#1

Hi Everyone,

I want to record my journey with rapamycin and hope to find some value in doing so (both for myself and others). I know we already have plenty of logs online - but I still want to do it anyway (maybe I enjoy the spotlight haha). Anyway, here we go.

Personal info

I am male, 30 years old (DOB 1992) and overall very healthy. I weigh 72kg with 12% body fat. I do not have mountains of blood work about myself (so far I have no need to go that deep) but can share some heath markers and daily habits.

My exercise habits

4x1.5 hours weight training sessions. 4x1hour zone 2 cardio (jogging). 1x30minute HIIT (zone 5). My running distances can fluctuate up and down. I love endurance running (previously ran 4 marathons + 1 ultra). Plan to run another marathon some time in summer 2023. I am currently training mainly for hypertrophy while maintaining aerobic base.

My dietary habits

I eat a balanced diet - skewed towards a Mediterranean way of eating. I eat 120-150g protein per day coming from all sources (meat/fish/dairy/soy/organs). I eat vegetables every meal (get 50-60g fibre per day). Carbs fluctuate up and down depending on mood/availability/exercise output. Carbs usually around 200g.

I currently eat 3500kcal per day and that puts me in a very small surplus to support my current hypertrophy efforts. I really focus on nutrient density. I eat from every food group and only eat whole foods (process foods only 1x per 2 weeks for fun). The animal foods I eat comes from local organic source. I like to eat nose to tale.

I perform early time restricted eating 14-16 hours daily (usually eat 8am-4pm).

Lifestyle/sleep

I have a very intense lifestyle. I never rest because I donā€™t want to (haha). I work from morning to night because I love my job. I am highly strung and put much pressure on myself. Prone to anxiety and overactive brain

I perform meditation for 10-20 mins per day 5 days per week. I sleep 7-7.5 hours per night but sleep quality can be an issue (frequent wake ups). I have improved these wake ups through supplementation but sleep is still my biggest lifestyle factor that may contribute to expedited ageing.

Supplements

I have a tiny supplement stack (I aim for nutrient density through food instead).

L-Theaning: 200mg/day (morning)
Glycine: 3g/day (night)
Magnesium Citrate: 600mg/day (night)
Ashwagandha: 600mg/day (night)
Trazodone: 50mg/day (night)
Pregabalin: 75mg occasionally to further improve sleep quality

Health goals

I want to achieve both performance and longevity. I probably exercise too much for longevity and my diet is centred somewhere between the two. I hope rapamycin can help me to balance some of the mTOR activation and also improve some inflammation/age-related physical decline.

I have been thinking about starting treatment for a couple of years already. I have noticed the first signs of osteoarthritis in my left knee and I am eager to stop the progression (but still refuse to stop running because I love it so much).

OK - letā€™s talk about rapamycin

I have acquired the Rapacan already and just started my usage.

First dose: 06/01/2023 - 1mg
Target dose: 7mg/1xweekly (0.1g/kg)

I will titrate up my dosage weekly until I hit 7mg

I took the dose upon waking at 6am along with a high fat meal (1/2 avocado, 1/2tbsp EVOO, 30g black olives). I wanted to take the dose far away from bedtime based on the negative impact it may have on sleep.

I did start to feel some side-effects in the afternoon/evening - but I have also been noticing my body is fighting some pathogen over the last week and think this may be the reason. So iā€™m faily sure itā€™s not the rapa - but the rapa may have amplified my symptoms. Symptoms were: Feeling hot/more flushed face (4pm), stomache upset (10pm), poor sleep (I only slept >6 hours of restless sleep). Sleep could be due to stomach discomfort/rapa/both.

I report no positive effects thus far. I also have set my expectations low. I am young and fit and healthy overall - so I donā€™t expect marked improvement in health.

Areas I would like to see benefit (quantitative measures)

Attenuate knee osteoarthritis
Stop hair loss progression
Improve immune function
Reduce soreness/inflammation in ankles after long run
Slow skin ageing
Attention and focus (I have overactive mind - I want to see if this changes)

Areas I am going to quantitatively measure

Blood glucose levels. My current fasting blood glucose is 85 (average). My average excursion after 100g carb meal is 20 (max I ever see my blood glucose is 110 based on finger prick 1 hour after high carb meal). I want to monitor if this goes up or down and report my findings.

Body weight: Current weight 72kg with 12% BF. I want to gain muscle and report if itā€™s impacted by rapa. My ideal body would be 75kg 8% BF. I want to see if I can get there this year while on rapa.

Running performance. I will run another marathon in 2023 (and possibly 1x ultra marathon). My previous best marathon performance is 4:05hours (although I weighed 61kg at the time and was purely focussed on running/not lifting). I want to see what marathon time I can achieve on rapa in 2023. I also want to monitor objectively my recovery.

Resting heart rate: My current RHR is 38-40bpm. I want to see if this goes up or down.

Heart rate variability: My average HRV over the course of 1 month is 76. It can be 90 if well rested and sit at 60 when I am overtraining. I want to see if I can maintain or improve this 90 max HRV and monitor the average.

Sleep stats: I currently sleep average Oura sleep score 78. My REM sleep is always very low (average around 50 minutes). Deep sleep is high (average 2 hours). Total sleep 7-7.5hours. Sleep is ALWAYS rated as restless. I want to see how these stats change over time.

Thanks for reading my stats (if you have not fallen asleep yet

You can see that I have an active lifestyle and want to take my fitness performance goals seriously. I want to balance fitness and longevity. After a long-time walking this tightrope - I have decided rapa is a good way to get there. I will continue to report my findings based on exercise performance and recovery changes based on rapamycin intake.

8 Likes
My Rapamycin Regimen - Feedback Welcome
#3

Fully aware of this story - still want to run marathons haha. Also - my reasons for taking rapa do go beyond some of the info portrayed in my post. I have been plotting the move to rapa for my longevity goals for a long time and just cannot overlook the positive data across both literature and n=1 anecdotes. I also have an opinion that starting rapa earlier in life will turn out to be optimal over time.

I think we all wish each other the best on this platform and we are all in this together trying to advance the knowledge and freely sharing information.

4 Likes
#4

I think the evidence is pretty strong, generally, for more exercise is better (though perhaps not to Olympic levels of exertion/ training times). See: Exercise, VO2 max, and longevity | Mike Joyner, M.D

2 Likes
#6

Thanks for sharing this study and I did analyse it. Three points to note:

  1. Most high-level exercisers (apart from maybe athletes) actually donā€™t spend much time in ā€˜very vigorousā€™ exercise range. I personally only spend 20-30mins per week in that zone.

  2. I think the weight of the evidence is still strongly in favour of exercise.

  3. I believe that even with the issue suggested in this paper, the benefits probably still outweigh the risks. Almost every other marker of health will improve with exercise, including; Reduced/stable blood glucose, reduced visceral & intramuscular adiposity, decreased blood pressure, reduced dementia risk, etc, etc, etc.

I always try to look at the weight of the evidence. I am biased towards exercise because I enjoy exercise - so take or leave my opinion. However, I donā€™t think itā€™s a stretch to argue that getting plenty of physical activity is beneficial.

4 Likes
#7

Hey,
Great and informative Intro to what sounded like the start of a detailed, informative and entertaining Rapa-diary!

What happened, how did it go for you?

2 Likes
#8

Iā€™m wondering how the new Oura sleep algorithm has impacted on your sleep score and deep v REM sleep?

1 Like
#9

Nice protocol. However, rapamycin isnā€™t a fix-all drug for the other concerns you mentioned. For example:

ā€œStop hair loss progressionā€ - if you are a male this is probably an adrogenic issue, where you need to inhibit DHT binding affinity on the scalp. Donā€™t take finasteride or minoxidil if you are concerned about health optimization. Instead, try dutasteride injections (mesotherapy) on the scalp as I have done many times. Only needs done once every three months and will stop all hair loss beginning a few days after the injection. There are other things to improve hair loss as well. Rapamycin even anecdotally hasnā€™t been shown yet to do anything significant for hair loss.

Next: ā€œSlow skin ageingā€ - Yes, it is important what you are supplementing with however it is quite obvious that supplementing alone isnā€™t going to improve skin aging. The skin is exposed to pollutants,UV, and toxins hence you need to be on something topical, ie: retinol, good moisturizer, zinc oxide sunscreen, etcā€¦

For overative mind - you can try supplementing with tryptophan, GABA, lemon balm etcā€¦ Anything to activate the parasympathetic system.
For attention and focus: there are things you can take such as alpha-gpc etcā€¦

2 Likes
#10

Any updates on how things are going for you?

#11

Hey,

Itā€™s been a long time since I updated - because I had a poor experience on Rapa and have not dosed in almost 1 year.

I posted on other threads about the things I went though, but I will copy/paste those posts here in chronological order to give a summary:

This was my experience while on rapa:
I noticed some pretty bad side effects at 3mg + 1 whole red grapefruit +EVOO dosed weekly.

  1. Heart rate elevated by 10bpm
  2. HRV down by 30
  3. Suspected hypercortisolemia (super anxious/stimulated/wired 24/7).
  4. Nausea during weight lifting (started 15 mins into the session - had to quit early)
  5. Raised non-HDL and TC

Stopped the rapa and all symptoms went away.

Even with these symptoms I persevered with this dosage regimen for 6 weeks - I was kinda thinking (hoping??) that I just had a virus or something. I was reluctant to blame the rapa.

I was getting nausea on every lifting workout - not just on dosing days (I lift 4x per week). Interestingly, I wasnā€™t getting nausea during my zone 2 cardio (+ zone 3 running). In fact, I ran a 1:44 half marathon while on the high dose - but afterwards I was absolutely destroyed and it took me a while to recover - normally I would be fine the next day (apart from a bit of muscle/joint fatigue).

All symptoms subsided after 2 weeks or so after I stopped dosing.

For me: more is clearly not better. The side effects were severe.

February 2023:
I have slowly worked up to my target does of 3mg rapa+GFJ over the last month or so. Feeling well - no negative effects (or so I thought).

I went and got a lipid panel yesterday just as a routine check. Surprised to see my Non-HDL is up to 170mg/dl.

Pretty shocked about this - last time I checked was 2 years ago and I was well inside the normal (I forget the result). There is nothing diet/lifestyle wise I can do to lower it further.

I will stop rapa now for a few weeks and then test again. My assumption is that rapa has caused this high number.

Iā€™m 30 y/o - healthy in every regard eat 90% plant-based\mediterranean diet. Never eat SFA containing foods.

Anyway, just thought Iā€™d share this as a heads up in case others are potentially experiencing the same issue but donā€™t know because they havenā€™t had a recent test. I know itā€™s a potential side-effect but still surprising for me to see it this high.

I will update with new results in a few weeks.

Additional point: My HDL was 96mg/dl.

But hereā€™s what I never posted about (forgot, sorry!):
1 month after coming off rapa, I got my lipids tested - got 76mg/dl. I did not take any lipid modulating drugs.

Rapamycin dramatically increased my lipids and deteriorated my health.

Now, I am not saying rapa is bad. I have a strong belief in the perceived benefits - and the studies.

My hypothesis is that Iā€™m a hyperabsorber of some sort - or just have some adverse physiological response. Even in mega-dosers - I donā€™t see them reporting some of the side-effects I have.

I know people argue that raised lipids on rapa is no-problem. I understand the literature as itā€™s a documented phenomenon. But the risk/reward is not there in my opinion - especially at 30y/o. I will not tolerate raised lipids.

So thatā€™s where I am at. I have loads of rapa in my cupboard. Thinking about trying it again at a lower dose and seeing what happens. I do have access to statins (the doctor gave me them after they checked my lipids while I was on rapa lol). So I have contemplated an 8 week rapa cycle while taking very low-dose rosuvastatin at the same time.

Would be interested to get your thoughts. I am a good case study IMO.

3 Likes
#12

Good decision. The best decisions I could have made at 30 was stop drinking alcohol and get more sleep. Anyone can engineer rapa like benefits through diet (protein and calorie cycling) and circadian rhythm optimization. I wouldnā€™t push it.

1 Like