When I was on rapa, I found that the side effects ceased when I added metformin.
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Did you have similar side effects before the metformin?
The skin ones sound mostly accountable for by delayed epithelial cell turnover.
Its interesting… there are quite a few studies showing rapamycin reducing rates of DNA damage in different scenarios:
Rapamycin improves the quality and developmental competence of mice oocytes by promoting DNA damage repair during in vitro maturation
mTOR Inhibition Prevents Epithelial Stem Cell Senescence and Protects from Radiation-Induced Mucositis
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1934590912003694
Autophagy confers DNA damage repair pathways to protect the hematopoietic system from nuclear radiation injury
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Hi Steve…rapamycin was misclassified as an immunosuppressant. It is actually an immunomodulator. When taken episodically, it enhances immune function. Ross
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Hi out of interest would LDN work in a similar way but maybe less side effects? ‘LDN modulates the immune system. It doesn’t necessarily boost it, but it doesn’t necessarily suppress it to the point where we see issues of recurring infections.’
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I’ve just switched to this protocol and will do it 3 weeks a month, use the 4th week as my trough.
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Keep us posted pls about side effects if any. It’s odd that they included 50-60 yo men in the same group as 90 yo.
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My current dose regime is 25mg once fortnightly. I combine it with a short fast to maximise autophagy. Looks like I might need to reconsider that approach! 
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I have been on and off on 1mg/day regimen over the past 2 years. No noticable blood work changes. I am inclined to stay with the practice mainly for the reason as we age, our MTOR is chronically elevated with an ever higher baseline per Dr. Brian Kennedy.
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Hi Michele,
I’m a fan of LDN…but I think their mechanisms would be totally different. To my knowledge, LDN doesn’t inhibit mTOR…o induce authphagy.
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Thank you Dr Ross. I am taking berberine on and off and I really like it, also fucoidan and astaxanthin.
Very interesting! I too haven’t had a cold or flu since starting rapamycin about three years ago. Not even the first sign of one. Anecdotal testament to its immune enhancement effects I do believe.
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Same here. Not only cold/flu but even allergies(which used to be bad during spring) have seem to abated. Didnt use flonase for two years.
Quite perplexing though for me is that fact that IGF-1 has gone up from baseline of 74 to 114 agter nearly 7 months of weekly Rapa use!! I do 24 hr caloric fast starting with the dose.
For those of us on weekly Rapa with GFJ hack, how will daily dosing work while rationing Rapa stocks…hahaaa?
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Yep… it is now the season of ragweed. And, as to allergies… nada past 3 years. Has to be the rapamycin.
Never had allergies until I hit 50 years old. I used flonase for ragweed in fall and cedar spores in spring.
I was on flonase back when it was still gotten by prescription. FYI - flonase went off prescription July 24, 2014. Over 11 years ago.
My wife first started getting allergies a bit before me maybe at 46 years. She isn’t on rapamycin or flonase… and she continues to get and complain about seasonal allergies. So I know the environment hasn’t changed.
Rapamycin rebuilds the immune system, so I am back to my pre-50 year old immunities issues. Which were none.
Just one of my markers for rapamycin is working.
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does it reduce 8oxog?
Greetings
The rise in your IGF-1 levels may actually reflect better health.
See the attached reference, figure 3a, which plots all cause mortality risk vs IGF-1 level.
The curve is U shaped, with the most favorable IGF-1 level being 140.
Hope that helps
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Excellent paper. That’s the kind of metanalysis I was looking for. Reassuring for me to say the least! Although, what remains unclear is how Rapa would fit in this equation for my IGF-1 trends.
U-shaped association seems intuitive just like many other nutritional markers which tend to be J or U-shaped.
Thanks for sharing it.
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I still get sick even with Rapa 10 mg equivalent weekly. HOWEVER, the intensity of the illness is greatly reduced. I used to get hacking coughs that would last up to 6 months. Now they typically resolve in 1 month or less. I still get COVID every year in the Spring, but it’s less troublesome than the flu nowadays.
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A news article on this research paper:
Ghada Alsaleh, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, explained that rapamycin consistently produces the same effect, whether it’s given before, during, or after the damage occurs.
Study co-author Lynne Cox said the effect happens rapidly – within about four hours it appears to influence the DNA damage response and the buildup of lesions.
A cautious endorsement
Matt Kaeberlein at the University of Washington sees the study as strong evidence that rapamycin protects DNA. Yet he emphasizes the mechanism remains a mystery. The next step is to track how the drug changes RNA and protein activity inside immune cells.
In a pilot study, older men given low-dose rapamycin showed less DNA damage in their immune cells without harming overall immune function. This is a critical finding, according to Cox.
Even more intriguing, a longer trial revealed that rapamycin reduced senescence marker p21 while raising levels of p53, a protein that not only manages DNA damage but also fuels mitochondria, the cell’s energy engines. This dual action hints at improved genetic stability and metabolic health.
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Ok that tears it, we’re going back to weekly dosing. Not ready to try 1mg a day yet but biweekly isn’t working for us. My husband and I switched some months ago to biweekly dosing from once-weekly and we aren’t feeling as good as we were. His hair is greying much faster and my “I want to run instead of walk” is much less frequent.
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