Hi All! I’m in my 3rd week of rapa, at 3 mg once per week.
Recently, I acquired a pretty significant muscle tear during a workout. Curious if anyone has any literature or insights on rapamycin plus muscle tears, particularly its impact on healing of a muscle and tendon injury.
I’m considering dropping rapa if it will speed the healing process (or return it to baseline if inhibiting), and then return to my regiment post-injury.
Appreciate your insights!
Hi and welcome to the site.
There is some research that suggests rapamycin at high doses can slow wound healing, but we don’t know exactly the level at which that starts to become a noticeable issue.
So, to maximize the probability of the fastest possible wound healing its not a bad idea to pause the rapamycin. Or you can search on “Rapamycin and wound healing” to see if there is any new information on exactly what doses and schedules that might be a factor at. Most of the studies are on daily rapamycin so are not that relevant.
This is an old thread, but I wanted to report my experience. I started rapamycin and was on it about 6 weeks. I didn’t change my workout regimen, and I don’t pursh too hard, but I do moderate weight lifting, but not to failure.
6 weeks into rapamycin I developed a complete tear of my right rotator cuff and a partial tear of my left arm common extensor tendon.
Could be coincidence, but it seemed very strange to happen at the same time without any other changes, so I stopped rapa at that point.
I remain interested in the literature, but for not it’s not for me.
During the same workout?
So randomly I’m suffering from a similar issue. Though, I have had intermittent issues with my tendons in the past, i have both a rotator cuff injury - which means I haven’t been able to train shoulder for almost two months and an extensor tendon injury on my right forearm.
It’s been a nightmare working around it. I’ve been taking oral BPB 157 and most likely will move to an injectable in the year if it doesn’t improve.
Hard to say if it’s the Rapa, but it has been in the back of my mind.
Out of an abundance of caution I stopped for a couple of months but started again this week on a lower dose of 4mg.
Yes. It was very odd. Same workout.
I can’t necessarily say it was the rapamycin, but, like Paul 2.0, it was in the back of my mind. In my case it was enough for me to stop the rapa entirely.
So just an FYI I have been taking Rapa for a couple of years and training quite heavily. I seem to have susceptibility to tendon issues. The reason I stopped the Rapa was less about believing it may have caused the injury and more that it’s slowing down the healing process.
What dose were you taking out of curiousity?
I was taking 5mg/week.
Amazing. Did the injury feel like an injury at the moment of the injury? I can only imagine it would hurt (and I would quit immediately). I’ve only injured my shoulders in bike crashes, which hurt all over so it was hard to know what broke (often lots of things) immediately.
I don’t want to create panic about rapa and tendon injuries. I just want to explain what happened to me and I was hoping it would open conversations with other people who have had similar experiences. After all, much of the experience with rapa, both positive and negatjve, is being shared online, not being revealed through human studies.
I did not feel this injury at the time it occurred. However, the most stressful thing I was doing to my joints, BY FAR, was lifting weights. I wan’t doing anything else to which I could attribute the injury.
So, it wasn’t a sudden moment of pain, but it was my usual workout routine, and then development of pain and the inability to continue lifting moderate weights. Three months of rest and then the MRI’s which revealed the injuries. I had right rotator cuff repair 3 weeks ago, and am considering a PRP injection for my left extensor tendon tear.
Interesting… I think your chronological age can have an affect on Rapamycin’s ability to improve your body… just a thought, but taking or beginning on rapamycin after you’re in early 60’s when you body makes that big aging change… it might not be as effective. You want to start either the pre -40 year changes or pre-60 year old changes for better results.
Similar to Kaeberlein saying rapamycin is reported to be most effective in preventing cancer or alzheimer’s before you start having rogue cells. After cancer or alzheimer’s starts… the cells response to normal cell rules change, so rapamycin is not as beneficial as the MTOR response could be diminished. Yeah… rapamycin could still do some good… but better to start before.
This is my recent thoughts on when starting rapamycin could be most beneficial against aging.