Rapamycin Cost
Let me clear some things up for people considering rapamycin (generic sirolimus). I am taking it and so are my dogs!! (I have a very open-minded vet who trusts my judgement.)
Dr. Green, a very impressive individual, gave me my personal prescription for sirolimus. I have a very good PPO (Blue Cross/Blue Shield). I took it to CVS, the affiliated pharmacy, and got a great price of about $2.90/mg. (Remember, you are only going to take about 3-6 mg/week.) With a PPO you can probably do this also. CVS wants to meter it to you with a month's worth of doses at a time, but that's just how they do things. You still have access to the full quantity prescribed.
With the prescription from my vet for my dogs, I was forced to take to the open sea. Armed with only a prescription and no insurance, the picture is quite different, but you can still get a good price. Cutting to the chase, I ended up at Walmart. The prescription was for 90 mg - price $1440. But wait! after presenting a coupon downloaded from GoodRX (that's right, just anonymously downloaded and printed) - price $396!!!! As my vet remarked, that's a hell of a charge for not looking around first! ($4.40/mg is better than taking a risk buying online, in my opinion.) Costco is pretty close to that price. At CVS/RiteAid, etc., you will pay vastly more.
You can't touch the original drug rapamune (Pfizer) unless you are wealthy or go to Canada. The problem with the online pharmacies is that a lot of them are scams. Just because they have a website doesn't mean anything. At least check to see if they have a brick and mortar location. Example: At one point I was excited by the online infomercials and wanted to take NMN instead of NR; however, when I looked up the reputations of the suppliers only one was unsullied, and on further investigation their brick and mortar location turned out to be a residential dwelling!
FYI, more than one company makes sirolimus. From CVS the sirolimus was made by Greenstone, LLC, apparently a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer.
Hope that helps some people who are considering rapamycin but think it might be out of their reach. If you know a doctor, great, but if you don't a visit to Dr. Green is worth the trip, and I live in CA! (round trip less than $300) Do your homework first and you will learn a great deal.
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Update:
The aggressive Rapa cream is working great on my Hands, Arms and the non DMSO product is helping on the face, but not as fast, as expected. Looks like even hard solar keratosis is going to be healed within 2-3 months, which is better than Retin A which I tried for 5 years!
Took the Fisetin, did not get any reactions, but have been on Resveratrol for a couple years, did up to 5 day water fasting, so that probably already took care of those old cells.
Taking the Rapa weekly, feeling OK, some up and down days as usual, but need to increase weight lifting again....to minimize sarcopenia.
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I wanted to post an update from my original post here:
https://forum.age-reversal.net/t/63jmdc?r=m1hmzzm
I have been taking weekly Rapamycin for 3 months now and I am very satisfied with what it is doing for me and how it makes me feel. In general, my weekly dose of Rap helps me get a much better night of sleep, it evens out the peaks and troughs of energy for me throughout the day (no cat naps needed anymore), more endurance of energy into the evening, better recovery after strenuous work or exercise, increase in mental sharpness/clarity, and an increase in motivation to get things done (daily tasks, projects, etc.)
First task was to determine my ideal dose, so I started with 5mg per week, and increased this 1mg at a time each week, I did this up through 13 mg... I weigh 79 kg so this peak dose is 0.165 mg/kg below the max of 0.2 mg/kg I was willing to push it... each week I would look for the side effects listed in the 2014 Manick paper, I never did get mouth ulcerations but at 9mg and higher I would get a headache a few hours after taking the weekly dose (I rarely get headaches)... headaches and mouth ulceration are the most frequent side effects listed by Manick... Now I have settled on 7 mg per week (0.088 mg/kg) and may go to 8mg, and no side effects are occurring, except for one...
I found that the weekly Rap was increasing my blood pressure, this is a result found in several studies (seems that almost 40% have experienced this)... my usual blood pressure is 125/82, but with the weekly dose it got as high as 150/90, enough of a concern for me to stop taking Rap for a week to see if my BP would return to normal, which it did. Further research seems to indicate that over the first 6 months to a 1 year BP will return to normal for most. I am monitoring my BP a few times per week, and willing to take the next year to see if it returns to my normal levels, the benefits of Rap are worth it as far as I am concerned! When I went off the Rap for a week I could really feel the difference of not having it, if you are taking Rap now take a week off and see how it makes you feel not to have it. I would say it took about 2 months for me to start noticing the benefits of the weekly Rap.
I also made some Rap skin lotion to treat my face and hands (on Dr. Green's website he gives instructions on how to do this)... Face for age spots and wrinkles, hands for sun/age spot. I mixed up a 0.002% and 0.02% mixture and use the 0.002% 4 times a week or so as an after shave, and the 0.02% 2 or 3 times per week for trouble spots... I have been doing this for a few months and I can see a difference in some wrinkles smoothing out, and the age/sun spots lightening... I will continue to apply the lotions over the next year and monitor results.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their Rap experiences and insights.
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This is a new protocol of NAD replacement therapy especially for people over 65 yo. I believe this one will really work and is not expensive to try. 2-4 weeks, and should feel better, and have more endurance. How does this relate to Rapa? Well Rapa slows down NAD degeneration, but cannot replace it. I feel very good about the science behind this one. Dr. Green's senescence protocol is different, and should still be followed. Clear out those zombie's and replace NAD for increased well being and endurance. Only time will tell, but I will start tomorrow on mine and will give feedback. See Post #1739 https://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/94224-manipulating-mitochondrial-dynamics/page-58
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Greetings folks, very occasional and intermittent lurker, first time poster.
I finally decided to pull the trigger on rapamycin powder, and now when I go to Alibaba there are zero hits for it or sirolimus. Wondering if it was a US thing, I opened a new private browser window and set my shipping destination to Mexico. Still no luck. Anyone else seen/is aware of this and no the reason? Is it still possible to source rapamycin powder?
Suggestions welcome. Thanks!