#1

Hello everyone. I started taking Rapamycin last October at 6mg per week in one dosage along with a glass of grapefruit juice.

Some of the side effects have been, boils/acme on head and chest
racing heart
chest congestion to the point where it is difficult to catch my breath
overall flu/chest congestion, phlegm

The symptoms go away after a few days or especially when I skip a week and don’t go away if I dose once a week.

I’m 64yo in pretty good health, 240lbs and generally know my body pretty well so this has been a struggle.
Other drugs I am taking are TRT…been on that for many years
and I added Acarbose in January and other than gas, have no noticeable negative side effects from it.

I’m thinking about dosing every 2 weeks, should I increase the dosage from 6mg to maybe 10 or more?
Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for everyone’s help

#2

So your dosage is 12 mg or 18 mg one time a week every week or more because of the grapefruit juice, and you’re wondering about side effects?

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#3

Oh and I forgot the mouth sores as well, The side effects happened prior to me adding grapefruit juice into the mix

#4

If you have any serious side effects from rapamycin you should just stop. It’s hard to know what can be the cause. Too high dosage, genetics, medical history, etc.

#5

My body would not tolerate this rate. I take 3 or 4 with GFJ every 2 weeks. Any more and I have problems.

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#6

If you have no sides on this dose, which btw is pretty big because it appears GFJ increase absorption to the tune of 2-7 fold with most around 3X-4X (basically you’re getting 12-16 every two weeks) then you are in the same boat as everyone. Nothing unusual or worrisome.

#7

I’ve not heard of any of those side effects (other than the mouth sores of course) on this forum. I would love to hear if anyone else has experienced boils/acne on head and chest
racing heart chest congestion, overall flu/chest congestion, phlegm

#8

@Paperbill Did you start at a low dose 1 or 2 mg, and work your way up?

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#9

If I were to remember one thing about medication is this one. You better start very slow and gradually increase the dose. I found this out more than once (the hard way).

#10

Don’t know about rest of them but this is one of most common side effects even at lower doses.

#11

6 mg + GFJ is about 18 mg equivalent. If you’re taking that dose every week, you’re running with a permanently impaired immune system (which will go back to normal after you stop taking Rapamycin). Your symptoms sound like your immune system is so low you can’t fight off infections you are exposed to. You may want to dose every other week or lower your dose. It’s quite high and giving you these side effects.

Try taking the same dose you’re currently taking but on a 2 week schedule. I’m guessing most of your side effects will disappear.

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#12

The dose is far too high.

Personally, I dropped back from 6 mg to 4 mg per week because of side effects and it seems to be working fine

Recently, I switched to the compounded version, 15mg/wk (it’s about 1/3 by available vs generic)

There’s absolutely no need for grapefruit juice, itraconazole, or any of the other shenanigans.

Get your blood level checked and you want to target a sirolimus level around 5ng/ml at 24 hours post ingestion. Max 10. Right now, this is my best guess. I should have more data to back this up in a few months

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What blood tests are people taking?, Any rapamycin specific ones?
#13

I tend to get mouth sores and do experience more respiratory symptoms.

I just started my third try on rapa about 3.5 weeks ago, taking it on Saturdays. The first two weeks I took 1 mg and only noticed just a small amount of fatigue two days and then a feeling of well being on Mondays. This last Saturday I upped it to 2 mg and did develop mild mouth sores along with what I perceived to be a slightly sore throat and phlegm. The sore throat, etc could be from most anything, but it seems to happen on dose increases for me.
I plan to drop back to 1 mg (a small dose to most here) and keep it there for a couple months before increasing dosage again. There is a biochemist here who suggests taking charcoal in order to flush the body of toxins after rapa use. I may give that a shot when I increase dosage again.
Good luck and maybe you could try a lower dose to check your tolerance.

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#14

What if you take rapamycin less regularly, i.e one time per month?

#15

I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to ask. Are you wondering whether taking it less frequently means that you need to take a higher dose? If that’s what you’re asking, I’m not quite sure what the answer is. Maybe an occasional “blast” of rapamycin might be beneficial, But I can’t point to any data to support it

I would worry that mega dosing on rapamycin might have unintended consequences.

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#16

I’m wondering what is the theory of the biochemist? What type of toxin does he expect to find in the gut? Dead microbes?

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#17

Look for thread named “After Two Weeks Rapamycin Treatment” and scroll to date of March 9. You will see the info there.

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#18

I am with you doc!

In case you didn’t see this post… after going on 36ng/mL for 7 months… based on Mikhail Blagosklonny recommendation to go high as possible with no side effects. You can have silent pathology. My biological markers aged decades… not good!

From Matt Kaeberlein who is the best: “I absolutely think it’s possible that 36mg could be net detrimental to health while 6-8 mg could be beneficial. I am certain the optimal dose will be different for different people.”

I am fairly typical and those high doses were not good for me N=1. I reduced back to 6-8 mg and my biological markers went back to a younger age… took 8 months to get there again.

You are getting high doses in your blood based on you measurement… but does that equate to positive health benefits??

The argument of high doses to cross the blood brain barrier… Matt Kaeberlein shoots down too. Saying peripherally the reduction of brain inflammation may be enough.

We are all flying in the dark - Peter Attia

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