Yes - definitely WBC and Neutrophils - they are part of the standard CBC that many of us do - example below: After two years on rapamycin, my WBC is 5.6
On the issue of bacterial infections - yes, Dr. Green has written a lot about it - but I’ve talked to some rapamycin researchers and they suspect he’s making an error there. Here is the note I put in the side effects page where I had originally mentioned Dr. Green’s warnings about bacterial infections:
[Note: There is some very significant disagreement about Dr. Green’s above statement, by other medical professionals I’ve talked to with experience with rapamycin. Bacterial infections, and use of antibiotics to treat them, is extremely common in the USA. I found it very hard to get good numbers on the typical percent of a population in the US that get bacterial infections each year, but this document from PEW Trusts suggests that antibiotics in the US are prescribed at a rate of 838 for every 1,000 people (measured in 2015) - which suggests upwards of 84% of Americans (or at least their prescribing doctors) think they have a bacterial infection each year severe enough to require antibiotics. Dr. Green has suggested only 5% to 10% of his patients get bacterial infections in any year, which suggests a much lower than average rate of infection than normal for rapamycin users. Moreover, it is not something that the users of rapamycin that participate in forums suggest is a common issue. So, take this with a grain of salt until more data is provided by Dr. Green.]
On the issue of bacterial infections - yes, Dr. Green has written a lot about it - but I’ve talked to some rapamycin researchers and they suspect he’s making an error there.
That’s really interesting - and makes sense. Looking at average incidence of bacterial infections in non-rapa versus rapa cohorts. Thanks for sharing!
Whilst this is slight off topic versus the OP, I’d just like to segue for a second into another potential mistake made by Dr Green (we’re all human after all).
On his site he advocates for supplementation of Glycine & NAC for restoring youthful glutathione production. This is based on research by a Rajagopal V Sekhar in Houston Texas (link). Based on that research, Dr Green suggests dosage of:
Glycine 0.1 grams/kilo
NAC 0.13 grams/kilo
However, when I did my own calculation of the doses, from the paper, it should be 0.1 grams/kilo for both. The extra 0.03 of NAC isn’t much - but for a 70KG human, that’s 2.1 grams extra per day you’re buying + ingesting, without much reason.
I emailed the paper’s author, Dr Sekhar, and he confirmed the dose used in the research 0.1 grams/kilo. However, he suggests the research is still too early to be advocating for it.
Anyhow, I emailed Dr Green to let him know, and he replied about something irrelevant and didn’t update the recommendation on the website. shrug
LabQuest through walkinlab.com has similar pricing. The blood panel + CRP_hs is what I am planning to get quarterly to track my Levine age. I doubt the sirolimus test is important: Dr. Blagosklonny’s goal is to take the most he can without side effects since he believes there is a correlation between dose and life span.
That person’s idea of testing IGF-1 as a proxy for MTOR is just an idea. I don’t know if anyone has done this yet - so it needs more research. I’m not sure of its validity - though there is lots of data and papers that suggest there is overlap in the IGF-1 and MTOR pathways.
I’m sorry I can’t be of much help on this idea. I would recommend you talk with your doctor, or perhaps other people with more experience and in-depth understanding of the relationship and correlation of MTOR and IGF-1 can join this conversation and contribute some thoughts…
Perhaps some papers that can start the research and discussion:
After re-evaluating current pricing for test 716712, we are able to offer it at a price of $95 going forward. Please call us if you would like to place an order. Thank you for your support and interest in our lab testing services. Life Extension Customer Support, (800) 678-8989.
When you say you want to verify “you have the real stuff” - why do you say that? what makes you suspicious that it might not be the real stuff?
If you are buying a the sirolimus from any of the top 8 or so manufacturers of sirolimus listed here, then it almost certainly has a significant dose of sirolimus. Sirolimus is a generic medication so the prices are low, and therefore the incentive is also very low for anyone to produce counterfeit versions of rapamycin - so I suspect that the risk is low that you are getting a counterfeit drug.
I suspect that the bigger risks are that the dose may be lower than the dose stated on the package - but in the lab tests I’ve seen (as at the bottom of this page) that hasn’t been evident. Just taking a blood sirolimus test won’t tell you if your product is giving you the correct dose, (though if you have tested with both a validated product - e.g. the name brand rapamune - and compare blood levels at the same time in multiple test - then it might give you a very rough idea of equivalency).
The other risk - and I tend to think that it is the larger risk - is for contaminants in the process, and therefore in the drug purchased. Just taking a blood sirolimus test won’t tell you if you have any contaminants from tainted drugs.
If you are using, as your source of the drug, powder purchased from China (which I see some people purchasing and discussing on different discussion forums) then I think the dosage, and the contaminants are higher potential risks - and ones that only lab testing can really address.
Mine were manufactured by Iosis Remedies in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, which is associated with Ikon Remedies. The package is labelled “Sirokem” sirolimus tablets. A web search makes it seem legit, but it is a new company and I have no real way of knowing. Thanks for the list of top manufacturers.
I’ve never heard of that supplier. Generally you want to purchase pharmaceuticals from the largest, most established companies because they generally tend to have the best quality control processes in their manufacturing groups.
And - Ideally you want to purchase the product and have it lab tested (by a 3rd party, independent lab), or at least have seen tests of the product by third parties. We have a sample lab analysis done on Biocon and Zydus on this page at the bottom of this posting about getting quality testing on sirolimus - I encourage you to check it out.
Yes - the Certificate of Analysis is produced by the company selling the product - so if they are lying about the contents of the product, they’d likely lie about the COA also - so its not very helpful.
I enrolled in the Life Extension Vitality in Aging study so I get a LE’s complete male panel plus Omega 3 tests yearly. I also have my regular annual physical with many of the same tests in mid-year. Primary goal is tests for the Levine calculation. Fasting insulin and Vitamin D are always requested. I’ve also had TNF-alpha and IL6 tests done.
I had tests available for Levine calc before starting Rapamycin and my bio age and chrono age were equivalent at 66. Four months after starting rapa my bio age per the calc was 53. Primary improvements were in creatinine and RDW.
So you had about a 13 year reduction in your biological age according to the Levine phenotypic calculations - in 4 months of use of rapamycin. Very interesting. Thanks for posting!
Have you had additional blood tests and how have things trended since that first test you did?
When I first started was taking 5 mg per week.
This year took 15 mg every two weeks for six months and nov 1 took 20 mg. No side effects. Had some low level blood tests last week and eGFR and creatinine were best levels I have documented going back to 2013. Quite impressed on what Rapa does for kidney function as I was out of range for 5 years before taking it.
well in Dec I crashed on my mountain bike and injured shoulder. Jan data put my bio age up to 57 as hsCRP jumped to 4.2
In June metrics dropped and bio age returned to 53 same as early 2020 but I’m 18 months older.
The Levine calc heavily depends on chronological age. If I input my chronological age as 67 when I started it says my bio age is 51.
Great to hear you’re still mountain biking, sorry to hear about the crash. Interesting how the crash seems to have increased your hsCRP - but not unexpected I guess.
Yes - Levine calc relies in part on your chron. age - but I see a very close consistency with my http://aging.ai estimates.
I just called LEF, they do not have the sirolimus test. They don’t even know of the labcorp 716712 test. Per the guy who put me on hold to call the back end service at LEF. Soooo, we need a way to buy this test? Tnx for any helps. Curt