My Rapamycin Journey/Log (Rapa + Sports Performance)

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#1

Hi Everyone,

I want to record my journey with rapamycin and hope to find some value in doing so (both for myself and others). I know we already have plenty of logs online - but I still want to do it anyway (maybe I enjoy the spotlight haha). Anyway, here we go.

Personal info

I am male, 30 years old (DOB 1992) and overall very healthy. I weigh 72kg with 12% body fat. I do not have mountains of blood work about myself (so far I have no need to go that deep) but can share some heath markers and daily habits.

My exercise habits

4x1.5 hours weight training sessions. 4x1hour zone 2 cardio (jogging). 1x30minute HIIT (zone 5). My running distances can fluctuate up and down. I love endurance running (previously ran 4 marathons + 1 ultra). Plan to run another marathon some time in summer 2023. I am currently training mainly for hypertrophy while maintaining aerobic base.

My dietary habits

I eat a balanced diet - skewed towards a Mediterranean way of eating. I eat 120-150g protein per day coming from all sources (meat/fish/dairy/soy/organs). I eat vegetables every meal (get 50-60g fibre per day). Carbs fluctuate up and down depending on mood/availability/exercise output. Carbs usually around 200g.

I currently eat 3500kcal per day and that puts me in a very small surplus to support my current hypertrophy efforts. I really focus on nutrient density. I eat from every food group and only eat whole foods (process foods only 1x per 2 weeks for fun). The animal foods I eat comes from local organic source. I like to eat nose to tale.

I perform early time restricted eating 14-16 hours daily (usually eat 8am-4pm).

Lifestyle/sleep

I have a very intense lifestyle. I never rest because I don’t want to (haha). I work from morning to night because I love my job. I am highly strung and put much pressure on myself. Prone to anxiety and overactive brain

I perform meditation for 10-20 mins per day 5 days per week. I sleep 7-7.5 hours per night but sleep quality can be an issue (frequent wake ups). I have improved these wake ups through supplementation but sleep is still my biggest lifestyle factor that may contribute to expedited ageing.

Supplements

I have a tiny supplement stack (I aim for nutrient density through food instead).

L-Theaning: 200mg/day (morning)
Glycine: 3g/day (night)
Magnesium Citrate: 600mg/day (night)
Ashwagandha: 600mg/day (night)
Trazodone: 50mg/day (night)
Pregabalin: 75mg occasionally to further improve sleep quality

Health goals

I want to achieve both performance and longevity. I probably exercise too much for longevity and my diet is centred somewhere between the two. I hope rapamycin can help me to balance some of the mTOR activation and also improve some inflammation/age-related physical decline.

I have been thinking about starting treatment for a couple of years already. I have noticed the first signs of osteoarthritis in my left knee and I am eager to stop the progression (but still refuse to stop running because I love it so much).

OK - let’s talk about rapamycin

I have acquired the Rapacan already and just started my usage.

First dose: 06/01/2023 - 1mg
Target dose: 7mg/1xweekly (0.1g/kg)

I will titrate up my dosage weekly until I hit 7mg

I took the dose upon waking at 6am along with a high fat meal (1/2 avocado, 1/2tbsp EVOO, 30g black olives). I wanted to take the dose far away from bedtime based on the negative impact it may have on sleep.

I did start to feel some side-effects in the afternoon/evening - but I have also been noticing my body is fighting some pathogen over the last week and think this may be the reason. So i’m faily sure it’s not the rapa - but the rapa may have amplified my symptoms. Symptoms were: Feeling hot/more flushed face (4pm), stomache upset (10pm), poor sleep (I only slept >6 hours of restless sleep). Sleep could be due to stomach discomfort/rapa/both.

I report no positive effects thus far. I also have set my expectations low. I am young and fit and healthy overall - so I don’t expect marked improvement in health.

Areas I would like to see benefit (quantitative measures)

Attenuate knee osteoarthritis
Stop hair loss progression
Improve immune function
Reduce soreness/inflammation in ankles after long run
Slow skin ageing
Attention and focus (I have overactive mind - I want to see if this changes)

Areas I am going to quantitatively measure

Blood glucose levels. My current fasting blood glucose is 85 (average). My average excursion after 100g carb meal is 20 (max I ever see my blood glucose is 110 based on finger prick 1 hour after high carb meal). I want to monitor if this goes up or down and report my findings.

Body weight: Current weight 72kg with 12% BF. I want to gain muscle and report if it’s impacted by rapa. My ideal body would be 75kg 8% BF. I want to see if I can get there this year while on rapa.

Running performance. I will run another marathon in 2023 (and possibly 1x ultra marathon). My previous best marathon performance is 4:05hours (although I weighed 61kg at the time and was purely focussed on running/not lifting). I want to see what marathon time I can achieve on rapa in 2023. I also want to monitor objectively my recovery.

Resting heart rate: My current RHR is 38-40bpm. I want to see if this goes up or down.

Heart rate variability: My average HRV over the course of 1 month is 76. It can be 90 if well rested and sit at 60 when I am overtraining. I want to see if I can maintain or improve this 90 max HRV and monitor the average.

Sleep stats: I currently sleep average Oura sleep score 78. My REM sleep is always very low (average around 50 minutes). Deep sleep is high (average 2 hours). Total sleep 7-7.5hours. Sleep is ALWAYS rated as restless. I want to see how these stats change over time.

Thanks for reading my stats (if you have not fallen asleep yet

You can see that I have an active lifestyle and want to take my fitness performance goals seriously. I want to balance fitness and longevity. After a long-time walking this tightrope - I have decided rapa is a good way to get there. I will continue to report my findings based on exercise performance and recovery changes based on rapamycin intake.

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My Rapamycin Regimen - Feedback Welcome
#3

Fully aware of this story - still want to run marathons haha. Also - my reasons for taking rapa do go beyond some of the info portrayed in my post. I have been plotting the move to rapa for my longevity goals for a long time and just cannot overlook the positive data across both literature and n=1 anecdotes. I also have an opinion that starting rapa earlier in life will turn out to be optimal over time.

I think we all wish each other the best on this platform and we are all in this together trying to advance the knowledge and freely sharing information.

4 Likes
#4

I think the evidence is pretty strong, generally, for more exercise is better (though perhaps not to Olympic levels of exertion/ training times). See: Exercise, VO2 max, and longevity | Mike Joyner, M.D

2 Likes
#6

Thanks for sharing this study and I did analyse it. Three points to note:

  1. Most high-level exercisers (apart from maybe athletes) actually don’t spend much time in ‘very vigorous’ exercise range. I personally only spend 20-30mins per week in that zone.

  2. I think the weight of the evidence is still strongly in favour of exercise.

  3. I believe that even with the issue suggested in this paper, the benefits probably still outweigh the risks. Almost every other marker of health will improve with exercise, including; Reduced/stable blood glucose, reduced visceral & intramuscular adiposity, decreased blood pressure, reduced dementia risk, etc, etc, etc.

I always try to look at the weight of the evidence. I am biased towards exercise because I enjoy exercise - so take or leave my opinion. However, I don’t think it’s a stretch to argue that getting plenty of physical activity is beneficial.

4 Likes
#7

Hey,
Great and informative Intro to what sounded like the start of a detailed, informative and entertaining Rapa-diary!

What happened, how did it go for you?

2 Likes
#8

I’m wondering how the new Oura sleep algorithm has impacted on your sleep score and deep v REM sleep?

1 Like
#9

Nice protocol. However, rapamycin isn’t a fix-all drug for the other concerns you mentioned. For example:

“Stop hair loss progression” - if you are a male this is probably an adrogenic issue, where you need to inhibit DHT binding affinity on the scalp. Don’t take finasteride or minoxidil if you are concerned about health optimization. Instead, try dutasteride injections (mesotherapy) on the scalp as I have done many times. Only needs done once every three months and will stop all hair loss beginning a few days after the injection. There are other things to improve hair loss as well. Rapamycin even anecdotally hasn’t been shown yet to do anything significant for hair loss.

Next: “Slow skin ageing” - Yes, it is important what you are supplementing with however it is quite obvious that supplementing alone isn’t going to improve skin aging. The skin is exposed to pollutants,UV, and toxins hence you need to be on something topical, ie: retinol, good moisturizer, zinc oxide sunscreen, etc…

For overative mind - you can try supplementing with tryptophan, GABA, lemon balm etc… Anything to activate the parasympathetic system.
For attention and focus: there are things you can take such as alpha-gpc etc…

2 Likes
#10

Any updates on how things are going for you?

#11

Hey,

It’s been a long time since I updated - because I had a poor experience on Rapa and have not dosed in almost 1 year.

I posted on other threads about the things I went though, but I will copy/paste those posts here in chronological order to give a summary:

This was my experience while on rapa:
I noticed some pretty bad side effects at 3mg + 1 whole red grapefruit +EVOO dosed weekly.

  1. Heart rate elevated by 10bpm
  2. HRV down by 30
  3. Suspected hypercortisolemia (super anxious/stimulated/wired 24/7).
  4. Nausea during weight lifting (started 15 mins into the session - had to quit early)
  5. Raised non-HDL and TC

Stopped the rapa and all symptoms went away.

Even with these symptoms I persevered with this dosage regimen for 6 weeks - I was kinda thinking (hoping??) that I just had a virus or something. I was reluctant to blame the rapa.

I was getting nausea on every lifting workout - not just on dosing days (I lift 4x per week). Interestingly, I wasn’t getting nausea during my zone 2 cardio (+ zone 3 running). In fact, I ran a 1:44 half marathon while on the high dose - but afterwards I was absolutely destroyed and it took me a while to recover - normally I would be fine the next day (apart from a bit of muscle/joint fatigue).

All symptoms subsided after 2 weeks or so after I stopped dosing.

For me: more is clearly not better. The side effects were severe.

February 2023:
I have slowly worked up to my target does of 3mg rapa+GFJ over the last month or so. Feeling well - no negative effects (or so I thought).

I went and got a lipid panel yesterday just as a routine check. Surprised to see my Non-HDL is up to 170mg/dl.

Pretty shocked about this - last time I checked was 2 years ago and I was well inside the normal (I forget the result). There is nothing diet/lifestyle wise I can do to lower it further.

I will stop rapa now for a few weeks and then test again. My assumption is that rapa has caused this high number.

I’m 30 y/o - healthy in every regard eat 90% plant-based\mediterranean diet. Never eat SFA containing foods.

Anyway, just thought I’d share this as a heads up in case others are potentially experiencing the same issue but don’t know because they haven’t had a recent test. I know it’s a potential side-effect but still surprising for me to see it this high.

I will update with new results in a few weeks.

Additional point: My HDL was 96mg/dl.

But here’s what I never posted about (forgot, sorry!):
1 month after coming off rapa, I got my lipids tested - got 76mg/dl. I did not take any lipid modulating drugs.

Rapamycin dramatically increased my lipids and deteriorated my health.

Now, I am not saying rapa is bad. I have a strong belief in the perceived benefits - and the studies.

My hypothesis is that I’m a hyperabsorber of some sort - or just have some adverse physiological response. Even in mega-dosers - I don’t see them reporting some of the side-effects I have.

I know people argue that raised lipids on rapa is no-problem. I understand the literature as it’s a documented phenomenon. But the risk/reward is not there in my opinion - especially at 30y/o. I will not tolerate raised lipids.

So that’s where I am at. I have loads of rapa in my cupboard. Thinking about trying it again at a lower dose and seeing what happens. I do have access to statins (the doctor gave me them after they checked my lipids while I was on rapa lol). So I have contemplated an 8 week rapa cycle while taking very low-dose rosuvastatin at the same time.

Would be interested to get your thoughts. I am a good case study IMO.

3 Likes
#12

Good decision. The best decisions I could have made at 30 was stop drinking alcohol and get more sleep. Anyone can engineer rapa like benefits through diet (protein and calorie cycling) and circadian rhythm optimization. I wouldn’t push it.

1 Like
#13

Sorry to hear about your bad experience, but why are you taking it with grapefruit juice? I know people do that to try to save money, but maybe that is the issue. From what I can tell the pulsatile (vs chronic daily) dosing is important and grapefruit juice will inhibit metabolism, prolonging the half life from what is already a long half life at 62 hours to who knows how long. Therefore your blood serum level may look closer to a chronic daily user rather than a typical once a week or two user.

1 Like