My longevity journal

[jeanbaptiste]

Homa IR is the best I ever had. Same for usCRP. Everything great.
Zinc could be higher however

[AnUser]

I’m not sure this is really longevity target to be honest, no offense intended, but you might have different goals.

Longevity I think of a slow turtle in Okinawa eating mostly sweet potatoes and not ramping up mTOR a lot nor is super lean, or a lot of steroids and other drugs. You might not have drug interactions but it’s hard to tell what all of the drugs are doing. If you didn’t take a lot of drugs maybe your longevity markers would be the same. Mike Lustgartens avoids all drugs and supplements as he doesn’t want to be the guy who “took too much” and made a mistake.

The people in the Blue Zones are way more informative (with added pharma help to keep things in check, of course), in my opinion, and they’re not too lean but CR has probably many benefits.

Body fat I think healthy levels are 10% or above.

But whatever you feel is best is important, relatively speaking e.g steroids are much safer than other drugs. But do keep people updated, it’s interesting to see what other people do!

[jeanbaptiste]

Hello
It’s definitely not 100% longevity targeted because if it was I wouldn’t take testosterone for sure, and not at this dosage, I wouldn’t take either metabolic enhancing molecule like salbutamol/mirabegron. I would be following a vegan diet and doing some stuff in some other way.
My main goal is to live long while being able to do what I like to do, and be here for/to know my future family. I don’t want to live 100 years and being 10 years in a wheelchair with dementia. Mainly, I want to love my life. And that’s the hard part lol.

I like to look great, and be muscular. Anabolic steroid, especially testosterone, is useful for this goal. Like every drug/supplement, is has downsides and benefits. Downsides are almost non existant at low dose. It’s basically non toxic. - even if there was an accute toxicity, it is 100% reserved by what I doing-.
Muscles are a great proxy for longevity. I think I’m doing great, and I don’t know if you’re American but a lot of people are taking the dose I take for life as a TRT and not as a"bodybuilding cruise".

I know some of my biomarkers before, and these were okay but not that great : my natural LDL-C is 85mg/dL more or less for example. Right now everything is pretty solide exept my iron statut. I’m working on it - I’ve juste received my lactoferrin, I’m going to take 800mg on an empty stomach-, and increase my Ferrochel dose to 36mg, empty stomach too-.

Also, I take some drugs for the long term benefits, like sglt2-i. I believe it is a long term investment.
I agree however that some of the drugs I take might not be useful like the ones I take to sleep, definitely not toxic, but just useless longevity wise. And these doesn’t help my biomarkers neither, their job is to make me restful when I woke up.

I would like to finish with the fact that I consider myself a guinea pig. Kinda. I try to do things right, but I like to experiment, and see what happen. Pharmacology is really something I like. So I try, I observe, I change, I improve, and see how it goes. Then, usually, I post here.

[AnUser]

It’s ok, we all have different goals and priorities, and like I said, it’s not that bad relative to other drugs, and I don’t know what it means what you’re on.

I was going to take steroids but I saw someone said to wait until I was 25 years old. Then I didn’t care about my physique, and to be honest, I don’t think other people do either that much (unless in the more extreme), or this might be copium.

I like Avi Bitterman and he’s on gear + plastic surgery and has gender (masculine euphoria), and it’s probably not even that much of a longevity detriment if done appropriately, lulz.

Working on it

@jeanbaptiste

Also, I take some drugs for the long term benefits, like sglt2-i. I believe it is a long term investment.
I agree however that some of the drugs I take might not be useful like the ones I take to sleep, definitely not toxic, but just useless longevity wise. And these doesn’t help my biomarkers neither, their job is to make me restful when I woke up.

Indirectly longevity/health related (and testosterone can of course be that as well).

[jeanbaptiste]

Cocoa powder? Nah…
Pure dry beef blood. It’s sold as dog food. 28mg of heme iron per 10g. Should level up ferritin fastly.
I’m going to try a few grams a day with meals (don’t want digestive issue). It smells like fish food. Not that bad.

[LongevityVault]

That lines up with my thinking too.

Back when mine were in the 20s, I wasn’t lifting nearly as hard or as consistently. Now I train with decent volume and intensity, and usually test within 24h of a session—sometimes even same-day. And like you, I’m lifting 4–6 days a week and usually sore somewhere. All my other liver markers (GGT, ALP, bilirubin) are solid too, so I do also suspect muscle leakage is the main driver.

BUT there are a couple things that still make me second-guess it:

• ALT is supposed to be more liver-specific, so if it were purely muscle-related, we’d expect AST to be higher and ALT to stay lower—but like yours, both of mine sit in the 40s.
• There’s some literature suggesting enzyme elevation post-training is more common in untrained individuals, which doesn’t exactly fit our profiles.

The only way to know for sure would be to stop lifting for a full week and retest… but I’m not sure I can pull off a no-lifting week haha. I wish there were another way to know—some marker or ratio that could give us clarity without needing to pause training.

[jeanbaptiste]

Thanks for sharing. That’s the question. I guss having a very high low cholestrol and/or using drugs like statin causes more muscle damage, yielding high transaminases?

[jeanbaptiste]

Drug I take :	Dosage :	Why ?
T4/T3	100/20µg a day	Hypoactive thyroid
Testosterone undecanoate	150mg once a week	Ultra-low free T
Tirzepatide	10mg once a week	Weight and metabolic management
Empagliflozin	25mg daily	Cardio and nephroprotective
Canagliflozin	100mg daily	Cardio and nephroprotective
Telmisartan	80mg daily	BP
Cilnidipine	5mg daily	BP
Nebivolol	5mg daily	BP
Mirabegron	100mg daily	Metabolic management
Salbutamol	20mg twice daily (40mg)	Body recomposition
Finasteride	5mg daily	Skin antiaging, BPH and hair loss prevention
Modafinil	100mg daily	Energy and focus
Ezetimibe	10mg daily	Cholesterol management
Bempedoic acid	180mg daily	Cholesterol management
Pregabalin	50mg daily	Sleep
Trazodone	100mg daily	Sleep
Pitavastatin	4mg daily	Cholesterol management
Melanotan II	1mg daily	Cosmetic enhancing drug
Eplerenone	50mg daily	Lower sodium retention due to higher estradiol level (high T, low DHT)
Tadalafil	20mg daily	Vascularity

My current protocole. Huge list, I know.

[AustraliaLongevity]

@jeanbaptiste

|Tadalafil|20mg daily|Vascularity

That’ll do it. I’m happy with 5mg 4x a week.

@jeanbaptiste

|Modafinil|100mg daily|Energy and focus

Do you ever take breaks on that one? I find it interrupts sleep.

Just curious how you are feeling generally on all of this?

[relaxedmeatball]

Let me ask about the TRT. You’re young - are you taking any measures to preserve your fertility, knowing that long-term TRT use will shut down LH and FSH and they can be tricky to “reboot” when you’re older.

I agree about the ALT, and I’ve had the same situation with high ALT and normal everything else. I think that when a person is simply skinny/average, ALT mostly reflects the liver status. But once you carry above-average muscle mass, and you can lift heavy and effectively, you will see ALT spike more. In my years of training and taking breaks, that’s been pretty consistent, that when I’m more muscular and working harder, ALT will generally rise in blood tests. (I’ve had liver ultrasounds, a CT scan etc, and it’s in perfect health). But, if you want to really know, just take a week or so off from lifting.

There’s always the off-chance that the ALT is from somewhere else - like one of the supplements, medications or natural products you’re taking.

[AustraliaLongevity]

There are pretty reliable fertility protocols you can implement while on TRT. Even men who don’t use any fertility protocols can still impregnate a woman quite often.

The best fertility protocol I’ve seen other than stopping TRT for a while is to start using HCG. Some men may also need to add in FSH, or HMG.

[relaxedmeatball]

Yeah of course, but nothing is for sure. Some guys bounce back with no effort, or get girls pregnant while on TRT, but others never bounce back. Back when I was a young trainee scientist I worked in a clinic which provided anonymised blood tests for guys using illegal drugs - many of which were steroids. They’d send in the blood with their age and a list of what they were taking, so I got to see a huge amount of different responses to things.

HCG is pretty expensive, last time I looked (though I haven’t used steroids or had to restart the HPTA for 15+ years now). Clomid is a weird drug too. I think having kids is one of the most important decisions a person can make, and I think you can’t always predict the future. I’m not pushing any ideology here, but if you’re young and think “I never want them” there is still a decent chance IMO that you change your mind in the future. I certainly did. So on that basis, I would always be a bit careful about making a potentially life-altering decision affecting fertility. I did use steroids, SARMs and all sorts of stuff, shut down and restarted my HPTA multiple times, and my wife got pregnant every time we wanted to. But I consider that as blind luck, and it could have gone horribly wrong.

[AustraliaLongevity]

@relaxedmeatball

Back when I was a young trainee scientist I worked in a clinic which provided anonymised blood tests for guys using illegal drugs - many of which were steroids.

It is important to differentiate between testosterone (especially normal or high normal doses) vs the whole gamut of steroids + other drugs bodybuilders tend to use.

@relaxedmeatball

HCG is pretty expensive, last time I looked

You can get it pretty cheap just like you can get other pharma meds cheap if you get it from India or China.

@relaxedmeatball

Clomid is a weird drug too.

I don’t like clomid. Enclomiphene is a little better but I also don’t like that. Has weird effects on the brain.

I think if a guy needs TRT to get energy and live a full life then he is more likely to have the energy to attract a partner in the first place. That’s where I’d consider TRT appropriate.

Some guys that are in the low end of the reference range (but still in the range) can still have strong symptoms of low testosterone that are resolved with TRT. The range itself has been lowered a number of times which I think isn’t useful.

Some guys can improve diet/lifestyle and get the numbers up and they feel great. Some guys do everything right consistently and still feel bad. Some guys have low numbers but feel fine.

I don’t focus on testosterone levels as much as the experience. There is a lot we don’t know such as androgen receptor density and sensitivity that causes different men to respond to the same level of androgens differently.

It would be great if something like enclomiphene (but better) was invented that went upstream and solved the issue without impacting fertility. I’m sure someone somewhere is working on that.

There is a new oral testosterone undecanoate that is out that they are claiming doesn’t have liver toxicity like other oral forms due to some mechanism and mimics the diurnal function of endogenous testosterone so that it doesn’t impact LH and FSH but if that is true or not I don’t know.

[jeanbaptiste]

I started with 5mg and increased in a matter of months. A have absolutely no side effects so I planned to stay on this dosage. It helped my pump at the gym but now I’m not even sure if I feel it.

I don’t cycle modafinil. At this dosage it’s quite subtil and don’t interact with my sleep. I didn’t order a lot of it, it was to give it a try. Not sure I’m going to continue it.

[jeanbaptiste]

I don’t try to maintain my fertility currently. I definitely want kids, just not right now. Matter of facts, I’m still virgin and don’t have a girlfriend so it is definitely not for soon. I could order rHCG (even an Ovitrelle pen is like 6500Ui for 25€ I think in France, so not costly), but what is mainly stopping me is the increase in aromatase enzymes creating more estradiol. Mine is already really high, wich could explain my BP (115 in systolic), and some water in my anckles. HMG is to expansive for a biweekly injection for months/years right now.

Meds like clomifene, tamoxifene etc. doesn’t work to imcrease LH/FSH while taking testosterone, especially at my dose, and their side effects are a no-go : eyes toxicity, blood clots, mood swing…

[AustraliaLongevity]

If you’re interested I made a comment here on a tactical use of modafinil to increase brain function so you don’t rely on daily use: Modafinil for long term use? - #56 by AustraliaLongevity

The idea is you use it 3 times a week, separated at least 1 day apart. You slowly titrate the dose up until you reach a point of overexcitement then start titrating downward. During this process you do mental exercises (also in the link I gave) and this drives up brain development.

I noticed by doing this for one month I gained a lot of mental benefits. I’m just starting this process up again.

@jeanbaptiste

but what is mainly stopping me is the increase in aromatase enzymes creating more estradiol.

Did you test your estradiol before and after starting tadalafil? Supposedly tadalafil slightly modulates estrogen metabolism.

@jeanbaptiste

HMG is to expansive for a biweekly injection for months/years right now.

Best to implement only if needed, and when you are trying to conceive.

[relaxedmeatball]

@jeanbaptiste

I don’t try to maintain my fertility currently. I definitely want kids, just not right now.

Ok, so I guess all I’m saying is that it’s something to bear in mind. Some guys can conceive on TRT. Some guys can bounce back from years of TRT with no problems. Others need a lot of help to become fertile again. And others never regain fertility. You don’t know which group you’re in until the time comes. So if you definitely do want kids, at some point, you might want to think about preserving fertility, freezing sperm, or something to increase the chances in the future.

When I mentioned Clomid etc, I was meaning for when you came off, not to use them simultaneously with TRT, which would be dumb!

@AustraliaLongevity

Some guys can improve diet/lifestyle and get the numbers up and they feel great. Some guys do everything right consistently and still feel bad. Some guys have low numbers but feel fine.

I don’t focus on testosterone levels as much as the experience. There is a lot we don’t know such as androgen receptor density and sensitivity that causes different men to respond to the same level of androgens differently.

Totally agree. You see this in the trials of injections, gels, clomid, enclomiphene etc where the numbers on paper and the reported symptoms (qADAM etc) don’t necessarily line up.

For me personally there is a bit of a correlation with numbers and feel, but it’s hard to say which direction the correlation is. When everything is good, my normal total T is around 450-500, which isn’t a high boast-worthy number, but I feel good and function well. During a very stressful (work, study, life) period I measured my total T as around 150, and I felt horrible - but is that because I was stressed or because T was low. I’m not sure that boosting my T to 800 would have made me feel better, but maybe it would.

Anyway, with my stupid history of using prohomrones, oral steroids etc, I am just grateful that everything functions properly, my fertility was no problem, and mood etc is all good. I’ll periodically check, and if the numbers are dropping without cause, I’ll still keep an open mind to considering TRT.

[AustraliaLongevity]

I’ve had my testosterone higher than 1000 and I did feel great. Slight sleep interruption but it really felt good.

I’ve swapped from injection to cream. Lower testosterone overall I am presuming. Slightly higher DHT to test ratio. I feel a different mental quality in a good way on this.

I’m interested to increase the dosage but I will wait until my next blood test and see what the clinic thinks.

I’ve seen reports from men stating the same testosterone numbers on enclomiphene vs TRT injections feel totally different.

[relaxedmeatball]

@AustraliaLongevity

I’ve seen reports from men stating the same testosterone numbers on enclomiphene vs TRT injections feel totally different.

Same in the literature. Problem is, most studies are quite short, so the guys on Clomid get a big bump in T and free T and feel good. Longer term, that’s when the effects of blocking oestrogen happen, and when SHBG starts to creep up.

Personally, I would be curious to go for something like 12.5 mg Enclomiphene 3x per week, just as a “boost”, and see how the numbers and symptoms move.

[Ludovic]

Dr Fraser thanks that’s clomid still works on TRT and from my experience I believe so to. I take 25mg once weekly. Here you find it discussed (enclom. Vs Hcg);

Testosterone Replacement for Older Men

Either one will work and can be monitored. Enclomiphene is cheaper and more consistent in being able to access. I’ve found Enclomiphene and HCG from India is likely not real - I don’t know the % of cases where this is the case - so make sure you have a good verified source or get through an appropriate pharmacy. Gonadorelin is an agent I’m using more that increases LH and FSH and one can easily monitor if it is working. This is often used for men whom I’m supporting whatever testicular function they have, but not completely independent of testosterone use, or trying to wean off, or if not on testosterone and are low, using it to increase their testosterone. Much like enclomiphene, but looks a bit cleaner and targeted in its method of increasing LH and FSH.