Will Rapamycin Increase Our Lifespan? Unlikely

[DeStrider]

Honestly, I think living longer is all about preventative maintenance and stopping/postponing damage/decay for as long as possible. I view taking Rapa as changing your oil in your car every month vs. never changing your oil at all. Which car will last longer?

I would love to see how long our 20-somethings on Rapa end up living for, but I doubt I will live that long! I hope you guys break the 150 barrier.

[Chuck_Frasher]

I’m interested in health span only. I don’t want to be old and suffer and feel worthless. I think it’s possible to dramatically increase health span. True life Extension will probably take something like what David Sinclair is doing with those mice.

[LaraPo]

Healthspan extension would most likely extend your life span as well. Logically, both have to be connected.

[Chuck_Frasher]

Yes but chronic CR would make being old very miserable. I suspect frailty would be a real problem. I also suspect chronic CR would be a very low energy, low enjoyment state to be in. I want to feel good. So I just started Rapamycin about a week and a half ago, I do extended fasts already with profound results. Exercise. I eat a nutrient dense diet with a comfortable calorie intake and what I think is a sufficient amount of protein to prevent sarcopenia at 63.

[Jensen_Achilles]

Thanks I’m curious as well! I’m 27 and been taking rapa for a 2 weeks now. 150 would be awesome!

[RapamycinCurious]

@desertshores

You would think though, that after the billions of people who have lived since recorded history, based on things like diet, society, ethnicity positive gene mutation, etc., we would have had several if not many instances of real longevity, i.e., people who have lived longer than the current paltry 118+ years.

If you think about it I think you’ll see that you’re caught in a circular argument: “no one has ever lived longer than the longest people have ever lived” . Suppose there were verifiable people that had lived to be 130. Then this argument would have you saying “You would think that after the billions of people who have lived since recorded history, we would have had several if not many instances of real longevity, i.e., people who have lived longer than the current paltry 130 years.” And the same for 140, or 150, or 1000 years.

Also, while many billions of people have lived, the average life expectancy until 1860 was consistently under 40 years and generally under 30. You can’t expect an anti-aging intervention to lead to huge longevity gains in people living in the pre-antibiotic, pre-sanitation era. Heck, you don’t see mice living more than one year in the wild: only in the lab do you see 3-year-old mice. And you only see 1400-day-old mice after a lifetime of CR or a slow-aging mutation.

@desertshores

Some point to Okinawins etc., they only live longer lifespans than the average.

You’re again thinking about this backward. The maximum lifespan for the general population is 100 or less: this is statistically obvious from the survival curves of even long-lived countries like Japan. The Okinawans and the genetic centenarians are breaking this hoi polloi maximum lifespan because they are aging slowly thanks to CR and slow-aging genes (respectively).

@desertshores

My current thinking is that things like rapamycin are increasing human healthspan not human lifespan. The lifespan increase is due mainly if not solely to the health span increase in individuals.

You’re falling into the Tithonus error. Putting aside trivial cases like putting people on life support or defibrillating people, lifespan can only increase because of an increase in healthspan. If you don’t preserve your health as you age, you’ll die: that’s what it means to have age-related disease.

@desertshores

If we are going to live a long time we need things to be repaired, like missing teeth. What is rapamycin going to do for the fact that gravity alone is killing us? That is why we see so many bent old people. Even if you take rapamycin you are still going to wear out various body joints. You will see the collapsing of your spinal disks etc.

If the animal evidence translates, it’s going to “prevent the intervertebral disc degeneration via inhibiting differentiation and senescence of annulus fibrosus cells” in a culture model and “Ameliorate Age-Associated Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Male Marmosets” — a nonhuman primate. And as you know, rapamycin combats peridontal disease in mice, which would save some of those teeth.

But, OK, we may still need knee replacements and 21st century replacement teeth. Fine by me, and not a counterargument to rapa being a longevity therapy.

[sunshine4]

Not to sound fatalistic or disrespectful to old age, especially considering where the OP is coming from, but I take stack not to die early and for health span (energy/youthful looks/libido), primarily. If health span isn’t rapidly increased, whether I’m in an old folks home at 82 or 97 isn’t my primary concern.

[desertshores]

Wow, it was merely an observation and conversation. Not meant to be a scientific fact. Dug out that old logic 101, book?