An inexpensive drug approved to prevent transplant patients’ bodies from rejecting their new organs is now being used to ward off something else: aging.
Rapamycin – which costs about $2.30 per pill — has become the latest obsession among longtime experts and biohackers who say it can slow the aging process.
Despite the lack of evidence that it works in humans, that hasn’t stopped many from calling it a ‘proven anti-ageing agent’, with online pharmacies and doctors in clinics prescribing it more and more.
It is thought to work by blocking the actions of a protein that regulates cell growth and breakdown. Then a process called autophagy occurs, which involves recycling damaged cells to prevent the accumulation of toxins and other harmful substances.
Rapamycin was originally approved to prevent transplant patients from rejecting their new organs. But researchers have also found that it regulates the way cells grow and reproduce, a hallmark of the aging process
Lifetime expert Dr. Peter Attia has been taking rapamycin since 2019 and said the only downside he has experienced is canker sores on his tongue
Think of it as a cellular cleanup team or quality control for cellular health. A growing number of researchers claim that it extends one’s lifespan and reduces the risk of contracting age-related chronic diseases.
The drug’s anti-aging effect has only been tested in fruit flies, mice and worms.
Still, high-profile longevity experts such as Peter Attia and Bryan Johnson believe its potential to prevent bodily decay is enormous and deserves the attention of scientists.
The FDA approved rapamycin in 1999 as an anti-rejection drug for organ transplant recipients.
But in 2009, a game-changing study was published in the Nature conducted by doctors across the United States found that when the drug was given to mice, it increased lifespan by 14 percent for females and nine percent for males.
It works by blocking TOR, which triggers a cellular signaling pathway in the body that regulates cell growth and aging.
So in 2014, pharmacological experts tested the substance on humans and found that indeed strengthened their immune systemgiving a 20 percent greater response to flu vaccines.
A study of 504 adults published last year reported that of 333 people who took it, 65.5 percent thought it had effective anti-aging properties, and nearly half said their health had improved since starting a rapamycin regimen, typically under the guidance of a physician.
Over 35 percent said their brains ‘work better’ on the drug and 38 percent said they felt younger.
Dozens reported a variety of other benefits, including reduced anxiety, improved relationships, relieved arthritis pain, improved sleep quality and vision, and reduced frequency of menopause-related hot flashes.
Dr. Peter Attia, a longevity expert and author of Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, who has been taking rapamycin for at least five years, said: ‘This exotic molecule, found only on an isolated piece of land in the middle of the ocean, acts almost like a switch, that inhibits a very specific cellular mechanism found in almost everything that lives.
He added that “this fact still blows my mind every time I think about it.”
The molecule is produced by soil bacteria on the extremely remote Easter Island, located in the South Pacific, and was originally used for its antifungal properties. It was later discovered to have immunosuppressive effects that doctors knew could benefit transplant patients.
Dr. Attia said: ‘When we look at other markers, other interesting things like vision and hearing and other markers of health, we continue to see improvements in these things for animals as well.
‘I’m more bullish on rapa simply because I’ve been taking it now for three years.’
Famous eccentric biohacker Bryan Johnson takes rapamycin with the diabetes drug Metformin, which he considers to be the ’10th best performer ever’
Protocols for dosing the drug largely come from animal testing, but that hasn’t stopped doctors from bringing it into the mainstream. The telehealth company Healthspan has started marketing it for anti-aging use in a cream form, which the company also says can stimulate hair growth.
Daniel Tawfik, who launched Healthspan, said more than 2,000 people have subscribed to its rapamycin service. He said, “the potential is enormous for patients to be able to prolong their health and quality of life as they age,” adding that his company’s experience shows that rapamycin can be prescribed safely.
Bryan Johnson, a world-famous eccentric biohacker who takes his anti-aging measures to the extreme, i.e. swaps his blood with some of his younger son’s, has also touted its benefits, especially when combined with the diabetes drug Metformin.
He said the combination ‘is the 10th best performer ever.’
The field is exciting, but the researchers caution that more research is needed in other mammalian species, including humans, to say for sure that the substance actually has the effects that biohackers tout.
Dr. Dao-Fu Dai, rapamycin assistant professor of pathology at the University of Iowa Health Care, said his team’s findings in mice were “exciting” but by no means conclusive.
He told Medical News Today: ‘The things that need to be done in the future will involve (the) mammalian system, right, because drosophila (fruit flies) are much easier to do; mammals take much longer.’