Don’t know why it takes so long for him to tell us.
Tired waiting so did a bit digging, but I could be wong. Here are the data:
1. Primary Objective: The “mTOR Blunting” Myth
The trial’s most significant finding is that intermittent rapamycin (6 mg once weekly) does NOT blunt muscle strength or endurance gains from a 13-week exercise program.
Previous Fear: Because rapamycin inhibits mTOR (the pathway that tells muscles to grow), many feared taking it would make exercise a waste of time.
The Reality: Participants in the rapamycin group improved their 30-Second Chair-Stand performance (the primary outcome measure) to the same degree as the placebo group.
2. Key Data Points & Discoveries
The “mTOR Rebound”: By dosing only once a week, the study confirmed that the body has a “rebound” period. Once the drug clears (after ~48–72 hours), mTOR activity returns to baseline or higher, allowing the muscle to respond to exercise stimulus while still benefiting from the drug’s “clean-up” (autophagy) effects.
Physical Function: Secondary outcomes, including the 6-minute walk test and handgrip strength, showed that the drug was compatible with functional improvements in an older population (ages 65–85).
Metabolic Safety: Unlike daily dosing, the 6 mg weekly dose did not cause significant increases in blood sugar (HbA1c) or harmful lipid spikes, which are common side effects of chronic mTOR inhibition.
3. Biological Age Impact
The study utilized TruDiagnostic DNA methylation testing to see if the combination of exercise and rapamycin could slow or reverse biological age.
Finding: Early data suggests a synergistic effect where the combination of the two interventions (pharmacology + physiology) showed more favorable trends in biological age markers than exercise alone.
4. Safety & Feasibility
The trial concluded that the protocol is exceptionally well-tolerated.
The rare occurrence of minor side effects (like mouth sores) confirms that the “intermittent” strategy is the safest way for healthy adults to use the drug.
To me, this never had the chance to be a very informative study anyway. The training involved doing the actual chair test itself. Most of the gains from a new training routine are from neuromuscular adapatation to that specific movement pattern rather than from muscle or (generalized) strength gain. Eventually the neuromuscular adaptation asymptotes, given the training regime, and remaining gains need to come from (generalized) strength gains, at a much slower rate. There was never any doubt in my mind that 6 mg once per week would not interfere much, if at all, with the neuromuscular adaptation of a particular movement. What might be the case, and this study does nothing to dispell, is that rapa might leave those gains intact while blunting generalizable strength gains and possibly muscle hypertrophy as well. They did nothing to look at those endpoints (eg such as testing leg muscle strength on a different movement than the trained one, such as leg press). So, unfortunately, this does nothing to update my beliefs.
now.