In terms of the FDA approval for longevity, rapamycin is an off-label use. The FDA approves drugs for an indicated use to either cure or prevent a particular illness or condition. Because extending lifespan is not a condition that the FDA would assess, the use of rapamycin has not been approved nor assessed for longevity. However, there are countless studies, including the data we collect from our patients lab testing, to indicate that rapamycin is indeed improving longevity.
Hi! I’m new in this topic. How early/young should one start to take it? Or do i need to have a medical condition?
Hi @Gabacaba, welcome to the Healthspan community!
In terms of age to start, the thought is to begin in your 30s. I started at 35 at a 3mg/week dose. Dr. Mikhail Blagosklonny, the leading researcher on rapamycin as a therapeutic to attack cellular senescence and mTOR driven aging, has written about this:
As an anti-aging drug, rapamycin prevents age-related diseases rather than cure complications of diseases. Rapamycin will prevent organ failure but not reverse it. … rapamycin will be most useful to slow down senescence and to prevent diseases” Treatment should be started early in life but not earlier than growth is completed. For example, rapamycin may be considered from the age of 21–25 (just an example). This may seem at odds with the work showing rapamycin treatment started at the age of 20 months (old mice) was as effective as treatment started at the age of 9 months . However, this result should not be overgeneralized, as the result may depend on specific conditions, mouse strains and doses. In fact, this was challenged by additional experiments (rapamycin plus acarbose) by the same authors. Also, adaptation to rapamycin may explain the result. I suggest that an early-onset treatment in post-development with low doses that would be gradually increased to maximal anti-aging doses by the age of 50 (an arbitrary age) would be most effective.
Some other articles to explain the concept of mTOR driven aging that I think you would find helpful are here:
Overall, rapamycin is used to slow down the progression of cellular hyperfunction by inhibiting mTOR, to increase one’s healthspan and prevent having an age-related disease.
Hello-
I am considering taking rapamycin. I am 64 years old. Is this too old to begin rapamycin?
Thank you, Mary Beth
@MBWiener, about 1/3 of the patients we treat are 65 and up. The utility of rapamycin is to slow the process of mTOR-driven aging and lower the burden of senescent cells regardless of age. Dr. Mikhail Blagosklonny would suggest that rapamycin provides this benefit at all ages but should be avoided for young people still growing.
Thank you very much!