What bloodwork are people actually monitoring on weekly low-dose rapamycin

Posted by student748 in Safety & Side Effects - 6 points, 4 comments.

For what it is worth ive been doing low dose rapamycin weekly for a few months now and feeling fine but i realised im not actually getting any regular bloodwork done to check if anything is shifting underneath. I know the longevity crowd mostly talks about dosing schedules but i want to be more careful about the safety side of things.

What are people actually tracking? Im thinking lipid panel at minimum, maybe fasting glucose and liver enzymes. Is there anything else worth watching? I get that rapamycin at low weekly doses is supposed to be pretty different from the transplant doses but i dont want to just assume everything is fine without checking.

Also keen to hear how often people are getting panels done, like every 3 months, 6 months? My gp is pretty open to ordering stuff if i can explain why i want it which is sweet as but i dont want to just ask for everything under the sun either.

Just trying to be sensible about this rather than winging it. Any input would be heaps appreciated.

Comments

• curious_scientist: I’ve been on low‑dose weekly rapamycin for about six months and I started checking labs after the first couple of months just to feel safer. For me a basic metabolic panel (creatinine, BUN, electrolytes), a lipid panel, fasting glucose and liver enzymes (ALT, AST, GGT) have been the core. I also add a CBC to watch for any subtle shifts in white cells or platelets. My doc orders it every three months and so far everything’s stayed in the normal range – though I know that could just be luck or pl
• student748: Cheers for the breakdown really helpful. I’ll add a cbc to my next panel and aim for every three months like you do. Does anyone also track triglycerides separately or is that covered in the lipid panel?
• sleep_coastal: Good list. I'd add fasting insulin to that, not just glucose. Anecdotally that was the one that shifted for me on weekly rapamycin, glucose stayed flat but insulin crept up a bit after month four. Could've been diet or stress, hard to say. Also worth checking hs-CRP since inflammation markers are kinda the whole point of tracking whether the stuff is doing anything useful.
• student748: Chur thats really helpful, fasting insulin is a good call, wouldnt have thought of that one. The insulin creeping up at month four is interesting, did it come back down on its own or did you change anything? Keen to ask my gp for hs-CRP too, makes sense to actually see if the inflammation side is moving. For what it is worth i would rather know if somethings going sideways early on.

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