So you’re a hedger just like the rest of us!!
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We seriously need to find blood serum markers to determine rapamycin dosing frequency, no matter what dose we are taking. The Labcorp test is very problematic to me.
Looking at my recent blood test results, my C-reactive protein level, CRP, was higher when my blood test was taken while taking rapamycin; 0.7 while taking rapamycin, and 0.6 when taken eight weeks after stopping rapamycin.
Do you think that there may be a correlation between CRP and out rapamycin trough levels?
I know that this is a very small sample, but when I start taking rapamycin again I will take CRP tests more often to see if there is some correlation.
We have a test. Sorry to hear problematic, but human impediments are not conducive to maximum biological translation. I’d say a lot of people are going to have same access problems, especially if taking off label without doctor support. But I think in the US, putting aside cost, can you self order a Sirolimus test??
There is error in the reproducibility of the test, I wouldn’t put too much stock in the values you referenced, noise. If something went way out of whack, then maybe. Re impact of rapamcyin on hsCRP, can only simplistically speculate that if it lowers Inflammation, it lowers hsCRP. But if you get say an infection for example whilst on rapamcyin, it may raise hsCRP.
As a proxy marker for tissue Sirolimus leaves? NO
A CRP test may be used to find or monitor conditions that cause inflammation. These include:
- Bacterial infections, such as sepsis, a severe and sometimes life-threatening condition
- A fungal infection
- Inflammatory bowel disease, a disorder that causes swelling and bleeding in the intestines
- An autoimmune disorder such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis
- An infection of the bone called osteomyelitis
What are some ways we can monitor our immune health while taking rapamycin?
My understanding is that rapamycin is an immune system suppressor exemplified by my own experience in wound healing time.
CBC and WBC readily available from blood panel. Extremely powerful biomarkers, measured in pretty much every mTOR study I’ve ever read. And your lipids and glucose of course. I’d argue they are every good AUC proxies in lieu of Sirolimus.
But like @rivasp12 also suggested, let the dosing sortee run its full effect before intervening. Waiting a couple of months is a good system wide steady state to then review and reconsider changes.
You were doing this before very diligently, continue to use as gauge.
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“Immune health” is not easily quantifiable - really, really complex. That could be partly a thrombocytopenia and/or neutropenia issue for “wound healing”.
From the resTORbio trial it appears rapalog = “immune booster” (overgeneralization) - not just antibodies after a shot but less infections over the next year.
This obviously depends on your insurance.
But a bud of mine was concerned about the cost of labs - I took a look at his insurance along with his individual situation and I told him to get a whole blood donation to help some folks then later go to urgent care that does blood work in-network (especially in-house) owned by private equity firms - tell them however you feel (symptoms if any) and you recently donated blood, taking rapamycin, and a lot of different supplements - “concerned” about it. Don’t lie about anything, but I’m pretty sure the fully or almost all NP-staffed ones will throw the whole bus of labs on the insurance co.
Even a meh HMO will cover CBC w diff, LFTs, etc - and might be $10 copay. At the end of the day, it’s really not that costly with their negotiating power.
This is obviously not medical advice. Talk to your doctor.
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I personally wouldn’t complicate the experiment. I would start out 1mg/day and then revert down or up from there in terms of a new daily dosing.
Very good advice, unfortunately for me, my local urgent care keeps you waiting for up to three hours unless you are writhing on the floor crying for help, however, in that case, they will just call an ambulance and take you to the emergency room.
I’m currently using Walk-I-Lab and Quest Diagnostics, their prices are really quite reasonable to me, compared to what they used to be years ago.
Simple “Lipid Panel Blood Tests” start at $28, which I am certainly willing to pay for, to avoid quick care or urgent care.
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Would you ever consider dumping your doctor for a new one, supportive of your Rapamycin intervention?
This has worked for me. Agetron seems to have one as well.
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Nah, I like my doctor, deficient as he may be. I don’t want to get into a hassle with him. I can afford to pay for the lab tests myself and I like to experiment with rapamycin doses and other “off-label” drugs.
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I do believe that inflammation and CRP affect the epigenetic age tests since it seems that infections and vaccinations throw a monkey wrench into epigenetic test results by skewing the age upwards… sometimes dramatically thereby making the results useless.
Don’t do one of these tests until several weeks after a vaccine or infection or you are wasting money, IMHO.
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@desertshores - Sorry! I got carried away with abbreviations. It seems like I am constantly looking up abbreviations on this site as well that I am not familiar with…EVOO 
Don’t forget that at least rapamune tablets have a special coating and you cannot just divide them and expect the same bioavailability…
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Was thinking that too, excellent point…another variable.
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I am doing the 1mg every other day for that reason! Thanks for that point.
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I have to face the fact that I am very fickle when it comes to rapamycin dosing.
Do I do the highest bi-weekly pulse dosing that I can do without unpleasant side effects, as per Dr. Mikhail V. Blagosklonny?
Mouse studies indicate higher is better for older mice and rats. I am old 
I have had both plus and minus effects from this protocol.
Because high dosages of rapamycin have raised my lipid levels to a level unacceptable to me I will be going on a lower dose regimen next time I start.
Currently, I am on a vacation from rapamycin and weighing different dosing possibilities.
We can always change our minds depending on new data.
I want to achieve low trough levels while maintaining the benefits of rapamycin.
I like your new approach to lower doses.
My thinking right now is that I will start again with 1mg, Mon-Fri, and Sat. and Sun. off.
This fits in with my regimen of supplements. I only take supplements five days a week and take the weekend off to avoid potential overdosing.
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I came across this small study where a healthy elderly cohort took 1mg/day for eight weeks and the conclusion was that “RAPA had no unanticipated detrimental effects in this cohort”.
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Thanks, that is useful information that I had not come across before.
"statistically significant decrements in several erythrocyte parameters including hemoglobin (HgB) and hematocrit (Hct) as well as in red blood cell count (RBC), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) were observed in the RAPA-treatment group. "
I can affirm that from my own blood tests. Once we know these things, we can take steps to counteract them with supplements without reducing our rapamycin dose.
These are not all bad things, reducing RDW is a good thing.
I am testing to see if I give more blood that it will reduce RDW even more.
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Even if you accept that high ldl is a problem plaque build up takes decades (3-5) not years, so if you had a healthy life before that you probably don’t have much plaque anyway. Did you ever get a CAC score?
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