Caprylic Acid is one of the three 'goat' fatty acids (caproic, caprylic & capric, ). It is a saturated fat with an 8-carbon chain & is found in coconut oil at ~7% (the predominant fatty acid being lauric acid (~48%)). It is sold as a supplement for candida. It is also used as an algicide, bactericide, fungicide.
"Caprylic acid(C8:0) promotes bone metastasis of prostate cancer by dysregulated adipo-osteogenic balance in bone marrow" [1]
"... the total level of free fatty acids (FFAs) and caprylic acid (C8:0) was significantly higher in PCa patients with bone metastases. In vitro, caprylic acid (C8:0) promoted bone mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived adipocytic differentiation, COX2 expression and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) secretion, whereas osteoblastic differentiation and OPG expression were reduced. Furthermore, caprylic acid (C8:0) treated adipocytes promoted the invasion and migration of PCa cells. Taken together, our findings suggest caprylic acid (C8:0) promotes bone metastasis of PCa by dysregulated adipo-osteogenic balance of bone marrow."
. 2020 Aug 8. doi: 10.1111/cas.14606. Online ahead of print.
Caprylic acid(C8:0) promotes bone metastasis of prostate cancer by dysregulated adipo-osteogenic balance in bone marrow
Cuizhe Wang 1 , Jingzhou Wang 1 , Keru Chen 1 , Huai Pang 1 , Xue Li 1 , Jiaojiao Zhu 1 , Yinghua Ma 1 , Tongtong Qiu 1 , Wei Li 1 , Jianxin Xie 1 , Jun Zhang 1
Affiliations expand
PMID: 32770813 DOI: 10.1111/cas.14606
Abstract
Prostate cancer (PCa) continues to be the most common, noncutaneous cancer in men. Bone is the most frequent site of PCa metastases, and up to 90% of patients with advanced PCa develop bone metastases. An altered bone marrow microenvironment, induced by obesity, is a significant mediator for the bone tropism of PCa. However, the specific molecular mechanisms by which obesity causes changes in the bone marrow microenvironment, leading to PCa bone metastasis, are not fully understood. Our results demonstrate that a high fat diet (HFD) leads to dyslipidemia and changes in bone marrow of nude mice: an increased in the area and number of adipocytes and a reduction in the area and number of osteoblasts. Moreover, a HFD promoted cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) expression and inhibited osteoprotegerin (OPG) expression in the bone microenvironment. Additionally, the total level of free fatty acids (FFAs) and caprylic acid (C8:0) was significantly higher in PCa patients with bone metastases. In vitro, caprylic acid (C8:0) promoted bone mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived adipocytic differentiation, COX2 expression and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) secretion, whereas osteoblastic differentiation and OPG expression were reduced. Furthermore, caprylic acid (C8:0) treated adipocytes promoted the invasion and migration of PCa cells. Taken together, our findings suggest caprylic acid (C8:0) promotes bone metastasis of PCa by dysregulated adipo-osteogenic balance of bone marrow.
Keywords: Adipo-osteogenic balance; Bone marrow microenvironment; Caprylic acid (C8:0); Obesity; Prostate cancer bone metastasis.
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pjoshea13
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The low-fat people who use LO/NO-fat products must make up calories with carbohydrate. A low-fat/high-carb meal will result in glucose spikes (the fate of all digestible carb is to become glucose.) This will cause glucose to be converted to triglycerides & dumped around the internal organs, including the prostate. In addition, excess glucose (even when there are no spikes) is converted to palmitic acid - the preferred fuel for prostatic cells - normal & cancerous.
Dr. Myers once said that his low-fat patients didn't as well & it doesn't surprise me. So that isn't an option for me & I embrace the 40% fat diet.
But which fat?
In general, fatty foods are good. Fatty fish, as long as the fish are small. Nuts, as long as they are not high in linolenic acid.
Beef fat? LOL. It might be that the fat is safer than the lean part. The fat that gets the bad rep is stearic acid - 18:0 (18-carbon chain with zero double bonds, i.e. fully saturated). But recent studies have exonerated stearic acid, it is cardio-neutral. A theory is that stearic acid is readily converted into oleic acid - the main fat in olive oil - 18:1 (18-carbon chain with one double bond, i.e. monounsaturated). The double bond is in the middle making it an omega-9 fatty acid. Tallow becomes liquid oil. Unhealthy becomes healthy with the simplest of changes.
There is a widespread belief that olive oil is the reason that the Mediterranean diet is so healthy, but not every Med country uses olive oil as the major fat. Additionally, the European Union has done a poor job of dealing with the mob that controls the olive oil industry. Massive amounts of cheap walnut oil makes its way from Turkey to Italy via Greece and is blended with olive oil.
Olive oil does not age well. Very few olive oils lack the harvest year on the label.
A fresh unfiltered extra-virgin oil purchased from the olive grower is cloudy with lignans & has a nice peppery taste. But most people in the Med cook with cheaper oil devoid of lignans.
As far as I can tell, there is nothing special about oleic acid. And one might as well use lard, which is high in oleic too. LOL
An interesting note about stearic & oleic acids. For many cancers, the ratio of those two fats in the blood has prognostic value. As the cancer advances, stearic falls & oleic rises. It seems to be an artifact of cancer rather than a dietary thing.
I'll no doubt get jumped on, but I use a lot of butter & some olive oil.
One thing to remember is that every fat is a mixture of fatty acids. There is some baggage with all of the fat sources. We don't have polyunsaturated cooking oils in the house. Apart from that, 40% fat is the goal for every meal. We use the best butter & olive oil. There is no point in using compromised products IMO.
Thanks Patrick for this enlightening explanation. How bad you think are my oils...Mustard seed oil , Sesame seed oil ...Sunflower oil . The part of World I come from every family almost every day cooks in these oils BUT the prostate cancer prevalence is less than 10% of that of USA. In other words, how bad you think are these oils for androgen sensitive guys.
Yes, but all fat smoothes glucose spikes. Fat takes longer to digest. Some simple carbs turn to sugar in the mouth. But when carb is mixed with fat, the release of nutrients occurs over a longer period of time.
& so, a 40% olive oil diet will really flatten the post-pradial glucose curve, but the 10% olive oil diet, hardly at all.
Thank you for the post! It might be of interest to note that Dr. John McDougall advocated a diet free of oils. Dr. Ruth Heidrich followed Dr. McDougall's diet after a double mastectomy in the 80's despite having metastases to ribs, foregoing chemo and radiation. A diet free of oils is a bit austere and makes cooking a challenge. I believe that Dr. Heidrich wrote that she uses water and a wok for stir fried vegetables?
LifeExtension sells an extra virgin, unfiltered, organic olive oil grown in California. The olives are pressed within hours of harvest. It is very high in polyphenols.
Interesting that you mentioned Turkey! Read the article in the link below. The author is Peter Whoriskey who wrote this for The Washington Post. It is well researched.
Years ago I felt that China was not a safe importer of any foods--decades ago! Then in recent years "organic" foods from China showed up on shelves? Imagine that! I asked my herbalist who at that time was in his mid 80's what he thought about China as a legitimate source of organic foods. He couldn't have been more vehement about his belief that foods imported from China should be avoided.
Some oils might be a sort of Trojan Horse. I am referring to black seed oil, flax seed oil and "Pumpkinol" pressed from pumpkin seeds with a little fennel oil, coriander oil, wild rosemary oil and wild oregano oil blended in.
I make a blended drink a large part of which is blended seeds and nuts. Blending opens the seeds making their nutrition highly absorbable.
I have been asked by someone to post the "recipe" and blending instructions. I might within the next month or so.
Caprylic acid brings back memories. Once upon a time when I worked for a pharmaceutical company we were restarting a recently purchased, moth balled, pharmaceutical plant. To see how the utilities had fared after being shut down for years, a product, which would be dried into a powder was chosen as the first to be manufactured. This powder was dusted into the latex gloves of that era to aid in putting the gloves on and taking the gloves off. Caprylic acid as one of the ingredients! One reason why that was chosen to begin putting the facility back on line was if we lost a batch it would just be considered an expense of some trial runs. All the I's are dotted and T's are crossed before you start manufacturing money batches.
I'll never forget the top guy's quip about caprylic acid. "We are going import the caprylic acid. It wouldn't do to have a bunch of rotting coconuts around here. " He made this statement in a manner as dry as the powder that was produced with the caprylic acid which brought more than a few chuckles. Delivery and timing is important--remember--that also applies to meds and supps!
I've been eating lake trout and rainbow trout one a week(one filet cut in half.. half one night and the other half the next day), which i had shipped from walleye.com. Seems like quality sourcing, low toxin fish with healthy fatty acids.
Wow...interesting. I was on a ketogenic diet for awhile during the early stages of my sojourn. After I discovered that PCa cells were metabolically flexible, I stopped. Now even more thankful that I stopped. Thanks, Phil
Just wow Patrick. Thanks very much for this. I guess I have to kick coconut milk into touch. How do you feel about hemp seed oil for cooking? I understand that olive oil can be a problem at too high a temperature? Hope you are keeping well.
In a news letter some years ago, they addressed the issue of smoke point. They claim that even unfiltered oil can be use at moderately high temperatures. Typically, there is no need to go above 350 degrees. A thermometer can help if you need it for fries, say, which need 350 degrees.
But sauteing, etc is not a problem. I never understood the advice chefs give - save your best oil for salads, etc, & use a cheap oil for cooking. Why would I want to use a cheap questionable industrial oil for cooking?
I can't speak for hemp oil. I wonder if there is the same issue that cotton seed oil has. Cotton growers do not have the same regulations as food crop farmers have. i.e. they can use pesticides not permitted in food production.
Very interesting Patrick. I have long been suspicious of coconut as well as palm kernel oil (“tropical oils”) since seeing so much adverse health conditions among West Africans who otherwise eat predominantly plant based diets.
Many of my fellow ketogenic eaters favor coconut oil for the MCTs ( medium chain triglycerides) as a quick fatty energy source. Not my choice. Just as soon have a cheeseburger. 😆
Intraductal and drinking C8 'butter coffee' for years...at least the butter is grass fed. Guess I'm screwed no matter what. You could have waited until just before I die to tell me. Great coffee.
New to group. I'm the wife. Husband had PCa diagnosed at 51 yo. Went thru NIH study 6 years (MRI 3T, live ultrasound biopsy) Beginning GS 6 last 3 years GS 7 = 3+4, decided to do RP and had it done Feb 2020, age 58. Pathology of lymph nodes neg and because we could not get back to NIH, PSA test could only show >0.1. hope to get more sensitive test locally or fly to NIH this fall? CV is just screwing up everything.
I read a book last winter - How to Starve Cancer by Jane Mclelland. From book and interviews learned that PCa is a different kind of animal compared to other cancers. Instead of the cancer liking sugar, it likes the protein and fat more! So I'm trying to figure out how to cook for this and help him lose 15 pounds and not feed any future cancer, and myself to lose 45 lbs (I want to do keto, but not good for him).
Is salmon considered a 'big fish'? What are your suggestions for 'small fish' and other sources of protein? We cannot go vegan, just too radical. Have a freezer full of beef ;). mmm, but we like variety of meat sources, we like vegetables, etc. For me I found using coconut in diet, lowered Triglycerides and doubled HDL levels. But I see by this study CO will be a no no for DH, at least in quantity. Also saw someone talk about a study on eggs and w PCa have to eat less of those too.
So, if anyone has suggestions for what to eat. it would be greatly appreciated. Does one consider themselves still 'with' cancer after successful surgery and test results, so eat as though you have cancer to prevent cancer from coming back?
Dr. Myers, who treated many men here before he retired, had aggressive PCa over 20 years ago. He was doing research at UVA but opened up shop nearby. At the beginning he seemed to be in favor of low-fat diets, but he noticed that those patients who followed a strict very low fat diet didn't do well and seemed to age faster.
Subsequently, he shifted to a Mediterranean diet (which he follows - he even has a book of recipes). He reasoned that his new patients were more in danger from cardiovascular disease than PCa. The PREDIMED study proves that the Med diet is heart-healthy. It is 40% fat.
It's been said that a heart-healthy diet is a PCa-healthy diet.
Much of the 40% fat can come from food rather than oils. Embrace fatty foods. Nuts can be used to boost the fat content of a meal. Myers believes, along with Barry Sears (of the Zone Diet fame), that each meal/snack should have the same balance of carb/fat/protein.
The fat usually associated with the Med is olive oil, but there are many countries around the Med - all with low PCa rates - and not all of them use olive oil as the main fat. But find the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford.
Is salmon heart healthy & safe? Pretty much all of the Atlantic salmon available is farmed. Some farms have a good record as to feed, etc. It pays to know the source of what you are buying. I favor Scottish salmon:
Alternatives are wild-caught salmon from Alaska. There is probably more sold than caught, since farms can fine-tune flesh color & fat content for unscrupulous distributors. The canned varieties are genuine if they are in the odd-shaped cans unique to Alaska. I like Royal Red Sockeye. A 3oz serving has 6g fat & 1,180 mg of marine omega-3. You can eat it in a salad, or use any canned tuna fish recipe. The soft bones are a good source of calcium. I eat the skin too.
I love King Oscar sardines. 3oz delivers 2,500 mg marine omega-3 & 20g fat.
Having been born in the UK, I'm partial to a nice kipper for breakfast. My source is:
Quite a number of men here have read the Jane Mclelland book. There is much in it that applies to PCa. It's true that PCa continues to prefer fatty acids - particularly palmitic acid. (Some more advanced PCa can migrate to glucose.) Obviously, palm oil is to be avoided. Very high in palmitic acid. Excess carbs are converted to it, so high-carb meals might be a bad idea. But otherwise, one can't starve the cancer of palmitic acid. And, availabilty does not cause accelerated growth. The cancer takes what it needs & would shift to another energy source if necessary.
Well you just described my diet though I do eat wild caught salmon but sardines, mackerel and anchovies are my primary animal proteins, I have organic chicken thighs occasionally.
Thanks for all this. Can't say I have seen any "odd-shaped cans" of salmon. I search and find pics of Royal Red Sockeye in the standard 3.75 and 14.75 oz cans, and also in what might qualify, a 7.5 oz can with a wider top than bottom. I would think Royal Red would be the same regardless of can size/shape?
There is a big issue regarding the cost of shipping empty cans to Alaska, so the stackable tapered cans, which dramatically cut down on shipping volume, are unique to Alaska. The canneries go through a lot of cans.
So the can shape is a good guide, regardless of brand.
If a reputable company were to use regular cans & state on the label that the fish was wild caught in Alaskan waters. that would be fine too.
According to the usda database, coconut 'water' doesn't have much of anything - certainly, no fatty acids. I love the stuff. The most refreshing I ever tasted was in the Cayman Islands 42 years ago. A coconut had fallen overnight outside our place.
Im so relieved! Thanks for the explanation and yes its a very refreshing drink. We have lots of it here in the Phils. You should come visit when covid is gone 😁
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where c is the number of carbons & d is the number of double bonds
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