Thanks for this suggestion. Is it also the case that exercise can cause ferretin levels to be low. My usual routine involved a 10 or more km walk and being a vegan (before), I had very little of the foods that might provide iron.
My ferritin was down to 11 and a month after I started taking a small dose of supplement (before starting Rapamycin), it was up to 20. I will certainly pay attention to the iron levels and look into what additional iron tests I can get from now on.
Are you under the care of a doctor? I ask because a ferritin of 11 would have most docs go apoplectic. My FMD doc told me his red line minimum ferritin level was 80 (no other marker/insight/factors)…I blew past that years ago. Where I am, for men 50-59 yo, the lab range for low-high ferritin is 18-543, respectively.
99% of general practitioners have almost no knowledge of the complexity or iron regulation. They utilize standard playbook (med school, lab cutoffs), and as soon as you trigger, they put you on iron supplementation. I’ve seen that twice in my own immediate family without any deeper analysis of underlying.
Some definitions that factor more than ferritin:
Iron Deficiency: serum ferritin less than 12 µgr/dl AND transferrin, saturation percentage less than 15.
Iron deficiency anemia: serum ferritin less than 12 µgr/dl AND transferrin saturation percentage less 15, AND Hb less than 14 mg/dl.
Of course, these are just a next layer of iron panel markers (very few people do a full iron panel), and one must consider the entire person overall characteristics. The takeaway is rapamycin will dysregulate iron homeostasis (negatively), so one should be far more vigilant with iron markers/symptoms, especially if food type iron intake is low. And MOST especially if you are trying to proactively lower iron.
I am not a medical professional, this is not medical advice.
Back to the original topic of this thread, here is a reference from the famous Blagosklonny paper
“Physical exercise may be most beneficial starting immediately after rapamycin use, to take advantage of rapamycin-induced lipolysis as a fuel for the muscles.“