Policosanol experiment for 8 weeks
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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.Greift nur hinein ins volle Menschenleben! Ein jeder lebt's, nicht vielen ist's bekannt, und wo ihr's packt, da ist's interessant.
Ray Peat first-ever interview(July 1987 on UofO Student Radio)
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One week update:
198 with no real change in diet or activity. I have started consuming the policosanols mixed with my vit e to make a bootleg version of haidut's tocovit. I haven't noticed any unique effects but I imagine that with time I might have some small added benefit.
I have gone out twice in the last seven days, both times I was unable to have a good excuse to not eat something or bring my own food. As an experiment, I added policosanols(100mg) to my going-out stack for PUFA and alcohol protection; I felt and saw a noticeably low level of intoxication and bloating. In fact, both mornings after I felt very hungry even when even the same moderate PUFA meals left me feeling full the next morning, previously.
For the record, my going-out stack is: digestive enzymes with ox bile, 200mcg Selenium, Berberine 1g, aspirin 650mg, K2 1mg, 6 grams glycine, Vit E 630IU, magnesium spray, Vit D 10000IU
As to athletic energy, I have felt an increase in endurance but I am not going to comment too much as I want to see after the full 8-weeks and avoid placebo-ing myself in week 1.
I don't have some new sensation of energy, etc. but even then I'm barely over 10% through my experiment.
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@JulofEnoch I’m curious about the baking soda (in OJ before bed).
Are there any factors that lead you to deciding to take it then?
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I've had some good results from bicarb intake. I noticed this after having Gerolsteiner for the first time- it has a pretty high bicarb content and I felt really good afterwards. From what I've seen about bicarb and bacteria, bicarb in fairly low concentrations can be a potent antagonist of pathogenic bacteria metabolism and boosts innate immunity effects against bacterial infections; it also boosts antibiotics(except for tetracyclines due to pH effects). This goes for respiratory and oral bacteria, which I have a personal desire to protect myself from.
I wouldn't say that I take it because it gives me some particular feeling, but that it's easy to incorporate into my routine and covers several bases.
OJ for the pre-sleep sugar, baking soda is there to help with inflammation and bacterial inhibition to avoid night time serotonin surge. I have a history of insomnia and difficulty sleeping, so dealing with serotonin around sleep time through sugar and salt has been a big help.
Baking soda is sodium bicarb, so I get the sodium, the sugar from OJ, and the inhibitions from the bicarb. My rough math is that my bicarb to OJ ratio is high for inhibition concentrations. I usually do a small glass(4-6 oz) with 1 tsp baking soda(lightly packed). That's about 7g bicarb in 6 oz, which would be 37g in 1L or ~600mmol/L. That's well above the minimum concentration for inhibition(23-182mmol/L) and about 20% less than a minimum bactericidal concentration. I'm not going for an antibacterial effect, inhibition is good enough for me especially as I have a pretty healthy gut microbiome.
