Hello Again! Yes, it’s been quite a while! One thing led to another and I ended up being away longer than expected. But yes, I’ve been missing the site, I’m back, and all is well. 
Let’s jump right in to updates!
Month 10 - Rapamycin
You’ll recall that I decided to take some very large doses of Rapa in the Spring, just to rev the system, not as a forever change. I did exactly that. It’s probably how I got out of the habit of writing, as I was taking a dose and then waiting 3-4 weeks before the next one. I wanted to experience a few cycles before writing and then the time just got away from me.
I think the most I took was 12 pills with olive oil and grapefruit 2 hours before and with dosage. I believe I did this once, but the previous time was 10 pills with the same regimen and I think I did it one time earlier at 8 pills and the same.
What did I notice? Not a ton of observable effects. No diarrhea as some people have had. No physiological aches, pains, or discomfort. I will say that somewhere deep inside I was indeed revved up. I didn’t particularly like that feeling, but as I say it was just a feeling.
I’m not sorry I took those doses, and could imagine doing so once a year for a cycle or two. I definitely took a minimum of 3 weeks between doses to give my body the time it presumably needed to clear the rapa and reset.
I will say that after those three large doses over, what, 9-10 weeks, I felt like my body needed a bit of a break. I didn’t take rapa for probably 6 weeks after that last large dose. I didn’t notice anything weird in the meantime.
When I restarted I decided 6 pills is probably about right, on a weekly schedule.
The last thing of note on this subject happened in late summer. I took a vacation and had an order coming from India (have they gotten faster or what?? My India orders have been arriving in 10 days or sooner).
Anyhow, I took 4 weeks off in late summer. When I started back up I took 6 pills and whoa! I was in high gear for two days straight. It reminds me of a an older woman on this site who said that her older husband took rapa and suddenly did every chore he’d been procrastinating on for 6 six months. I felt like I had afterburners on. I was more joyous, energized, patient, social, and mentally sharp than ever.
I’m not sure why?
Could it be that the new pills from India were more potent somehow? I doubt it.
What I suspect is that the Rapa has been working in my body all along. (At this point it would have been about Month 9, a month ago.) I feel like I recall people on this site saying that certain positive effects began to kick in at 6 months, 9 months. Someone mentioned longtime tremors going away at around this time.
Have any of you noticed particular changes from Rapa that seemed to take 6-12 months to show?
In any case, I have a major deliverable once a week. A big complex meeting I lead. I’ve begun taking rapa the morning before the meeting. Maybe it’s just a Dumbo Feather, but I swear I’m a better leader on Day Two after rapa than Day 5, 6, or 7.
I’m still taking just 6 pills, once a week, usually with Olive Oil but not always. This is my long-term plan. It’s convenient with the 6-pill packaging that my rapa comes in, it’s in the Manick range (from her human trials in the late 2010’s), and it seems like the right level for the rapa to clear from the system.
In fact, if I stop taking it with Olive Oil that would be so that I can be sure I’m at a very low level before taking the rapa again.
By the way, I have continued to gain muscle mass over these months, even whilst taking rapa. I lift heavy two days a week, hitting my whole body each time. So the rapa is not negatively affecting that growth.
My Partner
This is an interesting story. You’ll recall my partner is in her early 50’s, at what I suppose is called peri-menopause. If I’m in Month 10, she’s probably in month 8, as she delayed her start.
The rapa didn’t have any other obvious effects for her over month of those 8 months. There were suspicions that it was affecting her cycle, but the changes weren’t reliably there, like month after month, so it was hard to tell what might have been a rapa effect and what might have been peri-menopause.
When I asked her what she’d like me to say on this rapalogue she did have a lot to say. About hot flashes.
I mentioned that we went away on a vacation in August. Neither of us took rapa while away. With travel and whatnot we were 3-4 weeks without rapa.
As soon as she stopped taking it—and she’d been taking it religiously for those whole 8 months; she didn’t go big like I did and didn’t take a big break like I did—so as soon as she stopped taking rapa she started getting hot flashes. She’d never experienced these before and was in awe at how powerful and annoying they could be. Her face would flush red, she would start to sweat.
This continued throughout the vacation and has continued since. It’s a remarkable coincidence, that as soon as she stopped taking rapamycin her body kicked into the next stage of menopause.
During this rapa-pause she also got the onset of her next period just 3 weeks after the previous onset. Since her periods can last 7-10 days it was just 10-14 days after the bleeding had stopped that it started up again. This is without rapa.
Again, it’s hard to say what might have happened anyhow. But again it’s a remarkable coincidence. The appearance is that rapamycin was affecting her ovaries and cycle, and when she stopped there were several noticeable effects.
She has now been on rapa for perhaps 3 weeks since the vacation. She says the hot flashes might be diminishing, she’s not sure. They certainly didn’t stop on a dime when she resumed taking it.
Tangentially she finds the hot flashes so strange. She says they seem to be related to her state of mind. So if she thinks of something that work that’s a big deal suddenly she’ll get a hot flash. Sometimes when she gets up at night to use the bathroom she’ll get a hot flash from the effort of getting up or wrapping back up in bed.
I’ll keep you up to date on how this progresses. She does have an appt with her OBGYN to hopefully start HRT (hormone replacement therapy). That could begin as early as this month.
Does anyone have info about taking Rapamycin while on HRT?
My Dog
My dog is doing super great! She’s 13 now, a poodle mix. She’s been taking rapa all along… except perhaps during our vacation. I can’t recall if my partner set up dog-sitter to give the pills or not.
In any case, my dog is really shining. I believe the effects continue to mount. Just the other day I noticed that when I get home from work she is jumping off of the couch and coming to say hello. For ages this hasn’t been the case. She’d usually just sit on the couch and side-eye me.
So the improvement in her energy, sociability, and overall health continues to shine. Her eyes are getting a bit cloudy which I hate to see. But she seems to still be seeing fine. Certainly well enough to find the treats I throw, and to wrestle with other dogs, enjoy walks, and get around the house.
Other Family
I have shared the idea of rapa with several older family members. I used the dog as a good example of the effects. Have you all read Attia’s book, Outlive? It’s fantastic! He dedicates an early chapter to Rapa. I shared this chapter with them, too, plus my handout (is it still at the top of this chain in post #1?), and my rudimentary explanation of how rapa works regarding cell maintenance, mimicking calorie restriction in some ways, pulsing doses, and Manick’s study.
So far my extended family members who are in their 70’s haven’t noticed anything in particular. They’ve been taking rapa for probably 6-8 weeks. They’re taking 4-6 pills once a week. That was my recommendation, based mostly on weight (is that right?).
I’ll keep you in the loop if anything changes on that front.
Other Health
I was excited to get a blood test in late spring. It was 6 months after I started rapa. But when I compared the this-spring numbers to the last-fall numbers I had moved negative in several respects. That is, as noted on the Levine Age Calculator, or whatever it is called.
The doctor didn’t do all the tests I had asked for, so I had several blank numbers into which I submitted last time’s numbers. But even if I tested those numbers a little higher or a little lower my results were net worse.
How worse? Not much. Last Fall I registered 3-5 years younger than I actually am. This time I registered at my actual age.
I plan to do another blood test in November, at around the 12 month period of starting Rapa. I plan to insist that the rare and random blood tests are added to the day so I can do an accurate Levine spreadsheet age. We’ll see what comes of it.
Why might my numbers have gotten slightly worse?
I wonder if my heavy rapa dosing in the Spring might have affected anything. I wonder if some of these numbers just vary and I tested on a bad day. I wonder if a very high protein diet (50-100g), or the sunflower oil I take daily (was 3-4 drops, now 1-2), or the heavy weights, or the heavy stress I was feeling in the Spring, or who knows what might have tweaked my numbers.
I was also thinking that last year’s November blood test came after 6 months of warm weather in which I was pretty active. The Spring test came after 6 months of cold weather in which I was pretty sedentary, apart from the weights twice a week.
Anyhow, the test disappointed me. I probably would have posted right then if the test showed big improvements. The not better numbers made me feel a bit ashamed to share them. Now that it’s been about 4 months since the test I feel like I can be open about it.
My partner got a blood test around the same time. She continues to test 8-10 years younger than she is. So her numbers were consistent with her November blood test. At the time of her Spring test she’d been taking rapa for 3-4 months. She does a lot more cardio than I do. I bet that helps the numbers.
Peter Attia’s book on exercise has me rethinking my exercise regime. I was surprised to hear his emphasis on Zone 2 training, which means low-level exercise at the threshold where you can speak complete sentences but just barely. He recommends 4x45 minute exercise sessions a week in Zone 2, which is 70-85% of your max heart rate. (If Max=180, Z2=126-153, the higher number would be for the very fit.)
Other Medicines
I mentioned that I was taking very high Melatonin. The bottle was 60 capsules so I took 60mg of Melatonin for just about 60 days straight. This was over the late winter, early spring. Could this have affected my blood test?
I’m not sure I noticed any pronounced effects from the Melatonin. As I believe I said before, I settled into a routine of taking the capsule about an hour before I wanted to fall asleep. It usually hit me like a ton of bricks by then. I generally slept pretty well, although I did still wake up most nights to use the bathroom. There were a good number of days when I felt a little groggy in the early morning and fewer but notable days when I let groggy for as much as the whole day after taking the capsules.
But some days I was just fine. It seems that my body would get accustomed to the melatonin and I would awaken normally, but if I took a few days off (I didn’t want to be groggy for my weekly meeting) I would feel the grog upon resuming the Melatonin.
One reason I took the molecule was its supposed benefit for the body’s mitochondria, “the powerhouse of the cell.” I didn’t notice more energy during those 60 days. I also didn’t notice feeling more well or less well during this time.
Attia’s “Outlive” mentions that the Zone 2 training is super-important to your mitochondria, to help your cells have more mitochondria and better mitochondria (by cleaning out the slacker mito’s that aren’t doing their job any more). This has me thinking about my mitochondria again.
Back in the day I bought two 60pill 60mg pills of Melatonin, two different brands. My plan was to see if one brand was better than the other. Imagine my surprise when they both had exactly the same bottle with different brand stickers on them, and both bottles had the same Lot number on the bottom, printed in the same place, in the same font, in the same color. Yeah, they were both from the same facility.
Anyhow, I started taking that second bottle last night. I opened the bottle fresh, and pierced the seal, but weirdly I didn’t get especially tired at the one hour mark. I slept fine last night, but not extraordinarily different than the nights before. I do plan to finish the bottle, so I’m looking at 60 days ahead of me of Melatonin. If I don’t notice any special positives I’m not sure I’ll buy or take more without more impetus to do so from books, articles, or such.
I’m still eating a high-protein diet, still taking 2-4g of Creatine daily, plus 1-2 drops of pumpkin seed oil (might contribute to not losing hair), plus a tablespoon or two a day of high fiber powder (I buy 3-5 good fiber powders on Amazon, mix them in a big bowl, and then repackage them).
Plus I’ve been drinking Kefir daily since I first got the suggestion here on this site last winter. I love natural kefir! I even took it with me on vacation. Thank goodness the bottle didn’t leak. For a long time I was also eating Kimchi daily, but I think I’m going to let that go. Daily kefir is probably enough fermented food on a daily basis.
I plan to update my exercise schedule this fall, incorporating some of the things I’ve been reading and hearing. I’ve stopped taking daily Vitamin D&K, Zinc, Magnesium, and Xyertec, but mostly because it was summer. I’ll probably begin taking it all again as fall approaches. We’ll see.
I am also taking a half pill (and sometimes a whole pill) of daily Minoxidil. This is a slow-acting oral way of increasing hair growth. I think it’s having the effect, just judging by my facial hair. I stopped taking finasteride because it was annoying, but began the pumpkin seed oil and daily shampoo with high Saw Palmetto and other things. My hair has remained intact. The product is this one, pricey but seems to work well
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KZLJGHP/
What else? I can’t think of anything. I do apologize for the long wait between posts. I’m trying to only post when I have things to say, but I know it’s of interest, especially to people who may be considering beginning rapamycin. On that front I have nothing but positive things to say. I continue to try and sus out what other supplements are good ideas. I look forward to catching up on all I’ve missed in coming days.
Be well!
