Stearic Acid Increases Mitochondrial Function, May Treat Parkinson Disease (PD)

[Wagner83]

The 200ml flat round cosmetic jar. I bought the bundle of three. The quantity of butter I made fit perfectly in the three jars.

200 ml Glass Cosmetic Style Wide Mouth Jar

They are a bit expensive, but I plan to reuse and reuse and reuse

If you notice interference with glucose use when used a lot throughout the day I'd like to hear about it. Given that kokum butter may be much higher in stearic acid, did you try it on its own?

Dietary Stearic Acid Reduces Visceral Fat By 70% And Increases Lean Mass

Dietary Stearic Acid Reduces Visceral Fat By 70% And Increases Lean Mass

 

[lollipop]

If you notice interference with glucose use when used a lot throughout the day I'd like to hear about it. Given that kokum butter may be much higher in tearic acid, did you try it on its own?

Toooo hard - seems even harder to melt than cocoa butter. IMO, needs to be blended.

Totally agree that I must be well fed when using or I become ravenous...

 

[Wagner83]

Toooo hard - seems even harder to melt than cocoa butter. IMO, needs to be blended.

Totally agree that I must be well fed when using or I become ravenous...

That's a good sign, stearic acid has been reported to be difficult to apply on the skin.

I didn't think about it that way but that's nice, I thought it could give transient insulin resistance, interefere with glucose use because of rather long chained saturated free fatty acids.

 

[meatbag]

Hi @aarfai and @meatbag

Here are the jars I use:

Airtight, Ultraviolet Glass Jars and Bottles for Storage

And where I find my raw ingredients:

Wild Herb Soap Co.

The description of each product explains about these butters being organic.

Meatbag, I remelted down this batch and added another 100gm of Shea and 100gm of mango butter and 100gm of unrefined, expeller pressed coconut oil.

Definitely less hard but still pretty solid, I have to dig into it in the jar. Obviously, this is still a work in progress and I think my next batch I will try this ratio:

25 gm Cocoa butter
25 gm Kokum butter
100 gm Shea butter
100 gm Mango butter
50gm coconut oil

The cocoa butter is far and above the dominant scent. I will have to add way more lemon oil and/or use Haidut’s suggestion above to use d-limonene to change the odor.

Whether it soaks in to the skin fast or not is such a personal opinion without a great way to measure. I think it does, better than Shea butter or coconut oil alone. I am not sure what will happen if I change the ratios.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay interesting, thx Lisa!

 

[tara]

Sweet i'm interested in maybe trying this, how strong is the smell with the cocoa butter topically?

I've used both refined and unrefined cocoa butter in my mixes, and I mostly prefer the refined.

 

[meatbag]

I've used both refined and unrefined cocoa butter in my mixes, and I mostly prefer the refined.

I didn't even know they made that haha, does it have no smell like the difference between unref & refined coconut oil?

 

[tara]

I didn't even know they made that haha, does it have no smell like the difference between unref & refined coconut oil?

Much much less smell, like refined coconut oil has much much less smell and taste. :)

 

[meatbag]

Much much less smell, like refined coconut oil has much much less smell and taste. :)

sweeeet gonna try some then

 

[LeeLemonoil]

Dietary stearic acid regulates mitochondria in vivo in humans. - PubMed - NCBI

Dietary stearic acid regulates mitochondria in vivo in humans.


Abstract
Since modern foods are unnaturally enriched in single metabolites, it is important to understand which metabolites are sensed by the human body and which are not. We previously showed that the fatty acid stearic acid (C18:0) signals via a dedicated pathway to regulate mitofusin activity and thereby mitochondrial morphology and function in cell culture. Whether this pathway is poised to sense changes in dietary intake of C18:0 in humans is not known. We show here that C18:0 ingestion rapidly and robustly causes mitochondrial fusion in people within 3 h after ingestion. C18:0 intake also causes a drop in circulating long-chain acylcarnitines, suggesting increased fatty acid beta-oxidation in vivo. This work thereby identifies C18:0 as a dietary metabolite that is sensed by our bodies to control our mitochondria. This could explain part of the epidemiological differences between C16:0 and C18:0, whereby C16:0 increases cardiovascular and cancer risk whereas C18:0 decreases both.

 

[LeeLemonoil]

I know most here won’t agree to what they say about C16:0 but it is apart from that an interesting study about stearic acid anyway, in vivo.

We recently discussed in a iodine thread that iodine reacts with oleic acid to form iodostearic acid. Unfortunately I could not yet confirm if that FA would have the same beneficial effects as regular C18:0 has.

 

[yerrag]

whereby C16:0 increases cardiovascular and cancer risk whereas C18:0 decreases both.

Why?

From the article: Saturated fatty acids in general, and palmitic acid (C16:0) in particular, are harmful in part because they elevate LDL cholesterol and atherosclerosis risk7. Dietary stearic acid (C18:0), however, does not increase atherosclerosis risk, and, if anything, actually reduces LDL cholesterol7–10.

I have to go back to @Mito's thread New Guidelines: Cholesterol Should Be On Everyone's Radar, Beginning Early In Life . This thread has studies that are negative on LDL cholesterol.

I'm just not sold on the idea that LDL cholesterol is bad. Just hoping someone can explain away LDL cholesterol being bad. Just when the FDA(or is it USDA?) has finally reversed the guilty plea on cholesterol, along comes studies that point the finger of blame to LDL, and by extension, to saturated fat. This study is also saying palmitic acid is bad, and palmitic acid is present in coconut oil, and I see where funding for studies are going: Avoid coconut oil.

Medical narratives have a way of painting the fireman as the cause of fires, and policemen as causing the increase in crime. They just omit the story about the arsonist, or the drug pushers in the streets. An example of this is how they describe diseases as an autoimmune disorder, blaming the body's immune system for a disease. Again, the immune system is there to fix a problem caused by inflammation, which resulted from say, collateral damage causing tissue destruction from ROS needed to neutralize infection. But it's just convenient to blame it on something that they can attribute to genetics, or something else where the only answer are maintenance drugs that present a revenue and profit stream for pharma.

 

[Ktbridge]

You can also use refined cocoa butter it doesn’t have a dominant scent @lollipop .
I use it and it’s quite nice.
Good luck.

 

[Jib]

Another reason to get hydrogenated coconut oil.

The stuff I got from Welch, Holme and Clark has 11% stearic acid. Not bad at all. I'm enjoying it a lot and feel good knowing it has far more stearic acid than typical coconut oil.

 

[Ktbridge]

What d-limonene is best to buy?@haidut

 

[Hairfedup]

I've made my own butter and was gonna scent it with orange or lemon oil (limonene is the primary component as far as I know). Is pure d-limonene safe to apply to the skin in a butter? Wikipedia had something worrisome about mice and cancer, but I don't think haidut would recommend it if it wasn't safe. Its all good right?

 

[Ktbridge]

Thank you @Hairfedup
I was looking at different distillers to make d limonene and it looks complicated and expensive but very interesting .
Hmmmm.

 

[Hairfedup]

Thank you @Hairfedup
I was looking at different distillers to make d limonene and it looks complicated and expensive but very interesting .
Hmmmm.

No problem, I was looking at making my own too after watching it on youtube. For now I'll prolly just stick to the citrus oils, doesn't seem to be any pure limonene on amazon. Maybe invest in some distilling equipment in the near future

 

[cs3000]

Dietary Fatty Acids and Temperature Modulate Mitochondrial Function and Longevity in Drosophila. - PubMed - NCBI

Regulation of mitochondrial morphology and function by stearoylation of TFR1. - PubMed - NCBI

Fatty acid increases performance of cellular powerhouse: Fundamentally new biological signaling pathway discovered
"...The key element in this control mechanism is the transferrin receptor, which binds stearic acid. "For the first time in biological research, we have found out that stearic acid, which up until now has been believed to be simply a metabolic product, also has signaling function". "If using stearic acid as a food additive improves the performance of normal mitochondria, then it might do the same in pathogenically dysfunctional mitochondria," Teleman explained, describing their experimental approach. The researchers studied flies that exhibit Parkinson's-like symptoms resulting from a mitochondrial defect in the PINK and Parkin proteins and are recognized as a model system for studying this neurodegenerative disease. When the affected animals were fed stearic acid with their food, their motor skills and energy balance improved and they survived for much longer. "This opens up the fascinating possibility of using a food additive to alleviate symptoms in patients with mitochondrial disease," says Teleman."

Dietary stearic acid regulates mitochondria in vivo in humans. - PubMed - NCBI

Abstract
Since modern foods are unnaturally enriched in single metabolites, it is important to understand which metabolites are sensed by the human body and which are not. We previously showed that the fatty acid stearic acid (C18:0) signals via a dedicated pathway to regulate mitofusin activity and thereby mitochondrial morphology and function in cell culture. Whether this pathway is poised to sense changes in dietary intake of C18:0 in humans is not known. We show here that C18:0 ingestion rapidly and robustly causes mitochondrial fusion in people within 3 h after ingestion. C18:0 intake also causes a drop in circulating long-chain acylcarnitines, suggesting increased fatty acid beta-oxidation in vivo. This work thereby identifies C18:0 as a dietary metabolite that is sensed by our bodies to control our mitochondria. This could explain part of the epidemiological differences between C16:0 and C18:0, whereby C16:0 increases cardiovascular and cancer risk whereas C18:0 decreases both.

Wow nice studies ty

Mitochondrial fusion allows the transfer of gene products between mitochondria for optimal functioning

apparently butter is 12% stearic acid. so 50g butter a day would cover ~25% of dose used in human study.


mice with mitofusin-2 defects are highly anxious. when they over-express mitofusin-2 instead the anxiety disorder is corrected.

"When C18:0 levels are low, the Transferrin Receptor TfR1 activates JNK signaling, leading to ubiquitination and inhibition of Mitofusin 2 and hence mitochondrial fragmentation and reduced oxygen consumption16.
In the presence of C18:0, the fatty acid molecule is covalently attached to TfR1 via a thioester bond in a post-translational modification called stearoylation, analogous to protein palmitoylation by C16:0.
This leads to reduced JNK activation by TfR1, to mitochondrial fusion, and to elevated oxygen consumption. [..and disinhibition of mitofusin 2] We found a surprisingly robust response, with C18:0 ingestion causing fusion of mitochondria in 90% of all tested subjects.

..We then asked the subjects to drink a banana milk shake containing 24 g of C18:0, roughly equivalent to the amount of C18:0 present in 200 g of milk chocolate"


After 2 days of a low-C18:0 diet, the mitochondria in neutrophils are quite fragmented; 50% of all neutrophils had fragmented mitochondria and fewer than 10% had fused mitochondria prior to ingesting the C18:0 drink (“0 h”, Fig. 1c). This was true in all 21 subjects combined .."

the stearic acid showed similar elevation of higher mitochondrial fusion still at 6 hours vs within 3 hours


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322320321107

Mitofusin-2 in the Nucleus Accumbens Regulates Anxiety and Depression-like Behaviors Through Mitochondrial and Neuronal Actions​

(side note also i saw anxiety correlates with lower taurine in nucleus accumbens in humans. for me even 500mg gives increase in anxiety acutely, but maybe low dose for longer would have an effect if it reaches this brain area. also l-acetyl-carnitine reverses the stress reduction in taurine in this part of brain in mice.)

"Our results implicate a causal role for accumbal MFN2 on the regulation of anxiety and depression-like behaviors through actions on mitochondrial and MSN structure and function. MFN2 is posited as a promising therapeutic target to treat anxiety and associated behavioral disturbances."


So stearic acid could be useful here, 24g daily total if replicating the study. but less probably still has good effect

another interesting thing i saw about mitochondrial dysfunction is it can cause loss of eye co-ordination (common where you see individual eye position differences, or no eyelid retraction when looking up)


---

@haidut something to note is ray peat has spoken about benefits of uncoupling mitochondria (the opposite to stearic acid). any more insight on this?
as this makes it sound like uncoupling mitochondria would be optimal instead, surprisingly

(like aspirin does at high dose) -
"When mitochondria are “uncoupled,” they produce more carbon dioxide than normal, and the mitochondria produce fewer free radicals. Animals with uncoupled mitochondria live longer than animals with the ordinary, more efficient mitochondria, that produce more reactive oxidative fragments. One effect of the high rate of oxidation of the uncoupled mitochondria is that they can eliminate polyunsatured fatty acids that might otherwise be integrated into tissue structures, or function as inappropriate regulatory signals."

^? which seems weird - less efficient mitochondria increasing life span? that goes against the energy theory of disease, but the PUFA elimination outweighs the loss of efficiency of mitochondria from uncoupling?

the study showing increased lifespan from coupling the mitochondria seems more logical

but in mice:
"Together, the data in 3, 4 show that skeletal muscle mitochondria isolated from high metabolism mice were more uncoupled than those from low metabolism mice"
"Individuals with high metabolism were therefore more uncoupled, had greater resting and total daily energy expenditures and survived longest – supporting the ‘uncoupling to survive’ hypothesis"

apparently uncoupling = more heat production instead of ATP. higher metabolism
so coupling = more ATP production. lower metabolism

but stearic acid should be good for cancer , though by this mechanism bad for longevity? weird


also Lauric Acid Induces Liver Mitochondrial Uncoupling
"per Ray's suggestion and below studies, coconut oil would be a great tool to reverse conditions involving excess fat accumulation in liver since the uncoupling will melt that fat away."
&
https://raypeatforum.com/community/...70-and-increases-lean-mass.22047/#post-307932
"visceral fat was reduced by ∼70% in the stearic acid fed group compared to other diets. "
but stearic acid couples instead.
confusing one

 

[LeeLemonoil]

Wow nice studies ty

Mitochondrial fusion allows the transfer of gene products between mitochondria for optimal functioning

apparently butter is 12% stearic acid. so 50g butter a day would cover ~25% of dose used in human study.


mice with mitofusin-2 defects are highly anxious. when they over-express mitofusin-2 instead the anxiety disorder is corrected.

"When C18:0 levels are low, the Transferrin Receptor TfR1 activates JNK signaling, leading to ubiquitination and inhibition of Mitofusin 2 and hence mitochondrial fragmentation and reduced oxygen consumption16.
In the presence of C18:0, the fatty acid molecule is covalently attached to TfR1 via a thioester bond in a post-translational modification called stearoylation, analogous to protein palmitoylation by C16:0.
This leads to reduced JNK activation by TfR1, to mitochondrial fusion, and to elevated oxygen consumption. [..and disinhibition of mitofusin 2] We found a surprisingly robust response, with C18:0 ingestion causing fusion of mitochondria in 90% of all tested subjects.

..We then asked the subjects to drink a banana milk shake containing 24 g of C18:0, roughly equivalent to the amount of C18:0 present in 200 g of milk chocolate"


After 2 days of a low-C18:0 diet, the mitochondria in neutrophils are quite fragmented; 50% of all neutrophils had fragmented mitochondria and fewer than 10% had fused mitochondria prior to ingesting the C18:0 drink (“0 h”, Fig. 1c). This was true in all 21 subjects combined .."

the stearic acid showed similar elevation of higher mitochondrial fusion still at 6 hours vs within 3 hours


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322320321107

Mitofusin-2 in the Nucleus Accumbens Regulates Anxiety and Depression-like Behaviors Through Mitochondrial and Neuronal Actions​

(side note also i saw anxiety correlates with lower taurine in nucleus accumbens in humans. for me even 500mg gives increase in anxiety acutely, but maybe low dose for longer would have an effect if it reaches this brain area. also l-acetyl-carnitine reverses the stress reduction in taurine in this part of brain in mice.)

"Our results implicate a causal role for accumbal MFN2 on the regulation of anxiety and depression-like behaviors through actions on mitochondrial and MSN structure and function. MFN2 is posited as a promising therapeutic target to treat anxiety and associated behavioral disturbances."


So stearic acid could be useful here, 24g daily total if replicating the study. but less probably still has good effect

another interesting thing i saw about mitochondrial dysfunction is it can cause loss of eye co-ordination (common where you see individual eye position differences, or no eyelid retraction when looking up)


---

@haidut something to note is ray peat has spoken about benefits of uncoupling mitochondria (the opposite to stearic acid). any more insight on this?
as this makes it sound like uncoupling mitochondria would be optimal instead, surprisingly

(like aspirin does at high dose) -
"When mitochondria are “uncoupled,” they produce more carbon dioxide than normal, and the mitochondria produce fewer free radicals. Animals with uncoupled mitochondria live longer than animals with the ordinary, more efficient mitochondria, that produce more reactive oxidative fragments. One effect of the high rate of oxidation of the uncoupled mitochondria is that they can eliminate polyunsatured fatty acids that might otherwise be integrated into tissue structures, or function as inappropriate regulatory signals."

^? which seems weird - less efficient mitochondria increasing life span? that goes against the energy theory of disease, but the PUFA elimination outweighs the loss of efficiency of mitochondria from uncoupling?

the study showing increased lifespan from coupling the mitochondria seems more logical

but in mice:
"Together, the data in 3, 4 show that skeletal muscle mitochondria isolated from high metabolism mice were more uncoupled than those from low metabolism mice"
"Individuals with high metabolism were therefore more uncoupled, had greater resting and total daily energy expenditures and survived longest – supporting the ‘uncoupling to survive’ hypothesis"

apparently uncoupling = more heat production instead of ATP. higher metabolism
so coupling = more ATP production. lower metabolism

but stearic acid should be good for cancer , though by this mechanism bad for longevity? weird


also Lauric Acid Induces Liver Mitochondrial Uncoupling
"per Ray's suggestion and below studies, coconut oil would be a great tool to reverse conditions involving excess fat accumulation in liver since the uncoupling will melt that fat away."
&
https://raypeatforum.com/community/...70-and-increases-lean-mass.22047/#post-307932
"visceral fat was reduced by ∼70% in the stearic acid fed group compared to other diets. "
but stearic acid couples instead.
confusing one

Nice post. I’ll Chime in on some of your points soon

 

[cs3000]

Nice post. I’ll Chime in on some of your points soon

alright thanks. unsure on whether to have increased uncoupling of mitochondria or increased coupling


also stearic acid diet increases dopamine concentration in the nucleus accumbens (area of the brain the other study pointed to for dysfunction in high anxiety mice). where Mitofusin 2 was inhibited. and in humans mitofusin 2 is inhibited with low stearic acid levels.

and decreases leptin signalling in the VTA [something for people who typically have low appetite? tho probably not that effective for weight gain as by this extra calories eaten could still lead to lower fat stores - increased activity & metabolic rate?]
same as Dietary Stearic Acid Leads to a Reduction of Visceral Adipose Tissue in Athymic Nude Mice which also showed higher food intake in the stearic acid group. but all groups had similar weight gain (stearic acid group more lean body mass gain). 17% stearic acid/3% safflower oil diet.

some downside is they had 15% reduced bone mineral density in that study compared to the other groups,. but 17% stearic acid is an extreme amount idk if thats a % of food weight & a human eats 2kg of food that would be >300g stearic acid lol so this study might not be relevant to humans.
and like haidut said in the thread on that study, the positive affects could come from dropping the PUFA in the test groups instead of increasing stearic acid.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361923020305992

Diet containing stearic acid increases food reward-related behaviors in mice compared with oleic acid​

haven't found the amount they used

"the stearic acid treated group had lower protein levels of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 in the VTA and a higher dopamine concentration in the NAc than the oleic acid-treated group.
In conclusion, these findings indicated that a diet containing stearic acid can increase hedonic feeding behavior and affect mesolimbic dopamine system signals in mice. Moreover, the lowering of serum leptin and leptin signaling in the VTA may contribute to this effect."

^Food intake increased with stearic acid, in this one body weight & fat mass and lean mass stayed the same in both groups. mice activity increased.

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpregu.00340.2017

"We have reported that motivation for sucrose is increased in rats fed a moderate (31%) mixed-fat diet for 4–6 wk. In this study, rats were fed diets containing 32% stearic (STEAR) or palmitic (PALM) acid, and behavior, metabolic profile, and cell signals were compared with those of rats fed a matched low-fat diet (LF; 11% fat) diet.
Rats fed STEAR or PALM increased sucrose motivation relative to LF rats. Diet did not change fasting glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, intravenous glucose tolerance test glucose profile, percent body fat, or total kilocalories, although kilocalories as fat were increased (ANOVA, P < 0.05)."

^ palmitic acid & stearic acid has similar effects on sucrose motivation