#21

Amazing transformation! You said you were at 420 testosterone (presumably total), and this was just barely out of crisis level. Interesting observation. At 65 (I’m 66 atm), my TT was 444. I wonder how one reaches the decision to go on TRT. I’m feeling fine, physically and psychologically. I’m not exactly ripped, but I have what I feel is decent muscle mass, at least for the muscles I exercise (primarily legs). One important fact for me is that all my life, I found it super easy to put on muscle. I am a kind of hyperresponder to weight lifting, among all my friends, I always put on muscle first and best. Even past age 62, when I started lifting again, I gained muscle super fast. As for getting “ripped”, or more lean mass less fat mass, there are other things like SGLT2i, rapa, GLP-1RA, so no need for TRT. So as I think about TRT, I’m struggling to find the motivation to start it. I’m not opposed to it, just nothing really pushes me. It’s not “to gain muscle”, and I keep hearing about how it makes you feel… but I already feel great - in fact, that’s my lucky break, that I don’t have any mental health issues, Attia talks about it all the time because it’s so important, and I always skip that, cause that ain’t my issue… pure luck of course, like being born with naturally super low LDL. So, I feel no need to mess with my already excellent feeling of wellbeing and happy mood (also a reason why drugs and alcohol never held any interest for me).

I know a test level of 444 at 65 is nothing to write home about, but I just can’t come up with a single compelling reason to go for TRT. I’m super happy that’s a great resource for others (such as you!), but I feel like a blind man in a painting class.

I wonder if there are others in my position, i.e. not opposed to TRT by any means, but just not motivated - so often it seems like there are only two camps, those for, and those against, while I’m sitting very confused in neither.

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#22

Enjoyed your reply… and lucky you… very difficult for me to build muscle… any lapse in lifting and it dissolves. I am consistent in my workout routine because I know what happens if I start skipping my workouts.

Years of consistent work… has bought me a bit of buffer… for my work travel when I can’t get to a gym.

You feel good… no need to go the TRT route.
For me, like increasing my protein intake… adding taurine, vitamin supplements and upping my testosterone are keeping me at a normal range as my biology works less effectively. TRT… is helpful to bone, muscle, sexual health… down for all of those. Lol.Trying to age more… slowly.

I too, feel amazing… and blood work confirms it.
Can’t anticipate any potential issues. Chronic disease is not typical in my family history… no cancer or alzheimer’s. Longevity is the norm … building on my genetics strengths. Health span with lifespan.

4 Likes
#23

You had psoriasis before or after Rapa?

#24

Great progress. I am on the same journey. Been using Rapamycin for a couple of years. I can only tolerate 2mg/week. If I increase dosage to 3 or more I get mouth sores. I work out at the gym and swim. In Sept 2024 I started TRT and NAD plus injections. That has made a major difference to my energy and strength levels.

1 Like
#25

Long before.
Rapamycin - if subjectively - improved it a bit, but I did other things too.

I’ve related most of the following in other threads:

  • In my late 20s I had a couple of major respiratory infections treated with long and pretty massive doses of antibiotics.

  • At 30, I developed debilitating allergies to ragweed and mold.

  • Since then every successive course I’ve had of antibiotics has proceeded the worsening of autoimmune issues or the onset of new ones.

  • Psoriasis showed up in my 50s.

Some background:

  • In the late summer of 2019, I had a concerning (more accurately terrifying) flare up of psoriasis covering ~90% of my skin surface (this followed a course of antibiotics for a severe sinus infection). Plaques. Broken skin.

  • The senior rheumatologists at NYU Langone (a major NY research hospital) just looked at me like they expected me to contract staph infections and die.

  • This same rheumatologists had published papers identifying an overgrowth of Firmicutes, a common intestinal bacteria species, as coincident with all cases of psoriasis. They couldn’t draw causation and had no treatment for me other than treating symptoms.

  • I had my microbiome sequenced by the American Gut Project. It showed that Firmicutes constituted just over 90% of my gut microbiome (fauna).

  • My history of susceptibility to infections precluded using the various new drugs that lower immune response.

  • I found evidence of the effectiveness of fecal transplants, but one can’t get them in the US. I called up Anthony Azar, MD.

Anthony & me

I had arrived at the conjecture, that the antibiotics wrecked my microbiome and continue to do things to try to restore it.

For what became my most successful intervention/restoration I worked with Anthony Azar, MD, a NY physician keenly interested in health|life extension and profiled in other threads. Anthony (separate from this issue) prescribed me Rapamycin a couple of years later.

I reviewed all of the above with Anthony and we brainstormed a course of action.

  • I suggested locking down the Firmicutes and trying to restore the microbiome. We came up with the idea of doing a colonoscopy bowel prep to flush everything possible out of the lower intestine and following it with some combination of probiotics and prebiotics.

  • Anthony then wondered if we could attack the overgrowth of the Firmicutes directly. He had access to an antibiotic database and found an antibiotic that specifically attacked Firmicutes and not much else.

  • We arrived at the following plan (i) bowel prep, (ii) 2 week course of antibiotics to attack Firmicutes, (iii) 2nd bowel prep, and (iv) probiotics & prebiotics.

3 weeks into the plan nearly all of the psoriasis disappeared. If memory serves, I had a couple of quarter sized plaques on my elbows.

Transformative!

One cannot underestimate the value of biohacking with a great doctor that knows the biochemistry and has the curiosity to identify solutions and the experience to keep you safe.

Currently

While I take Akkermansia Mucinilpha, Lactobacillus reuteri, and prebiotics (potato starch, inulin) every day, the psoriasis has begun to recur and has gotten to point that I want to tackle it again.

I’ve ordered another microbiome sequencing to see if I’ve seen a repopulation of Firmicutes. Then I’ll go back to my friend, Anthony.

10 Likes
#26

What is TRT? And how much do you take?

#27

Wow, it’s like reading a detective story! You are right, working with a smart, dedicated and knowledgeable doctor is invaluable. You are lucky in that at least you know exactly what the problems are and how to solve them. So many people have no diagnosis, medical mysteries, no solutions and no one who can help them.

I had very mild psoriasis on my elbows some 20 years ago, under very odd (I thought) circumstances. I was doing CR at the time, and my general health seemed excellent, all biomarkers outstanding and so on. Just this one thing, completely out of the blue. It was never formally diagnosed (I didn’t bother going to a doc with it), but certainly looked like it from what I could find online. I exposed it (and my back) to the sun for 15 minutes daily for a few weeks, and eventually the patches disappeared, never to return. Coincidentally, a few years later, like 5-6, I developed a BCC on my back that I had to have surgically removed; that was some 12 years ago, and no skin cancer since. I sometimes wonder if my sun exposure at that time was triggering for the BCC, but it’s also true that I had many sunburns as a kid.

Once you have had something like psoriasis or BCC, you always wonder if they’ll return. I try to do some preventative stuff like eating citrus peels daily with green/white tea, take anthaxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin D3. I don’t know if it does anything, but so far knock on wood. We’ll see.

3 Likes
#28

Testostorne Replacement Therapy - TRT.
For males - as we age, we go from a normal high testosterone level of maybe 1300 - 1400 in our 20’s years to 400 -500 in our 60’s years.

TRT ( 200 mg 1 ml weekly injection) takes you to a younger normal testostoerone level and improves muscles, bones, libido and energy.

Roiding or steroid abuse is above the normal significantly – taking 8,000 mg weekly - very dangerous to health.

Hope this helps.

2 Likes
#29

A great story of personalized medicine where the detective work led to succesful precision interventions tailored to the individual’s unique biology. Unfortunately is that many Drs don’t have time (or interest) in this kind of creative problem solving.

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#30

I am 73 5’9” 173lb
Rapamycin 8mg weekly for 12 weeks off 4 weeks Using for 8 months with wife. No negative or positives were noticed.
Is the catalyst worth it?
I have used testosterone for 20yrs. Now keep levels around 600

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#31

To what catalyst do you refer?

#32

Hoping not to get too off topic, but I wanted to mention I got rid of my skipped beats (PVCs) by taking 4.5 mg low dose naltroxin

#33

@agetron. Your dose of testosterone is much higher than a standard HRT dose. A reasonable 1st steroid cycle for someone would be 400mg T per week. A very reasonable HRT dose is 100mg/week. At 200mg/week I’d be curious what your peak and trough levels are? Surely >1000 ng/dl?

2 Likes
#34

Yes. At almost 67 years (in a few months) peak is 1400 - 1480 range on my Blood panel that is high within normal. I know Europe or at least the UK uses a different measurement. Can’t compare apples to oranges.

My trough is 800… been using 5 years now… so pretty consistent. Blood test and T measured every 4 months. Many on this forum on TRT in their 60’s are at a similar dose.

Those in 50’s are at the dose you identify at 100 mg weekly.

No noted issues. My physician keeps me at highest normal in most categories like D; B-12 and such.

2 Likes
#35

I use hundred milligram daily for five days on two days off. It’s a transdermal cream from the pharmacy. I have my numbers checked by my urologist every year at 73. I’ve reduced my target to 500

1 Like
#36

Katalyst exercise suit

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#37

I certainly think so. Reasons follow.

I principally use the suit for strength training. Two 20 minute sessions per week.
Katalyst has additionally developed training protocols for power, aerobics, flexibility, recovery, and free form.

Setup

One needs an iPad or cell phone to run the sessions.
One needs to wet/soak the stimulation pads on the suit prior to staring a session.
This can take 5-7 minutes before you can star a workout.

You use hot water, but strapping on a wet suit could take a bit of deliberate disciple during a cold winter.

Strength & power

The strength and power training sessions supply 4 seconds of stimulation followed by 4 seconds without stimulation over the 20 minutes. Katalyst suggests synchronizing one’s breathing to that rhythm. Intensity increases through the session. One can adjust the overall intensity as well as the intensity of the stimulation of specific muscle groups.

The sessions have accompanying videos that take you through a series of exercises some calisthenic like, some body weight like, some weight lifting like. The idea being your muscles get stimulated over the range of motion.

I sometimes turn on the video and do my own movements, e.g., I use a 5’ aluminum bar and do power cleans and thrusters or other movements for the 20 minutes.

The suit makes it easy to replicate progressive loading. Just dial up the starting intensity 2.5%-5% each session. In practice I adjust increasing intensity relative to the recovery data I get from my Oura ring.

I’ve trained in Olympic lifting, CrossFit, power lifting, Nautilus, and Superslow. I find the Katalyst strength training workouts the most intense of anything I’ve ever done. Katalyst claims its suits stimulate 90% of one’s muscle mass. It certainly feels that way.

Aerobics

Base sessions of 20-30 minutes, but one can extend or just repeat them. These sessions provide a constant stimulus while you engage in some aerobic activity e.g., walking, running, biking, rowing, or X-country skiing (any of these either out in the world or on machines). The use of the suit just intensifies what you already do so you metabolically place greater demand on your body in the time you have. Kind of like going for a walk with weights in a back pack.

Flexibility

More recently introduced, the Katalyst flexibility sessions can enable one to load stretches, e.g., go to one’s limit in a stretch, stimulate the muscles, then release into a deeper stretch.

I think Katalyst could optimize this better. A number of the training videos they have available, look mainly like yoga in the suit - OK, but not using the kinds of advanced flexibility training now available.

Recovery

I use the recovery sessions after strength sessions whenever I have time. I also like to use them a day or even two days after a strength session to address delayed onset muscle soreness.

The recovery sessions supply a continuous kind of percussive feeling that gradually increases in intensity over a 20 minute session.

Think of it as a (nearly) whole body massage suit.

Free form

The free form sessions have no corresponding video, but 20 to 30 minutes of 4 seconds of stimulation followed by 4 seconds without stimulation. Some of the free form sessions will increase intensity over the session; some keep the intensity constant.

I find these the most interesting. You can develop your own strength, power, or flexibility routines.

Training while injured or impaired

Given my age, my history of (i) doing physical things at an intensity level probably beyond what I should have attempted and (ii) 73 years of wear and tear, and injuries the Katalyst suit has enabled me to train at very high intensity even while injured.

As example, while I’ve reported in other threads that I have repaired|restored cartilage damage from a botched meniscus surgery, I still feel wary of doing heavy squats and deadlifts.

The Katalyst suit enables me to do the movements with the benefit of high intensity muscular stimulation while not risking further injury.

Customer support

I’ve used the suit for nearly 3 years. I originally had one of the earliest models - pre wide spread marketing. I had some issues with the battery pack, some stimulation pads failing, parts of the suit delaminating. Katalyst support replaced everything, with only clarification questions asked.

Impressive.

What else I’d like

I’ve suggested that Katalyst set up a users forum, from which it could glean improvements and from which users could discuss and develop programs, protocols, workout optimizations for using the suit.

Seems knuckleheaded (a technical term;-) that they don’t. It would cost them almost nothing to set up and review once in a while.

I’ve found a Reddit discussion, but I haven’t found it well attended.

1 Like
#38

I just got Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) cuffs
Too early to see any results but that’s working very well to reduce the oxygen in the muscles.

I exercise with a muscle oxygen sensor (Moxy) and I was shocked to see my quads oxygen going down to 0% while doing reverse nordic curls!
The lowest I’ve seen it was around 7% in very hard hill sprints which are only sustainable for a few seconds and then the oxygen goes back up.
With the BFR cuffs it can stay very low for minutes which is going to have a tremendous impact on the muscle. That’s the theory at least.

2 Likes
#39

How did you come to using naltroxin for PVC’s? Did your Dr give it to you for off-label use for PVC’s? I don’t see any references online for it being used off-label for PVC’s.

#40

I’ve been thinking about getting BFR cuffs too. Let us know how it goes. Did you only get them for the legs, or did you get them for the arms and legs (or can you use one set for both arms and legs?)

Related: Blood Flow Restriction Muscle Training for the Intervention of Sarcopenia