#182

I personally do the following:

  • mix in multiple naturally occurring inhibitors from diet to potentially reduce the risk of “acarbose resistance”
  • use slow digesting carbohydrates (examples are lentils/beans)
  • maximum dose

Can you elaborate what the maximum dose means ?
Do you suggest that using maximum dose like 300mg(or more) acarbose a day, then it may prevent from developing acarbose resistance? And what’s the reason behind it?

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#183

I took 100mg of Acarbose upon waking yesterday, which is about 30minutes before I eat anything. I believe this is similar to what Bryan Johnson does. Bloat and GI issues were considerably lessened, but then it makes me question whether it’s effective or not

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#184

I asked AI, and this is what they said:
What is the mechanism where resistance to acarbose may develop?

Resistance to acarbose may develop through several mechanisms, including decreased transporter expression, mutations in the target enzyme (α-glucosidase), reduced absorption of the drug, or drug metabolism. Additionally, alterations in the gut microbiome may play a role in the development of resistance.

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#185

I use 100 mg about 5-10 minutes before meal, chew the tablet, 3 times per day. I’m slowly titrating towards 200 mg with 2 meals per day

The official rec is the first bite of the meal.

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#186

As you noticed, doesn’t sound particularly believable when it’s basically nonsystemic and ~98-99% stays in GI tract. I figured it’s worth pointing out for others.

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#187

Why go to 200? Have you been tracking spikes with a CGM?

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#188

Yes, I do use a CGM - but it’s not cost-effective and I don’t generally recommend nondiabetics to use it for any sort of prevention reason at this time.

Keep in mind, long story short - it’s complex and based on my individual situation. I may have a naturally higher fasting blood sugar with seemingly slightly higher peaks or it could be some “extended dawn phenomenon” or something else. Haven’t looked into it in depth since there’s not a particularly compelling reason I can think of so far.

Recent A1c dropped to 5.4% from roughly 5.7-6% (may be related to mild intermittent anemia with originally inappropriately low-normal reticulocyte count that caused a falsely high reading) in 5 weeks pointing to probably inaccurate A1c as false positive prediabetes, but still fasting glucose very roughly 90-105 in the morning after the time range of where the dawn phenomenon is. After a 100 mg max dose of acarbose in one sitting - I don’t get anywhere close to a hypoglycemic range, and I suspect it may have better marginal effects at 200 mg in one sitting but with slightly more food in the meal. Debating fructosamine testing just to see whether A1c is really that inaccurate for more data, but it’s probably overkill.

I had somewhat low fasting insulin despite “good” HOMA-IR, so that may be part of it. I don’t have anywhere close to the range of hypoglycemia. Lipids and 2 hr OGTT suggest “good” insulin sensitivity to me, hence I don’t believe the likely false positive prediabetes resembles a march towards the “lipodystrophy-like” or disrupted liver lipid metabolism phenotype. I might test for proinsulin/insulin only if later labs are trending toward the beta cell dysfunction-related phenotype trends in hopes of catching anything rare early if it is does develop towards a LADA deal.

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#189

That’s exactly what I thought

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#190

Does anyone have a doctor that will prescribe high dose acarbose (ie 400mg/day), and does online visits? I’m using Hibose from India but would like to try the Bayer Precose version. I tried push health but they said it wasn’t indicated for me

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#191

So besides Rapamycin, the next best candidates in extending life in the ITP trials are Type-2 diabetes drugs.
In my opinion, the ITP project is flawed
I commented this to Dr. Miller in his contact links, but he never responded.

But here it is again:
I think ITP project is flawed because it is using a metabolically sick population as a control. And then, drugs that treat metabolic syndrome are more likely to work on them and extend life. Has Acarbose or Canagliflozin extended life in yeast, worms, flies and mice? As far as I know, no. As far as I know, these T2D drugs have only worked in “sick” lab mice.
In my opinion, before any further experiment in the ITP, they need to perform several experiments to design a healthy lifestyle and diet for their control group. It seems that what they use as the Standard Mice-Chow Diet (SMCD) is really not optimal at all. As far as I know, mice are omnivorous and, as far as I know, SMCD is mainly based on grains. No surprising these T2D drugs enhance health and longevity for those poor mice that, if humanized, are eating box cereal and cookies all their life. (By the way, same as poor doggies that eat only chow throughout their lives.)

So, ITP experiments should use a control group of mice that exercise and eat an optimal omnivore diet and that have the chance to play and mate with their pairs. Then that would be a good control group against we could test some molecules to extend life.
Or, if we want to test medicine that would help humans that mainly eat cereal and cookies, then ITP as it is right now makes sense (although not to me! :grin:).

And, yes, I understand, nobody knows what is the optimal omnivore diet for a mouse but clearly chow is not ideal at all. I think we could do much better thinking for a few minutes in other options.

What do you think?

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#192

It’s so interesting how different people react to different medications. For instance, I have taken Metformin (back to 1g) daily (at night after dinner) and haven’t noticed any negative side effects (some GI side effects in the first two weeks of initially taken the drug about 1 year ago).
Over the last two weeks, have also taken 50mg of Acarbose at lunch - gas is still ‘on point’ aka situation normal. In other words, no change….

Going to get a blood test in a few weeks time to see if anything has improved……

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#193

The podcasts I listened to suggested the ITP mice were a little more genetically diverse……

I’m really interested to hear more about the metabolically sick mice and where we can find out more info about this?

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#194

Yes mice are diverse. But diet is far from optimal.
Again, in my opinion, the T2D medicine results are a possible indication that they are helping to treat sick OMNIVORE mice. I think there are no reports of their sickness, but we can dig a bit into this hypothesis. I’ll try to find signs of “health” in the control mice. I guess this is the minimum we could ask for a control population.

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#195

Ah, thanks for clarifying.
I wonder if the diet is the same for all ITP studies? What about non-ITP trials?

On another note, do you think it is just the Rapa that is working regardless of mice chow?

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#196

Today is my first day on acarbose. I took 50mg with breakfast, lunch and dinner. No significant gassiness or any other unwanted side effect. I had a slice of sourdough for breakfast, potatoes were served for lunch and dinner was all wheat based. so let’s keep fingers crossed it stays this way. :rofl:

But I have something else to ask… since starchy food is not digested by enzymes is small intestine but in by bacteria in colon does that mean also reduction of calories? Just wondering…

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#197

Yes. That is what I think. So if metabolic health is well controlled with diet (like a Ketogenic diet) I do not think Acarbose would make any difference. (This is my own hypothesis coming from the fact that any chow diet is far from optimal, and its even farthest when the animal is omnivore: I do not feed chow to my doggies neither :grin:).

That said, I’m not on a permanent ketogenic diet, so the idea of limiting the carbohydrate intake through Acarbose makes some sense. (With beneficial results seen in the “flawed-feeding” ITP.) So, I indeed bought yesterday a tea of “Organic Skullcap” and took a cup after each meal. And today I woke up with perfect blood glucose: 80 mg/dL, while normally for many previous monday-prick checks I woke up ~90 mg/dL. So, I think I’ll stick with a cup during dinner (as it is indeed branded as a good aid for sleeping).

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#198

I believe most of the calories from carbs are eventually absorbed, except for a small fraction used up by the gut bacteria. But the rate of absorption is slowed down to several hours from the usual 15 minutes, which reduces the Blood Sugar peak and provides the main benefit for diabetics. What exactly provides the life extension benefits remains to be determined, but possible candidates are:

  1. Lower blood sugar peaks.
  2. Healthier gut biome : good gut bacteria that evolved in the human gut have already evolved the ability to digest carbs in the presence of Acarbose (similar compounds exist in certain beans that were part of historical human diet) while other bacteria have not.
    3.Acarbose increases the production of H2 in the gut.
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#200

Or the diet given to the animals is leading them to metabolic sickness, then Acarbose is protective vs T2D.

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#201

Hi All:

I enjoyed this presentation on Acarbose and Rapamycin.

Link: Healthspan Blog | Exploring the Anti-aging Potential of Acarbose and Rapamycin: Insights from the NIA Interventions Testing Program

Just sells me more on acarbose over metformin. And, of course rapamycin. I am all in for a 30% life extension.

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#202

I started taking acarbose (100 mg chewed with first bite of each meal, two meals / day). I noticed perhaps some increased gas and loose stools but it didn’t bother me much. Now about two weeks in I developed significant GI cramping bloating and nausea and had to stop altogether. It seemed odd to me that it took two weeks to develop and that the symptoms continued for ~ 48 hours. I often have a beer with dinner… could that be enough to really set it off? I also occasionally have bread with dinner but with most meals I didn’t notice any variation in symptoms. Wondering if I have to just be careful of what I eat. I’m hesitant to go back to it as I was laid up and feeling generally miserable for about two days. Anyone else have this problem and find a solution?

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