Side Effects of Rapamycin (part 2)

He reacted not do good to the drug. Interesting.

Metformin has a well known side effect of weight loss. I lost about 15lb over the three weeks immediately after I began it. I suspect this guy was confused and changing too many things at once. Rapamycin generally doesn’t cause weight loss in people, but may result in reduced visceral fat.

Approximately 30% of participants randomized to metformin lost more than 5% of their body weight in the first year, and a post hoc analysis demonstrated that their mean weight loss relative to baseline was 6.2% after 15 years of follow-up, compared with 3.7% in the lifestyle intervention arm.Sep 1, 2023

Source: Should I consider metformin therapy for weight loss in patients with obesity but without diabetes? | Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine

In rapamycin (sirolimus) weight loss is much rarer:

side effects to those of kidney transplant patients, with the addition of weight loss , which may affect up to 1 in 10 people.

Source: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/rapamune-epar-product-information_en.pdf

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I know that Rapamycin affects my ability to gain weight. As soon as I stop it for a few weeks I gain weight naturally with the same diet. Then I loose it again after restarting Rapamycin. I don’t take Metformin, so I’m pretty sure that it’s Rapamycin that affects my weight. Rapamycin doesn’t affect my sleep. I sleep 8 h on average.

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That sounds a little harsh. I would say that he was a little quick to quit rapamycin before doing a better job to address the side effects which for him were weight loss, sleep disruption and maybe the most unusual - loss of libido. Testosterone doesn’t usually go down, does it? Yes, loss of visceral fat and streamlining of muscles but it does seem like reverting the metformin dose and maybe eating a little more would have moderated any weight change. My guess is he’ll go back to rapamycin and that the headline was meant to attract attention.

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He claims that pain on the right of abdomen is a known side effect. Is it the case? Have never heard about it before.

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This post mentions abdominal pain.

Amazingly, I don’t have any of those side effects.

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Man, of all the side effects of Rapamycin, these two are the worst. I don’t know how I could ever live with these. I’m out. :wink:

As for abdominal pain, Rapamycin can cause it as can Metformin. That’s the problem when you’re juggling too many balls at once. It’s hard to attribute the side effect with the right cause.

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The side effects and magnitude are most likely dose dependent and may be also due to daily vs weekly intake differences. For example, impaired kidney function, ~30% raise in the serum creatinine concentrations occurred in those taking 2-5 mg sirolimus daily.

It is important to increase your water intake when on rapamycin. It will trigger my gout if I don’t drink more water. I’m hoping that it will decrease my uric acid level in my next test for uric acid in 6 weeks time.

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Hey, you said that you were never going back to Kansas! Oz forever.
My comment (about visceral fat) was more as a possible explanation for weight loss which he mentioned it as a negative side effect (which it wouldn’t be for a lot of people). But visceral fat isn’t always visible. See here:
https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-is-visceral-fat
I’m actually thin (and wouldn’t want to lose weight when I start rapamycin) but I’ll do a DexaScan before and after rapamycin to measure visceral fat (which I could have) and bone density - both of which could improve with rapamycin.
And in regards to your mention of balls and his complaint about lowered libido - there’s this about Metformin and Testosterone (since he doubled his Metformin dose that could be a factor in both weight loss and lowered Testosterone).
https://mikesbalance.com/metformin-and-testosterone/
Not sure how authoritative that website is but he’s a health professional and he’s got a great first name (but he’s Russian so he probably drinks a lot :wink:)
P.S. I’m also hoping that rapamycin increases the strength of my eyelid because with more positive attitude and sense of humor, I’m going to have to do a lot of winking! :wink:

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HRV went down substantionally a month after starting dosing that was ramped up from 2 mg to 6 mg. Deep sleep dropped, all my oura ring measurements dropped. Respiratory rate increased. Had trouble breathing. Felt heaviness in my lungs. Woke up dehydrated and dry mouth for first time. after 10 days from taking last dose my Reddiness score on Oura ring was back over 90% and my overall Sleep score was excellent again. My deep sleep has continued to be lower than it was but I think it will return. It went from 1 1/2 hour deep to 45-55 min deep over the past month. After taking some time off I will give it another go at a 2 mg dose.

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I was in PEARL Study at 8mg 1X a week. I had no issues. I have started back up on my own 3 months later at 2mg. This is week 3. Week one I had no side effects. Week 2 I felt tired and achy the next day. Week three my BP shot up to 156/80 4 hrs after dosing. I felt horrible. That night I started flu like symptoms, or body aches, head ache. The day after I was very sick but BP returned to 108/50 and normal EKG. Day three I was back to normal. I don’t know what to think. Was I just sick? I also have Rheumatoid Arthritis that I have controlled with LDN 4.5mg. For 6 years. I don’t know what to do. Should I discontinue Sirolimus.I have asked my prescriber and was told high BP was not a symptom.

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I don’t know if you saw my post below, but your experience seems a lot like mine. I did PEARL with no issues at all. Now I am going through AgelessRX for my Sirolimus. They started me at 2 mg. I am experiencing fatigue/ flu like symptoms and an alarming BP surge that did subside after 12 hours. I gave up three days this week to being sick. Not sure if it was Sirolimus or the flu. I’m very reluctant to dose up again next week.

Of course, everyone has individual responses to rapamycin, but in over two years of taking relatively high doses of rapamycin, I have had nothing but good results apart from diarrhea when I take too large a dose, no fatigue, no colds flu, or other illnesses.

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Thinking mechanistically anything that encourages mitophagy has the potential to cause a temporary fatigue whilst the body’s energy generation is reduced prior to the creation of new mitochondria.

Also if energy levels are increased I would expect BP and HR to be increased temporarily. I think that is what happened to cause my BP to increase. I have ended up with a higher Stroke Volume, but lower mean arterial pressure.

I get diarrhea if I take too much of any medication. Lol.

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New to taking rapamycin. Started 1 mg a week, then took 2 mg and had 1 small canker, went away quickly. Then next week dosed at 4 mg and had several cankers leading me to delay dose at day 7. Took 3mg at day 9 and had had multiple painful cankers that affected my ability to eat and brush my teeh. Using Sensodyne, no SLS. Used OTC Kanka and had Rx for topical clobetasol gel (steroid) to apply with a gauze pad. I am now at 14 days and my cankers are finally gone. Not sure what I will try next. 2 mg a week? Frustrated by my bad cankers. For reference I am 125 lbs and 59 years old.

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Thats a pretty low weight - the average weight for males here is probably around 160 to 190lbs.

You may want to keep it lower for longer (e.g. 1mg or 2mg for a month or two) and only slowly go up by 1mg every few weeks. What is the Rapamycin Dose / Dosage for Anti-Aging or Longevity?

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