Fatty15 Protects Gut Health in New Study

Healthy Aging

Fatty15 Gut Check: Calmer & Non-Leaky

A peer-reviewed paper from Singh et al. was just published in Nutrients, sharing functional benefits of fatty15 that are important to us all. Let’s get intestinal.

There’s a global rise in upset guts.

As described by Ng et al., the world has witnessed an increasing number of people with less-than-optimal and more-than-uncomfortable gastrointestinal health. The highest numbers of GI upset are in Europe, followed by the U.S. & Canada. Since the 1990s, there has been a concerning rise in other countries, including Africa, Asia, and South America.

So, what’s going on?
Well, according to Zhang et al., key factors that influence our gut health include the following:

• Our microbiome (what mix of bacteria are populating our intestines)
• Our immune response (especially overactive immune responses)
• Our environmental exposures (including foods and chemicals that can irritate and influence our microbiome and gut lining)
• Our genetics (you can blame or thank your parents)

Not really a shocking list, but aside from genetics, the first three interlinking factors can certainly change in populations over time, resulting in increased numbers of people with less healthy guts.

Of these, Pigneur et al. shares how changes in our dietary choices have served as pivotal triggers for suboptimal intestinal health. As a result, a number of gut-healthy diets have been suggested, which are feeding promising research and nutritional interventions.

As described by Binienda et al., a core mechanism linking our diet to our gut (and overall) health involves the leakiness of our intestinal lining. The weaker the connections between our intestinal cells, the more bad things invade our gut lining and cross into our bodies. Take home point: leaky intestinal linings are not good.

Guessing this is where C15:0 & fatty15 come in?

Correct. Given numerous studies demonstrating broad health benefits of C15:0, a team of researchers from the Department of Nutrition, Division of Gastroenterology, and Institute of Digestive Health Research from the Cleveland Medical Center and Case Western University investigated the effect of C15:0 supplementation on gut health in a variety of mouse models. Specifically, functional effects of fatty15 supplementation were evaluated in this independent study.

What aspects of gut health and fatty15 were evaluated?

Singh et al. evaluated the following potential benefits of fatty15 supplementation in the face of a challenge to the gastrointestinal system:

• Calmed intestinal immune response based on measured fecal levels of myeloperoxidase (MPO), a biomarker of overactive immune responses.
• Protection against gut cell leakiness, which was determined by measuring how much of a labeled sugar made it across the gut and into the bloodstream.
• Maintained healthy body weight.
• Maintained colon tissue health based on looking at immune responses and cell structures under the microscope, as well as colon length (healthier colons = longer colons).

Fatty15 supplementation was provided in two doses, which were equal in body weight to approximately 100 and 200 mg per day in humans.

Here’s what the researchers found.

Fatty15 provided impressive health benefits.

First, having only 3 weeks of daily fatty15 supplementation on board before the mice had their guts challenged with a troublemaker (called DSS), the researchers reported the following:

• Protected healthy body weight
• Protected healthy colon tissue
• Lowered gut permeability (aka leakiness)

Importantly, these health benefits were seen at both fatty15 doses (equivalent to 100 and 200 mg/day in humans).

After these initial findings, the team did a second study with just the lower fatty15 dose to evaluate longer term gut health benefits. Again, here they found that fatty15:

• Protected healthy body weight
• Protected healthy colon tissue
• Lowered gut permeability (aka leakiness)
• Calmed overactive gut immune response within 2 weeks

The researchers concluded that fatty15 supplementation provided significant gut health benefits, including calming immune responses and maintaining the integrity of the gut lining. Impressive, right?