There’s no shortage of pills, powders, and supplements that make big claims about lengthening your life and boosting your health. Equally abundant are products that tout the ability to reverse aging, or at the very least, delay its onset. A new pill, rapamycin, boasts all of these claims. Though it’s most often prescribed as an immunosuppressant in organ transplant patients, longevity influencers and biohacking experts say there’s some reason to be optimistic about its anti-aging and longevity-boosting capabilities.
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A 2009 study found that when mice were given rapamycin, they lived 12 percent longer than mice who were not.
The medication appears to work by altering the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a protein kinase that controls cellular metabolism, immune response, inflammation, and more.
“The mTOR pathway has been linked to multiple chronic disease processes, such as declining immune function, deteriorating pulmonary function (leading to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), diminishing bone mineral density (leading to osteoporosis), development of cancer, atherosclerosis, and cardiac hypertrophy in cardiovascular disease, and neurodegeneration,” explains a 2024 study published in the journal The Lancet.
“Rapamycin may extend lifespan by postponing death from cancer, by retarding mechanisms of aging, or both. These are the first results to demonstrate a role for mTOR signaling in the regulation of mammalian lifespan, as well as pharmacological extension of lifespan in both genders,” says the 2009 study.
However, human studies have been less conclusive. One recent study that looked at the health effects of rapamycin in 100 people over the course of one year and observed no clinically significant changes in health during that time.
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Experts say there could also be side effects, and that given the limited scope of human trials, the risks are largely unknown. One of the greatest concerns is that the drug could dangerously suppress immune function, increasing the risk for infection and disease. Nausea, mouth sores, increased cholesterol, and insulin insensitivity have also been associated with rapamycin, The New York Timesreports.
Until more research is produced, many experts recommend holding off on taking the drug for its off-label uses (it is currently only approved for treating transplant patients). Instead, speak with your doctor to learn more about ways to live a longer and healthier life through tried and true interventions, including following a healthy diet, exercising, following the recommended routine health screenings, taking your medications as prescribed, and more.
