Many people experience aches and pains and memory loss as they get older. But one drug has the potential to stop those things from happening.
7’s Dave Puglisi takes a closer look at rapamycin, a drug that promises to turn back time, improve your health, and even slow the progression of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“I mean c’mon it sounds like a miracle, and it is,” said Jason Haxton, who has been taking a small dose of rapamycin once a week for the for the last four years.
“I had reached that point where I was getting arthritis in my hand and my memory wasn’t what it had been so it was basically a functional decline,” he said.
After taking rapamycin for three months, his arthritis and allergies were gone. Now, he says he feels better at 67 than he did at 50.
“It give you a euphoria, everything is fun and everything is good and you feel great,” he said.
Doctors are increasingly prescribing the drug reduce inflammation, boost your metabolism, and even delay menopause.
But despite the growing list of doctors prescribing it, there’s no evidence it can extend your life.
UMass Memorial Hospital’s Dr. David Keefe called rapamycin an “absolutely fascinating drug” with “great potential to do as much harm as good.”
“It’s kind of your basic long shot but and if it hits it’s a home run, it’s a grand slam,” he said.
Rapamycin targets certain molecules in the body responsible for aging, but there’s a catch. Those same molecules also effect the immune system and can trigger genetic diseases like cancer.
“It’s an unknown risk. A low risk of a bad outcome, in my mind, is just as bad if you’re a patient because you don’t know if that you or not,” he said, adding, “It doesn’t take much to go overboard and get really sick from it.”
Keefe said it’s too soon to know if the benefits outweigh the potential harm.
“There’s things we know about, things we don’t know about, things we don’t know we don’t know about, that’s where we are with this,” he said.
Rapamycin is only approved by the FDA to help organ transplant recipients recover, it is not approved for any anti-aging benefits.
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