I’ve had my rapa for awhile now and finally got my blood tested for baselines.
I had CRP, BMP, CBC, and PT/PTT tests done. The driver here is that I’m having a knee surgery soon and required bloodwork.
Anyway, the only two flags that came up were my iron (260) and insulin (1.9) levels. Iron is high and insulin is low.
Here’s the thing… I’m vegan so it seems pretty uncommon I’d have high iron. I do not have a primary care doc. Has anyone else experienced this?
Thanks, but honestly not sure what this means exactly or how it applies. I’m not yet taking rapa. This is my initial blood work I had done as a baseline.
Rapa probably will lower your iron levels and raise your glucose and lipid levels.
It did mine and has been the same for others on this forum.
Thanks for sharing. How long have you been on Rapamycin and what dose regime are you on? I will have also done blood tests and will analyze them and present them later this month.
Here you can read about my journey.
The interesting part is that I have already very low iron levels. I wonder if they will go down even more when I now take Rapamycin.
This is great to hear, thanks! The high iron levels have me freaking out a bit. I don’t have a primary care doc and haven’t done blood before so this is all new to me.
I have NOT started my rapa yet. This is my initial bloodwork that I’m planning to use as a baseline.
I suppose the good news is I plugged all my data into the Phenotypic age calculator and I’m already running some 9+ years younger than my biological age:
Many high ferritin levels are not from high iron levels, but fron fatty liver deciese. Many vegan foods are high carb, which create fatty liver and high ferritin. Rapa will help but i suggest adding acarbose for the carbs
Be prepared for your LDL cholesterol to shoot way up, mine certainly did after 6 months. Lipids were the only bad development though, everything else improved in my labs
Good to know. Ferritin levels are in the normal range though. My Iron levels are elevated though.
I wouldn’t worry about a fatty liver, your ALT levels are fantastic. I’ve been vegan for 37 years and I always get very high albumin levels which always confounds the doctors. Personally I wouldn’t be particularly worried about those iron levels but definitely check any supplements you are taking which might contain iron. Do you use iron skillets or saucepans? Are you taking any prescription drugs which might affect iron levels? Have you had a gene test at all? These can sometimes highlight mutations which can cuase deficiencies or excesses of certain minerals and vitamins.
Thanks! I’m still learning (a lot) so I’m not sure what ALT levels are.
I don’t use iron skillets or saucepans and take nothing in terms of prescription drugs, supplements, etc. I’ve only been vegan about 6 years now.
No genetic test done yet but it seems like something I should do.
I guess the good news is I’ll be having more bloodwork done as I start my rapa, so I can keep an eye on the iron. Appreciate the response!
You’re welcome. I am still learning a lot too. FYI, this might help: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/22028-alanine-transaminase-alt
Good luck! 
Like yourself I had a blood test done before starting rapamycin and had an identical iron level of 260, but my insulin was high at 11. I ordered the blood test through Ulta labs which I believe uses Quest laboratories to do their actual testing. I alerted my doctor and she reran the tests using the local hospital lab. The iron now came back at 160 and the insulin at 5.2, quite a difference! These were both fasting levels one week apart. Also the ApoB numbers were different, from high with Ulta to normal with the hospital.
She then said I was fine and no further testing necessary, but how did the doctor determine which lab results to trust? and why were the numbers so different? The insulin I can understand being different because apparently there is not a standardized test for insulin levels nationwide.
This taught me not to trust one test or one lab. Possibly do more testing if you are concerned about any particular lab result and you may get a different number.
Awesome, thanks for the link!
Wow, that’s interesting and comforting to know!
I’m definitely planning to do more regular blood work once I start rapa. So I’ll keep an eye on it. Thanks for this!
Ferritin is too high. <100 is optimal. Flour and corn meal in the U.S. is mostly iron-fortified, so you don’t escape the excess iron by being a vegan.
Interesting, thanks. I’ll have to look into it or at least keep an eye on it with future tests.
I don’t eat much, if any, corn meal and flour. I’m largely eating veggies, lentils, stuff like that. And most of my food comes from the farm across the street which is pesticide free and organic.
Have you had the genetic test that shows whether you have hemochromatosis?
“Genetic mutations in the hemochromatosis gene (HFE) make up the most common genetic cause of elevated ferritin levels and are usually seen in Caucasian patients with northern European ancestors. The typical patient with hemochromatosis carries two copies of the C282Y mutation of the HFE gene.”
I have one copy and have elevated ferritin.
