Rapamycin plus acarbose dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
No person has taken these two together in any study.
Evidence grade for Rapamycin plus acarbose: Animal or lab only. The rule: only animal or lab studies on this page. No study in people yet. The sum on this page: 7 animal studies, no human study. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 0
- Human studies
- 0
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result.
7 animal studies, no human study
5 effects reported, 4 unwanted, 1 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
Goal pages: Muscle and strength, Ageing and longevity
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
This page is about taking rapamycin and acarbose together. Both are prescription drugs used for other things. Acarbose slows how fast sugar from a meal gets into your blood. Together they gave the biggest mouse lifespan gain the NIA program has seen. Nobody has tested the pair in people.
What people take it for
- A longer life.
- Getting more out of rapamycin by adding a second drug.
What studies in people showed
No person has taken the pair in any study. Now mice. Started at 9 months, the typical lifespan rose 28 percent in females and 34 to 37 percent in males. It held at all three labs. Started at 16 months, the gain was 12 to 14 percent. There were no single-drug groups. In males the pair beat older runs of rapamycin alone. In females it was about the same as rapamycin alone.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- On rapamycin alone, some describe joint pain easing, weight loss and changes in memory.
The bad
- We found nobody describing taking the two together.
- Mouth ulcers are the rapamycin side effect named most often. Rashes and low white cell counts come up too.
- Others on similar rapamycin doses report more hunger, more belly fat and poor sleep.
- Acarbose brings gas, bloating, loose stools and belly pain in the first days. That is the main reason people stop.
Where these come from: Longevity forum threads on LongeCity about each drug on its own, read in September 2026. Nobody was found taking both together. These are what people say, not trial results.
My bottom line
The best mouse number in the program, and zero human data. If you are curious about rapamycin, do it with a doctor and blood work. Do not stack a second drug on a mouse result.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
What people using it report
Real people telling you what happened to them. Nobody checked it, and the people who post are not a fair sample, so it cannot prove anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with Rapamycin plus acarbose, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
Animal and lab work, not yet tested in people
Real results, but from animals or cells, not people. What works in a mouse often does not work the same way in a person. This is an approved medicine. So the missing study in people is for this use, not for the drug. Drug makers paid to test it for what it is approved for. The record on this one is set out below.
- Living longer1 animal or lab study
- Keeping or building muscle1 animal or lab study
- Lasting longer, stamina1 animal or lab study
28 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind Rapamycin plus acarbose
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove Rapamycin plus acarbose does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about Rapamycin plus acarbose and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is Rapamycin plus acarbose?
No person has taken these two together in any study. In mice started at 9 months, typical lifespan rose 28 percent in females and 34 to 37 percent in males. That is the biggest pooled gain the NIA mouse lifespan program has published, and it worked at all three labs in both sexes. In males it beat earlier rapamycin-only runs. In females it did not.
Rapamycin and acarbose are the two drugs with the most repeated lifespan wins in the NIA mouse lifespan program. In 2017 the program fed them together. This page covers that experiment. Each drug has its own page.
In people there is nothing. No trial, registered or published, has given rapamycin and acarbose together. A ClinicalTrials.gov search for the pair finds no study. Rapamycin's small human studies on healthy ageing, and acarbose's diabetes and heart trials, are on their own pages. Neither drug has human lifespan data alone, and the pair has none at all.
In mice, the 2017 run got rapamycin at 14.7 ppm and acarbose at 1,000 ppm in their food. One group started at 9 months (RaAc9) and one at 16 months (RaAc16). Started at 9 months and pooled across three labs, typical (median) female lifespan rose from 868 to 1,107 days, 28 percent. Survival to old age rose 21 percent. Typical male lifespan rose from 718 to 981 days. The paper's text calls that 34 percent and its pooled table 37 percent. Male survival to old age rose 24 percent. It was the only treatment in that run that clearly extended survival in both sexes at each lab looked at on its own. The size varied by lab: 32, 8 and 35 percent in females, and 13, 25 and 49 percent in males. Started at 16 months, the gains were smaller but still clear: typical lifespan up 12 percent in females and 14 percent in males. Survival to old age rose 15 and 18 percent.
The comparison that matters is against each drug alone. The run had no single-drug groups. So the authors compared with earlier rapamycin-only runs at the same dose. Males on rapamycin alone had lived 10 percent longer than untreated males in the 2006 run and 5 percent in the 2009 run. RaAc9 males lived 19 percent longer using the two labs shared with those runs, and 29 percent using all three. The authors read that as the pair being stronger than rapamycin alone in males. They warn that comparing across years needs caution. Females on rapamycin alone had gained 18 percent in both earlier runs. RaAc9 females gained 20 percent on the two-lab comparison and 27 percent on three labs. The authors call that "neither distinctly better nor worse" than rapamycin alone. That fits acarbose's small effect in females on its own.
Both drugs are approved prescription medicines for other uses. Taking them together for ageing is off-label everywhere.
How does Rapamycin plus acarbose work?
Rapamycin blocks mTORC1, a growth switch. Acarbose blocks gut enzymes that break down starch, so blood sugar rises less after a meal. Much of its effect on the whole body is thought to come from changing how gut bacteria ferment food. The mouse program combined them for three reasons. They work on different nutrient signals. Acarbose might offset the high blood sugar rapamycin causes in mice. And each had already worked on its own more than once. Later work linked to the program found that rapamycin, acarbose and 17-alpha-estradiol lead to some of the same changes in liver signalling. Acarbose or rapamycin, started at 4 or 16 months, each helped old mice balance on a spinning rod and shrank their enlarged hearts. Acarbose changed the fats in the heart more. None of that has been measured in a person taking both drugs. How each works in people is on its own page.
What have studies in people found about Rapamycin plus acarbose?
None. No study has given rapamycin and acarbose together to a person, and no such trial is registered. Each drug's own human record is on its own page. Rapamycin has small studies on healthy ageing. Acarbose has decades of diabetes use and a large heart trial that found no benefit. Neither has lifespan data.
What this does not tell you: With no human data on the pair, nothing can be said about how they interact, how well people handle them, or whether they help. The likely practical problems add up. Rapamycin brings a weaker immune system, mouth ulcers and effects on blood sugar and fats. Acarbose brings gut problems in almost everyone. Nobody knows whether the mouse doses match anything a person would take.
What do people who took Rapamycin plus acarbose report?
This is what real people say happened to them, good and bad. Nobody measured it. A report cannot tell a real effect from the lift people get just from expecting it to work, from a diet or training change made at the same time, or from what was really in the vial. We still put it near the top. It is the next best thing to a study in people: what happens when real people use it, including what goes wrong.
- The pairing is not discussed as a pairing. Site-restricted searching of the longevity boards returns substantial discussion of each separately and essentially nothing describing anyone running both together, so nothing below should be read as a report about the combination.
- For rapamycin, the schedules described are weekly rather than daily, commonly in the low single-digit milligrams, with some describing a larger amount every second week instead. Weekly rather than continuous dosing is argued for specifically on the grounds that it disturbs immune markers less.
- Mouth ulcers are the side effect named most often, described as appearing early and sometimes settling after a pause. Rashes and low white cell counts are the other two that recur, and watching bloodwork is treated as part of doing it rather than as optional.
- What people report changing is mixed even inside a single thread: joint pain easing, weight loss and memory change on one side, and increased appetite, visceral fat gain and disrupted sleep on the other, from people describing similar schedules.
- Sourcing is a standing topic. The branded product, generics and bulk raw powder are discussed as three different risk levels, and cost is the reason people give for moving down that list.
- For acarbose the discussion is almost entirely about the gut. Gas, bloating, loose stools and abdominal pain are described as arriving in the first days, as worse at higher doses, and as easing over a week or two. They are also the reason people give for stopping.
- Where acarbose discussion actually goes is a comparison against metformin for non-diabetic use, not toward combining it with rapamycin.
Sources: The rapamycin personal experience thread on LongeCity read directly, plus rapamycin dosing, rapamycin vendor and acarbose versus metformin threads on the same board surfaced by site-restricted search, September 2026. No thread describing the two compounds used together was found. Nothing above is attributed to any specific post and no post is reproduced.
The state of the research
The National Institute on Aging runs a mouse lifespan program called the Interventions Testing Program. It tests each compound at three labs at the same time: The Jackson Laboratory, the University of Michigan and UT Health San Antonio. The mice are a mixed breed, so a result is less likely to be a quirk of one strain. Males and females are both tested and judged separately. The three labs' results are then pooled. Every result gets published, whether or not the compound worked. It runs on public money from the National Institute on Aging, with no drug company money. In the 2017 run, the rapamycin plus acarbose group gave the biggest pooled lifespan gain the program has published. Typical (median) lifespan rose 28 percent in females and 34 to 37 percent in males. It held at every lab in both sexes, and survival to old age rose 21 and 24 percent. Started at 16 months, it still gave 12 to 14 percent. Those numbers are real, and they are mouse numbers.
The limit is the same one that hits the metformin plus rapamycin group: no single-drug groups run at the same time. The claim that the pair beats rapamycin alone rests on comparing this run's males with rapamycin-only males from runs in 2006 and 2009. Those gained 10 and 5 percent. On that comparison the pair looks clearly better in males (19 to 29 percent), and about the same in females (20 to 27 percent against 18). The authors give the warning about comparing across years themselves. Dose adds another wrinkle. Rapamycin alone at three times this dose gave 23 to 26 percent gains in an earlier run. So part of what acarbose seems to add in males might also come from more rapamycin, and this experiment cannot tell those apart. What it does show, with no ifs, is this. Two approved generic drugs, started in midlife, extended both typical and top lifespan in both sexes at three separate labs. No single compound in the program has done that at this size.
No drug company will run a human trial, because both drugs are generic. University trials of rapamycin alone in older adults are small and recent. Nobody has proposed adding acarbose. No trial is not evidence against the pair. It also means any harm from taking two drugs with real side effects for years goes unmeasured.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
0people have taken this in any study cited here
0 people · 0 studies in people
What this page cites instead is 7 animal studies. None of them gave the compound to a person.
Counted from the list of sources on this page. We draw this chart only when a study in people is cited. An empty one is the answer, not a gap in the page.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
None of the 7 sources here are studies in people.
- Animal study · done in animals7100%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
The studies cover 5 different years, 2009 to 2023, counted from the list of sources on this page.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Approved
UK
Approved
AU
Approved
CA
Approved
Approved in all four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Small molecule
- Molecule weight
- Not on file
- Half-life
- None on file
- Chain length
- None on file
No amino acid sequence is on file for Rapamycin plus acarbose, which is expected: a small molecule is not built from amino acids.
The studies we cite
- Animal study2022Lifespan benefits for the combination of rapamycin plus acarbose and for captopril in genetically heterogeneous mice
In mice. The NIA mouse lifespan program's 2017 run. Rapamycin plus acarbose from 9 months made typical lifespan 28 percent longer in females and 34 to 37 percent longer in males. Survival to old age rose 21 and 24 percent. It held in both sexes at each lab. Started at 16 months, the gains were 12 and 14 percent. There were no single-drug groups. Males beat earlier rapamycin-only runs. Females did not. Public NIA money paid for it.
ITP 2017 cohort. Rapamycin 14.7 ppm plus acarbose 1,000 ppm from 9 months: female median 1,107 versus 868 days (+28 percent, p < 0.0001), 90th percentile +21 percent; male median 981 versus 718 days (+37 percent in the pooled table, 34 percent in the text, p < 0.0001), 90th percentile +24 percent; significant in both sexes at each site. From 16 months: female +12 percent, male +14 percent (p = 0.001). No single-drug arms; males exceeded historical rapamycin-alone cohorts (10 and 5 percent), females (18 percent) did not. NIA funded.
- Animal study2009Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice
In mice. Rapamycin alone, started at 600 days of age, raised survival to old age 14 percent in females and 9 percent in males across three labs. This is the first rapamycin result, and the one the pair is measured against. Public NIA money paid for it.
Rapamycin alone from 600 days of age: 90th percentile survival +14 percent in females and +9 percent in males at three sites. The founding rapamycin result the combination is measured against. NIA funded.
- Animal study2014Rapamycin-mediated lifespan increase in mice is dose and sex dependent and metabolically distinct from dietary restriction
In mice. Rapamycin alone at 42 ppm, three times the dose used in the pair, made typical lifespan 23 percent longer in males and 26 percent longer in females. So a bigger rapamycin dose alone comes close to the pair's effect. That makes it harder to credit acarbose for the pair's gain. Public NIA money paid for it.
Rapamycin alone at 42 ppm, three times the combination dose: median +23 percent in males and +26 percent in females. Shows that rapamycin dose alone can approach the combination's effect, which complicates attributing the RaAc gain to acarbose. NIA funded.
- Animal study2014Acarbose, 17-alpha-estradiol, and nordihydroguaiaretic acid extend mouse lifespan preferentially in males
In mice. Acarbose alone at 1,000 ppm made typical male lifespan 22 percent longer, and female lifespan 5 percent longer, in the program's first acarbose run. The same male lean shows up again in the pair's male-only edge over rapamycin. Public NIA money paid for it.
Acarbose alone at 1,000 ppm: male median +22 percent, female +5 percent in the first ITP acarbose cohort. The sex asymmetry that reappears in the combination's male-only advantage over rapamycin. NIA funded.
- Animal study2019Acarbose improves health and lifespan in aging HET3 mice
In mice. Acarbose alone worked again across doses and starting ages. Started at 16 months, it kept much of its effect in males. Public NIA money paid for it.
Acarbose alone replicated across doses and start ages, including a 16-month start that preserved much of the male effect. NIA funded.
- Animal study2023Early or late-life treatment with acarbose or rapamycin improves physical performance and affects cardiac structure in aging mice
In mice. Each drug alone, started at 4 or 16 months, helped old mice of both sexes balance on a spinning rod and keep going longer, and shrank their enlarged hearts. Acarbose changed the fats in the heart more than rapamycin. Some benefits showed up in males only. These are health measures for each drug alone, not for the pair.
Each drug alone, started at 4 or 16 months, improved rotarod and endurance and reduced cardiac hypertrophy in aged UM-HET3 mice of both sexes; acarbose changed the cardiac lipidome more than rapamycin; some benefits male-only. Healthspan measures for the single drugs, not the combination.
- Animal study2022Rapamycin, acarbose and 17-alpha-estradiol share common mechanisms regulating the MAPK pathways involved in intracellular signaling and inflammation
In mice. Rapamycin, acarbose and 17-alpha-estradiol, three drugs that made mice live longer in the program, lead to some of the same signalling changes in the liver. That is offered as part of the reason to combine them. Mouse tissue data.
The three ITP positives converge on shared downstream signalling changes in mouse liver, offered as a partial rationale for combining them. Mouse tissue data.
Common questions
Has Rapamycin plus acarbose been tested in people?
Not in any study cited here. No person has taken these two together in any study.
What is the Rapamycin plus acarbose dosage?
No human dose established. No published study on this page has given this compound to people and reported a result. 7 animal studies, no human study
Is Rapamycin plus acarbose FDA-approved?
Both drugs are FDA-approved for other uses (sirolimus for transplant rejection and other uses; acarbose for type 2 diabetes). The combination is not approved for anything and has never been given to people in a study. The lifespan result is in mice. It was compared with each drug alone from earlier studies, not tested side by side at the same time.
How much did rapamycin plus acarbose extend mouse lifespan?
Started at 9 months, typical lifespan rose 28 percent in females (1,107 against 868 days) and 34 to 37 percent in males (981 against 718 days). Survival to old age rose 21 and 24 percent. That is pooled across three labs, and it held at each one. Started at 16 months, the gains were 12 and 14 percent.
Is the combination better than rapamycin alone?
In males, probably. The pair's gain beat the 5 to 10 percent that the same rapamycin dose alone gave in earlier runs. In females it was about the same as rapamycin alone, which fits acarbose's small effect in females on its own. The run had no rapamycin-only group, so this compares across years, and the authors say to treat that with caution. Rapamycin alone at triple the dose comes close to the pair's numbers.
Has anyone taken rapamycin and acarbose together in a study?
No. No trial of the pair is registered or published. Each drug has been studied on its own in people: rapamycin in small studies on healthy ageing, and acarbose in large diabetes trials. Neither has human lifespan data.
What doses did the mice get?
Rapamycin at 14.7 ppm and acarbose at 1,000 ppm in food, for life, from 9 or 16 months of age. These are the same doses each drug was tested at alone in earlier runs of the program.