Science Deep Dive: Fatty15, a Pure C15:0 Supplement, Rivals Top Anti-Aging Drugs

The search for the holy grail of healthy aging has been ongoing for hundreds of years, and a recent study just sent fatty15 to the top of the list. 

In this study, fatty15 went head-to-head against three leading longevity-enhancing compounds: rapamycin, metformin, and acarbose. Long(evity) story short, fatty15 had the most cellular benefits, while also being safe to our cells.

So, let’s take a deeper dive into this latest study, the urgent need to replenish our C15:0 levels, and what this all means for your long-term health and wellness.

I’m in. What’s fatty15?

Fatty15 is a breakthrough, award-winning, science-backed, and patented C15:0 supplement, containing a 99% pure, vegan-friendly, and plant-based C15:0 powder, called FA15.

Got it. What is C15:0?

C15:0 (also called pentadecanoic acid) is a healthy odd-chain saturated fatty acid that is present in trace levels in whole dairy fat, as well as some types of fish and plants. 

C15:0 is the first essential fatty acid to be discovered in over 90 years, since omega-3. Importantly, a peer-reviewed study showed that fatty15 has 3x more cellular benefits than the purest, highest performing omega-3, supporting pure C15:0 as the essential-est of essential fatty acids. Numerous studies have linked higher C15:0 levels in humans to better metabolic, liver, and heart health. 

Beyond these positive associations with good health, we now know how fatty15 actively repairs, restores and revitalizes our long-term health at the cellular level. So let’s get down to our cells. Fatty15 targets key cellular hallmarks of aging by:

• Strengthening cell membranes by 80% to protect against age-related breakdown, increase cellular resilience against lipid peroxidation, and slow cellular senescence (aka zombie cells).
• Improving mitochondrial function by 45% to keep cells healthy and functioning.
• Naturally activating receptors and pathways (including PPARs and AMPK) to restore healthy cellular signals that regulate our metabolism, immunity, mood, sleep and appetite.

Now that you have learned about the broad importance of C15:0 and fatty15, let’s get to the latest study's results.

Let’s cut to the chase. What did the study find?

Simply put, fatty15 has more cell repairing benefits than even top anti-aging drugs, all while being safe for your cells (and you). This study solidly lands fatty15 as providing the essential-ist of essential fatty acids.

Ready for the nerdy details behind this groundbreaking discovery? Well, read on. 

Discovery #1: With 36+ cellular benefits, fatty15 was the winner.

Fatty15’s clinically relevant benefits were dose-dependent and broadly seen across 10 human cell systems that mimicked various aging-related states. Rapamycin came in a close second, with 32 cellular benefits, followed by metformin with 17 benefits. Last in line was acarbose with 5 cellular benefits.

Discovery #2: Fatty15 and rapamycin share important longevity-enhancing benefits.

At their optimal doses, fatty15 and rapamycin share 24 cell repairing benefits, including the following:

• Calming overactive immune responses. As we age, our immune systems go into inappropriate overdrive, resulting in systemic age-related breakdown.This study showed that both fatty15 and rapamycin lower multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as MCP-1, which are key drivers of inflammaging.
• Slowing tissue scarring. Fibroblasts can get out of control as we get older, and the result is scar tissue in our livers, our hearts, well…you get it. The recent study showed that both fatty15 and rapamycin lower the proliferation of fibroblasts in cell systems relevant to heart, liver, and lung health.
• Stopping bad cells from proliferating. Failed internal quality checks increasingly happen as we get older, resulting in proliferation of cells that are bad actors. The latest study showed that fatty15 and rapamycin are particularly good at stopping bad cells from proliferating.
• Stopping bad microbes from growing. While this was not evaluated in the most recent study, other peer-reviewed studies have established that both pure C15:0 and rapamycin can stop bad fungi from proliferating. Pure C15:0 has the added advantage of stopping some bad bacteria from growing, too.
• Inhibiting mTOR, a coveted way to extend longevity. Finally, C15:0 and rapamycin share a common trick to extend longevity. Namely, inhibiting mTOR (which stands for the mechanistic Target of Rapamycin). This nifty skill helps to effectively knock out dysfunctional “zombie” cells that impair our tissues and result in aging-related breakdown.

Importantly, these shared cellular benefits of C15:0 and rapamycin are aligned with previous in vivo studies. 

Perhaps more importantly…while rapamycin is a complicated molecule and prescription drug that is foreign to your body, fatty15 provides the safe, simple, and essential fatty acid your body needs. That’s a whole lotta science in one tiny, natural pill.

Discovery #3: Fatty15 and metformin share important benefits, too. 

In addition to sharing many anti-aging benefits with rapamycin, fatty15 and metformin had over a dozen common healthy aging activities in common. This is not entirely surprising, given that both pure C15:0 and metformin:

• Activate AMPK, which is at the heart of the human longevity pathway.
• Improve glucose handling and insulin sensitivity mechanisms, which help to support healthy metabolism

These common benefits related to healthy aging and longevity, however, should not be confused with metformin’s core role as a drug to manage and treat diabetes. If you are taking metformin under the direction of your physician, continue to do so.

Fatty15 is nature’s solve for extending mammalian longevity. 

Well, given all the above, we now know that fatty15 provides cellular health benefits that match and even surpass leading anti-aging drugs.

Here’s another fun fact. Fatty15’s longevity-enhancing benefits are aligned with A.J. Hulbert’s Cell Membrane Pacemaker Theory of Aging. In support of his theory, Hulbert showed that mammals with the most stable cell membranes have the longest lifespans. We are increasingly understanding that, as a sturdy nutrient that stabilizes cell membranes, long-lived mammals use C15:0 to live longer.

Go nature.

So, what does this mean to me?

When our cells age, so do we. The result isn’t just wrinkles and gray hair. Aging cells also cause our metabolism to slow, our joints to ache, our sleep to be sporadic, and our brains to be foggy.

While fighting aging-related breakdown used to be considered a losing battle, the tide has wonderfully turned, thanks to advances in science and vast improvements in understanding how we age…all the way down to our 37 trillion cells.

The latest study shows that fatty15 is a natural and safe powerhouse to support your long-term health and wellness at the cellular level. Because C15:0 levels decline as we age, fatty15 is here to help to replenish those C15:0 stores. 

By turning back time on your cells, fatty15 gives you more time to be, well, you. And we think that’s pretty darn awesome.

How were the three anti-aging compounds chosen to benchmark against fatty15?

Rapamcyin was easy, since it is often considered the leading longevity-enhancing candidate by longevity scientists. This drug has also been shown to extend longevity in both female and male mice. Metformin had three things working in its favor: a dedicated large-scale clinical trial underway to evaluate its effects on aging (called the TAME trial), serving as one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for diabetes, and demonstrated lengthened mouse lifespans in some (but not all) studies. Since acarbose extends lifespans in mice, this drug for diabetes made the list, too.

How was this study conducted?

To evaluate meaningful effects of fatty15 (and three leading anti-aging compounds) that are relevant to supporting longer healthspans and lifespans, an extensive panel of 12 cell-based systems, representing our whole body, was used. Here's a quick double-click in on the panel used in this study. 

Human cell-based systems are routinely used in the therapeutics world to evaluate compounds for safety and efficacy. The specific BioMAP® Diversity Plus panel was used in this study because it:

• Is approved by the FDA as a non-animal alternative to evaluating safety and efficacy of molecules in supporting health.
• Uses 148 clinically-relevant measurements, with each measurement known to be relevant to supporting long-term health and wellness.
• Evaluates dose-response of a molecule with its benefits. Specifically, is increased efficacy seen with increasing dose, as would be expected of a truly essential nutrient?
• Evaluates repairing mechanisms across a broad range of cell types. By testing the benefits of a nutrient to a variety of cell types, including blood vessel, immune, lung and skin cells, this panel can help explain not only how a nutrient works to provide health benefits, but how broadly these benefits apply throughout the body.
• Enables benchmarking against other molecules, including similar prescription drugs.
• Has been demonstrated to successfully predict clinical outcomes.

In summary, these 12 cell-based systems, which included blood vessel, immune, lung, and skin cells, measured 148 different clinically-relevant markers to understand and compare how well fatty15 and leading longevity drugs repair and restore our cells, and therefore, our long-term health. 

Wait, wasn’t this study led by fatty15 folks and isn’t it biased?

Fair question that we thought about, too. As part of their ongoing role as global scientific C15:0 pioneers, two of our co-founders indeed led this latest study. To address concerns of potential bias, however, Steph and Nik (aka Dr. Venn-Watson and Dr. Schork) made a concerted effort to go above and beyond typical studies to ensure that their science is always responsible, valid, and transparent, including the following for the current paper:

• Peer-reviewed publication. All of the science in the current paper was peer-reviewed and independently published by the reputable scientific journal, Nutrients, which has strict publishing guidelines. This includes extensive reviews by an editor and two independent experts, who must concur that the science was done with the utmost care and that the findings and conclusions were valid.
• Third-party study. The laboratory-based studies were conducted, and data interpreted, by a contracted third party with extensive expertise in the well-known panel that was used (BioMAP DiscoverX panel).
• Control systems. The laboratory-based studies included non-treated control systems, which enabled statistical comparisons of effects of fatty15 against non-treated controls, as well as comparisons with rapamycin, metformin, and acarbose.
• Repeated results. To ensure that the results were repeatable, the same extensive panel was repeated with pure C15:0 from two different sources.
• Raw data provided. To provide further transparency, all raw data from the studies were provided to the public as supplementary materials in the paper.
• Federally funded. This work was part of an Office of Naval Research funded study (N00014-21-9-002), the proposal of which was reviewed and approved by the Department of Defense.
• Conflict of interest disclosure. In this paper, it is disclosed that fatty15’s company has licensed the commercialization of C15:0 from the U.S. Navy, and it is shared that this company has a C15:0 supplement product on the market.

What’s next?

There are numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications consistently supporting C15:0 as the first essential fatty acid to be discovered since the omegas (which was 90 years ago). The science around pure C15:0’s specific health benefits is continuing to grow, including the latest study on fatty15 as a leading nutrient to enhance longevity.

Among next-step studies is an ongoing double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial with fatty15, which is being independently conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Schwimmer at the University of California, San Diego. So, stay tuned,

Updates to the growing list of studies around C15:0 can be found here.

As a featured 2022 TEDx San Diego talk and listed as a 2022 Fast Company World Changing Idea, the fatty15 team’s movement to improve global health is well underway! 

Read the Paper

Venn-Watson S, Schork NJ. Pentadecanoic Acid (C15:0), an Essential Fatty Acid, Shares Clinically Relevant Cell-Based Activities with Leading Longevity-Enhancing Compounds. Nutrients. 2023; 15(21):4607. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15214607