#1

Im having blood drawn to follow up on a recent prescription of Rosuvastatin. First time on cholesteral meds and the doc mentioned my LDL metrics were so high that after this checkup he will probably add Rapatha (a statin alone wont be able to get my numbers within a good range even if it cuts it down by half). I just started taking Rapamycin (after starting the statin) at 6mg weekly w/ high fat meal. Is there a good reason to abstain from taking rapamycin the week I get my blood drawn or maybe just make sure there are a few days in between? Btw, the labs i’ll be getting are going to be specific to how the statin medication is working, not aging related metrics.

#2

I need at least a 10 day break from Rapa to get a so-so LDL reading…if I don’t do it, LDL will be scary high.

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#3

By how much does it go up? is it maybe just your cholesterol that goes up and not particles? do you know if its LDL Particle numbers or ApoB? how could Rapa be good for longevity if it skyrockets number of athrogenic particles?

#4

I have seen both LDL and ApoB go up about 25%. Some moderate percent of people see this, dose and frequency dependent. See the user survey #1. Rapamycin User Poll / Survey - Please Respond

There is an ongoing discussion around the issue of what to do about the situations when you are on rapamycin and your cholesterol goes up. See this discussion: Rapamycin and risk of cardiovascular disease

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#5

Just LDL goes up. Never measured ApoB.

#6

FYI, ApoB is perhaps more meaningful a measure of cardiovascular risk than LDL. Worth spending some time on this. Also Lp(a) and particle count and sizes will give you a more complete picture.

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#7

My doc is somehow hesitant to order ApoB test for me. Will ask again!

#8

Hmm. Last took Rapa last Tuesday and blood draw in this Monday because Dr. appt is Thurs. I did have an Apob done on Thurs. and it came back 74 which appears to be ok.

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#9

Newbalance, Since I’m taking rapamycin and it does affect my cholesterol levels I don’t stop when I have blood tests because that would give me an untrue reading of what my cholesterol levels really are. However, I do split the difference as you noted by having blood tests somewhere midway between each dose of rapamycin.

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#10

I agree with Jay; rather than stopping rapa before testing, which seems like gaming the system because I have no intention of stopping rapa, I’m really interested to see if my supplement stack (plus lower and less frequent statin use) will have any effect on my LDL number. My LDL number before starting rapa was 185, a month after starting rapa it was 178. I’m 77, HWP, A1c is 5.1, CCS# is 391 (but unfortunately not 0), also know there is some carotid artery plaque. No cardiac events, healthy, exercise (weights + aerobic). Many of these supplements I take I’ve learned of after joining this forum - marked with *

EVERY DAY: tadalafil (2.5 or 5mg, for BPH), EVOO 1-2T (salad dressing or ‘neat’), Flax seed ~1.5T, Magnesium 500mg, Lithium 4mg, Pine Bark Extract* (1/4t), gotu kola* (1/4t), GSE* 400mg, Amla* 1000mg, Astaxanthin* 12mg, B12, Omega3 1500mg
EVERY OTHER DAY: 5000UI D3, 100mcg K2/mk-7, zinc 50mg, CoQ10 300mg, 10mg rosuvastatin (MD prescribed 20mg OD, I’m trying half that QOD.
WEEKLY: 6mg rapa, recently changed to 3mg + GF. Started rapa 2/'22. No side effects so far; also no noticeable benefits.
SLEEP; (A BIG problem for me) Melatonin 5mg time release, 12.5-25mg trazodone, 1/2 doxylamine succinate tablet (I am trying to stop this), Apigenin* 50mg, L-Theanine* 200mg, L-tryptophan 1000mg, Taurine* 1-2000mg, Glycine ~2g, Magnesium 500mg - this program seems to be mostly working!
RECENT CHANGES: using trehalose* instead of stevia.

At end of month will get a lipid panel to see the effect, if any; will decide then whether to take the increase the statin to 20mg OD. On the fence about checking Lp(a) and/or ApoB as well.

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#11

jjrap1, If your sleep supplements are working then continue as you are. I have reduced mine to 1 gram of L-tryptophan, 1 NatureMade capsule of (3 mg melatonin + 200 mg L-theanine), and a 25 mg tablet of diphenhydramine.

The NatureMade capsule simply reduces the number of pills I take because it combines melatonin with L-theanine. And, I like diphenhydramine better than doxylamine because I think it is less likely than the doxylamine to lead me toward alzheimer’s, but that’s just supposition on my part.

I’ve tried some of the other supplements you mentioned, but they didn’t seem to help me. The trazodone, on the other hand, I expect is beneficial.

#12

Interesting, my doctor also didn’t want to order the Apob. I think he thinks that it is redundant. So I bought one for $22 from Life Extension just for my own curiosity.

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#13

This is what I will probably do. If I’m going to take Rapa regularly I want to see how it’s effecting my lipid numbers.

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#14

I rarely don’t have trouble falling asleep but staying asleep is a big issue for me, mostly the second half of my sleep. Have you had any issues with this and has any of the items you use help with this?

Do you get the trazodone prescribed or on the grey market?

#15

Good luck with that. Most likely they’ll be high.

#16

He is probably right. Can anyone show a wide variation where perhaps LDL-C was low and apoB was high?

“There was no significant difference between apoB and LDL-C”

" Among statin-treated patients, on-treatment levels of LDL-C, non–HDL-C, and apoB were each associated with risk of future major cardiovascular events, but the strength of this association was greater for non–HDL-C than for LDL-C and apoB."

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#17

By prescription; I’ve used it off and on for years. @desertshores has a discussion of the efficacy of traz in the ‘rapamycin and sleep’ forum heading, and also a reference to an article re: the safety of using traz for elder folks, IIRC.

#18

Not all Indian suppliers of rapamycin will sell you Trazadone. IMO opinion Trazadone helps you to go to sleep and does not extend sleep that much. If you fall asleep okay then I would try 2 -4 gms of taurine. It does seem to extend sleep quite a bit. After taking rapamycin for several months at relatively high doses, I easily sleep 7 - 8 hrs every night.

If you still want to try Trazadone, here is the email of a supplier I have used. IMO Trazadone is a fairly safe drug with few side effects.

(Trazodone(Desyrel) generic Trazonil )
newlifemedex21@gmail.com

Just tell him what strength you want. In retrospect, I would order 100 mg tablets. You can always break them in half.

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#19

ApoB is testing directly for the thing that LDL-C is trying to get at which usually correlates, but not always. The test is cheap and available at any lab that test for other lipids.

#20

Thanks. I’ll try the taurine.