Hi, long-time lurker, registered for an account to reply to this thread. A couple questions come to mind:
How does Matt think about the definitive human Rapamycin trial? If he were to design a study (with sufficient but realistic funding) how would he design it? What endpoints, aside from mortality, would he be interested in? What would the inclusion criteria be, specifically with regard to age?
A large portion of popular longevity content focuses on the anabolism / catabolism vector (I am not sure if ‘pathway’ is the right technical term here). Are there other key ‘vectors’ that Matt could talk about here that might be less discussed in popular media? I know this is a complex topic and many mechanisms interact; I’m mostly looking for additional lenses that can be used to assess potential interventions.
What available drug/supplements might be complementary to Rapamycin in terms of mechanism of effect on health span?. What combinations might he think could be most effective. What should we avoid taking with Rapamycin? (I am particularly interested in drugs/supplements that could have side benefits for individuals with Long Covid, atherosclerosis and/or poor glucose metabolism.)
FWIW, I believe he mentioned tadalafil when discussing the study that looked at the association of medications people took and lifespan - drugs that showed life prolonging association in the UK Biobank study. There were a handful of such drugs, including atorvastatin, a couple of vaccines, and viagra. Tadalafil is a sister drug to viagra, but longer lasting in the body. So MK thought that interesting enough of a longevity signal to consider taking… so not so much for the sake of his wife as much as his life🤪.
Two questions: (1) Why does he personally cycle off rapa for 12 weeks (on 12 wks and off 12wks)? and (2) While he changed the dosing frequency for his canine study from the original 3x per week to now 1x per week (for participant feasibility reasons?), would he predict that the original 3x per week would be more effective in the real world for canine health and life span?