I am curious to know the following:
Does your regular doctor know you take Rapamycin?
Does he/she help you with the Rapamycin? (Dose, prescription)
Did you need to help educate your doctor and if so how?
If your doctor doesn’t help you, are you on your own, or do you do some kind of telemedicine for the Rapamycin?
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We’ve touched on this topic in the past in this thread, but I encourage people to update us on their approach if its changed at all over time… Do you tell your doctor you are taking rapamycin?
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Honestly, none of my doctors really know what Rapamycin is. One of mine thought it was an antibiotic. I do my own research and I go to one doctor who will give me a prescription for whatever I want like Rapamycin, Acarbose, Metformin, or statins. I see specialists when I have a specific problem such as skin, colon, or general health screening. I have doctor friends who refer me to specialists when I have a specific need.
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Sounds like the perfect situation.
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My concierge doctor knew what it was right away and offered a prescription. He has pretty much helped me in any way I’ve asked. I talk to him about it once in a while and he says now that I know far more than he does about it. I got lucky with this one.
I’ve mentioned it to several other doctors and almost none had any clue what it was or why I was on it.
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Yeah… I definitely needed to provide the initial concise research (with potential side effects… minimal if any) for my primary care physician.
He has seen the benefits in my visible health… and my 3 month blood work for past 3 years. And, is prescribing Rapamycin to others that I send to him… mostly other physicians in my professional work.
At this point, if reasonable with no side effects he is willing to assist me on my personal health plan and supplement needs: Rapamycin, Metformin, Acarbose, TRT, Anastrazole, Minoxidol, Tadalafil, Finestride, Terbinafine. Those are my current meds.
And, if I can show positive reasearch… any other reasonable prescriptions. So, I am always reading the posts here for ideas.
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I use Healthspan (telemedicine doc plus online sales). I wouldn’t say I’m getting medical advice but rather a doc who by web form asks a few basic questions and requires 3 mos blood panels to assess results. When I have a question I will get an answer from their support people. They offer: rapa (I use this), metformin, acarbose, and just started offering LDN (I’m starting on this today). I like the company and am curious to see where they take it.
I’m getting rosuvastatin (lowers apoB big time), ezetimibe (hard to say but why not), Farxiga (doesn’t do anything I can tell) and metformin (cleans out my bowels very well) from my regular doctors who think I’m too extreme, and that acarbose is an ancient drug that “no one uses”. They are pleasant people who want to help in the narrow way their profession encourages. They are probably correct about me too.
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That probably helps your situation quite a bit
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I find G.P.s closed minded so I’ve given up telling them about anything off label. I’m on my own with rapa, so happy to have found this forum. But I enjoy research and have a fairly high risk tolerance if there’s a good trade-off. In my case, old-school methotrexate vs rapa as an experimental alternative.
I have a doc friend here who knows about rapa and will help me out if necessary, but he’s really busy with a start-up.
I’m thinking about telemedicine with a functional med doc in South Africa (none in the country I live in), just for blood tests and general guidance.
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Do you have some research papers on this? vs other statins?
@Jonas Im speaking of personal experience. I had equivalent benefits from atorvastatin but more side effects. I switched to rosuvastatin and then to EOD dosing with no decrease in benefit. ApoB 100 —> 70 including any benefit from ezetimibe which I started at the same time.
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Rosuvastin is one of the strongest statins, and is hydrophilic resulting in less muscle side effects.
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I’m sure there are many physicians who are closed minded. And many who are just overwhelmed by their patient load and the continuous need to keep up with medication.
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I’m sure GPs also get tired of all the patients telling them that they did some googling and think they know more than the doctor now 
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The smartest doctors I know are ER docs. You’ve seen it all and have to cross-reference and make decisions on the fly. GP’s and specialists tend to stay in their lane. I understand why, and patients with chronic and/or complex illnesses are tedious.
In this southern African country, insurance is more reasonable, more generous, doctor’s compensation much lower (compared to the west, but so is cost of living) and their patient loads are less. Appointments last much longer here. Better quality of life for them! But the necessary curiosity to consider other things just isn’t there. Lots of German and Afrikaans docs, almost comically rigid. Very few Americans here. I think we drive them crazy. South Africa is much more advanced but I don’t live there…
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I know, for sure, 
but… I used to do research and edit/write for scientists and know my way around google scholar. Just navigating the hype in ‘life extension’ is a full time job. This forum is a godsend.
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My regular doc is an ND --Naturopathic Doctor. I find these folks more open-minded, and willing to think outside the box, at least in my USA area (west coast).
I told my doctor about my (then 6-months) of rapamycin use (which at first I got via Pushhealth–not impressed with Pushhealth so now I order from India). Doctor did some research, authorized blood tests, and has been supportive of my explorations.
The doc is also among the younger cohort of NDs, and I think that may help with the open-mindedness.
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All my GP wants to do is check my prostate, order a lipid panel and prescribe statins. Anything else I want to discuss with him (for example, A1c or HOMA IR levels) and his attitude is “oh yeah you can do that if you want, but I don’t care because it won’t change anything I tell you to do.” If my company didn’t put $500 in my health savings account for going to an annual wellness check I wouldn’t even bother.
I became deeply cynical about lipid panels after ten years with “golden” cholesterol numbers and I had a heart attack anyway.
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A lot to unpack there, but clearly not getting the whole story.
I visited a naturopathic school in Marin when I was in college. It was scary. Expected a professional scientific institution that was open minded to non standard treatment. It wasn’t that.
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