Do you know where can I find this test? I couldn’t find it at lifeextension.com…is that LEF?
Just look midway down on the first post and you can see this text with their phone number:
Recently the Life Extension Foundation Lab services has started offering a low cost blood test for blood sirolimus levels via Labcorp. testing services. They sent this email to me recently:
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.
From:
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LEF doesn’t seem to be offering the test right now, though I haven’t contacted them directly.
You have to call them directly. We talked to them and got them to offer it at a low cost.
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Thank you! I’ll do that. I not only want to check trough levels, but I also want to verify that I have the real stuff.
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.
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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.
This happens to be the batch I have: https://www.reddit.com/r/Rapamycin/comments/qp2hrt/anyone_know_how_i_can_verify_this/ , but only gives me a little reassurance. As the commenter says, it’s like grading your own homework.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Has there been an ongoing reduction in your Levine phenotypical age or has it plateaued?
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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.
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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.
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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
Bizarre… here is the exact email they sent me when I asked if they could provide the lower cost sirolimus blood test - I recommend you email their blood lab customer service (see email below) with a copy of their email to me attached and reference my case #. Labcorp only offered the blood sirolimus test directly for $400, so I pushed for a lower cost as rapamycin users may want to test occasionally.
Also, here is the link to the Labcorp blood test:
https://www.labcorp.com/tests/716712/sirolimus-whole-blood
And that response is to the following email I had sent to them:
To: BloodLabcustomerservice@lifeextension.com
Hi LifeExtension,
There are many people (including Bill Falloon) using rapamycin (sirolimus) and we need an inexpensive blood test for determining the levels of sirolimus at the peak (after two hours of taking the drug) and trough (after 7 days). Can your company please work to get a low cost blood test to do this. Its available by the labcorp and others - but its very expensive. Can you please negotiate a lower cost and offer it through your blood test services.
See this page - about rapamycin on your website:
Autophagy As You Age - Life Extension
This is the test that you need to offer, at much lower cost:
716712: Sirolimus, Whole Blood | Labcorp
Please confirm that you have received this email.
Sincerely,
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Success!! Tnx alot. The trick was after calling the LEF support number, asking to be xfered to a Wellness Specialist. She had to put me on hold, but figured out how to set my LEF account with an order for this test. I bought 2 separate tests, each $95. My interest is to test in the afternoon after taking an every other week dose of rapa of 12mg in the morning. THEN re test (out of curriousity) 13 days later.
Laughably, the cheapest way to verify what you are taking is really rapa and is the concentration (12mg +/-) you think it is. Ok ok if this is how we test purity of our (almost all) questionable sources of rapa, this is how we need to verify. Good that I’ll only do these 2 tests once in forever, unless I try one of the absorbtion boosting tactics (Brin posted a 500x drug…).
Thanks Admin!! And all. It takes a community on this adventure.
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Great to hear it worked out. Please post your results - it should be interesting!
My rapa doc just ordered the same Labcorp sirolimus test for me and said just to let him know if I wanted him to order more. Since I’m taking prescription version from Walgreens, my first test will be Day 6 after taking a dose (hopefully levels will be really low or undetectable such that I can continue weekly dosing).
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It would be interesting to know what your doctor’s target trough level is for blood sirolimus at day 6 to minimize mTORC2 inhibition… I suspect each doctor has a slightly different take on this issue.