I asked myself the same question. I felt fine after about four days of getting Covid. I tested negative and felt much better. I took another low dose of Rapa, started to feel worse and then tested positive, although faintly the next day. It does seem like it was related.
Regarding Paxlovid, my wife also took it the 1st time she had covid and it cleared up her symptoms, but a day or two after finishing the course she tested positive again. I have read that this can happen. It could have been Paxlovid or Rapa in your case I suppose.
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Hey John,
Out of curiosity, why are you taking Rapa every four months? I’m planning on doing a five day fast at some point in the next few months and did wonder whether it might have a synergistic effect with Rapamycin.
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The 4 months figure is a bit of a coincidence. I decided to fast so I thought I had best take Rapamycin again. I am continually running tests with various molecules. If I am to have any chance of isolating out the impact of any one molecule I need to introduce it in isolation. Hence I have not got much space for Rapamycin as it has effects on its own (mainly on sleep although oddly enough not so much this time).
I have not decided on my ideal frequency of rapamycin, but fortnightly is too frequent. I think probably monthly or bimonthly would be a good steady state situation with a delay when infected. (or likely to be infected).
Fasting at the same time is clearly a good idea as its main mode of action is to encourage autophagy. Hence also take quite a bit of melatonin and possibly ferulic acid.
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I agree, however when it’s present, an antibiotic is a life savior. Glad it helped me. Timing is also important. The earlier you catch the bad guys the better 
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I am not taking Rapa every four months (even though there were 4 months between doses). I took Rapa because I had a fast. If I have a fast more than 4 weeks from previously taking Rapa I will take Rapa.
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John has a unique dosing strategy (though many people do seem to dose rapamycin as part of a fast). More common dosing protocols are outlined here: What is the Rapamycin Dose / Dosage for Anti-Aging or Longevity?
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I always thought Rapamycin worked similar to how some microbes can modulate their effectiveness against bacteria and viruses. By strengthening resistance to viruses it weakens it’s resistance to bacteria and vice versa.
So the thought is Rapamycin protects you against viruses at the cost of making you susceptible to bacteria. Am I correct in this assumption?
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I would think that in reducing WBC count Rapamycin causes a reduction in protection via WBCs against bacteria and viruses.
It, however, probably increases cytosolic ROS which cells can use to fight invaders without relying on the WBCs.
My figures are 6th Jan WBC 3.35 2mg Rapamycin 7th Jan 11th Jan WBC 2.7 about a 20% drop.
However, you cannot say Rapamycin necessarily caused all of that. My family had a lot of infections over Chrismas and my CRP went up which indicates that I was also infected (or some other cause). It is quite likely I was infected although I did not show any obvious symptoms. The infection would have driven up WBC.
I had a previous drop of WBC from 3.5 to 2.31. However, as WBCs have a relatively short lifetime and although Rapamycin’s half life is a comparatively long 60ish hours, that is really short in terms of weekly tests. Hence one would expect the curve in terms of WBC to initially go down as a result of Rapa and then build back up again perhaps with the minimum point in terms of WBC being a week after taking Rapa. To see that, however, would need more frequent blood tests. I could do the maths on this, but I don’t think it will necessarily give any more information.
I think it would be a useful piece of information and is something that is really easy to run not necessarily needing blinding or anything like that. However, I am going to stick to my weekly blood tests for now. I am testing a lot more than Rapamycin.
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I have been on Rapamycin for a long time (small dose), but my WBC has never been that low. The lowest I had for 12 mo period was 4.22. The last one (after Covid, 12/29/22) was 5.08, and on 12/5/22 it was 6.03.
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My WBC was low before I took Rapamycin. I hypothecate that this is because I have increased the ability of my cells to fight infection using NF kappa B and cytosolic ROS. In 2021 I had one blood count at WBC 4.34 2022 and 2023 have all been under 4.
Morgan Levines phenoage algorithm has low WBC as being good. (in the sense of a lower mortality).
In 2022 and 2023 I have not really had any macroscopic signs of infection. I am pretty certain I have been infected because I was exposed to infection via my family. If anyone wants to see the WBC figures I can copy them into the forum.
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The last thing you want to do is suppress your immune system when you have COV.
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My WBC went from 3.9 on May 5th to 3.4 on June 8. I started a five day water only fast on May 5 after my blood was drawn. Most of my markers improved, some significantly, but that one was an outlier. I have no idea if it was a result of the fast. I had not started taking rapamycin at that time.
Want to correct myself: I did not mean “preventive” prescribing of antibiotics as prescribing without having a bacterial infection. A better wording would be “taking antibiotics at a very early stage (with onset of coughing when having Covid) with the purpose of preventing that infection from becoming pneumonia couple weeks later. My mother almost died of undetected pneumonia. Her doctor did not order X-ray and did not prescribe an antibiotic on time. Three weeks later he gave her an antibiotic when her pneumonia was already full grown. One can only imagine the damage that was done to a 90 yo because of his fear of antibiotic resistance.
I have been measuring WBC for quite some time. I have not noticed any meaningful trend since starting rapamycin and it varies up and down from test to test. My current WBC after taking relatively high doses of rapamycin for over a year are
I read today that Pfizer is being investigated by the CDC for their booster shots. We refused to take the boosters due to so many people having a bad reaction, especially coughing and breathing problems. I’m sure the Rapamycin is not causing the problems
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Back on rapamycin as of yesterday. 3mg with gf juice. The only thing I noticed was that my sense of smell was better. This was quite unexpected. Covid did affect my taste and to a lesser extent, sense of smell.
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I still haven’t restarted Rapmycin, but I’m going to start again this weekend. I’m still having weird visual artifacts after my bout with Covid.
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Rapamycin is good for eyes… and gums.
Maybe it can help.
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I was diagnosed with BVVP. It was really severe but has started to settle down, I’ll occasionally lie down and the room will start to spin. I’m finding that if I concentrate I can stop it or I can close my eyes and it seems fine. I think it’s neurological, which frankly has freaked me out. I’m hoping that whatever has happened my brain will retrain itself and adjust.
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I get bvvp every few years. I think from surf wipeouts. I can typically resolve it in a day by just doing the Half-Somersault every 30 min or so until it resolves.
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