The Longevity Formula

Why Your Grandma Was Right About Butter: The Science of C15

• Dr. Brandon Crawford • Season 2 • Episode 39

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Dr. Brandon Crawford and Dr. Steph Venn-Watson delve into the groundbreaking discovery of C15, the first essential fatty acid identified in over 90 years. They discuss its pivotal role in cellular health, inflammation reduction, mitochondrial function, and longevity, shedding light on how modern diets may be lacking in this crucial nutrient. Listeners will be fascinated to learn how supplementing with Fatty15 can bolster brain health, immune function, and overall well-being.

What You’ll Learn

  • C15 is a Newly Discovered Essential Fatty Acid – Identified through dolphin research, C15 is the first essential fatty acid discovered in over 90 years. It plays a critical role in cellular health, metabolism, and longevity.
  • C15 Deficiency Contributes to Accelerated Aging and Disease – A lack of C15 is linked to cellular fragility syndrome, which increases the risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and fatty liver disease. However, supplementation can help reverse these effects.
  • Mitochondrial Function and Cellular Communication Improve with C15 – C15 has been shown to repair mitochondrial dysfunction, enhance energy production, and support cellular signaling pathways crucial for overall health.
  • C15 Plays a Vital Role in Gut Health and Neurodevelopment. It helps reduce inflammation, supports digestion, and promotes beneficial gut bacteria while also playing a role in brain health, cognitive development, and childhood growth.
  • Dietary Sources and Supplementation of C15 – While dairy fat and certain fish parts are natural sources of C15, many people don’t consume enough, making Fatty15 a bioavailable, vegan-friendly alternative.
  • The Future of C15 Research is Expanding – Ongoing studies are uncovering the vast potential of C15 in Alzheimer’s prevention, anti-cancer properties, immune support, and its role in activating the endocannabinoid system for mood and sleep regulation. This exciting research is paving the way for a future where C15 could play a significant role in our health and well-being.


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Voice Over: Welcome to the Longevity Formula with Dr. Brandon Crawford. Let's explore the new era of wellness. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is where we explore a new era of wellness through the pillars of faith, light, movement, mindset, nutrition, and science. I'm your host, Dr. Brandon Crawford, and today we're unraveling one of the most intriguing discoveries.

in modern nutritional science. I'm talking about C 15. And if you haven't heard about that, then just hang tight. This is one of the most exciting things in the nutritional world that I've come across in a long time. So, hyper focused on similarities between human and dolphin health, our guest today made a breakthrough that left the scientific community astonished.

Dr. Stephanie Van Watson spent years studying aging dolphins and made connections that revealed powerful insights into human nutrition. She's published groundbreaking research, influenced, influenced public health discussions and is on a mission to change our understanding of what our bodies truly need to thrive.

Now, here's the thing. I could go on and on about the background. of this young lady just a few things to kind of get you up to speed on what she's done, right? So she's been the CEO of Serafina Therapeutics. She's a seasoned veterinary epidemiologist and public health scientist. Stephanie has previously, previously served at the World Health Organization in the U.

S. Navy. She's been on a lifelong mission to help those not just humans, but also animals age better. Stephanie's award winning approach to improving human and animal health has been featured on NPR, BBC, CBS, and National Geographic. In her time as CEO at Serafina Therapeutics, she's been recognized for extensive research and education on C 15.

I mean, really, I could continue to go on and on, Stephanie. I mean, come on. So, my gosh. Thank you so much for joining us, first of all. I'm just thrilled to have you here. 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Well, I'm humbled by that introduction. Great to be here, Dr. Crawford. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. So I first came across fatty 15, right? So that's the product where, you know, we're talking about C 15.

I'm going to have you explain what exactly C 15 is and what it means and everything. But I first came across it, honestly, you know, a while ago I, I saw, I don't know if it was an ad or if it was an email or a magazine article, I honestly don't remember how I came across it, but when I started reading about it, I just thought, man, like no way that all these things are, are really happening.

From this one capsule. I just thought this is too good to be true just to be honest, right? And then the awesome thing was I was at the biohacker conference this year And I was walking through the convention and I saw you there and I was like, wait a minute There, there's the product, first of all, but not just the product, but there's the person I've got to go speak to you, right?

And so you're there, we're, we engaged in some cool conversations and here we are now. So again, just so grateful for you being here. Before I get into your background, I think what people really want to know is what is the C15 thing? What is that? Do you mind elaborating a bit? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Oh, not at all. I'm happy to to be spread in the word for sure.

And thank you for that opportunity. So C 15 the fancy name for it is pentadecanoic acid, and it is an odd chain saturated fatty acid. So first thing, it's a fatty acid. So when we think about fatty acids, Brandon, we often, right, think about omega 3 fatty acids. So it's in that same world of fatty acids and it's a different way.

And we can go into those differences in this conversation, but again, it's this I chain saturated fatty acid. It is the first essential fatty acid to be discovered in over 90 years since Omega three and Omega six. So thank you, dolphins. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right. Okay. So great segway. It was a great segway because I really want to kind of get into this dolphin discussion.

And I was sitting there going, man, I really want to know more about the dolphins, but I just asked her about C 15. How am I going to get her back to that? So thank you for that. So let's kind of go back to the beginning, if you will. What brought you to the Navy's dolphin program and what was that aha moment that really set you down this path?

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Right. Great, great question. So, yes, I'm a veterinary epidemiologist, which means that I am trained. I'm a veterinarian and trained to track diseases. So look for patterns in populations. Most of us, veterinary epidemiologists ended up working. end up working in the human health realm. So that's why I was over there working for World Health Organization and C.

D. C. 20 years ago. And then I was recruited by the Navy unexpectedly where they said, Hey, stuff you want to come on over and help understand population health for Navy dolphins. And I didn't even know that the Navy had dolphins and I thought, gosh, an opportunity to go to San Diego hang out with the dolphins and better understand what this program's all about.

Heck yeah. So long story short learned very quickly. Brandon, that the Navy takes extraordinarily good care of this population of about 100 bottlenose dolphins over the past 60, 60 years. And they live in the open ocean in the San Diego Bay, go out to the ocean every day, every day they choose to come back.

So because of the great care that they get. This is why the Navy dolphins live extraordinarily longer than wild dolphins. In the wild, dolphins live to about 20 years old. At the Navy, they're now living up to 60 years old. So we have this population of older Navy dolphins and the Navy had the foresight to bring in a veterinary epidemiologist, you know, humble me to come in and say, we really want to understand population health of aging dolphins.

To help improve the dolphins lives. So it was a tremendous gift and opportunity to be able to do that. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, that's actually really I didn't get going, 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: but I thought I'd take a breath and like, come in here. Oh, for sure. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: It's really intriguing. So, I mean, I have like 500 questions in my head right now.

So, first of all, I'm just curious. Why are they so intensely focused on this subset of dolphins? Like, why? What's the purpose of that? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Of course, so, so the, it ends up that the dolphins, and we've known this since, you can go way back into history, right, where dolphins have a special relationship with people.

Like, you talk about surfers being out into the, in the ocean. And they're all have stories of, Oh, and then there was a dolphin that came up right next to me or people in boats saying the dolphins were fought. So you've had that same experience. So there is a special connection between us humans and our fellow large brain, long live mammals.

And so as part of that relationship, the Navy discovered in the 1960s that dolphins were willingly working with the Navy. To be able to help with things, and that included like today of finding underwater objects that are lost, be able to find enemy swimmers in the water, things that are easy peasy for them.

And today, even though the program's been around for over 60 years, technology is starting to catch up. And so they're starting to retire some of these dolphin programs and, but the Navy is committed to taking care of these dolphins throughout their entire lives. And so it's, it really is an amazing and wonderful opportunity to be able to be part of taking care of this dolphin population.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's super cool. So what were some things that you gleaned from working in that realm? And then, you know, fast forwarding to where you're at right now, right? So you've discovered this amazing product, it's helping people of all types of demographics and we'll get into some of that, right? I mean, just talking about my.

patient demographic alone, right? You are helping, you know, kids with brain injuries, neurodevelopmental disorders, pain syndromes even just CEOs trying to gain an edge, like all these different demographics are benefiting from your product. So what, like, how did that experience in the Navy and with the Dolphins, like, how does that, how has that helped shape what you're doing now?

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, I mean, it was it started out as an accidental discovery and years we've learned that sometimes the best discoveries are those, you know, that that were accidental. We were doing a study where we were first we had spent 10 years understanding that dolphins age. A lot like people that they develop a chronic inflammation, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease and on the neurodegenerative part, even the full suite of changes consistent with Alzheimer's.

So, once we saw these parallels between aging dolphins and aging people, that then allowed us to go in, use this advanced technology called metabolomics. To understand why some of the Navy's dolphins were developing these aging associate diseases. They were aging faster while other dolphins were aging, but without developing these conditions.

So metabolomics, we looked at thousands of small molecules present in their all fish diet because all they eat are fish. And in the Navy's and the Dolphins Archive Serum to see which small molecules predicted the healthiest aging dolphins, we thought, and just assumed it was going to be Omega 3s because, you know, since all they eat are fish and lo and behold, C15 which I never heard of was at the top and that was then the leading molecule predicting the healthiest aging dolphins.

So that then led. To all basically moving pure C 15 into the lab, the dolphin story was done at that point moving pure C 15 into the lab, working on it over the past 10 years with funding by the Office of Naval Research to understand not only is it a bioactive and beneficial saturated fat, but that it meets these, you know, rare criteria of being essential fatty acid, a nutrient that Every human and often long live mammal needs really in order to live a long and healthy life.

Big, huge breakthrough. And yeah, thanks to thanks to, you know, helping dolphins. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, absolutely. So. You're able to discover this new nutrient and not only able to discover it, but then able to correlate it with health and longevity. And with something that I think is termed C 15 deficiency syndrome, right?

I've also, I think, seen the verbiage of cellular fragility, right? Going along with this concept of being deficient. So can you kind of walk us through what does this look like if you're deficient in C 15? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, so this is a really important question and I love where you started. First, Dr.

Crawford, with regard to Correlation, right? Because the dolphin data and the same thing was showing up in human data as well at the same time, which is that people with higher levels of C 15 had a lower risk of developing these chronic aging associated diseases like type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease.

and heart disease. So correlation. So then that's when moving into the lab and showing it's not just association, it's causation that C 15 is causing it. So it is a really bold stake in the ground to say that something is NSA. It's not only a beneficial thought, but that it's an essential fatty acid because this is only the third ever discovered.

And so a key part of if something is really essential, like you think about a vitamin like vitamin C. So if it's truly essential. There should be a deficiency syndrome. There should actually be in the absence of that essential nutrient that you get disease and a good example of that that most people know are like vitamin C deficiency and scurvy right from pirates that didn't have citrus on the ships and vitamin D deficiency and rickets.

This is where it really the discovery of a deficiency syndrome with if people or dolphins have too low levels of C 15 in their bodies, they develop exactly what you shared, which is called cellular fragility syndrome. And it's exactly what it sounds like. One of the primary roles of C 15 is it is a sturdy fatty acid.

That goes into our cell membranes and it helps protect ourselves against premature and age related breakdown. It is such a simple, simple role, but if you figure, could you, how long could you live in a house without a wall, without walls and a roof, it's comfortably, it's probably not going to be long. So every, our body is made out of cells.

Every cell is protected by a cell membrane. And one of C 15's core essential roles is to be a sturdy fatty acid within our cell membrane that protects it against breakdown. If levels are too low, then they become fragile and they fall apart. And that then accelerates the aging process and results in a more aggressive and earlier onset of things like type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and heart disease, which we've been seeing.

And younger and younger people, right? A big question has been, why are people in their 30s and younger all of a sudden seeing an increase in coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer? So that's where this deficiency syndrome is helping to fill in a gap of helping to answer what is a driver of this problem.

And what's most exciting about it is, you know, nutritional deficiencies are fixable. And so that provides a lot of hope. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: A lot of hope. I mean, literally giving hope to some of the most you know, devastating. Conditions and, and definitely the most, you know, costly when it comes to our economy and healthcare system.

So this, this is huge. As you were speaking through all that, I kind of had some thoughts come into my head. So if you're improving the cell membrane, right, you're, you're going to be, you're going to be improving cell to cell communication as well. Right. So that's a lot of. Things that we're looking at in the regenerative medicine space right now is how do I enhance cell to cell communication, I don't know if Have y'all had any specific research looking at that or is it mainly been structural related?

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: It's been there's been so much Happened over the past so that was that discovery we made about 10 years ago in 2015 and since then you know, our research has continued, but wonderfully so has research on C 15 around the world. So there are over a hundred peer reviewed studies. Now, and they're all at discover c15.

com and that's where we put all the peer reviewed research is there. And so now we know a lot about what this little essential fatty acid, 15 carbon, essential fatty acid does a primary role. 1 of his primary roles is exactly what we said, protecting the cell membrane. But Brandon, just as you had.

We also know that it helps with cellular signaling, not only by protecting the cell membrane, but it directly activates AMPK, AKT, PPAR alpha and delta. It directly inhibits mTOR and JAKSTAT. So it's like you're nodding your head. It's these really core receptors to keeping our metabolism. Our, immune system, our communication between cells, its whole job is just to keep us balanced for as long as possible.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's amazing. And so obviously if you're talking about, you know, the influence on mTOR, AMPK I would assume cert genes, et cetera then you're going to have an influence on cellular senescence. I mean, you have to, I mean, that's really what the discussion is kind of dovetailing into. Yeah. Whether preventing or actually maybe even treating I don't know if that's a discussion to be had.

And I guess for the listeners, right, cellular senescence is a big topic not one that I was really planning to go into, but I mean, it's there, right? We're there. So I don't know how, how deep you want to get into that. Maybe we can save that for another time, but let's just say this. This is an amazing molecule, right, because if I'll say it this way, if there was a prescription that would do all of these things with this type of safety profile.

Everyone and their dog would be on it, right? I mean, I think we could just kind of make a blanket statement as such. What, what I would really be curious to engage here is what about mitochondrial influence, right? That's another place that my mind is going. Like if you're, if all of these amazing things are being seen, have we had any type of research or discussion around how this influences the mitochondria?

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: We have, yeah, so, and that's what, because, you know, as we all wrote, as we all learned in 3rd grade, 4th grade, like your mitochondria is like powerhouses of ourselves, so if we don't have, right, the batteries and the energy producers within ourselves, that translates all the way up to our overall health.

So we did a study and that was, we did in the early days, we did these 8 studies over 3 years to understand. How C 15 works at what doses what's the optimal concentration and, and one of those studies included taking cells that had basically impaired mitochondria. So, mitochondria that weren't functioning well, and when we treated those cells with pure C 15, it improved mitochondrial function significantly.

So, it has a direct role in helping to repair mitochondrial function. With regard to understanding there are these four or five complexes that help lead to energy production and we're often broken in the first step of energy production of by mitochondria called complex one. And C15 has a really neat workaround mechanism of being able to just hop into the complex 2 and basically let that, let those mitochondria get back to it, get back to work.

So it's really, again, all of this thing is like, wait, wait. So whatever I ask you, you have it like, yes, it does that too. And again, it sounds too good to be true, but it really just gets down to. It's an essential nutrient and nature. We have evolved to be able to leverage this molecule from nature and nature has put it to work right to do a lot of important things and a lot of heavy lifting.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. I do want to ask you one more question because again, you just keep getting my mind in motion here and then we'll go into something else, but. So if you're able to really have, which is amazing, if you're able to kind of help repair this complex one situation, I know a lot of oncology research, I like a lot of cancers and whatnot are, are, are being theorized.

And I think some proven to be related to this disruption in complex one, and obviously there's others, but have you seen any improvements? And I know cancer is a hard topic to kind of talk around. But has there been any kind of focus in that realm? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: There's, yes, there's actually been a lot of research on C 15 and as it's for anti cancer properties.

We had done some initial studies, what's called human cell based phenotypic profiling, where there are lots of measurements taken, thousands of measurements taken across different. Human cell systems mimicking various disease states, and it comes out with this profile and the profile predicted that C 15 at higher concentrations mimicked that of gemcitabine and paclitaxel, which are two really common.

anti cancer drugs. So that was interesting, but it predicted it would have these activities. Then, concurrently, there was a whole 2 other groups in the east in Asia, who had been working on C15 and anti cancer properties and showing that its role as an HDAX6 and that injects that inhibitor, that it directly inhibits.

Stops the proliferation of multiple of multiple cancer cell types and even in vivo, which is probably most important is that it helps it helps Jim said it being work better and that can go. So, even though it's wonderful on its own. The fact that it could be a safe ride along with other cancer treatments that really just gives physicians and patients, you know, a lot more to be able to work with even reverse tomoxifen resistance and breast cancer cell lines.

So a lot of exciting work being done by other teams on the cancer front. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's quite amazing. I mean, seriously, that that's, that's really amazing. I'm happy to hear that. And I hope that everyone listening. Is really kind of starting to understand that there is a lot of science that has been done and a lot of things that are, are really understood here.

And this can apply in so many different directions, but you're right. Like, this is something that our brains and our bodies have evolved with over, you know, the course of. Thousands of years. And I guess a good question to follow up from that is, what's it evolving from? Where in nature do we find C 15?

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Right, so a lot of our nutrients essential nutrients and vitamins not surprisingly come from milk and milk fat, and that is because every mammal gets milk at birth. So right. It makes sense. If you like, you think about it, it's the perfect food that nature has made for every baby mammal. So that means it has to contain.

Everything that at least a developing young youngling right needs in order to not only survive, but thrive. So that's why a lot of the vitamins and even the 2 other essential fatty acids were discovered. Through milk fat of omega three and omega six. So C15, our primary source by far for humans, at least in Western countries, is dairy fat.

It's such a reliable source. Dairy fat is such a reliable source of our C15 that for decades, C15, even though it was known, it wasn't known to be beneficial. But it had been recognized as a reliable biomarker of how much dairy fat we eat. So it's that, it's that reliable of a source that how much C 15 you have in your body equals how much dairy fat you eat.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Wow. Yeah, that, that's quite amazing. So, so I've been asked this already from my patient base, right? And I know that. This is kind of a prevailing question in the functional medicine world, functional neurology world that we get asked a lot, you know, is this concept of dairy intolerance, right? So, I know that a lot of people just heard dairy and a lot of people just went, well, I can't do that.

So, what are your thoughts behind that? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Right. So it is one reason there, there are several, but one of the reasons because so many people have dairy intolerance and globally, right? You can have entire countries where people are. Dairy intolerant that this is a big reason why the U. S. Navy, the Office of Naval Research funded us to develop a pure vegan friendly, you know, bioavailable C15 ingredient so that for several reasons, but one of them was to help address and get around the the dairy intolerance.

component because it has no allergens in it and it lets it get to work, right? And the other is that, you know, dolphins were getting it from their fish. So a big question I get is, well, what fish can I eat to be able to get C15? And so you can get C15 from fish, but from the most part that it's most highly concentrated in the skin and the heads of the fish, which the dolphins eat, but we tend not to eat those parts of the fish.

So and I think that's why dairy fats. It's such a reliable biomarker of it. So the point of this ingredient was really office enabled research that can we take, can we take this ingredient, make it pure, make it bioavailable, make it vegan friendly and make it more efficacious than just getting it from food alone.

And that was the challenge we were given and it has undoubtedly succeeded in being more effective than simply just 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, that's beautiful. So you can either be like Bear Grylls and just eat the whole dang fish you know, without cooking it headfirst, right? You can do that. 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: That's right. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Or you can reach for your fatty 15 and, and take this every day.

That's fantastic. But I really wanted. everyone, especially in my world, you know, because a lot of people that we deal with, they have autoimmunity or a brain injury or something, and they've developed this dairy intolerance. And I've had several patients with severe dairy issues, and they've been taking the product with no problems, with no issues.

Just to kind of reiterate what Stephanie just said is, you know, they've developed this product around this product, this problem. So that we can be delivering this essential nutrient to the people that need it the most. And sometimes the people that need it the most are the ones that can't actually tolerate dairy that well.

Right. So I guess a good question for you then is if. Abel, do you think it's a good idea to be consuming some good quality dairy in addition to taking this supplement? What do you think about that? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: I, I agree. I mean, I, I wholeheartedly embrace whole dairy fat products. Like I I myself have cheese, you know, like hard cheeses for snacks every day.

That's probably your best source of us of C 15. We now know that the amount of C 15, so, so first and foremost, it may, may be obvious, but knowing that it's the whole milk fat, it's a whole dairy fat that has a C 15 in it. So once you go to a low fat, it has half as much C 15 and you go to nonfat, it has no C 15.

And when you talk about all the different fatty acids, even in whole fat whole milk fat, only 1 percent of those fatty acids are C15. And so it's, it, it's, it is still a good source. It is part of my diet. And I really think it's because I combine good, healthy sources of dairy fat with like my cheeses with fatty 15, that it's enabling me to achieve levels that are two to three times higher than the average person in the United States today that are sitting on that edge of cellular fragility syndrome.

I'm able to get up and beyond to the levels of where that are, where multiple studies have supported lower risk of developing heart disease and and supporting longevity. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's awesome. Yeah. It was actually the, the dialogue that I started reading from your company from fatty 15 surrounding, you know, this concept of, Hey, we need to be, you know, still engaging and eating good quality you know, dairy products and all these types of things.

And then I'm a blue zone nut. So I like looking at all the different blue zones in the world. My family and I, we did, you know, do a sabbatical in Costa Rica at one point in our life. And so we, we did a trip to Italy this past year and we were supposed to go to Sardinia, but. We, we ended up not, we, we, but we did go all the way through Italy and everything.

But I'm, I'm like obsessed with blue zones and it was interesting. I didn't notice like specifically to Sardinia, they do actually have this higher you know, dairy content in their, in their food. Like I, I didn't actually think through it like that, but actually looking at. You know, their diet there, they do have this diet rich in, in milk products.

Right. So it was very interesting to kind of think through it. In that regard really interesting and intriguing. Yeah, 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: and they're, they're C15 levels are, that is one of the drivers for these higher support for these higher levels. The average American has C15 levels or really throughout the world of around 0.2 Of fatty acids in our blood and in our cells are C15 This is again, right at that edge of fragility syndrome. The Sardinians have between 0.4 to 0.6 And they, and they're not taking fatty 15, right? So it's not like this is where we're making fatty 15 and everyone gets it for free there. It's, it's because like you said, they have a high dairy diet.

And they're it's local goats and sheep. that eat grass that get this, right? It's, it's even mountainous grass. And studies have shown that mountainous grass that goats, sheep, cows that eat mountainous grass specifically have the highest C 15 levels in their milk. So Pecorino is the cheese that comes from the Sardinia region and it has about two times higher C 15 levels than most of our high fat dairy products in the grocery stores.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's awesome. What was the name of that cheese again? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Pecorino. Pecorino. Yeah, P E C O O R I N O. Something like that. And it's delicious. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And, and I'm sure it's really good in pasta. So when you're in Italy, you know, it mixes in with the pasta, that's where I eat my gluten. Otherwise I'm not eating gluten, but when I'm in Italy, I do eat, I do eat, I do eat gluten.

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Exactly. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, you've mentioned C15 levels several times as though you can test for it and what you can, can you discuss the testing that you've kind of brought to the world too in order to test your levels. 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: yeah, I can. And so, so C 15 levels can be measured by most physicians have access to fatty acid panels even before us.

And increasingly fatty acid panels are including C 15. So you do have to make sure and check that if, say, I want a fatty acid panel, make sure that includes C 15. And for folks that have, don't have access to a physician, you can get a broad fatty acid panel. We worked with Genova Diagnostics to develop an at home C15 test.

So that's the one that I used. So they can send it to your home and then you fill out some blood spots, some spots with blood and then you send it out and then you get your measurements back pretty quickly. So That way people can use it as a guide, which, which is nice. You can kind of see where you're at and we really recommend it.

Not everyone needs it. Over half of our customers with fatty 15 report feeling benefits within two weeks. And we have 72 percent feel or see benefits through blood work. And things like that within 16 weeks and without having to test their levels. But if somebody thinks they're extra deficient because for dietary purposes, if they aren't able to have dairy fat, for example or if they're not responding to fatty 15 in the way that they were hoping, that's probably where getting your C15 levels tested comes in.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Perfect. I mean, I know I've been, I've personally been taking it regularly for several months now. I'm actually about to have my labs done and I usually do this pretty comprehensive panel. I'm really curious to see how my thyroid markers respond. I typically have a few inflammatory markers that are kind of on the edge.

My thyroid antibodies, depending on what I'm doing. Maybe going crazy. So I'm kind of curious to see, I know there's so many variables, especially with my life with all the things that I have going on, but I'm just real curious to see I will just say, you know, my wife takes it regularly to get my wife to take something regularly.

There has to be something to it. Right. And, and so she's saying that it's helping her gut and digestion. That's a noticeable thing that she's saying. It is something that I'm making sure my own kids are taking. So I'm giving my 10 year old, my 14 year old, I am giving them this supplement. I am giving them fatty, fatty 15 in the morning.

And I'm doing that to, you said it's a central fatty acid. That's very important, especially from a neurodevelopmental standpoint. The stuff between our ears is a bunch of fat. And so we need to be sure that we're supplying the right. the right types of fat so that we do get proper neural development. So when it comes to that world of neural development what are we supposed to be recommending to, let's say, a pregnant mom or childhood development, like what are we, let's talk about that for a little bit.

How about that? I'll just let you go. 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, absolutely. So as an essential fatty acid, again, that kind of gets back to our, our conversation Brandon with earlier conversation about it's in milk, right? And so it's every infant mammal gets C15 from birth. So this is an important. Hint right that it's not just essential, even though we talk about triggers and activates all these longevity pathways and protects against age related breakdown.

We're talking about health and essentiality from the very beginning. There's a whole entire other groups that are looking at the earliest ends of. parts of our life. In the beginning. So if we look at studies with regard to women who are pregnant showing that higher C 15 levels, that the more C 15 mom has the lower her risk of developing gestational diabetes.

And again, that's a correlation study. That was not an intervention study, but supportive and consistent with intervention studies, demonstrating C15 beneficial metabolic effects when there are studies looking at women with things like a diminished ovarian reserve and studies involving in vitro fertilization and showing that the more C15 that is surrounding the embryo and the ovary The better that embryo develops the faster it develops.

And the people with diminished women with diminished ovarian reserve, which means they have less eggs, basically the lower their C15 levels. So, so the suggestion from that study was that higher C15 can help support at this earliest stage. When we move then forward, we now know that women with higher C15.

I get more, I have more C 15 in their milk, and the more that gets to their babies. And that babies who get more C 15 from mom have better body growth, have better heads circumference, right, indicative of brain health. And there's an ongoing study in France, they're now at year six, where the kids are six years old, showing that these children with higher C 15 have better cognitive.

So it's all fits with the consistency of of C15 being essential, including, and especially neurodevelopment and our earliest, earliest ages. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's amazing. So you talk about ovarian reserve and fertility and whatnot. Has there been anything that looks at sperm quality? Because that sometimes it's, I don't know if it's easier, but you can.

You know, because the guys sperm will recycle where the, you know, the eggs won't, right? Do we have anything that should just 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: lose them? Right. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Exactly. There's 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: no going backward. Yeah, yeah. That's a good, that's actually a really good point. I had not even thought about that. I have not. Today, I have not seen studies on.

C 15's impact on sperm function or motility or count. But after that, this conversation, I'm going to go look. The, the focus I've seen so far has been, yeah, more on mom's side. Really interesting question. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Cool. Well, just a thought. I mean, if it's influencing mitochondria and if influencing it's, it's doing amazing things.

I mean, shoot, if that's going to improve fertility in men too. I mean, that's a skyrocketing issue right now. Not just women, but men for sure. So, I know that everyone's going to want to know dosing, right? Because we've talked about this amazing thing. Can you walk us through some dosing schedules, maybe for just an active, healthy person the pregnant mom you were just talking about, kids, all the things.

Do you mind running us through that? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Not at all. So, it's very reliable. So, again, another sign of an essential fatty acid. Is that you can reliably say, if you take this much, you will increase your blood levels by this much and because our bodies don't make enough of it. So it's truly what we eat is what we have in our bodies.

So that's really good news. There have been extensive what's called pharmacokinetic or bioavailability studies on the pure. C15 ingredient that's in fatty 15 that have been done by others in all ages of people and we, it's reliably for every 100 milligrams of C15 that we take in that increases our blood levels by about this 0.1 or 10 micromolars. So there's. And our targeted levels, we didn't talk about micromolars, but a lot of studies show that the sweet spot is between 20 to 50 micromolar of C 15 in our blood is really where all the most of the magic happens for C 15. So that means that we need because we are all sitting on some level of C 15, nobody has zero.

So it does mean that our gut and it's interesting with regard to your wife and her gut health that C 15 actually helps our gut. Not only with decreasing inflammation and helping with digestion, but it also helps good bacteria grow that then make more C 15. So it's a wonderful cycle. So with regard to dosing the amount is you need about an average of 100 to 300 milligrams added C 15 per day.

And that could be a combination of food and supplementation. Understanding that the what we've learned and others have shown is that the pure part usually we say 1 to 200 milligrams of the pure C 15. that doesn't have to worry about competing with all the other fats present in in the foods and that should get you for the average.

Person into kind of what we said away from the cliff of cellular fragility syndrome and into that healthy maintenance state. So, we always recommend people take 1 pill a day at 100 milligrams for 3 to 6 months. See how you're doing and feeling, and if it's working for you, you're great. If you wanted then, if you're like I think I'm there, but I'd like to try it too.

And because you're not quite getting to where you want to be, then people can go up to two capsules per day. And then if you're Not if you're having to go beyond that, then that's where we recommend getting tested to make sure that, you know, you're in the right spot and there is variation in how people respond to C 15.

It's, it's remarkably consistent compared to other things, but we're still different people. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, well, what if I just take the whole bottle? I mean, come on, if it's that essential and it's amazing, why not just down the whole thing? What would happen to me? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, you know, we we, safety studies have, we have not seen a a level that is toxic, but I shouldn't say toxic that causes a negative side effects.

But even water, you can have too much of water and really we're, we're all about the minimum amount that you need to take to be efficacious. And that's really from an economic standpoint, right? So we are not pill pushers in the way of like. Well, if one is great, then five is even better. So if you can do great and sustain well on that one capsule a day, then that is, you should stay there and enjoy that that range.

So more to be honest, I think if you had if you took the whole bottle, you might end up passing you know, it wouldn't necessarily do more for you than two capsules a day. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: You just have more expensive stools, right? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And that's kind of what I was getting at. You know, for me personally, I'm usually doing two a day.

I like taking two a day. I can take three if I get up to four. I'm, you know, probably in the bathroom too much that day. Is this kind of a bowel tolerant situation as is most fatty acids. Is that pretty accurate? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, it's probably pretty accurate. I mean, your body's telling you, you know, what, how much you need and how much you don't.

And, you know, there's no need to, and again, all of our studies show that there is this sweet spot and what we used to get. I mean, in the 1950s, we used to drink two cups of whole fat milk per day. And that got us that, you know, the, the amount that we needed. But now we know that we can actually do better than nature and get rid of the pro inflammatory fats.

So, but this gets us to the appropriate dosing that our bodies really need without having to go higher. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Cool. Yeah, I mean again, I I do see even babies, right? I'll have and again, I'm working with pathology injuries, that type of thing. So I've got, you know, little, little babies, little kiddos. We're dosing it up.

Some of them, they're doing like half of a capsule. Honestly, some of the kids are tolerating one or two a day just fine. And, and when I'm pushing a brain, I'm trying to develop it. So I'm increasing. the metabolism in, you know, in efforts to establish neuroplasticity faster. So I'm giving more fuel to the brain, right?

So that's kind of the goal of what we're doing. Well, like I said, we're seeing really good results with that. It's definitely supporting our patients exceptionally well. I love it. And. The neurodevelopmental crowd right in that demographic, whether it's autism, ADHD, honestly, I love this for ADHD. I don't know how much you guys have looked at it, but if you give a kid with, you know, moderate ADHD, that's kind of having some trouble at school.

It seems to really help them focus at school. That's just my clinical evidence anecdotal information there. So I make sure those kiddos are taking this before they go off to school. So it's been, you know, really helpful in our patient demographics. We'll continue to explore and, and definitely recommend it as much as possible.

I'm, I'm curious with all of this information, with all of this data, with all of the. You know, safety pro, the safety profile of C 15. Why isn't everyone and their dog on this? Why isn't, you know, the hospital system adopting it? Why isn't this like more mainstream? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, it's, it's a really good question and it is you know, about.

Awareness and education. So for us, we spent, you know, 10 years of really just building credibility. And, you know, our job is we're about to say that a saturated fat that's in butter is not only not bad for you, but. That you have to have to maintain your health. So we better get this right. So it's been 10 years of science.

And like I said, not just from us, but from others around the world. There are new studies, Brandon, coming out now, probably one study every two weeks now from around the world of just continuing to feed the importance and benefits of C 15. So it needed to start on the science front. And now we're just starting to get that translated out into the broader awareness into you know, the health care providers, people like yourself.

You then can read, you know, we'll read the science, understand it, put it to work. Thank you so much for sharing what you're seeing with your patients. And cause that's really what's meaningful to clinical trials, randomized controlled clinical trials just published on C15 and showing positive results.

So these are all things needed to happen. The reason why it's not just. Everyone knows about it is I think personally, it's just our blinders have been so sad that all saturated fats are bad for us. That is just really hard. It's been like 50 years of being told all that, right? And even the USDA nutritional guidelines today, the ones that are active through 2025.

Mention avoiding all saturated fats or reducing it 161 times and 160 page 65 page document. So, we have to get past that. We just, you know, the science continues which is why we're so vocal and adamant about this movement and why we're creating the movement that people need to know the fragility syndrome that we're seeing younger people aging faster.

We have a way to. to help fix this problem. So we really can't afford to wait. And it's really the next line has been people like yourself, where it's the healthcare providers, you have the knowledge base to be able to communicate it out to their patients. And yeah, it's, it's a well worth it road to, to help improve global health.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. Well, that was actually. My next question was, what do you think about this whole, what I would call myth surrounding saturated fats and, you know, this whole dialogue that was started and I think you nailed that one, right? So, so definitely thank you for bringing that to the table. I think that's something that people need to maybe replay and listen to again.

And I don't want to, I mean, I don't want to go into like conspiracy theory directions or whatever. I don't want to say we were lied to. I just, let's just say that. You know, that information about saturated fats is proving to be wrong and we need to change our thought process in society about how we view saturated fats and specifically in regards to the C 15 topic for sure.

Because man, Did that miss the boat? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, and there's so much science around C 15 now that we just, you can't explain it away. And so it's just, you know, the big part of this movement is, you know, how do we get. Regulatory bodies to be able to really let's dive in and let's look at the data. Let's figure out what gaps need to get filled, but let's get going on this because, you know, we have an opportunity to help write a wrong.

That wasn't not intended, but we need to continue to learn. As more and more science comes out and yeah, and the dolphins provide us a, just an amazing kind of shortcut window to to kind of cut to the chase of, of the importance of C 15 that eventually was coming out in humans. It's just that the dolphins just help provide a very clean picture on what was 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: happening.

Right. Absolutely. Well, I'm just curious because I'm, I'm all about innovation. I like looking to, you know, what's coming down the pipeline, what's happening. And you may not be able to tell me all the details. I totally understand that. But is there something that you and your, your team, your research team, or anyone like, what are y'all looking into?

Like, what's the next frontier, whether it be C15 or even something different? Like, is there something you can elude to for us? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Yeah, we we have an exciting paper coming out in 2025 very relevant to you, Dr. Crawford with regard to how well C 15 targets specific receptors related to Alzheimer's therapeutic targets which obviously has larger benefits to brain health and neurodevelopment.

Overall and there's another study coming out around. We've already demonstrated that C15 helps to reduce, I brought diseases specific to the liver that now maybe panning out for the lung as well for pulmonary fibrosis. And then we're also looking into this metabolite of C 15 that our bodies use.

So C 15 in itself does all these wonderful things, but these near term benefits of calmer mood and better sleep didn't really fit with the mechanisms of action of C 15. Until we came to understand that our bodies use C15 to make the second molecule called pentadecanoyl carnitine or PDC that fully activates our endocannabinoid system.

So, CB1 and CB2, which again, this is so helpful from a, from a natural, our bodies have these receptors, not for cannabis, right? That's not why they're there. Their receptors are there for whole body homeostasis. Right for molecules that our bodies make. So we were meant to get C 15 to make this molecule to be able to help with these, you know, BU aspects.

So we're diving in more to understand this endocannabinoid that second ever discovered full acting molecule like this. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Wow. Okay. So that's quite amazing. , that just opened up a whole nother you know, hour long discussion. I mean, really, that's quite amazing that, that y'all are now looking at, Hey, C15 is amazing.

But let's look downstream. Let's look at what else, what are the metabolites and what are those, how are those interacting with our biology and et cetera, man, that's, that's freaking amazing. 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Thanks. That really got me 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: thinking. 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: We published that original study and scientific reports and then kind of in the background have been just continuing to work on that on that molecule in and of itself.

But we do know that by taking C15 that our levels do rise. So our bodies are. Knowing and what we're seeing is, are there variations between people on who makes those metabolites better than others? But yeah, lots of exciting things on that front. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Nice, cool, cool. Well I mean, I could definitely just continue to talk to you here and you're definitely a person that I would love to pick your brain on just for hours upon end.

And I think that I have a lot of people listening that would love to continue to learn more both about you, about your product, about all of this information. Do you mind just giving everyone, you know, where can they learn more about you? You already mentioned a website with research. Do you mind restating that?

And then just giving, you know, any other information that you might want to give here. 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Of course, so discover c15. com is where all the peer reviewed literatures. We try to keep up to date with each of those new studies that come in. We put them in on that site there and it's divided out by different indications and needs and then, the Fatty 15, the supplement we talked about is at fatty15. com. And then the whole story again, the science is just, we can't keep up with it because it's, it's, it's moving so quickly, but there are at least 20 years worth of C15 science packed into Simon and Schuster reached out Brandon last summer and they said, stop, this is not just like a Ted talk and a wonderful discovery.

This is a book. So the longevity nutrient it's now for presale, but we'll be out on shelves on March 25th, 2025. So if you want to a good sleep aid, then there's the longevity nutrient to read all the science and kind of all these things that we've been talking about, do a deep dive on the story behind the discovery.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah, I mean, it's too exciting for me to fall asleep reading that that would actually keep me up. I mean. I am a nerd, but I mean, that would be one that, you know, I would just honestly, I, I'm just going to geek out on all the research. I typically go to sleep reading research. And that is an honest statement.

You can ask my wife. I have it on my phone. And of course, for all you circadian nuts out there. Yes, I have my phone screen set to, you know, read and have the intensity down. And so before I start getting messages about that But yeah, that's really exciting and I'll just say this, you know, just from Being in the world of product development, clinical science, I'm a clinician myself, but you know, I do multiple different things.

There is a difference in someone who produces a product and says, this is great versus someone who has literally been entrenched in the science and has proven every single thing that they can say, right? Every single thing that, you know, You brought up today. This was not conjecture. This was science.

This, these, these are things that you've proven or other people have proven about this. I mean, that is not common in the space, right? So I'll just go ahead and acknowledge that, that this is amazing. The quality of what you're doing is just. You know, second to none, you know, just to be honest I definitely revere the company, revere you.

I think that you guys are just doing some amazing work, and obviously anytime you help people and children and anyone that, you know, are suffering and suffering is relative. You know, you can come into my office right now and see people. that are suffering, but there's listeners out there that are not seeking medical care that are suffering, maybe just from brain fog and fatigue or some kind of chronic inflammatory thing or whatever.

This product can help them, right? So, you know, humanity thinks you like this is just an amazing thing. So is there, is there anything else that you would like to, to tell the world before we, we end the show here? 

Dr. Steph Venn-Watson: Oh gosh. Well Dr. Crawford, first of all, thank, thank you for that very kind summary. It really is, I'm humbled.

It truly was a gift provided by the Dolphins and luck that and foresight by the Navy to bring in a, a nerd a math nerd into the mix. So that really, the, the credit goes to them. And, and I will say when, you know, kind of closing remarks with regard to, we talk about longevity and health and the, you know, the, the purpose of, of C15 and what is it all for?

And, you know, when we talk about longevity, why, like, why do we want to live as long as possible? We want to be as healthy as possible, but really it. All gets down to this. We want this. We all live with this light inside of us, right? That keeps us purposeful and enjoying each and every day. And that that is our job is to find ways.

How can we restore a C 15, whether it's through food supplies, recommendations and through the supplement and conversations and collaborations with others. How do we find the best ways to keep that light within us? Alive as long as possible. And that is our definition of longevity. It's it's meaningful life.

And so thank you for being with us on this journey and movement. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's beautiful. And of course, you know, you hit my heart by talking about light. So I'm all about light. Anytime you're going to improve light, I am all about it. That's fantastic. Well, man, thank you so much. And I guess I should also mention that you guys have been so kind to offer a discount to the longevity.

Formula listeners. And so there's a discount code of longevity formula. If they want to get a discount on the product and start trying it out, which I fully, you know, think everyone listening should do that. Like I said, everyone and their dog should be taken. And I mean, why not? Right. I might start giving it to mind.

I've got a geriatric dog at home. It just occurred to me. I'm going to. I'm going to give it a shot. We'll see what happens. But everyone out there, thank you so much for joining us. I hope that you have gleaned something and, and if, you know, the only way you didn't glean anything is if you were sitting there with your fingers and your ears.

This was a very engaging and just, just wise conversation. You know, it goes beyond knowledge into wisdom. So. Thank you again, Dr. Steph for joining us everyone out there, I can't wait to hear your comments. I want to know what you thought about this episode. This is definitely the type of content that we want to continue to deliver to you.

So if this helped you, if there's someone that you think this information can help, please share this content. And as always we thank you guys. We love you guys. And we will. See you next time.

Voice Over: We hope today's episode has inspired you to take that next step toward your best self. Remember the path to longevity is paved with small daily decisions. Your journey is unique and every step, every choice brings you closer to your ultimate vision of a healthier, happier life. For more insights, tips, and resources, visit drbrandoncrawford.com.

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