In our article Chronic Inflammation, I touch on this fatty acid and I’ve been telling our newsletter readers that I will someday write a complete article about this wonderful supplement. Well, that day has come.

If you, like me, get wellness newsletters up the ying-yang, you’ve probably already heard the sales pitch that starts out: Did this Cleveland fry cook accidentally stumble onto the heart health discovery of the century?

As the story goes, the fry cook’s deep fryers were constantly getting coated with fat. Cleaning them was no easy task, so he contacted a friend (Al Jenkins, a bio-chemist) and asked if he knew of anything that could cut through the fat and clean his fryers easily. Al eventually came up with something that worked like magic, followed up with a study at the Cleveland Clinic and, La voilà, we have a new heart healthy oil on the market and everyone’s trying to get in on the action.

The oil has a name. It is called Palmitoleic acid. It comes from a variety of foods, salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, and trout with a few noteworthy vegetable sources: macadamia nuts and sea buckthorn berries. The thing is, all the sources of palmitoleic acid also contain a not-so-nice oil called palmitic acid, a saturated fat that is somewhat inflammatory.

This whole scenario reminds me of the Steven Wright routine in which he says: "For Christmas I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier. I put them in the same room and let them fight it out."

UPDATE ON PALMITIC ACID DEC 2016

Recent studies have shown that palmitic acid stimulates metastases in people with cancer. And seeing how everyone has cancer cells in their bodies, this news is not good.

Here are two articles that talk about the results of these studies:

In the buckthorn berry, the palmitic acid content is pretty high, however in the macadamia nut, it’s quite low. This is why macadamia nut oil is now my latest favorite thing on the planet. I’ve invented a mayonnaise from it, for which every tablespoon of mayo gives you a quarter teaspoon of palmitoleic acid.

Bottom line here is this: palmitoleic acid is a very powerful anti-inflammatory, and when you consider that today it is felt that most of our chronic and degenerative illnesses begin with inflammation, this is something you’ll want in your diet.

After just 30 days on a supplement of a "purified" omega-7 fatty acid, the experimental group realized a 50% drop in their C-Reactive Protein levels, while the control group’s levels did not change. The experimental group also realized a 17% drop in triglycerides and a 7% drop in total cholesterol. [Source: Martinez, L. Purified Omega-7 in the reduction of hs-CRP: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Proprietary Research Report, 2013.]

I am not one to worry about cholesterol levels, however I would be worried about rancid cholesterol levels. Cholesterol goes rancid because of oxidation. Maintaining proper levels of anti-oxidants is important, and besides taking my C, A, E, etc, I take Ecklonia Cava Extract.

When I read that omega-7s lower my cholesterol, that did not excite me. What excited me was something many of our newsletters of the year 2013 focused on: insulin and glucose metabolism. 

Two studies on palmitoleic acid have shown conclusively that it reduces insulin insensitivity maximizing your metabolism of glucose. [Dimopoulos, Nicolaos, Maria Watson, and Harinder S Hundal. (2008). "Differential effects of palmitate and palmitoleate on insulin action and glucose utilization in rat L6 skeletal muscle cells". US National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1615906/) and Mozaffarian, Dariush, Haiming Cao, and Gokhan S Hotamingsil. "Circulating palmitoleic acid and risk of metabolic abnormalities and new-onset diabetes," The American Journal of Nutrition. American Society for Nutrition, 2010. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2980960/)]

This is great news for people with type two diabetes, and for those who are dieting, but even better news for dieters is that palmitoleic acid induces satiety (makes you full faster) by releasing/stimulating the two satiety hormones: ghrelin and leptin. Additionally, if you are insulin resistant, you are leptin resistant; thus palmitoleic acid’s ability to fight insulin resistance will also help you fight leptin resistance by reducing CRP which has shown to be responsible for leptin resistance. This simply means, you’ll feel full faster while supplementing with omega-7 fatty acids.

But for those watching their weight, the good news does not end there. Animal studies show that supplementing with palmitoleic acid turns on your fat metabolism. Instead of your body wanting to store fat (lipogenesis), fats are directed toward making and expending energy. So if you are working out, you will want to supplement with palmitoleic acid. Studies out of Harvard on mice showed that on palmitoleic acid discovered that not only was their fat metabolism cranked up, but the molecule sent signals to the other organs telling them not to store dietary fat. Henry Ginsberg, an endocrinologist at Columbia University said, "Definitely, a lot of people should be looking at this."

Additional Health Benefits

Skin, hair, and nails: recent studies have shown that Omega-7 provides key building blocks for skin, hair, and nails, and also helps combat wrinkles, loss of skin elasticity, dryness, and nourishes the skin. It boosts collagen production, protects against sun damage, environmental stress, toxins, and oxidative damage. It rejuvenates the skin cell membranes, enhancing its ability to retain moisture, and restores resilience to aging skin cells. [Effect of dietary supplementation with sea buckthorn seed and pulp oils on the fatty composition of skin glycerophospholipids of patients with Atopic Dermatitis. Yang, B, et al., 2000, Jour Nutr BioChem, Vol. 11, 338-340. Anti-inflammatory activity of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) leaves. Ganju, L et al., 2005, Intr Immunopharm, Vol. 5, 1675-1684.Composition and physiological effects of sea buckthorn (Hippophae) lipids. Yang, B, et al., 2002, Trends Food Science Tech, Vol. 13, 160-167.]

Gastreo-intestinal Health: three studies discovered that palmitoleic acid has a soothing effect on our internal linings, or mucus membranes. It helps to nourish and hydrate internal organs combatting stressors such as stomach acid or chronic inflammation. Palmitoleic acid actually "plumps" up those linings. One study showed it could relieve inflammatory bowel disease. [Inflammatory bowel disease basics. Nikitin, V.A., et al. Khirurgia, 1989; National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease, 4:33-35. Prevalence of essential fatty acid deficiency in patients with chronic gastrointestinal disorders. Siguel, E and Lerman, R. 1996, Metabolism. Vol. 45, no.1, 12-23. Sea buckthorn oils: Towards healthy mucous membranes. Erkkola, R. & Yang, B., 2003, AGROFood Industry, 53 (3).]

Which Brand is the Best?

Like every new product on the market, suddenly everyone has a version for sale, claiming theirs is the best. Pages and pages (and silly non-video videos) will tell you everything you want to hear (and more) and make all the claims in the world.

I discovered Cardia-7. I contacted them. They sent samples. They were the ONLY ones to send us samples. Their product is purified (none of that palmitic acid) and it works. Then sent me lots of original research and helped me understand their product. Service is important, so this is and will be my favorite brand.

We could point you to purchase Cardia-7 through our affiliate links, but I helped Simply the Best get wholesale prices on it and they are selling to our readers at a 20% discount, no limits on your order. Just click on the image below to take advantage of Simply the Best's pricing.