I have been on rapa since 2021. I started with the standard build up on my way to 6mg. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the farm. I was taking things really slow and had built up to 3mg weekly. For some reason I decided to stop there for the time being. After anohter month I began to notice several unexpected things. 1. My allergies (a lifelong batle) had almost totally disappeared. It was January in Texas and I was almost always severely effected by mountain cedar and other villians. For the first time in forever I was not more effected than usual in January. My allergies were a year round obstacle but the first of the year was always the worst. I have had two or three mild episodes since. 2. My life long struggle with sinus infections stopped. I later found an study that said chronic sinus infections were actually a result of autoimmune disfunction. You can search it on Google Scholar. From my research I knew that rapa impacted almost every autoimmune diesease. I have 3 autoimmune diseases: LADA Latant Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, Bi-lateral Vestibular Weakness and the chronic sinusitus (not cured by sinus surgery and removal of large polyps)
I have remained at 3mg once a week as I believe I have found the lowest effective dose for myself. Why take more?
As far as dosing… in virtually all the ITP studies, the higher the dose the longer the life extension. But the issue is also that the higher the dose, the greater the likelihood of bad side effects, so its a trade off that everyone has to navigate based on their own risk/reward profile and biological response to rapamycin. See discussion here: What is the Rapamycin Dose / Dosage for Anti-Aging or Longevity?
If it works it works. I tried out 8mg a week for a while, not sure what difference it made. I’m taking a short break then I’ll go back to 6mg, or maybe even lower.
I’m noticing on this break I’m hitting the gym much stronger and my muscles have grown quite a bit. Perhaps less is more, and cycling is good.
I don’t know if it’s ultra low dose, but 2mg per week was highly effective on rheumatoid arthritis inflammation markers. Check out my thread about autoimmunity on Rapamycin here: Rapamycin with autoimmune disease: a small success story
I take 2mg/week also, and haven’t really noticed anything significantly different. My logic is that I am young-ish (39), have no chronic health problems, my WBC count is already low (4.0 usually), hsCRP undetectable etc. So I don’t feel I need a higher dose, and I don’t think I could measure the effects.
I started taking 6mg of Rapamycin when I was 20. To be honest, I haven’t felt any effects at all. I’ve experimented with far more anti-aging compounds than Bryan Johnson, but truth be told, none of them make me ‘feel’ anything. I just take them mechanically. The only exception was Niacin—the flush was very obvious—but since it can accelerate epigenetic aging, I’ve switched to NMN and NR. Still, if I’m being honest, none of these compounds give me any particular sensation.
To be fair, there were two supplements that did cause side effects for me. One was Metformin, and the other was a senolytic complex containing ingredients like Fisetin and Theaflavins. I am quite certain that young people should not take these two. For the Metformin, I used the brand-name version (Glucophage), and for the senolytic, I used the one from Life Extension.
Thinking about it carefully, resistance training at the gym has given me obvious benefits. However, I’m conflicted because building muscle requires high intake of protein powder, BCAAs, and other supplements. The longevity knowledge I’ve encountered suggests we should restrict amino acids like leucine and methionine—moderate intake is beneficial, but the dosages required for muscle hypertrophy activate mTOR, which could have a negative impact on lifespan.
Interesting post! I’ve read up on this before and the mTOR dichotomy IMO is really dependent on why and where it is activated.
For example, chronic mTOR in the liver etc from constant eating is obviously bad. But mTOR activation in the muscle during repair after strength training - hard to imagine that’s detrimental. (Plus, resistance training has MASSIVE healthspan benefits).
That said, I still do believe we need periods of lower mTOR though. There’s evidence out there that Rapamycin does not really inhibit muscle growth, and that some amount of autophagy and catabolism is actually beneficial in the long-term. Gaining muscle does not require massive protein intake or supplementing extra BCAAs. For optimal muscle building, yes it probably does, but I don’t think anybody would say that bodybuilding is pro-longevity. If you just want to be fit enough, strong enough and capable enough then you don’t need to go overboard IMO.