Still on the loading phase on my Rapamycin journey, and will be taking 3mg this week. Over the last seven days I thought I was getting a cold but it didn’t really materialise apart from a mild sore throat and feeling a bit run down. I’ve still got these symptoms so I wondered if taking Rapamycin will do me more harm then good based on the fact that it lowers your immune system, thus making me more susceptible to things like colds and other viruses.
Hi, we’ve discussed this issue generally quite a bit here. There are no hard and fast rules, but if people are more cautious they tend to skip a dose, others keep dosing. Perhaps the outcomes depend on dose, condition of your immune system / your age, etc. You may find these past threads of interest:
- Would you take rapamycin if you have the common cold?
- Effect on immune system, common cold
- Dosing Rapamycin and Infection Concerns
- Is it wise to hold off on taking Rapamycin if I have a common cold?
- Stopping Rapamycin Before Exposure to Bacteria
- Would you take rapamycin if you have the common cold?
- Rapamycin use during cold / flu season?
- Rapamycin use when sick with infection
As @RapAdmin noted, there are lots of discussions on this topic. I personally would not take Rapa if I were actively ill. I don’t pretend to know what mtor does when you’re fighting off an infection, but I’d rather have it turned on.
I wouldn’t worry about it as a long term thing. But it seems best to skip dosing if you’re feeling unwell.
Simple downside vs. upside:
Skipping one week or multiple weeks of rapamycin has limited downside. Preventing serious infection has enormous upside.
Before I started taking Rapamycin I would get sick reliably every 2-3 months. I’ve got young kids. I work in healthcare. After taking rapamycin consistently I didn’t get sick for 6 months straight, which was an unprecedented streak the last few years. Then I cycled off rapamycin and within 2-3 weeks I got sick. Can’t prove causation but based on my pattern rapamycin seemed to really lower incidence of upper respiratory illness.
My hypothesis is that when we get sick most of the time we are infected with relatively benign viruses but our immune system overreacts leading to the unpleasant symptoms of illness. And everyone’s immune system is differently tuned in sensitivty, and mine is too sensitive. So on rapamycim my immune system was tuned down, and I was still getting exposed to pathogens and likely experiencing low level infections but my immune system reacted with the appropriate level of intensity instead of overreacting, so I never experienced any noticeable signs of infection.