8 week policosanol trial
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Howdy, I wanted to post this because it might be interesting. I will be conducting an 8-week personal trial with 25mg daily of policosanol(derived from sugarcane so ~60% by weight octosanol, if I'm correct). I will not be updating daily but will update on a regular basis and if there are significant noticed effects.
From my researches, policosanols are thermogenic, upregulate PPAR–α and PPAR-ß/δ, downregulate fat storage, and can significantly improve athletic performance regarding endurance. It's also worth noting(and will probably not be new to people here) that Vit E was originally extracted from wheat germ oil and was viscous due to the presence of very-long-chain fatty acids. A quotation, allegedly from Ray on this issue:
"But then in the last 10 or 15 years there have been more publications about ineffectiveness of vitamin E or possible adverse effects, and I've been thinking about what some of the changes from the original 1930s and 40s product might have been. And the saturated long-chain alcohols, octacosanol and policosanol were always associated with the original ways. They made vitamin E that increased the viscosity. Vitamin – or wheat germ oil was a common starting material and that was rich in these very long-chain completely saturated alcohols which immediately metabolized into long-chain saturated fatty acids. And if you look up the research on octacosanol and policosanol, you see that there was a lot of endurance effect, improved endurance from the use of small amounts of these. And I suspect that the original vitamin E research which showed that it protected against the polyunsaturated fatty acids and their toxic effects, I think a large part of that might have been from adding the completely saturated long fatty acids along with the vitamin E, sort of neutralizing the PUFA. Similar to Hans Selye’s research in which he showed that canola would cause the death of heart cells but if he added chocolate fat, cocoa butter to the same amount of canola, the heart had no injury at all so that the saturated fats have a defensive antitoxic effect that I suspect were a part of vitamin E’s original action."
I do not have means to do stool testing for bacteria but I will be tracking how my tummy feels to assess any shifts from policosanol on bacteria and gastrointestinal performance. To my knowledge, saturated fats are anti-microbial as they break down the cell wall and the longer the chain the better, as such I'm curious whether the policosanols will have any anti-microbial effects on my gut.
I do not expect much on this matter as I think the low dose of policosanol will be absorbed quickly through the lymphatic system due to the affinity for long-chain fatty acids to be taken up by the lymphatic system and transported to the fat tissue directly. It is this effect that @haidut comments on in Generative Energy 30 about policosanols being able to displace PUFA. I do not intend to deplete PUFA via 25mg a day but I am interested in seeing if there are any effects.
Some starting data:
Weight: 200 even(morning)
Fat %: ~25% from calipers
Last blood work: slightly elevated cholesterol(LDL and triglycerides), TSH of 1.28, no abnormal liver, kidney, or metabolic panels aside from cholesterol.
Supplements: Vit E(alpha-tocopherol @ ~500IU daily), K2 MK4(1mg daily), Epsom salt bath 2x weekly, baking soda(daily, 1 tsp before bed in OJ), glycine(3-6 grams every other day or so depending on workload)
Endurance and athletic ability: Jiu-jitsu 3x week, concentric-focused(ish) workouts 2x a week, walking ~3 miles a day. Sweaty after workouts but recover quickly, looking to improve high-output medium-duration endurance. -
Interesting, following.
It does have an androgenic feeling to it, so look out for changes in that too.Dare to think.
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Thank you, I was aware.
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@JulofEnoch Any updates from along the way? I am a month into policosanol 20mg/day and believe I am experiencing positive effects.
Experimenting on myself before I try to get my dad off statins and onto policosanol as an alternative.
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do you know how much policosanol is in raw sugar like rapadura or jaggery ?
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I did not have any positive or negative effect. I would like to try policosanols again but with a pure formulation of policosanols, especially octosanol. There are sites to get such pure formulations from, I was admittedly being a little lazy when I got mine and after examining a bottle with an intact ingredient list, my policosanols are adulterated with rice starch.
I would not give much credence to my experience but encourage you to continue with your trying and let us know! What effects or feelings have you gotten from your policosanols?
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I have completed my experiment. After examining an intact bottle from the brand I got, I realize that there is a significant adulteration of the policosanols with rice starch and likely some other unlisted additives. As such, I would consider my 8 week trial a bust.
That being said, I've had the chance to learn much about policosanols and I would like to visit cuba and enjoy some cane juice rums straight from the field. I would also recommend Héritiers Madkaud Cuvée “Renaissance” Martinique Rhum which I saw in a review and have tried myself. It's a certified cane juice rum and very good.
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upregulates ppar-alpha? from what i remember higher ppar-a contributes to fat storage
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I have not seen anything for fat storage, if you find something please let me know. From what I've seen PPARα seems to stimulate pregnenolone and allopregnanolone production and contribute against obesity.
