New to the forum & considering rapamycin for resetting my immune system after hearing Dr. Kaeberlin’s podcast with Tim Ferris. During the podcast he had eluded to the “potential” that rapamycin helps your body clean out senescent (sp?) cells. These cells, per the pocast, tells your immune system to go a bit crazy and creates consistent inflammation. Possibly, rapamycin can help with this by shutting off the inflammatory response & give the immune system a reboot. Thus, the immune system is not constantly fighting a level of inflammatory response.
Has anyone looked a rapamycin for less of an anti-aging and more of an immune system reset? Per the podcast, I should be able to achieve what I am looking for in about 10 weeks so I am not looking to take rapamycin for an extended period of time.
Why do this? On paper I am the healthiest person you can meet - I exercise consistently, eat exceptionally healthy & my blood work looks great, really great…the only problem is that I am sick, A LOT. In the past 4 months I have been sick every 3 weeks or so. Due to stress & other factors, in ~2015 I was sick daily for more than 2 years with flu-like systems, crushing headaches and brain fog. I have never quite recovered from it & still struggle to maintain my health. I can go through some months doing pretty good & then go through several months where I can hardly keep it together.
It also lowers inflammation, as many people here have conveyed, as well as Matt Kaeberlein and others have mentioned. You didn’t mention how old you are. In the study referenced above it was successful in older people, but if you are younger then maybe the issue is more complex than simple loss of immune system function typical with aging.
So - it (rapamycin) could help. But be careful, because if you’re already getting more sick than most people there could be other factors involved and so the outcome may not be cleanly predictable. I would definitely try to work with a doctor if I was in your situation, and go slow in terms of dose ramping up. See details here: What is the Rapamycin Dose / Dosage for Anti-Aging or Longevity?
As a point of reference, I’ve taken rapamycin for 3 years now, only gotten sick once (cold/flu, but over in 2 to 3 days) - and of everyone in my family (all of whom got sick) I recovered quickest. I am fully vaccinated, and have taken breaks in rapamycin use for a few weeks pre and post vaccination, and had no issues at all. Of course n=1, doesn’t mean much.
Thank you both!
To supplement what I shared previously:
I am 49.
I take a multi-vitamin, lycine, fish oil OR iron (I run anemic), fish oil, vitamin D, lysine
When I get blood work done my cholesterol is always low (great numbers), low glucose, inflammation markers are all in range, etc. I have been checked for allergies & have shown nothing major but I seem to have on-going rhinitis (runny nose every day, all day).
Have you checked for mycotoxins? Complement C4a and Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone are tests that are not routinely run but if they are abnormal would suggest mycotoxins.
I am not qualified to give anyone medical advice.
But, based on my own life experience: (I am nearing 82 yrs old and I am very healthy)
Even though you mention stress. I really don’t think people really understand how much stress undermines health, both physical and mental. I can look back on my life to times when I suffered from mental and physical health problems and I can see that they were undoubtedly caused by stress. Eliminate stress and most of your problems will go away.
I used to get sick a few times a year, always got strep throat at least once. I started taking quercetin and zinc , NAC, D3, K2 (mk7), and a probiotic. Haven’t had a cold, COVID, flu in a couple years now.
Granted I wasn’t getting sick as often as you. I think several of those supplements helped but if I had to pick the ones I thought were the most important for me it would be quercetin and zinc. I’ve since paused quercetin and subbed in EGCG due to some potential issues with quercetin and rapamycin. I only tried rapamycin for anti aging a couple months ago for 8 weeks and am about to start again.
People do need to be careful with Zinc dosage. I think mk7 is particularly interesting, not least for the extra mitochondrial electron transport, but also more recently I saw it argued to be something that could enhance autophagy.
That is good advice. I found my MCV was particularly high which IMO came from copper depletion from intermittent binge drinking (On about 1-3 days a week I am a heavy drinker of alcohol) although Zinc may also have been an issue.
People need to be careful with supplements that often multivitamins include Zinc. I was taking SuperZ for quercetin, but I stopped because of its Zinc content.
I agree about being careful with zinc. I try to be careful with all my supplements and take what I think is the minimum dose that gives me the benefits. Personally I take about 30 mg zinc a day and get copper in a multivitamin.
I agree. One of the ways I try to manage my stress is through meditation. I just use my Oura Ring to do this and have noticed positive effects in terms of overall sleep quality and things like HRV.
