They said. I am open to the possibility that we’re reading into the dog’s behavior, but I truly believe there has been an immediate and positive change in her health and state of mind. The 3mg doses for her 44lbs will continue.
A Few Learnings
This week I learned not to chew the pills. I know, what an idiot, right? Well I’d taken the pills with a spoonful of Olive Oil and I wanted it to dissolve in the oil so my mind said “chew” and I did. I immediately regretted it as a stomach ache was the quick result. You’re probably too smart to chew your pills, but if you get the idea resist it.
I have been thinking of rapamycin as a priority health intervention that “must go on!” That’s why I took the 5mg dose so close on the heels of my illness. That’s why I took 4mg two weeks in a row, because I knew I needed to be at my best around Christmas but didn’t want to interrupt the dosing.
I am coming to the realization that I can relax a bit about these dosings. If under the weather I should skip a week. If under a lot of pressure I should skip a week.
From all that I have read on this forum I’m not aware of anything that says “the dosing must go on!” In fact, I’ve read in several places that the key to rapa is in the long term usage (years) and in the difference between trough and peak. In both cases, a slightly extended dosing period should not hurt and may help, especially if there are mitigating circumstances.
Looking Ahead
We’re now in the new year and I’m close to the dose I was shooting for: 5mg-7mg weekly. I am going to monitor my body and see what makes sense as far as dose size and dose period.
To those who have chimed in on this thread, thank you! I appreciate that these missives are helpful and I especially appreciate it when you share your own experiences and suggestions. Happy New Year!
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Don’t take Rapamycin if sick.
Took the Pfizer covid booster vaccine last Friday, Dec. 23… felt a little off Saturday, 24… and Sunday, 25… assumed was shot reaction.
By Monday, 26 not feeling too hot. Was Rapamycin dosing day… took 2mg Rapamycin with GFJ… assuming it gave me a 6x’s dose 12 ng/mL
Tested for Covid on Tuesday, 27… I took 2 different tests… see.
Was positive… except for stuffy nose… no other issues. Was fine by Thursday, 29… tested negative with Covid yesterday. DONE… LOL
So that was it… the easiest illness I can remember… and I haven’t been sick in 2.5 years that I have been on Rapamycin.
Rapamycin is actually suppose to keep your immune system from over reacting… which I guess it did.
So Rapamycin can play a supportive aspect… depends on what is the issue… virus great… bacteria… maybe not so great.
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Positive COVID Test
I got a positive COVID test this morning after another terrible night’s sleep and an increasingly painful sore throat. This is my first time with COVID. It feels like I’ve been hit by a truck.
I was at an event last Wednesday that included people with COVID, as I later found out, so perhaps the timing was bad luck—perhaps I effectively fought off the mild infection from the children just as I was developing COVID.
I’m not sure what effect Friday’s dose of rapamycin may have had on this illness, or if there was anything I could have done to head it off. I’m now on Paxlovid for COVID and a Z-pack for ear congestion.
To be clear, I was exposed to COVID late on Wednesday, took 5mg of rapamycin on Friday, began to feel bad late Saturday, felt increasingly bad on Sunday, and got a positive COVID test on Monday.
AgeTron, I hope I have the same experience as you–quick and easy. It hasn’t been easy so far though.
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Thank you. It’s hit me like a ton of bricks 
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If Covid makes more cells senescent then all these things will happen.
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Any more updates?
How did you determine dosage for your puppy? My guy is 6 pounds 12 year old!
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Hi Patty, I plan to post another update this afternoon. I’m trying for one a week to keep the narrative interesting and informative.
Regarding my dog’s dosage, I followed the protocol that Matt Kaeberlein is using for his “Dog Aging Project” https://dogagingproject.org/our-team/
That dose is 0.15mg per 1 kilogram of your dog’s weight (mass?), given once a week. As you know or can easily google, 1 pound equals 0.454 kilograms. My dog is 44 lbs, so I get the following:
44 lbs * 0.454 lbs/kg = 19.976 kilograms ≈ 20 kilograms
0.15 mg/kg * 20 kg = 3 mg of Rapamycin weekly
Kaeberlein is an expert in the field and thousands (tens of thousands?) of dogs are signed up for the study; thus I trust that the dosage has been carefully determined.
I hope this helps, and good luck with your pup!
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Everything you want to know about
Rapamycin for dogs is probably here in this post How Do I Get Rapamycin for My Dog?
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Week 7: post-COVID
I’m over COVID and actually feeling fantastic! Could it be that rapa helped me recover faster and feel better doing it? I’m not sure. I am fully vaccinated (4 shots) and COVID hit me like a piano falling from a second story window, but I sure did recover quickly. AgeTron, maybe it was just as you said above!
For the sake of good data, here’s how it went down for me. On my second day after exposure I took 5 mg of rapamycin, my largest dose so far. I didn’t think I’d contracted COVID, as I’d gone what, 3 years without getting it. Twenty-four hours later I started feeling very congested in my throat and sinuses. That was the third day after exposure.
If Day 0 of having COVID was the first day I felt symptoms (the third day after exposure in my case), I got progressively worse on Day 1 and Day 2. I began Paxlovid and Azithromycin (an antibiotic, a so-called Z-pack) on Day 2 after receiving an instant positive on a rapid test.
Day 2 and Day 3 were both pretty crummy for me. On Day 4 I began to feel significantly better. I felt so much better I took a COVID test on Day 4 and it was negative. On Day 5 I felt so much better. On Day 6 I took a second COVID test, as the CDC recommends two negative tests 48 hours apart as the sign that you’re truly over it, no longer contagious, and don’t have to wear a mask.
On Day 7 and Day 8 I was able to function normally, but did get tired easily, probably from sitting on my rear end for nearly a week straight. On both nights I slept hard, long, and wonderfully deep.
Today would be Day 9, I feel like a million bucks.
Apart from some fatigue early on, my primary symptom was a super-terrible, awful, and really quite excruciatingly painful sore throat, especially in one particular spot.
I now have insight into why my throat was so sore.
The Canker Sore from Hell
That’s right, in the middle of COVID, on 5mg of rapamycin, my body decided it would be an awesome time to develop a canker sore right on the back of my throat.
Allow me to share that I have never had a canker sore on my throat or tonsil ever, not in nearly 50 years of life in all of the illnesses that I can remember.
This is now my second canker sore since starting rapamycin. I do have a tendency to get canker sores; but usually while on vacation (not sure why) and even then perhaps one a year. I convinced my doctor to give me 4 or 5 some silver nitrate sticks about 10 years ago for these, and I still am using the edges of a few of them to chemically cauterize the sores to stop the pain and speed their healing.
I always get them inside my lip. Before rapamycin I would say 99% of my lifetime canker sores have been inside the lip, with the 1% being a fudge factor for something I may have forgotten.
In my Week One of rapa, on 1mg no less, I got a canker sore on the inside of my cheek. Then on Week Seven of rapa, on 5mg, I got this canker sore on I think what would technically be my tonsil, although I’m wondering if there was a second one on the same side just down my throat behind my tongue.
I now wonder how much of my sore throat pain was actually COVID and how much was this really uncomfortable canker sore. The effect was that it was extremely painful to swallow. It was worst at night when I would awaken to throat pain as many as 10-15 times a night early in COVID.
Clear Effects of Rapa Dosage
Reflecting on these first seven weeks with Rapamycin there are three very clear effects on my health and two maybe effects.
The first clear effect is that my gums continue to be really really healthy. I truly thought I had healthy gums before, but the color is less red/pink than ever, and my occasional once-a-week-ish flossing continues to have zero blood of any kind from any tooth which is unprecedented in my entire adult life.
This makes me wonder what other tissues in my body are immediately responding to rapamycin in positive directions. I’m astounded at how quickly this has occurred.
The second clear effect is that my shoulder pain continues to be gone. This was my highest hope for rapamycin. It also began some weeks ago, in truly rapid fashion. As with the first effect above, I wonder what other pain-areas might be benefitting from rapamycin.
The third clear effect is somewhat negative: the canker sores. They appear to be here to stay. I don’t know how cool I will be with a sore-a-month, or even every other month. But then again, if the sore is the price (maybe the only price?) to pay for rapid and positive health changes throughout my body… well that may be a price I’m willing to pay. Yes, I can actually say it is a price I’d pay.
The first maybe effect is that I might get slight headaches right after dosage. I need to watch this more closely. Maybe rapa is doing something to my sinuses, which historically don’t need much encouragement to go south on me. I’ll watch this more closely.
The second maybe effect is that I might feel better and sleep better. I’m not sure about this, as there are so many variables at play.
Future Rapa Dosage Plans
Having experienced so many positive effects over these first weeks, and even the negative effects, I am wondering two things about future dosage.
First I’m wondering if I need as much as 5mg a week. If 1mg gave me a canker sore in week one, and if 1mg, then 2mg, then 3mg were already helping my gums… do I need more?
Second, I’m wondering if I need a weekly dose or if I should go to a longer period. If rapamycin’s half-life is 2.5 days in the average person, my math says a 5mg dose becomes 2.5mg on day three, 1.25 mg on day five, 0.625mg on day eight, 0.3 (let’s say) on day ten, and 0.15 on day thirteen. If higher doses have unique benefits (like crossing the blood brain barrier, some say, or reprogramming your biology more effectively), and if the effectiveness of rapa is tied to the gap of jumping from essentially zero rapa to the full number on your dosage day, then perhaps a 4mg to 7mg dose should be a bi-weekly thing for me.
I haven’t decided which way I will go with this. Because a weekly dose is so convenient for my phychology (it’s Wednesday, it’s time for rapa), I’m leaning towards keeping a weekly dose, but perhaps sticking with 3mg or 4mg dose for a while to see how it affects me.
FYI, I did skip a dose in the middle of COVID. I plan to begin again later this week.
Week 7: My Dog
My sweet dog continues to get 3mg of rapa a week. As I’ve been reflecting on her behavior, I think its primary effect is to make her more responsive. This manifests as being more outwardly sociable, more likely to greet me at the door (rather than lie in a stupor on the couch), more eager to go outside, more eager for treats, more engaged with other dogs and more willing to roughhouse with them.
At times she seems unsure of what to do with herself. Like she’s feeling a burst of energy but doesn’t know what to do with it. At those times I wonder if the feeling is a good one for her. I might compare it to me drinking too much coffee. I might be more responsive to everything but is that a happy feeling?
Those moments are few though. She certainly seems happy to have the energy and inclination to say hello at the door, or to jump up on the ottoman and lay down next to me as I’m writing.
As I wondered for myself about the positive effects rapa is having on my body and may be having, I find myself musing about what effects my dog’s body and physiology may be feeling.
For example, our dog rarely brushes her teeth; never right? I wonder if this is improving her gum health, which for humans is connected to all sorts of good or ill health effects because of the continual low level inflammation or lack of it. I sincerely hope it is helping that!
She’d also showed some signs of arthritis about a year ago when we started giving her “Nutramax Dasuquin” which seemed to help. She’s done some sprinting on rapamycin which had become rare in recent years, so I hope it’s helping her joints as well.
My Partner
For about another month my partner is planning to take only 1mg of rapa a week, which doesn’t seem to have much effect on her. I am eager for her to be done with her anti-fungal toenail thing so she can increase her doses and we can see what effects it may have on her. She has some aches and pains that I would love to see healed.
Other People
On that note, do you find yourself wanting to recommend rapamycin to friends, family, or coworkers, or even acquaintances when you hear of their significant health challenges? I do.
I wish it was a more mainline treatment so I didn’t feel like a ogre suggesting that people attempt off-label self-dosage with organ transplant meds obtained in India because, “like, it could really be good for you.”
Thus far I’ve managed to keep my mouth shut around everyone but my uncle who has some benign tremors. I sent him a link to a rapamycin.news article and he said he’d take a look when he had a minute. I assume he didn’t, since he never mentioned it again.
Ah well, if rapamycin is really as good for us as it seems, it’ll catch on eventually. It does feel good to be on the vanguard, though, doesn’t it?
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Sir, Is you also taking Finestride 1 mg , minoxdil with rapamycin. Pls reply
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Hi Dutacet, welcome to the forums. yes - the writer of this Thread @HigoMe33 states in the first post that he’s taking the following in addition to his rapamycin regimen:
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Hello, sorry for the delay. I have unpleasant side-effects from Finasteride. This led me to use less and less until I was taking a quarter of a pill daily (0.25mg).
These side effects had nothing to do with rapamycin, as they began long before I started rapa.
I have since begun to take 5 drops of pumpkin seed oil daily, from a post on this forum that included research that pumpkin seed oil blocks the generation of DHT, like finasteride. Supposedly it would not have the same sexual side effects, but thus far it actually seems the same. (Subdued orgasm, less ejaculate, lowered libido, possibly fewer nighttime erections.)
I am considering stopping finasteride/pumpkin seed oil for these reasons.
Yes, I continue to take minoxidil. I have settled into half a pill daily (1.25mg, I believe) taken before bed for convenience. This is easy to do and has no side effects that I notice. I expect to continue this indefinitely.
For the record, I am aware of no reports of drug interactions between rapamycin and finasteride or minoxidil. Hope this helps.
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Hey HigoMe33 - My urologist prescribed a daily 5mg sildenafil for urinary health 1 1/2 years ago. I do that and the pumpkin seed oil gel pills - 1000 mg and 5mg finasteride, and 5mg minoxidil daily. no issues or side effects on my ability to perform.
Good to go 24/7.
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I was taking .25 mg of finasteride but had to stop. It literally made my testicles hurt. It was a dull but medium-intensity pain that wouldn’t go away until I stopped taking finasteride. Everyone’s biology is different!
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Exactly… maybe try Pumpkin seed oil?
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