Update on Brad Stanfield's Rapamycin Clinical Study in NZ

#21

Agreed. They finished the study back in March. The data they’re collecting isn’t too complicated - it’s some blood tests, a before/after chair standing test, grip strength with a dynamometer etc.

Stick the results into excel and a motivated graduate student could prepare all the tables, graphs and figures in 2-3 days. They would already have an analysis plan, so it’s just a matter of sitting and doing the work.

And really “under peer review” is no excuse. It could have been presented at a conference, no problem. It could also have been made available as a pre-print.

3 Likes
#22

Here is his latest, detailed update so we can all stop gossiping like sorority girls.

The results are still pending though, unfortunately.

2 Likes
#23

AI Summary

Introduction to the Clinical Trial

  • On June 27, 2021, the speaker announced plans to crowdfund and conduct a human clinical trial focused on a combination of rapamycin and exercise.
  • The speaker anticipated challenges in this endeavor, particularly due to the high costs associated with clinical trials.
  • Despite previous research indicating positive lifespan extension effects of rapamycin in mice, the speaker underestimated the difficulty of raising the necessary funds.
  • At the time of the announcement, the speaker’s YouTube channel had approximately 40,000 to 50,000 subscribers, leading to an initial belief that raising $600,000 would be manageable.
  • The need for crowdfunding arose because rapamycin cannot be patented, as it was discovered in the 1960s, eliminating any potential for investor returns.
  • After two years of crowdfunding efforts, only $80,000 was raised, prompting the speaker to seek alternative strategies to reach the funding goal.

Challenges and New Approaches

  • The speaker began taking individual supplements and noted the publication of the Cosmos Mind study in 2023, which highlighted significant cognitive benefits from daily multivitamin and mineral intake.
  • The speaker struggled to find a multivitamin that met specific requirements, such as proper dosing and the inclusion of desired ingredients like vitamin K2 and magnesium torate.
  • To address these needs, the speaker decided to create a custom supplement that would also serve as a funding source for the clinical trial.
  • The process of establishing a supplement company was fraught with complications, including the challenge of generating immediate profits to fund the trial.
  • Despite the difficulties, the speaker was committed to ensuring the clinical study moved forward and sought to resolve funding issues through this new business venture.

Unexpected Support and Setbacks

  • During the supplement business development, a viewer from the channel generously offered to fund half of the clinical trial, with the funds managed by the nonprofit lifespan.io.
  • Soon after, another viewer pledged to cover the remaining costs, creating optimism about the trial’s future.
  • However, shortly thereafter, the second viewer was unable to provide the promised funds, coinciding with a stock market crash that jeopardized the trial’s timeline.
  • Faced with the potential halt of the study, the speaker considered using profits from the supplement business to fill the funding gap but found the business’s financial structure more complicated than anticipated.
  • The speaker encountered various unforeseen costs, including accounting and inventory management, leading to stock shortages that hindered profitability.

Financial Decisions and Trial Progress

  • Determined to proceed, the speaker approached the bank for a loan, supported by the business’s revenue trends and personal home equity.
  • After discussions with the speaker’s spouse, they decided to remortgage their home to secure approximately $150,000 needed to fund the trial.
  • With the funding secured, recruitment for the clinical trial began in 2024, aiming to enroll 40 participants.
  • Data collection for the study was completed in January 2025, followed by a thorough auditing process and database locking.
  • On July 31, the speaker finalized the study manuscript and submitted it for peer review to a clinical journal, with hopes for timely publication of the results.

Conclusion and Future Plans

  • The speaker expressed gratitude for the community’s support throughout this four-year journey, emphasizing the collective effort involved.
  • Plans for a follow-on study are in place, which will be conducted as part of the speaker’s PhD program at the University of Oakland.
  • The speaker remains committed to the goals of the clinical trial and the broader implications of their research in lifespan extension.
7 Likes
#24

I deeply respect Dr Stanfield for that.

2 Likes
#25

Oops forgot the link. Thanks for coming to my rescue Beth

3 Likes
#26

If you know people in academia, you know that reviewing is mostly a thankless job. That explains the glacial pace. No incentive to to go fast, the pay is non existent or a pitance.

#27

The entire incentive structure of doing science needs to change. Misaligned incentives result in the proliferation of worthless and even fraudulent publishing, suppression of negative results, novelty bias, deprecation of confirmation studies, credibility crisis, glacial pace of reviews, subject selection and so forth. Now, it’s not possible to design an incentive regimen that would align only positive axis, there will always be blind spots and distortions, but you trade one aggregate for another, and try to come out ahead. Today’s situation is the result of a historical evolution and legacy structures that have on balance tilted strongly toward negative consequences, and it’s time to right the ship, or the whole science enterprise is in danger of sinking. Already it’s both unwieldy for the scientists, and losing public support. It shouldn’t be, that when seeing a new paper one’s first thought is “is this outright fraud”, once credibility is destroyed, there is a massive drag on efficiency. And here we are. Dog knows, science in China has a whole mountain of problems, but we desperately need some competition from somewhere.

1 Like
#28

The results were unblinded on July 31st 2025. The paper was submitted to a journal and it is undergoing peer review. Seems results are positive. He will tell us when results are released. It should be soon.

Or someone could contact him and find out what the unofficial word is.

4 Likes
#29

On his discord, he hinted the best way to take Rapamycin could be once every 4-8 weeks, which is a very surprising thing to hear. I am curious what the results will look like that has him suggesting such an infrequent dosing schedule.

4 Likes
#30

Did he state the dose for such a protocol?

1 Like
#31

No he didn’t. We will have to wait for the results.

1 Like
#32

Brad’s fairly young… so that I could see that make sense.

For 60 years up… I think more frequently would be in order. I do 6 mg weekly. Pretty much stuck to that the past 5 years… no breaks… gone as high as 12 mg every 10 days and low as 4 mg weekly. But always come back to my sweet spot 6 mg weekly. Actually feel off at high dose and like age is creeping up faster at low dose - skin quality dryer… sinus less healthy.

My son started up again after a 2 year break… he is young… 33 years… he does 4 mg weekly. Helped him first time reset weight point… lost 25 pounds.

I am curious to see how second round goes.

Trouble is younger folks benefits are not as obvious as when one is older… functional declines… body changes.

The young feel great… all the more reason to take rapamycin early and hover at your younger self a few decades.

#33

It’s difficult to assess. If you take rapamycin at too high doses or too frequently, you risk infection. If you take it too infrequently or at too low a dose, you won’t see any beneficial effect beyond placebo.

The mice trials point to high/very high doses producing the most lifespan extending effect, somewhat independent of frequency. But rapamycin in mice chow has a different bioavailability than rapamune pills. And gender-specific differences are not seen in humans either.

Anywhere from 5mg once weekly to 20mg once every other week has case reports of being somewhat safe. But it may depend on where you live, where you work etc. I wouldn’t touch rapamycin if I worked as a RN or as a kindergartner, for example.

1 Like
#34

I think Brad’s Rapamycin trial was for people who are older, so I would imagine that his advice would be based on that age population. I’ll wait for the full results before dissecting his interpretation though.

2 Likes
#35

As people know I am a high dose infrequent person.

4 Likes
#36

Its interesting… the original protocol in his study was 6mg/week as outlined here: Rapamycin Exercise Study Moves Forward: Dr. Brad Stanfield's Study Registered in NZ

I’m not sure how he could determine that once every 4 to 8 weeks would be better given this study.

4 Likes
#37

Yes I’m confused as well but I won’t rush to judgement. Brad always has a pretty compelling explanation so I’m eager to hear why he thinks that.

@John_Hemming maybe you were ahead of the curve after all

1 Like
#38

The trough is an important period.

1 Like
#39

Since I started late (age 81), I have been following Dr. Blagosklonny’s advice from his papers and Twitter—the highest tolerable weekly dose without unpleasant side effects.
As an aside, IMO: There is no proof that a weekly high dose of rapamycin significantly suppresses mTORC2. I have experienced slightly slower wound and mosquito bite healing, but not enough to concern me.

Unlike most, I titrated down from doses that were causing me to have diarrhea.
The maximum dose I could take was 16 mg with olive oil without causing diarrhea.

So for the last ~4 years, I have been taking this dose, or the equivalent, as I am now using GFJ to extend my supply of rapamycin. Up until recently, I was taking 6 mg weekly with GFJ.
One of the reasons for the highest tolerable dose is the theory that if a sufficiently high dose is administered, some of it will cross the blood-brain barrier and exert a therapeutic effect.

For the last 4 weeks, I have titrated up to 8 mg weekly with GFJ. I also encapsulate my rapamycin tablets in enteric-coated capsules and take them with GFJ and olive oil.
I don’t know how much, if any, effect the enteric-coated capsules make.
Apparently, my body has adjusted to taking high-dose rapamycin because I am experiencing no side effects, except that I always feel great for the next couple of days.

Results: Over the last four years, I have not contracted a cold, the flu, or COVID-19. Never experienced an infection. I am pain-free, which I find remarkable, because my contemporaries are always complaining about this and that pain. Rapamycin has dramatically improved my condition of chronic actinic keratoses.

Initially, I experienced an elevation in lipids and glucose levels, but Brillo (bempedoic acid with ezetimibe and metformin) addressed that.

I plan on titrating up to 10 mg weekly with GFJ/enteric-coated capsules/EVOO.

As for Dr. Stanfield’s study, it is too small and too short for me to be interested in the results, which I find predictable. But I appreciate his effort. If I wait for the weekly high-dose trial, the train will have already passed.

I don’t advocate high-dose rapamycin for anyone, especially younger people, where it is not needed. But for those of us at an advanced age, it is one of the very few probable life extenders.

10 Likes
#40

Interesting perspective.

There’s also this idea that a weekly dose can actually improve your immune system (the 2014 Mannick paper). Theoretically weekly doses will help to clear away crappy immune cells.

Personally, I am 39 and I am taking 2mg or 3mg per week. It’s definitely affected my Levine phenotypic age, knocking about 10 years off it (lowering RDW and WBC). I can’t say I noticed anything else. My thinking is that I am still young-ish, and nothing is really wrong and needs fixing yet. However, I can benefit from autophagy, particularly in rapidly dividing/produced cells like immune cells and RBCs.

5 Likes