Millions brace for the worst as monster hurricane intensifies to catastrophic levels
TAMPA – Hurricane Milton has strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane as the monster storm continues to spin across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a path toward Florida where it will bring the risk of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rain.
TRACKING HURRICANE MILTON: PATH, SPAGHETTI MODELS, FORECAST, FLORIDA HURRICANE IMPACTS, LIVE RADAR AND MORE
Local residents fill sandbags as rain starts to fall in Kissimmee, Florida on October 6, 2024. Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency on Saturday as forecasters warned that Milton could reach major hurricane strength and is heading directly for Florida. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP) (Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
According to the NHC, maximum sustained winds within Milton increased to 160 mph.
And as the potentially deadly storm continues on its path toward Florida, millions of people across the region are preparing for life-threatening impacts such as a deadly storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rain.
Hurricane Watches, Tropical Storm Watches and Storm Surge Watches have all been issued along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and those are expected to be upgraded as the storm moves closer to the Sunshine State.
And while residents are preparing, thousands are also fleeing the coast as officials call for voluntary and mandatory evacuations ahead of the storm.
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This graphic shows current watches and warnings in effect in Florida due to Hurricane Milton.
The Hurricane Watches were issued along Florida’s Gulf Coast from about the Cedar Key area southward to Naples, including Tampa and Fort Myers.
Tropical Storm Watches were also issued for the Florida Keys, as well as for Gulf Coast communities from Flamingo to south of Chokoloskee and from north of the Suwanee River to Indian Pass.
This graphic shows storm surge alerts in effect in Florida because of Hurricane Milton.
(FOX Weather)
A Storm Surge Watch has also been issued along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and that is in effect from Flamingo northward to the Suwannee River, including Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay.
This graphic shows the storm surge forecast.
(FOX Weather)
The current storm surge forecast for Tampa Bay is between 8 and 12 feet if the peak surge coincides with high tide. This is notably higher than during Helene, when Tampa Bay saw 7-8 feet of storm surge.
“The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the south of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous waves,” the NHC warned.
AS HURRICANE MILTON APPROACHES, FLORIDA PREPARES FOR LARGEST EVACUATION SINCE 2017’S HURRICANE IRMA
Florida officials urge residents to evacuate ahead of Milton
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials held a news conference on Sunday and said evacuations are likely, and time is running out to prepare for the hurricane‘s potentially deadly impacts.
“I urge Floridians to finalize your storm preparations now; enact your plan,” Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said. “I highly encourage you to evacuate. We are preparing, and I have the State Emergency Response Team preparing, for the largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma.”
If Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida, it will be the third to do so this season following the landfalls of Debby in August and Helene in September.
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The forecast cone for Hurricane Milton.
(FOX Weather)
The situation has been rapidly unfolding, with forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) first designating the storm as Tropical Depression Fourteen early Saturday morning, then hours later issuing a special alert announcing the development of Tropical Storm Milton. About 24 hours later, Milton intensified into a hurricane early Sunday afternoon.
With the latest advisory from the NHC, Milton is forecast to continue to rapidly intensify, reaching Category 4 strength by Tuesday before slightly weakening ahead of landfall in Florida on Wednesday. However, forecasters warn that Milton will likely still strike Florida as a major hurricane (Category 3 or higher).
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Gov. Ron DeSantis declares State of Emergency ahead of Milton
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a State of Emergency for dozens of counties on Saturday, but as the forecast for Hurricane Milton began to become more dire, he amended that order to include 51 of the state’s 67 counties.
“This is allowing state officials to operate without the limitations of bureaucracy, making critical resources available to communities ahead of any potential storm impacts,” DeSantis said on Sunday.
While residents continue to prepare for the potentially deadly impacts of Hurricane Milton, the state, too, is “preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.”
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Customers check mostly empty bread shelves at a shopping warehouse in Kissimmee, Florida on October 6, 2024. Florida residents scrambled to get last minute supplies after the governor declared a state of emergency as forecasters warned the US state, still reeling from deadly Hurricane Helene, could be slammed by another major storm. Hurricane Milton has strengthened significantly as it churns towards the coast of Florida, and is expected to make landfall by midweek. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP) (Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
DeSantis said the state has already sent high-water rescue vehicles to Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, and more resources will be sent to counties at risk of seeing impacts from Hurricane Milton.
“The Florida National Guard, the Florida State Guard additional FDOT personnel and the Florida Highway Patrol have been activated and deployed to aid in debris removal and provide logistical support to local entities,” DeSantis said.
More than 800 guardsmen are currently deployed to remove debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and DeSantis said up to 4,000 guardsmen will soon be available for time-sensitive debris removal.
Evacuations ordered, schools closed
As Hurricane Milton’s impacts approach Florida, officials have started to order evacuations and close schools so people have time to prepare and get away from the coast and other low-lying areas.
DeSantis and Guthrie have urged people to learn if they’re in an evacuation zone and be prepared to act.
“Know your evacuation zone,” DeSantis warned. “There will be voluntary and mandatory evacuations in effect in a number of communities throughout the state of Florida. If you’re on the west coast of Florida and barrier islands, just assume that you likely are going to be called upon to evacuate.”
Some evacuations have also been ordered for portions of Pinellas and Manatee counties, and more are expected.
In addition, schools in the region, including those in Southwest and Central Florida, have decided to close this week because of the anticipated hurricane.
What’s the latest with Hurricane Milton?
(FOX Weather)
Hurricane Milton is located more than 730 miles southwest of Tampa, Florida, and has maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, making it a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Milton is moving off to the east-southeast at 9 mph.
What is the forecast for Hurricane Milton?
The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Milton is moving off to the east-southeast, and that general motion is expected to continue through Monday night. After that, the NHC said Hurricane Milton should make a turn to the east and then northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On that forecast track, Hurricane Milton is expected to move near or just north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Monday and Tuesday, then cross the eastern Gulf of Mexico and approach the west coast of the Florida Peninsula by Wednesday.
Video nukes WH defense as Americans left short after funds spent on illegal immigrants
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is facing heavy criticism after sending mixed messages on whether the Biden-Harris administration has been using FEMA resources to support migrants last week.
Jean-Pierre flatly denied that FEMA resources were going to migrants in a press conference last week, but she stated the opposite when asked about the issue in the fall of 2022.
“Former President Trump is accusing the Biden administration of using FEMA funding to support undocumented migrants. How is the White House responding to that?” a reporter asked during a Friday press conference.
“I mean, it’s just categorically false. It is not true. It is a false statement,” Jean-Pierre responded, going on to cite a Washington Post fact-check article on the subject.
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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday that FEMA, which he oversees, may not have enough funds to get through the hurricane season. But officials say that disaster relief funds come from a different part of FEMA’s budget than the reported $1.4 billion in FEMA funds spent addressing the migrant crisis over the last two years.
Social media critics compared Jean-Pierre’s statement to comments made in 2022, where she appeared to explicitly state that FEMA resources were available to illegal immigrants.
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She made the statement during a Sept. 16, 2022, press conference when Jean-Pierre was asked about assisting cities in handling the busloads of migrants being sent across the country from Texas.
“FEMA Regional Administrators have been meeting with city officials on site to coordinate — to coordinate available federal support from FEMA and other federal agencies,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at the time.
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“Funding is also available through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter program to eligible local governments and not-for-profit organizations upon request to support humanitarian relief for migrants,” she added.
Scrutiny on the Biden-Harris administration’s use of FEMA funds comes amid catastrophic flooding in North Carolina. Vice President Kamala Harris announced a $100 million package to support the state.
Critics pointed out, however, that the package was much smaller than the $157 million in foreign humanitarian support Harris had announced for Lebanon the same day.
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“The people of Lebanon are facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation. I am concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all civilians there,” she wrote on X.
“To that end, the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon for essential needs such as food, shelter, water, protection, and sanitation to help those who have been displaced by the recent conflict. This additional support brings total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million,” she added.
Harris doubles down on a claim doctors warn is dangerously misleading
Vice President Kamala Harris repeated the left’s claim Sunday that a woman in Georgia died due to delayed care as a result of the state’s abortion limits, despite doctors previously denouncing the narrative as false.
During an interview on the raunchy and often-sexually explicit “Call Her Daddy” podcast, host Alex Cooper asked Harris about the impact of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, blaming the death of Amber Nicole Thurman on the Supreme Court ruling and the state’s abortion limits after she received a chemically induced abortion in 2022.
“So, Amber was a young mother of a six-year-old son. She was a medical assistant who was so excited because she was just getting on her feet to be independent. She got her own apartment in a gated community with a pool that her son could play in. She got accepted to nursing school,” Harris told listeners.
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“She was, as described by her family, so excited and so ambitious, and she had plans. Then she found out she was pregnant, and she didn’t want to go through with her pregnancy. And she was living in Georgia, and she couldn’t receive care there because she was past six weeks. And so she ended up going to another state, and…she couldn’t get there on time. And because the other state had been so overwhelmed by all these women coming from all these southern states who couldn’t get treatment in their own state, her window for her appointment had closed and instead of having a surgical procedure, she had medication and basically went back home and then had some complications and went to the hospital because she was bleeding.”
“And they delayed 20 hours before they treated her,” Harris continued, suggesting that Georgia’s laws prevented her from receiving lifesaving care.
Her remark comes after ProPublica published an article last month blaming the deaths of two Georgia women, Thurman and Candi Miller, on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the state’s new abortion limits.
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Harris and other members of the Democratic Party, including her running mate Tim Walz, have cited their deaths as evidence for the need to expand abortion access after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Here’s the thing that’s so messed up about this,” Harris told Cooper. “Some of these people will say whoa, but I do believe in exceptions, I believe that there should be an exception in terms of the life of the mother. You know what that means in practical terms? She’s almost dead before you decide to give her care. What, so we’re going to have public health policy that says a doctor, a medical professional, waits until you’re at death’s door before they gives you care. That’s outrageous…where is the humanity?”
Georgia’s heartbeat law states that “no abortion shall be performed if the unborn child has a detectable human heartbeat except in the event of a medical emergency or medically futile pregnancy.”
OB-GYNs have criticized the Amber Thurman narrative as a misleading story that is being pushed by the media and Democrats.
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Charlotte Lozier Institute Vice President and Director of Medical Affairs Dr. Ingrid Skop called out the “fearmongering” and “lies” of the media that are hurting women who don’t understand new abortion laws.
“I was not surprised to see this pro-abortion media try to point the blame at Georgia’s pro-life laws, but, in fact, Georgia’s laws allow doctors to intervene to save the life of the woman,” Skop recently told Fox News Digital.
“I think the focus of the Democratic Party upon abortion as an issue is only because the American people do not understand the laws. Many times, women are hurt by abortions. It is not necessary for women to live their best life. And, of course, it’s the fearmongering and lies that have led us to this place where we are today, where people even think there would be a reason to point at the law.”
U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., and state Rep. Mark Newton have also come out to say they don’t believe Georgia laws had anything to do with Thurman’s death, alleging it was caused by complications from abortion pills because doctors may have waited too long to intercede.
“We never deny a woman an abortion because it’s going to harm her in some way. She will always be protected,” McCormick said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
“You have every right to an abortion, even with that heartbeat law,” he continued. “So, let’s make that very clear right now. When they say there’s no exceptions, there’s never any law in any state where there’s no exceptions. That doesn’t exist. That’s simply not the way it works. The mother’s life is always protected. With that said, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to get an abortion just because you have a complication or because something goes wrong.”
Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), made similar comments on “Fox & Friends” last month.
“We are seeing the direct results of spreading lies and misinformation about these laws. Women are being harmed by that because they are delaying in seeking care. And so I think it’s really important, no matter where somebody stands on the issue of abortion, we should all want women to have accurate information so that they seek care immediately if they’re experiencing complications from things like these high-risk abortion drugs,” Francis said.
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ProPublica previously defended their story in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying, “We stand by our reporting. The state’s committee of more than 30 experts concluded that the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller were preventable, a newsworthy finding. Our ongoing reporting is illuminating the challenges doctors face in caring for patients with pregnancy complications in states with restricted access to abortion.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Group of voters that historically rally behind Dem candidates are abandoning VP Harris
Working-class Philadelphia Democrats may be planning to vote for former President Trump in November.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday about growing trends among poorer wards and districts in the Pennsylvania city to shift towards the Republican Party despite years of being solidly blue.
One example the report cited included 27-year-old Gabriel Lopez who registered as a Democrat and voted for Hillary Clinton for his first election in 2016. Since then, he changed his registration to Republican and voiced his support for Trump.
“Democrats keep saying [Trump] is going to bring down the economy, but he was already president for four years, and taxes were lower,” Lopez said. “We’re tired of the same politics. We got a different type of guy, and the people actually love him.”
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The article added, “Lopez embodies one of Democrats’ biggest problems in Pennsylvania: working-class voters in Philadelphia, a once reliable voting bloc for the party, have drifted right in recent years. And they’ve been disproportionately affected by rising prices over the last several years, an issue many blame Democrats for.”
Although Philadelphia, which holds 20% of the state’s Democratic voters, may be crucial for Vice President Kamala Harris to win the state, the Inquirer reported the city lost the most Democratic voters out of any city in the 2020 election.
The trend was most pronounced in poorer, less-educated areas with majority-Latino neighborhoods showing the most movement, likely concerned about the economy.
Retired truck driver and registered Democrat Jim Kohn listed that as his top issue.
“When Trump was president, everything was cheaper,” Kohn said. “Now, everything is so sky-high.”
Other Democrats in the area remained optimistic about Harris’ chances, though some understood the growing support for Trump.
“Many of us have people in our families who have gone to jail, or gone to schools that have failed us. We’re not trustful of the government,” Álvarez Febo, a Democrat who plans to vote for Harris, said. “Then you have someone like Trump, who is a liar, and for some people, it’s like, ‘you know something? He’s an honest representation of what we feel.’”
“They’re saying Kamala is going to save our democracy,” Febo added. “That means very little for people who can’t keep the lights on.”
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Some Republicans, by contrast, were very optimistic about a potential political shift in the city.
“When I first started in politics in 1978, the managerial class was Republican — no one votes the way their bosses vote,” 45th Ward GOP Leader Charlie O’Connor said. “Now, most people in the managerial class vote Democratic and no one is voting the way their boss is. So it’s been a flip. Most of the bosses are Democrats and the Democratic Party has become the party of the upper middle class.”
Pennsylvania is considered one of the most competitive states for this presidential election. A Fox News survey found Harris and Trump tied at 49% among likely voters in the state. Trump won Pennsylvania in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, but lost the state in 2020 to President Biden.
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Teacher fired for refusing to use a trans student’s pronoun has the final word
An attorney, who recently won a case involving a Virginia school board firing a teacher refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns, told Fox News Digital that the settlement has “seismic implications.”
“We’re grateful that, because of this decision, tolerance is now a two‐way street, not a one‐way ratchet for totalitarian ideology,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) President and CEO Kristen Waggoner told Fox News Digital on Friday.
The Virginia-based West Point School Board agreed to pay a former high school teacher, Peter Vlaming, $575,000 in damages and attorney’s fees after he refused to call a transgender student by their preferred pronouns.
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“It protects all teachers in Virginia and its rationale should guide other courts addressing similar issues,” Waggoner said.
She also said that the ADF represents many other teachers facing similar situations in other states and how “no teacher should be fired for living according to their beliefs or protecting their students.”
The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by ADF against the school board in September 2019. Vlaming, who taught French at West Point High School for 7 years, lost his job after the board made the unanimous 5-0 decision to fire him. A devout Christian, Vlaming said he could not comply with the school district’s policy to refer to students with pronouns inconsistent with their biological sex.
According to the ADF, “Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by consistently using the student’s new preferred name and by avoiding the use of pronouns altogether.”
However, school officials were obstinate that Vlaming used the student’s preferred pronouns and also to use them “even when the student wasn’t present,” ADF claimed.
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Several months before Vlaming’s court victory, the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated the case after it was stuck down in a lower court. According to the Virginia Mercury, the King William Circuit Court “did not believe Vlaming had any valid reasons for the law to accept his suit.”
“However, the Supreme Court determined in December that the school board violated Vlaming’s rights,” the outlet reported.
The board did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“Peter’s Christian faith prevented him from lying to his students about biological reality by using pronouns inconsistent with a student’s sex,” ADF attorney Waggoner told Fox News Digital. “Since his victory in court, we have seen overwhelming gratitude and support on social media from people who, like Peter, teach or work in places that might punish them for living according to their beliefs.”
In addition to the cash settlement, Vlaming scored another win after the case.
The settlement agreement authorized that Vlaming’s record be cleared, and that the West Point School Board’s policies to “respect free speech.”
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The French teacher is allowed to go back to teaching and his former colleagues at West Point School can also do their jobs “without fear of retribution for living consistent with their faith and biological reality,” the attorney added.
“I am so relieved that our fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom of religion were upheld,” Vlaming told Fox News Digital. “However, it still bewilders me that a legal battle was necessary to reiterate that thought police and compelled speech are antithetical to the foundations of Virginian and American society; not to mention western civilization. How did we arrive at such a point today in America?”
Move over, Ozempic — what one woman ate that sparked dramatic weight loss
A North Carolina woman has spent the last three months eating nothing but sardines – and she said it has changed her life and improved her health.
“This is not a diet. To me, a diet insinuates a beginning and an end. This is my lifestyle and I have no intention of introducing plants back into it,” Jane Crummett of Mint Hill, North Carolina, told Fox News Digital.
Crummett normally eats no carbohydrates whatsoever, calling it a “zero carb/carnivore” way of eating. She also eschews dairy, saying she “finds it inflammatory.”
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But for the last three months, she ate nothing but sardines and MCT oil, a supplement that helps the body get energy.
Each day, Crummett said she consumed four cans of sardines, plus MCT oil.
Crummett said she ended her experiment on Sept. 30 after 135 days.
Since switching to only sardines, she has lost 35 pounds in three months, she said.
Plus, she said, she feels she’s experienced a host of other health benefits.
“My pain has resolved,” she said, noting that she previously dealt with plantar fasciitis, a foot condition. Her inflammation, too, has decreased, she told Fox News Digital.
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Despite her extreme dietary regimen, Crummett insists she’s in good health and sees a doctor regularly.
“I have tested all kinds of things,” she said. “I’m a firm believer that if you don’t figure things out for yourself, you’ll never know.”
Crummett said she planned on gradually re-introducing various meats back into her diet – with the assistance and guidance of a doctor.
“My plan is to eat sardines with two tablespoons of MCT oil for breakfast and then will introduce about three ounces of beef with [a few] tablespoons of beef drippings for lunch, then sardines for dinner,” she said.
“I will have to take things day by day and just see how my blood sugar reacts to the new food,” she said, noting that she’s noticed her blood glucose levels have increased if she eats too much protein at once.
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“My ultimate goal is to have sardines for breakfast every day with MCT oil and incorporate normal beef, pork and/or chicken back into my diet,” she said.
A dietitian, however, raised concerns about the “carnivore” lifestyle.
Omega-3 fatty acids “should be part of a balanced diet.”
“In the short term, I would imagine that any type of change she’s making is going to show immediate results. And it sounds to me like she had some issues with her gut and that she’s removed some of the foods that [may have been] causing inflammation,” Kim Shapira, M.S., R.D., told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview.
Shapira, based in Los Angeles, is founder of the Kim Shapira Method and author of the book “This is What You’re Really Hungry For.” (Shapira was not involved in Crummett’s dietary choices.)
A zero-carb diet, Shapira said simply, is “not a sustainable way to live.”
Crummett’s choice of sardines is an “amazing form of omega-3s – a really good fatty acid,” she said.
Omega-3 fatty acids “should be part of a balanced diet,” said Shapira, stressing “balance” as the key word.
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“The Mediterranean diet – the type of diet that includes a balance of everything – is really what we need long term,” she said.
“When you go on a low-carb diet, you’re actually dehydrating your system. So when you say ‘quick weight loss,’ it is quick weight loss only in the fact that it’s water loss. It’s not actually fat loss,” she said.
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“If you would like to lose weight, you actually need a combination of so many things,” Shapira continued — “including lifestyle changes, better eating habits, exercise, sleep, and water intake.”
She added, “I wish people would see historically that any time there is a diet trend and people jump on it, it doesn’t last, it’s not sustainable.”
She said it can also lead to “bigger issues.”
The drug that has some scientists playing God and keeping humans young
A drug used to prevent organ rejection in kidney transplant patients is being touted for potentially slowing down aging.
The immune-suppressing medication rapamycin, also known as sirolimus, is being used off-label as a means of extending longevity.
“By targeting a key pathway (mTOR) in cells, this drug has been shown to extend lifespan in animals and could be beneficial to prevent age-related diseases in humans,” Dr. Andrea B. Maier — a professor in healthy aging and dementia research at the Director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity at the National University of Singapore — told Fox News Digital.
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Maier was co-author of a recent review study that explored how rapamycin affected healthy humans.
The review, which was published in the journal Lancet Healthy Longevity, found that the medication improved the effects of aging on the skin.
“Rapamycin and its derivatives improve the immune and cardiovascular function of healthy individuals or individuals with aging-related diseases,” Maier said in an email.
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Daniel Tawfik, a molecular biologist and co-founder of Healthspan, a digital medical clinic that focuses on anti-aging and longevity-promoting therapies, said his team uses rapamycin to help slow down the rate of aging.
“We view this through the lens of reducing the accumulation of damaged senescent cells,” Tawfik, who is based in Santa Monica, California, told Fox News Digital.
Senescent cells are cells that no longer function properly, but linger in the body and can contribute to tissue deterioration and inflammation, the expert said.
“By lowering the rate at which healthy cells transform into senescent cells, rapamycin can slow the aging process at the tissue level, helping to preserve organ function and overall health as we age,” he added.
Off-label use
In the U.S., rapamycin is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its immune-suppressing properties in patients with kidney transplants and certain cancers.
It is not approved for use as an age-defying drug.
“Sirolimus (rapamycin) has not been evaluated by the FDA for safety and effectiveness as an anti-aging treatment,” a press officer for the FDA confirmed to Fox News Digital.
“Rapamycin can slow the aging process at the tissue level, helping to preserve organ function and overall health.”
Despite this, rapamycin is being used “off-label” for anti-aging purposes, according to Elaena Quattrocchi, a registered pharmacist and an associate professor at Long Island University College of Pharmacy in Brooklyn, New York.
“Off-label means the FDA has not approved the drug for this use,” she told Fox News Digital.
When prescribing a drug for off-label use, the provider must explain to the patient that the medication has not been approved for the indication for which they are prescribing it, Quattrocchi noted.
“People taking this medication must discuss with their primary care provider and pharmacist about the potential side effects and drug interactions,” she said.
Benefits of rapamycin
Tawfik’s company currently treats more than 3,500 patients with rapamycin, he told Fox News Digital.
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His team has seen numerous benefits of its off-label anti-aging use, he said, including improved cellular health, reduced risk of age-related diseases and the potential for enhanced longevity.
“Under proper medical supervision, many of our patients experience a marked reduction in inflammation and improvement in conditions related to autoimmunity,” Tawfik said.
“For example, patients with osteoarthritis often report significant relief from joint pain after starting rapamycin.”
The expert also noted that certain biomarkers linked to healthspan and longevity — such as reduced inflammation markers and enhanced metabolic health — were seen in the bloodwork of the patients using rapamycin.
Screening and safety
Patients need a prescription for rapamycin, experts told Fox News Digital.
Individuals are screened to determine whether they are candidates for the treatment. If it is prescribed, patients are monitored carefully when taking the drug.
“It is essential that rapamycin use is overseen by a physician.”
“It is essential that rapamycin use is overseen by a physician to ensure that dosing is effective yet safe, as high doses can lead to unwanted immunosuppression,” Tawfik warned.
Maier echoed that rapamycin and its derivatives are not for self-medication use.
“An important step is to first measure the patient’s biological age and investigate why the pace of aging might be faster,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Then a tailored approach to match the measures with interventions at need is required.”
Quattrocchi and Tawfik both emphasized the importance of working with an accredited pharmacy that sources the drug directly from a reputable manufacturer.
Rapamycin is not recommended for immunocompromised individuals or those taking immunosuppressant medication, Tawfik cautioned.
It is not typically used in younger adults, he added, since starting this regimen at such an early age is unnecessary.
Calls for more research
There are limited studies on the effects of rapamycin on humans and organ systems, Maier noted.
In researching studies of the drug, Maier’s research team found that adverse reactions in healthy individuals were classified “as mild or moderate and were reversible after the discontinuation of treatment.”
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However, the study authors stated, “there were increased numbers of infections and increases in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in individuals with aging-related diseases.”
“Future studies should assess the remaining unexamined systems and test the effects of long-term exposure to rapamycin and its derivatives.”
The majority of studies exploring rapamycin’s effects on aging have been conducted on mice and other animals as well as experimental models, researchers told Fox News Digital.
“The reason scientists are so interested in rapamycin is that in every species that’s been studied to date – yeast, worms, flies, mice – when they are given rapamycin, healthspan and lifespan are extended,” Tawfik noted.
“No other intervention has that degree of validation.”
Quattrocchi agreed that further research is needed into the drug’s proper dosing, adverse effects, and potential anti-aging benefits in healthy individuals and those with medical conditions.