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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  • Hello,

     

    I just received my Rapamycin, made by Profound Products, called RapaPro.  The bottle has 12 scored tablets in it with directions to take one quarter, one half , or one tablet per week(1.25 mg to 5 mg) as directed by your physician .  Trying just trying  to figure out now which dose to start with , for both myself and my pup!  No Rx required for this product .

    Like 1
    • Karl For myself and anyone who is "self pay" the source is Biocon "Sirolimus" through online Canadian Pharmacy. Price $349 per 100 1mg tabs. For patients who go through insurance it is Pfizer Rapamune. It seems some of the Medicare D plans cover it, at least for now. Once I started the higher cycling regimen, I started using grapefruit juice to impair intestinal P450 and spike absorption 3 fold (half life is unnaffected). It becomes to expensive for many people otherwise and I always do myself what I tell my patients to do. I have to accept that there is a known variability of grapefruit juice effect on sirolimus absorption of 250%-350% so the actual dose may be a little lower or higher and I accept this small risk (again, well studied insider info). Grapefruit juice protocol is one fresh squeezed large fruit about 8 hours prior to dose (night before) and one large fresh squeezed grapefruit morning of with rapamycin taken 30 minutes later. Assume an average 300% increased absorption to determine the proper dose (1/3 of the mg/kg/wk without juice). So far so good.

      Like 7
    • Mark Thimineur 

      Great post with great analogy to gambling. I was wondering if you could elaborate in more detail on what you perceive the greater benefits are at the higher doses?

       Thanks 

      Like
      • Karl
      • Karl.1
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Ellis Toussier I have no interest in starting a long online argument, so I’m not going to. I would just ask that you be a bit more open minded. You chosen a point of view that is only one way to look at this and there are other points of view with just as many facts to back them up.

      Like 1
    • John Mcgough Link to prior post which is responsive in regards to my patients: https://forum.age-reversal.net/t/h4s991?r=80v57h

      Personal observations: Improvements: Mood, motivation, mental stamina, flexibility, speed of gait, balance, neuropathic pain from disc herniation, musculoskelatel pain, easier to maintain weight without fasting.

      Realize these are subjective perceptions. However, patients and non-patients on a regimen describe similar subjective perceptions which anchor these as as likely drug effect. Lower doses provide less and higher doses more further anchoring these observations as drug effect. 

      Several patients have opted to treat their canine pets at 0.08mg/kg dosed twice weekly. The canines behave like younger dogs being more playful and physical than prior. This also serves to anchor what we are seeing in ourselves as likely drug effect.

      Optimal dose unclear. Higher rodent doses lead to longer lifespan increases while lower lead to much lower, and less impressive, change. Risk seems acceptable (to me) with lower level cycle dose as described above with more robust benefits on the higher side (0.10mg/kg/wk) as opposed to lower (0.04mg/kg/wk) while laboratory results remained within normal and little changed. 

      Realize that all people do not experience all benefits (at least at the described doses) It appears that the younger and more "normal" individuals percieve less subjective effects. Interesting that, in these types of patients, a spouse often interjects and tells me they are more energetic or somehow "happier"

      I take it all in and learn from them (and myself). Higher cycle doses as described above may tell me more.

      Like 3
    • Mark Thimineur thanks for all that great feedback and I will consider following your protocol after I see the results of  doing 5 mg weekly. I chose 5 mg because  the Mannick   study showed that it improved lymphocytes.

      A year and a half ago I had a blood test which showed my lymphocytes were below the range. CD4 was around 400. Through experimentation I discovered if I did a fast mimicking diet pioneered by Victor Longo my lymphocytes increased into the bottom of the range. When  I stopped doing the fast mimicking diet for four months my lymphocytes crash to 325 CD4.

      After two months of going back on the fast mimicking diet they improve to 500. Which means over the last 18 months I have done the fast mimicking diet 14 times. I happen on to rapamycin hoping this would raise my lymphocytes and I can stop doing the fast mimicking diet which is very boring and its not  something I look forward to doing every month.

      interestingly when I do the fast mimicking diet my neuropathic tingling in my hands goes away on the second day and my weight goes from 170 to 161 by the fifth day.

      taking rapamycin 5mg  I noticed fairly quickly my tingling  improved like I was fasting and my weight stays at around 164 pounds. I also feel similar to when I am fasting. I thought I would add this observation since I’m wondering if my body is more sensitive or is it my lifestyle being I am super active and health conscious?

      also something to consider is that Longo reports that after the five day fast your body goes through a refeeding period for a couple days In which a lot of healing and new stem cells are produced and I’m wondering if this happens with rapamycin when the trough level is lower? 
      Please keep us informed how the new cycling works out.

      Like 1
    • Karl Karl, please do start a long online argument.   That's what this forum is for, to learn from each other.  

      What exactly would you like me to be more open minded about ?   Anemia ?   What other point of view do you have about anemia, than the one I have, which is that anemia causes senility?  

      And that Dr. Alan Green has anemia, which he has not treated properly because he has probably been told that it is quite normal?  

      Please Karl, you are a doctor and I am not.  So I would like very much to learn what have I been missing?  What am I mistaken about?

      Like 1
    • Mark Thimineur do you cycle every week meaning one week the higher dose and the next week the lower dose or do you use a longer interval? Thank you

      Like 1
    • John Mcgough 3 weeks straight on each dose change. I am now cycling through 3 different doses (high, medium, low) each for 3 weeks.

      Like 1
      • Karl
      • Karl.1
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Ellis Toussier I ask you be a bit more open minded about anemia and not be so rigid on the numbers. Anemia does not cause senility. They just happen together. Don’t confuse correlation with causation.

      why would Dr Green’s slightly below normal hgb be bad when that number would be considered normal for an athlete or a woman?

      if lower oxygen carrying capacity is bad, why are people living at altitude in Colorado generally healthier?

      higher hgb levels make the blood more viscous and can lead to vascular stress.
       

      I’m not saying you are wrong, just that medicine is not an exact science.

      Like 1
    • Ellis Toussier since you passed up my suggestion to engage with Mikhail Blogoslonny on Twitter, I queried his thinking on HGH. Continuously dosing HGH is akin to dosing with hormones or nutrients. His theory https://www.aging-us.com/article/100411/text

      he speculated that continuous HGH stimulates the mTor pathway which leads to aging. 

      Like 2
    • Karl  RE: Anemia, and my rigidity on the numbers.

      Karl, let us suppose you are inside a car, with the windows closed, and we suck out 20% of the oxygen in the car (ie, 36% vs. 45%...)   Now you sit in a car with the windows closed, and you breathe 20% less oxygen for 10 years.  

      Ten years later, you walk out of the car... How do you think you feel?   You feel DIZZY.  Why do you feel dizzy?   Because you have LOST NEURONS...

      You lost neurons in your legs and in your brain too.  That is why anemia and senility go together.  I say that anemia caused senility.  You say they go together.  Fine.  And high hematocrit and intelligence also go together.

      After perhaps 10 years with anemia, you THINK more slowly, because you are on the road to senility, (unless you are already senile.)

      "They just happen to go together" ???!!!   That is correct.  Every cell in your body requires WATER and NUTRIENTS and OXYGEN.   If you have 20% less oxygen running through your blood than "an average healthy person" you can bet that in ten years of 20% less oxygen you have LOST NEURONS.

      Dr. Green's hematocrit (36% in 2018, probably less today because anemia does not go UP by itself, unless he has taken EPO or Testosterone, none of which he has mentioned) and 12% hemoglobin is NOT SLIGHTLY BELOW NORMAL.   It is 20% below normal, which is huge.   I have had feedback from persons with 39% hematocrit, and they feel like they are drowning.   Gasping for air.  And when they got their hematocrit to 45%, they were much healthier.

      People living at altitude in Colorado generally have hematocrit higher than 45%... (I live in Mexico City, which is higher than Denver)  Persons living in Mexico City have hematocrit about 2 points higher than persons living at sea level.  And people living in La Paz, Bolivia, have hematocrit in upper 50's.

      And yes, we feel better when we go down to sea level because we have higher hematocrit which gives us a bit more oxygen in our veins.  It takes several months for 47% to drop to 45% hematocrit.   (And it takes about 2 weeks for somebody from sea level to raise hematocrit to get well adjusted to Mexico City, or Bogota, Colombia, or La Paz, Bolivia.)

      Yes, higher hematocrit can perhaps cause thicker blood, but how high is high?   Can  Dr. Alan Green put his anemic blood UP from 36% to 37% without danger?  How about from 37% to 40%?   How about 40% to 43%?   How about 43% to 45%?  

      Would you say I am in danger of a heart attack because my hematocrit has been between 50% and 59% for nearly 20 years?   The entire city of La Paz, Bolivia has hematocrit between 55% and 60%.

      In any case, Dr. Alan Green would have to take that decision himself, because he is age 76, in my opinion he is weak and struggling with anemia, and if he should take Erithropoyetin, and kick the bucket, there would be many doctors who would blame me for causing his death.   (I hope he will live many more years, in good health.  But he is not in good health, right now.)

      But this is like a person who has had extreme high blood sugar for many years, if I tell that person to take insulin to get his blood sugar down, and that person goes blind, there would be many doctors who would say that INSULIN caused him to go blind, and my advice was mistaken, when the fact is that many years of extreme high blood sugar and bad medical advice from his doctors (who should have put him on insulin many years ago) is the true reason that they lost their eyesight (and probably also their kidneys, and brain neurons too.)

      See what some persons have written to tell me how they felt, after they raised their anemia to better levels:

      http://www.rajeun.net/epofaq.html

      - Ellis Toussier

      Like
    • Paul Beauchemin 

      Re: Blagosklonny's specultion on HGH

      Paul, I really don't care what somebody, even a great doctor who has taught me a lot about rapamycin, thinks about HGH, since he has never injected ONE DOSE of HGH in his life.   And I have injected a double dose 2 iu or more (most doctors prescribe 1 iu to their patients, if they prescribe HGH at all...) almost every single day since June, 1998, that is almost 22 years.  

      So... he knows more than I do about rapamycin, but he doesn't know more than I do about growth hormone.   Not only have I injected it into myself, I have sold it to thousands of persons for 22 years, and I have gotten feedback from the persons that I have sold it to, and also from thousands of persons who I didn't sell it to.   Doctors call me from many countries, and they ask my opinion about what dose to give to their patients.   Doctors have come to Mexico to buy growth hormone from me (eg, Humatrope, Saizen, Serostim, etc.) and to learn more about growth hormone from me.

      So, I am not going to discuss growth hormone with somebody who is AGAINST the use of growth hormone, and who theorizes whatever he wants to theorize about how BAD growth hormone is, when I know how great growth hormone is.

      About 20 years ago, there were many doctors who were praising growth hormone. 

      Then Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire hit 70 and 71 HOME RUNS in the same year and smashed Babe Ruth's Homerun Record.   A National Emergency!   Suddenly, growth hormone became a BAD thing.   Growth hormone had made their muscles and their bones and their nervous system all coordinate and work better together.  So they could hit the ball further, and they could run faster, in spite of their age.  

      And so that was considered to be "cheating"...

      Why is it "cheating" to keep your body from falling apart, if you can keep it from falling apart?   I dunno.   But the U.S.  FDA cracked down on growth hormone and on doctors who prescribe growth hormone.   And so, then, "doctors" started to recommend growth hormone secretagogues, which they say are "less painful" and "more natural" and "less risky" and all kinds of reasons why "sermorelin" is better and "safer" than growth hormone, which has no side effects in physiological doses.

      I am tired of arguing with Jay Olshansky or Thomas Perls or others who spread fake news.   And I don't want to argue with Mikhail Blagosklonny, who speaks badly about growth hormone, and who I think knows less about growth hormone than I do.

      But he is a "Doctor" and I am not a doctor, so he will want to Lord it over me.  

      I will continue to use growth hormone, no matter what Jay Olshansky or Blagosklonny or anybody says he thinks about growth hormone...

      Blagosklonny "speculated" one way, and I speculate another.  

      I have never heard of a BAD side effect caused by growth hormone in 22 years, and I have heard of many many many good benefits.

      So I speculate that growth hormone (and EPO, and insulin, and testosterone) has already postponed aging for me.  

      So, don't take growth hormone, now that Blagosklonny has told you it is bad for you. 

      I say rapamycin is probably good, and I say growth hormone is definitely good.

      You can choose to believe somebody (Blagosklonny or Dr. Alan Green) who I say does not know about growth hormone.  Or you can decide to experiment with growth hormone if you want to believe somebody (ME) who says he knows a little more about growth hormone than Blagosklonny.   

      After ONE dose of growth hormone, an athlete told me he broke his own record record.   After ONE dose of growth hormone, a gymnast told me he had done "the cross" for the first time in his life.

      And after about 7000 double doses, I have no pain in my 74 year old body, and I think I have aged more slowly. 

      Ellis Toussier

      Like
    • Ellis Toussier I don't think Blagosklonny would say he is an expert on Rapamycin so much as an expert on mTOR. He has postulated and published a theory that aging is driven by mTOR not shutting down after we need it for growth.

      No doubt HGH makes us stronger and promotes growth as does food.  So will getting HGH for decades longer than our body needs it for growth cause us to age?  Time will tell. At least Blagosklonny has published scientific papers to document his research.

      I've looked at your website and cannot find links to any papers you have published. Maybe you think that you will convince people with anecdotes?

      If your data is as good as you indicate, publish it in scientific journals. You don't have to be a "doctor" to publish papers, anyone can. Otherwise, you will not be taken seriously.

      Like 1
    • Ellis Toussier For Baseball fans:

      1998 Mark Mcguire total home runs - 70

      1998 Sammy Sosa total home runs  - 66

      PED - Anabolic steroids (proven and admitted)

      2001 Barry Bonds Home run total - 73

      PED - Probably anabolic steroids (not proven, not admitted)

       

      For Longevity

      Regarding HGB and HCT: both low (anemic) and high (polycythemic) levels are associated with an increased risk of dementia. Actual causation undetermined. July 31, 2019, issue of Neurology

      HGH: problem(s) #1- "Current consensus of medical professional organizations and governmental regulatory agencies is that, while adult GHD is a valid indication for GH replacement therapy, old age without diagnosable somatotropic axis pathology is not [23]. Thus, until further large, well-designed studies are conducted, prescribing GH to endocrinologically-normal middle aged or elderly individuals for the purpose of delaying or reversing aging is generally considered futile, unethical, and, in the United States, also illegal" Bartke A. Growth Hormone and Aging: Updated Review. World J Mens Health. 2019;37(1):19–30. doi:10.5534/wjmh.180018

      Problem(s) #2- "Absence of GH signals due to mutations affecting anterior pituitary development, GH secretion, or GH receptors produces an impressive extension of longevity in laboratory mice. Extension of healthspan in these animals and analysis of survival curves suggest that in the absence of GH, aging is slowed down or delayed. The corresponding endocrine syndromes in the human have no consistent impact on longevity, but are associated with remarkable protection from age-related disease. Moreover, survival to extremely old age has been associated with reduced somatotropic (GH and insulin-like growth factor-1) signaling in women and men. In both humans and mice, elevation of GH levels into the supranormal (pathological) range is associated with increased disease risks and reduced life expectancy likely representing acceleration of aging."Bartke A. Growth Hormone and Aging: Updated Review. World J Mens Health. 2019;37(1):19–30. doi:10.5534/wjmh.180018

      Sorry to say I Don't think either is a good bet for my longevity gamble (or medical license) at this point. Wish you the best

      Like 2
    • Mark Thimineur 

      Re: Current consensus of medical professional organizations and governmental regulatory agencies...

      I am fortunate that I live in Mexico, and the regulatory agencies in Mexico do not forbid me, and nobody tells me that it is "unethical" to use a hormone that is natural to the human body and is considered to be the master hormone of the human body.  

      I am 74 years "old" and at my age growth hormone is "deficient" in my body.

      When I began to take growth hormone, in June, 1998, we knew that growth hormone goes DOWN with age, and the big question that they asked in those days was: does growth hormone go DOWN with Old Age, or do we grow old BECAUSE growth hormone goes DOWN because we are Old?   Or do we become Old because growth hormone went down?   In other words, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

      I was in close touch with many doctors (Dr. Ward Dean, Dr. Ronald Klatz, Dr. Alan Rothenberg, Dr. Elmer Cranton, Dr. James Hughes, etc.) who were all of the opinion that if we replace growth hormone, it would do in our aging bodies what it used to do when we were 25 years old.   They are all members of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, which has about 25,000 doctors affiliated.  (I am sure that if you ever would go to a convention of A4M, nobody there, except maybe you, would think it is "unethical" to try to reverse or slow down aging with growth hormone.)

      Which was: HGH would repair broken bones faster, it would heal burns faster... it would lower body fat and increase muscle... it would cause the circulatory system to grow more... it would strengthen the immune system... it would make nails and hair grow thicker... it would prevent hair from falling out in men (maybe because it would cause circulatory system to get to the roots of hair follicles...) etc. etc. etc.   There are A LOT of good things that growth hormone would do, since it is the master hormone, the pituitary gland is right in the center of our brain, and the brain is the boss that decides when the pituitary gland releases growth hormone. 

      Maybe it is a coincidence that the brain decides not to release as much growth hormone, or maybe it was part of the plan to conserve food for the younger persons. 

      Whatever... I saw my face in a mirror, I read Dr. Daniel Rudman's experiment with growth hormone on Old Men (age 60 t0 85 (??))

      https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199007053230101

      and I decided by myself that I was going to take growth hormone myself, and that I was NEVER GOING TO STOP, as long as I would not have a BAD SIDE EFFECT.   And so, I finally found "growth hormone" (Humatrope, Eli Lilly) in a pharmacy and I began to inject Humatrope, following the guidelines of Daniel Rudman's experiment.

      22 years later, I am still waiting for a Bad Side Effect to happen.

      So I am not going to stop taking growth hormone.   The world needs to find out if growth hormone is GOOD, as I say it is, or BAD as some countries' regulatory agencies say it is.  As I said, I am in Mexico, and I am not forbidden to take growth hormone.

      So... I put together my 8 point anti-aging program, based on the principles of "Risk Management" which I had learned as an insurance agent.   What happens to us as we grow older, and how can I stop or slow down or reverse the various "signs of aging"???

      (skin get thinner and dryer, and so it wrinkles... we gain fat, we lose muscle... our immune system gets weaker... our bones lose minerals so we get osteoporosis... etc.)

      The single most important anti-aging "therapy" I decided had to be the food that we eat.  The correct diet. 

      And so for a long time I was following the "experts" who had put together the atrocious U.S.D.A. Food Guide Pyramid.   I didn't know it was so terrible, until I bought a $75 dollar blood glucose meter, and I got confused to see that the food guide pyramid was schizophrenic:  CARBOHYDRATES is what we should EAT THE MOST (60% calories should come from spaghetti, bread, potatoes, MUFFINS, cereals, etc.) and SUGAR (which is 100% carbohydrates) is what we should EAT THE LEAST.

      Dr. Roy Walford wrote "Fewer calories is always better than more calories, for the same amount of nutrients" 

      But I tested myself with the blood glucose meter, and I modified Dr. Walford's advice a little bit.  I said "Fewer calories is always better than more calories for the same amount of nutrients, but the food we choose to eat must also keep your blood sugar low."

      And another point of my eight point anti-aging program was something like "replace all hormones that go DOWN with age... and lower hormones that go UP with age."

      So it is a part of my personal anti-aging program.  If you believe that I am "unethical" to take and to teach doctors and patients to replace growth hormone and other hormones in their body that go down with age, I think it is more unethical to sell cigarrettes and alcohol and bad drugs, and I don't touch anything that I think is truly bad for good health.   I have no regrets to help the hundreds of thousands of persons that I have helped in 22 years to stay in ultra good health.

      And if you think that taking rapamycin alone is going to help you to live a longer and healthier life, why is that not "unethical" too?   

      In any case, I think you are putting all your eggs (rapamycin) in one basket, and I am putting all of my eggs in 9 baskets now.   (the 8 that I put into my anti-aging program in 1998, and now rapamycin which I added to my anti aging program, in 2019.)   

      Good luck to everyone, I hope that with rapamycin and metformin you will all live to 150.  

      I prefer rapamycin + insulin...  but you might consider taking insulin when I am not a diabetic, you might consider that to be "unethical" too.

      I will soon leave this board.   I do not like to be where doctors think that what I do is unethical.   Good luck to everyone, I am almost out of here.   Those who follow me on other boards, love me...  but I get bad vibrations on this board.  

      I wish you all good luck and a long and healthy lifespan.

      Like
    • Paul Beauchemin 

      Re: Maybe I think that I can convince people with anecdotes ?

      Hello Paul... No, I have not published any papers.  I am not a doctor, and I have read Dr. Richard Bernstein's story "My first Fifty Years as a Diabetic" and I won't bother to be rejected, as he was rejected when he tried to tell the world that his experiments with a blood sugar meter showed him that high carb foods raise blood sugar, and he was attempting to control blood sugar.  

      So, if Dr. Bernstein could not get published, I will certainly not get published, and I have not done any double blind experiments that would be scientifically accepted by any medical journal.    So chalk up all that I have written here about growth hormone as not scientific, not worthy to bother to read.

      Blagosklonny has written a lot about rapamycin, and I admire him and his theory that aging is driven by mTOR.   But he also says that HGH is bad, it shortens lifespan, and I am more than convinced that HGH is the second most important hormone that I take every day.  (the single most important hormone that I take every day is INSULIN...)  So I am not going to try to convince anybody about growth hormone, or about anemia, or about insulin, or about diabetes, or about senility, or about hyperbaric oxygen. 

      Everybody, do whatever you want to do, and I hope you are right, and I wish you a long and healthy life.  

      As Golda Meir said about her bad habit of chain smoking cigarrettes , she said "Nobody can say I died YOUNG because I smoked cigarrettes."  

      Nobody can say that I died YOUNG because I injected growth hormone almost every day for 22 years, or for injecting Insulin 35,000 times in 19 years, or for putting up my hematocrit between 50% and 55% for 19 years with EPO, or for injecting testosterone for many years.

      Like
    • Ellis Toussier Nothing personal - just quoting the science. 74 is not to old - you have 8 years to reach average male lifespan in Canada, 6 years for England, and 4 years for United States.

      Like
    • Ellis Toussier The legal situation in the U.S. is real and any physician would put themselves in legal and professional jeopardy for prescribing this controlled substance without a legit medical purpose. If you were living here in the U.S. your selling of HGH would land you in prison. No medical provider on this forum is attacking you personally. As an interventional pain management specialist, I urge extreme caution with involvement in controlled substance prescribing or usage outside what is considered a legitimate medical purpose. Please see below

       

      Anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and other similar substances are treated as controlled substances, meaning it's illegal to possess or use them unless you are legally allowed to do so. Like other controlled substances, criminal charges can arise when you use steroids for non-medical needs, as well as when you sell or distribute them to others. Penalties for steroids crimes tend to be more significant for situations involving the sale, distribution, or the intent to sell or distribute steroids, while possession and use crimes are typically charged as less significant crimes.

      Human growth hormone and illegal steroids are punished by both federal and state law, and these laws can differ significantly in the penalties they impose. Most crimes are prosecuted at the state level, but both state and federal crimes are typically charged as felony offenses.

      • Incarceration. Jail or prison sentences for steroid crimes differ widely. A conviction for a misdemeanor possession crime, for example, could result in a prison sentence of up to a year in jail, while a felony possession charge could last for a year or more, and possibly much longer. Convictions for distribution, sale, or possession with intent to sell could result in prison sentences of five years or more.
      • Fines. Fines for steroid and HGH crimes can be significant. A simple possession conviction can result in fines of several thousand dollars, while fines for being involved in a pill mill or for sale or distribution can exceed $10,000 or more.
      • Probation. A person convicted of a steroids crime may also face a probation sentence in addition to, or apart from, jail and fines. Probation sentences last at least 12 months, but can exceed 3 years or more. While on probation a person must comply with the court's probation orders or risk facing additional penalties, such as serving prison time, paying additional fines, and having the probation period extended. Probation orders impose requirements such as regularly meeting with a probation officer, taking random drug tests, maintaining employment, not associating with known criminals, and not committing more crimes.

      Enforcement Actions

      In January 2003, the FDA sent a warning letter to Be Youthful, of Edmonton, Canada, objecting to claims that their Be Youthful HGH product was effective against depression, chronic fatigue, high blood prsessure, and high cholesterol levels [21].

      In April 2003, Nature's Youth, LLC, of Centerville, Massachusetts, voluntarily destroyed approximately 5,700 boxes of "Nature's Youth HGH" with a market value of about $515,000. The destruction took place after the FDA notified the company that claims made for the product were unsubstantiated and therefore illegal. The company had claimed that the product, which it described as a growth-hormone releaser, would enhance the body's natural production of Human Growth Factors and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1; improve physical performance; speed recovery from training; increase cardiac output; and increase immune functions; and was "your body's best defense against aging." [22].When asked for substantiation, the company cited Rudman's 1990 report, which, as noted above, does not support such claims. The product's leading promoter has been G. Gordon Liddy, the former Watergate conspirator who served five years in prison and now hosts a talk show syndicated to 160 radio stations. In 2002, Nature's Youth's Web site carried a testimonial from Liddy:

      I am often asked my secret for remaining virile, vigorous, potent and fecund. The secret is that, in addition to not smoking or drinking alcohol, exercising and following a diet low in calories, fat and red meat and high in fish, I have for some time been taking a Human Growth Hormone Releasant specially formulated for me and heretofore not available to the public. Now, under the brand name Nature's Youth HGH, the exact formula I have been using is available to you. My secret is out. Nature's Youth HGH is how I stay "Good to Go and Ready to Launch! [23]

      In 2005, Edmund Chein, M.D., who operates the Palm Springs Life Extension Institute (PSLEI) in Palm Springs, California, was placed on five years' probation during which he must (a) pay $10,000 to the State of California for costs, (b) take courses in ethics, prescribing practices, and recordkeeping, (c) refrain from making unsubstantiated advertising claims, and (d) either have his practice monitored or participate in an intensive professional enhancement program. The clinic's Web site states that PSLEI specializes in "optimized total hormone balancing by returning hormone levels to values consistent with a younger person." The grounds for discipline included inappropriately and negligently prescribing HGH plus insulin to a patient who was neither deficient nor diabetic [24].

      In 2007, the College Pharmacy, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, its owner (pharmacist Thomas Bader), a sales representative (Kevin Henry), and a sales representative (Bradley Blum) from a company in Houston, Texas, were indicted by a federal grand jury for illegally importing and distributing HGH from China. The indictment charged that the defendants obtained Chinese-manufactured HGH that lacked FDA approval and repackaged and sold it to physicians throughout the United States. In response to the indictment, the Colorado Board of Pharmacy revoked Bader's license [26]. Blum subsequently pleaded guilty and was fined $10,000 and placed on 2 years probation. In 2008, the U.S. Government and the pharmacy owners reached a civil agreement under which $3.5 million (representing the proceeds from illegal importation and sale of HGH) was forfeited [27]. For many years, the College Pharmacy catalog identified it as "one of the largest, most comprehensive compounding centers in North America." In 2005, it was fined $50,000 and placed on probation following complaints that its pharmacists had incorrectly dispensed medication.

      In 2008, the Oregon Medical Board revoked the license of Jerome N. Lentini, M.D., who operated "A Younger You" clinics in Salem and Tigard, Oregon. The charges leading to this action included prescribing HGH injections, which he falsely told patients would falsely told patients that the injections would stop, slow, and/or reverse the aging process. He was also prosecuted for prescribing Botox substitutes that were not FDA-approved [28].

      In 2009, Sean Shafer and The Compounding Center, Inc.,of Phoenix, Arizona were charged with illegally distributing HGH. The indictment alleged that the company's Web site touted impermissible uses of HGH for "anti-aging" purposes and that from 2001 through 2006, nine doctors made more than 400 purchases totaling more than $1.1 million. The indictment also states that Shafer, in his capacity as the manager of the wholesale department of the Compounding Center, also sold a number of HGH kits to two undercover operatives who specifically told him that the purchases were for bodybuilders and athletes [29].

      In 2011, Linda Bunch, M.D., who practiced in Monroe, Louisiana, pleaded guilty to conspiring to import and distribute HGH. The indictment charged that she had conspired with a chiropractor to import the drug from China for an unapproved use [30]. In 2012, she was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $200,000. Bunch then tried to change her plea, but the District Court judge denied the request and also refused to delay imprisonment while she appeals further.

      The State of Washington's Medical Quality Assurance Commission (MQAC) has disciplined at least four physicians and one naturopath for advertising and/or prescribing HGH and/or other hormones for "anti-aging purposes:

      • In 2010, Kenneth M. Jones, M.D. signed agreed order under which his license was suspended for 30 days, after which he was placed on probation for five years. He was also fined $10,000 and permanently prohibited from promoting, prescribing, or otherwise providing thyroid hormones, human growth hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, testosterone, or other anabolic steroids [31].
      • In 2012, Jerry N. Mixon, M.D. signed an agreed order that prohibited him from prescribing growth hormone and required him to (a) pay a $10,000 fine, (b) serve at least three years on probation, (c) take an approved ethics course, and (4) submit to semi-annual practice reviews [32].
      • In 2013, Janet Vondran, M.D., signed an agreed order agreed order under which she was (a) fined $3,000, (b) prohibited from advertising or prescribing hormone supplementation, and (c) placed on probation for at least 2 years during which she would be subject to semi-annual practice reviews [33].
      • In 2013, Bradford Weeks, M.D., was s fined $5,000 and his license was suspended for at least three years [33]. He has appealed the board's decision [34].
      • In 2015, the license of Edmund M. Corpuz, N.D. was indefinitely suspended after he failed to respond to charges that he had prescribed HGH for weight loss to people he had interviewed via Skype but never examined [35,36]. Six months later, he signed a consent order under which his license was reinstated but he was fined $1,800 and placed on probation for at least two years, during which time he was required to take specified continuing education courses and have his practiced monitored [37].
      Like 2
    • Mark Thimineur  A prodigious compilation of "weight of the evidence" there Mark!  I was not aware of possession of HGH being even a minor crime.   Yet, people are bringing it in from HGH clinics in Mexico where it is prescribed by doctors their.

      Like
      • Karl
      • Karl.1
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Dorian Gray Mexico 

      Like
    • Mark Thimineur 

      Re: the legal situation of HGH in the U.S.A. is real.

      Hello Mark, you mention this:

      "In 2008, the Oregon Medical Board revoked the license of Jerome N. Lentini, M.D., who operated "A Younger You" clinics in Salem and Tigard, Oregon. The charges leading to this action included prescribing HGH injections, which he falsely told patients would falsely told patients that the injections would stop, slow, and/or reverse the aging process."

      What is so crazy about this is that he did NOT "falsely tell his patients that the injections would stop, and/or reverse the aging process"   

      That is exactly what I am convinced that HGH does.  (I would say HGH will "slow down" the aging process, because after 22 years of HGH every day, I have to admit that I did not STOP or REVERSE the aging process, but I certainly did SLOW IT DOWN ! )

      And yes, I know it is extremely penalized to be in possession, or to sell growth hormone in the United States.  But Humatrope is MADE IN THE UNITED STATES.   How can it be so penalized for using or selling a legal medicine, made in the U.S.A.?  Why can a doctor who prescribes HGH for the good health of his patient lose his license to practice medicine?

      You can get a legal prescription for HGH in the United States.   It will just cost you a bundle of money, so if you are rich enough, you can get a legal prescription.   It will take a lot of expensive blood tests to PROVE THAT YOUR BODY IS GROWTH HORMONE DEFICIENT. 

      This is like having to take many expensive tests to PROVE THAT YOU SHOULD DRINK WATER, WHEN YOU KNOW YOU ARE THIRSTY.   Everybody past the age of 30 years old will probably benefit from authentic injectable growth hormone  (Humatrope, Serostim, Norditropin, Genotropin, etc.)

      But this is the way it is, in the United States.... There are more than 3,000,000 persons in JAIL in the United States.   Some for bank robbery, some for murder, and some for selling or using GROWTH HORMONE which is the master hormone, or for using or selling or prescribing TESTOSTERONE, which is the natural male hormone.  

      How unjust !!  How unfair !!!

      And there are many more million persons tied to the jail when they are released from jail and they are on probation.   This is a lot more persons in jail, in proportion, to how many persons are in jail in China, or Russia.

      You mention my friend Brad Blum above, and you say that he pled guilty.   Brad was forced to plead guilty.  He was blackmailed by the Bad Guys.  If he had pled innocent, as he was innocent.  He had been threatened by the Bad Guys that if he would plead innocent and win, they would accuse him again in another state, and again and again, until he would go broke and eventually lose.  

      I don't want to go into the details of Brad Blum's nightmare on this board, but if you care to know more, write to me and I will tell you more of the gory details. 

      And yes, I realize that if I was in the U.S.A. I would probably be accused of helping Americans (and many others around the world) to buy growth hormone in Mexico.  20 years ago, I even could send it to the U.S.A. by FedEx.

      I know that the owners of Ttokkyo laboratory in Mexico were forced to shut down their business in Mexico, when they visited the U.S.A. as tourists.  They were manufacturing testosterone legally in Mexico, but some (I suppose, a lot) of it was sold to Americans in pharmacies in Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez or CanCun, etc.    The FDA has a long and powerful arm.

      You can't even manufacture testosterone LEGALLY in Mexico, and sell it legally in Mexico, without the FDA butting their nose into your business.   So it might be a long time before I can go to Disneyland or Las Vegas, or New York again.

      But the legal status of growth hormone in the U.S.A. does not mean that GROWTH HORMONE IS BAD for my health.   I am very much convinced that it is extremely good for my health, and for the good health of all the persons who have come to Mexico, or who have helped to buy growth hormone legally but very expensively in the U.S.A. 

      For many years I was able to ship it by FedEx to the U.S.A. without any problem... until too many HOME RUNS were hit.   Then, HGH became a controlled medicine.

      How many persons spent many years in U.S. prisons for DRINKING BEER or manufacturing BEER, or whiskey, in the 1920's?   (And how many persons became RICH for selling Beer or Whiskey when it was ILLEGAL to Drink Alcohol ?)  

      How many persons spent many years in a U.S. prison for SMOKING MARIGUANA, which is now LEGAL in many states that once put persons in prison for smoking mariguana?  

      Was it fair?   Is drinking BEER a good reason to put people in jail for many years of their life ? 

      Was smoking mariguana a just reason for putting people in jail ?  

      Is using growth hormone a crime that you should be locked up for many years?  Who is hurt if you get stronger and healthier with growth hormone ?

      So, it makes me sad that more Americans will never be able to achieve ultra good health, because now they hear a lot of fake news about growth hormone. 

      I tell you, it is fake news.   You don't want to believe me, and so you will never try it.  

      But HGH is nearly absent from your body, so it cannot do what it used to do when you were 20 years old.  HGH is the best therapy for psoriasis,  for lupus, for Crohn's Disease, it repairs bones very fast, it repairs burns very fast.  And I have never heard from anybody that has told me that they got cancer, or diabetes, or acromegalia, or gynecomastia, or any of the other bad side effects that the FDA says might happen to you if you take HGH.   Never.  Not once in 22 years.

      So I don't care what Dr. Alan Green and Mikhail Blagosklonny or Jay Olshansky or Thomas Perls or Shlomo Melamed or 10,000 doctors might say is BAD about growth hormone.   They have never injected HGH one day, and I inject it every day, and I intend to continue to inject it every day.

      There are too many doctors on this age-reversal forum that attack me because I defend growth hormone, or because I am shocked that Dr. Alan Green doubled his dose of rapamycin from 6 mgs (which I thought was too high) to 12 mgs.  I would appreciate if there are persons on this board who have taken HGH, if you would write about your experience... good, or bad...

      I am convinced that Dr. Green's anemia is extremely bad for his health, and he doesn't know how to fix it.   I am sure he is very ill and suffering.   I hope his anemia will reverse itself and improve, but anemia doesn't spontaneously get better.... it gets worse.

      - Ellis

      Like 3
    • Ellis Toussier What is a double dose? 2 iu's instead of 1iu?

      Like
    • Fred Cloud one iu of growth hormone is, in theory, the amount of growth hormone that some committee decided is the amount of growth hormone released by the pituitary of a "healthy 25 year old" man.   But nobody knows "who" is that 25 year old man.   In any case, they came up with an amount of growth hormone and called that "1 iu" then they changed it a few years later but now 1 iu is one third of one mg of growth hormone.   Most "doctors" prescribe one half iu of HGH per day, or at most 1 iu of HGH per day to their patients.    Doctors are "scared" of "side effects" or of being sued by their patients, so they are always very cautious...

       

      If growth hormone cost 1 penny per iu, I would probably take 4 or 5 iu per day.   But it doesn't cost 1 penny per iu, so I had to decide on a dose, according to how I liked it...

       

      I took 1 iu, then 1.5 iu, then 2.0 iu for a long time, then 3 iu for nine months, then 4 iu for nine months...   I liked 2.0 iu much more than 1 iu... it made me "feel" energy, and I could "see" the physical improvements.   I also liked 3 iu, I also liked 4 iu, and neither gave me any "side effects" (mostly, some people complained of carpal tunnel syndrome... quickly gone if you halve the dose)  I felt that 2.0 iu was the happy .

       

      So... since 1 iu is the dose that most doctors prescribe to their patients, 2.0 iu is "a double dose" and I have had "a double dose" for most of 22 years.   In the past year I upped my dose to 2.5 iu, also because I notice that I have grown older, and I would like to slow it down, if possible.     (cost of 1 iu in 1998 in the U.S.A. was up to $50 per iu... today it is about $15 per iu in anti aging clinics in Florida or Las Vegas or Palm Springs)

      Like 3
    • Ellis Toussier Thanks for the detailed response. I spoke to you about 20 years ago about buying some from you in mx. I havent taken it in a while and would like to get back on it, I have been shopping options and I see alot of people pay $1-2 per iu now.

      Like
    • Fred Cloud look into growth hormone releasing peptides - less expensive and safer

      Like 1
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