The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson On The Key To Unlocking Your Best Health & New Research To Improve Longevity

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

#776: Join us as we sit down with Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson – CEO of Fatty15, & a highly experienced veterinary epidemiologist, & health scientist within the World Health Organization & U.S. Navy. Sharing insights from her research, Dr. Venn-Watson discusses the study of Navy dolphin health, where they discovered a unique saturated fatty acid called C15:0. In this episode, Dr. Venn-Watson explains the health benefits of C15:0 supplement, its essential role in maintaining strong cell membranes, & how it contributes to the overall longevity & health of mammals.   To connect with Fatty15 click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   To Watch the Show click HERE   For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM   To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697)   This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential   Head to the HIM & HER Show ShopMy page HERE to find all of Michael and Lauryn’s favorite products mentioned on their latest episodes.   Visit fatty15.com/SKINNY or use code SKINNY for 15% off your first purchase. Nerd out on all the C15:0 science at DiscoverC15.com.   Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Okay, so here's what I did. I curated my edit on Shop Skinny Confidential. So I went on and I picked the products that I cannot stop using. I picked all of my favorites and made an edit. So in this edit is a facial massager, a face razor, mouth tape, caffeinated sunscreen, the brow peptide to grow your brows and lashes, and the dry brush. So you get this edit that you can give as a gift or you can keep for yourself. Right now it's 25% off. It is on the site. It is such a fun gift to give. This is like the cutest gift ever. I would be so happy if someone gave this to me to elevate my routine. To shop the

sale, all you have to do is go to shopskinnyconfidential.com and you get 25% off my edit. Enjoy. Happy shopping. These are my favorite things right now. Just go to shopskinnyconfidential.com. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Dairy fat on its own, because it has a lot, it does have a lot of pro-inflammatory saturated fats in it. It wasn't like the recommendations were all wrong.

That is why the Navy and Office of Naval Research funded us to do this work, to develop a pure C-15 ingredient that could be given for throughout adult life to allow us to get this good beneficial fatty acid without having to compete with other fatty acids or what we can't control of kind of the messiness of dairy fats. All right, Dr. Stephanie, I almost did a full podcast with you before we started rolling

and then I had to contain myself and hold myself back. Lauren gets frustrated with me because I just jump right in because I get so excited about this topic. To start, maybe a brief introduction on you and then we're going to dive in. Great. Michael and Lauren, great to be here. I am Dr. Stephanie Vinn-Watson. I'm a veterinary epidemiologist. Worked for the World Health Organization Centers for Disease Control for a long time, helping to set up infectious disease surveillance systems all over the world. And then about 20 years ago was recruited by the Navy to help lead a clinical research program to continually improve the health and welfare of Navy dolphins,

which then resulted in understanding long live large brain mammals, how they age. The dolphins helped to unlock a secret to healthy aging, this essential nutrient called C15. So hold on. Wait, I will say one thing about dolphins. I aspire to have dolphin skin. That's the kind of skin I want when I do my skincare routine. So that actually makes sense if there's something that dolphins are doing, like sign me up. Did you, you discovered this anti-aging situation through dolphins? That's right. By helping to take care of healthier dolphins. That was my, my helping to take care of healthier dolphins. That was what I was told to do. I was brought in. The Navy had this amazing foresight of saying,

hey, we want to continually improve the health of our dolphins. They're getting way older than they're getting in the wild. So like in the wild, Lauren, dolphins get to an average age of about 20. At the Navy, they're living up to 60 years old. This may be a really stupid question. Yeah. I've never heard of Navy dolphins in my life. And dolphins, the skin, does that have to do with anything or no, the way their skin looks? It does. So, so first, yeah. So the Navy has had a program for over 60, six zero years where dolphins live out in, they live in San Diego Bay, you know San Diego well, and they go out into the open ocean every day, every day that they choose to come

back. But the Navy has had the dolphins to help look for lost objects from things like, which is amazing. Maybe they can find your sunglasses that Towne's just threw in the ocean. Sunglasses, bam, done. So enemy swimmers. This is true. They go and find, like they're trained to be able to find whatever. Wow. Yeah. I never knew that. It's amazing. And they're so good at it because they have sonar, right?

And so them being able to do it, the Navy discovered like 60 years ago that the dolphins were working cooperatively with them. You know, dolphins have always, you always hear stories about people going out and surfing and the dolphins were right there on a boat. So dolphins and humans have worked collaboratively for 60 years in this program. It's a truly amazing program. And as a testament to the Navy's good care of these dolphins, they brought me in, like a nerdy veterinary epidemiologist to not just take day-to-day care of the dolphins, but to dive deep into 50 years of health data to understand aging dolphins and to say, how can we keep continually taking great care of older Navy dolphins? So let's get to the secret of the dolphins. How are the dolphins living for 21 years normally, but in the Navy, they're living 60 years because I need what the dolphins are doing. Right. So what we discovered is what we

needed was we needed like half a century of collecting dolphin health data, which they were doing part of the routine health care, to then wait for the right technology to come along. So there's this technology called metabolomics. And what that does, it allows you to study thousands of small molecules present in the dolphin's archived blood, which they had archived throughout their whole lives, as well as in their all fish diets. And we were able to look at which small molecules predicted the healthiest aging dolphins. One added thing to add in, which is really important, is that in the Navy population, not all dolphins were aging at the same rate. We actually published in PNAS that there were some dolphins that were

aging slower than others. So we're able to use metabolomics to find which small molecules predicted the healthiest, slowest aging dolphins. We thought it would be omega-3s because all they eat are fish. And lo and behold, C-15, which I had never heard of, was at the top. So when you discover this secret C-15, what do you do and how do you sort of research it? I've never heard of it. Right. I hadn't either, Lauren. So it was kind of in that same situation where it's like, what is this? So the first step was looking into what is C-15? I'm taking one right now. I want to be like the dolphins. I'm taking one right now. So we looked into it.

So it's a fatty acid. It's called an odd chain saturated fatty acid. So another huge surprise is it's a saturated fat. Dolphins' primary source of it was from specific types of fatty fish. Our primary source of C15 is whole dairy fat. So what we did from then is we then spent the next three years and eight studies moving pure C15 into the lab called pentadecanoic acid.

We moved this fatty acid into the lab and then we just did a bunch of studies on it, published that in Nature's scientific reports, showing that not only is it associated with better health, but it's the cause. And at the end of all of it, which was amazing, we published this with one of the leaders in fatty acids, Dr. Ed Dennis. At the end of it all, Ed was like, you know what, Steph, this is meeting the criteria of an essential fatty acid, which is only the third to be discovered ever. So we published that back in 2020. To all my Outlander fans out there, it's time to rejoice because Droughtlander is officially over.

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So prior to this, nobody in your field, or I guess nobody knew about C-15 as an essential fatty acid and how it interacts with our bodies and other mammals' bodies. That's what I'm hearing. Michael, that's right. Yeah. So exactly that. So we knew C15 has been known since the 1950s that it existed. It's actually been used as a biomarker for how much dairy we eat. That's how consistent dairy fat and our C15 levels are aligned. But nobody thought it was an active beneficial molecule. They'd just kind of written it off because it's such a simple molecule. So maybe that's a good place to segue into the benefits of having more C15. I don't know if that's the right way to say it. And less in your body.

And what having more or having less predicts generally. Absolutely. So great question. What we found was that C15 is, it's called a pleiotropic molecule. And another way to say that is it's a promiscuous molecule. So it gets around and it does a lot of really good things that specifically supports our longevity. So how it does that, one of its most important roles is that C15 is a sturdy saturated fatty acid that goes into our cell membranes. And, you know, we're made entirely of cells.

And the stronger our cell membrane, the longer it can last and live to keep us youthful and healthy. As we get older, our cell membranes become more fragile. They fall apart. It's how we age. So C-15 has played a role, an evolutionary role for millions of years that actually helps explain why humans live 27 times longer than a mouse. It's how nature is enabling longevity is simply just by stabilizing our cell membranes against breakdown. Think of it

as a brick, like an armor in our cell membranes that help. So the stronger your C15 levels, the more protected your cell membranes are, which So the stronger your C15 levels, the more protected your cell membranes are, which means that they're going to last longer and you're going to age more gracefully. And the less you have, the more, the quickly or the faster you're going to age. Is that correct? I think we're just done. I think we're done. I nailed it. Well, I mean, I think this is so fascinating because, you know, again, like we've done this for a little while, closer decade. This is the first time this topic's ever come up on the show. It's the first time C-15's ever been

discussed. Why is that? It is. So Lauren, that's a really good question because it's like, okay, so C-15's been around for, since we've known about since the 1950s, lots of fatty acid and lipid experts working on fatty acids. And how does a dolphin veterinarian come along, right, and say like, hey, we made this great new discovery. So that's why we went to Dr. Ed Dennis, who he was the editor-in-chief of the Journal for Lipid Research for 15 years. So this is one of the world's experts in fatty acids when we made this discovery in dolphins. And Ed said, yeah, it's probably not what you think because, you know, we've known about it, but let's take a look because the dolphin angle is interesting.

So there are a couple of reasons why C15 wasn't known before. The first, we have these huge blinders on, right? Because we've been told how many times that all saturated fats are bad for us. And so C15 is a saturated fat, but it fits in this odd chain saturated fat category. But it just was automatically put in where despite the fact that there are now many, many studies showing the same that we found in dolphins, the higher the C15 in humans, the healthier aging people are less likely to get type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease. Those studies were emerging, Lauren, but nobody was really paying attention because they're like, well, that can't be true because all saturated fats are bad for us. If you look at USDA's nutritional guidelines today, it mentions avoiding saturated fats 161 times

in a 164-page document. So to get over that bias, right, is why we spent 10 years doing the studies before we came out with the product. It totally makes sense that we would all be low on this because I have a bone to pick with people on Instagram. They all shit on dairy. They're like, I avoid dairy. I believe this is my own journey of losing 60 pounds and really overhauling my life that dairy has been really important to all of this.

My whole family drinks raw milk every single day. We eat raw cheese every single day. We love Greek yogurt. I'm drinking raw kefir. Like, I just think that dairy is so underrated. I think the problem is that there's, there probably is, and you could speak more eloquently on this, but there's good dairy and bad dairy. There's different qualities of dairy. There's mass pasteurization too. Right. Just like there is of meat. And I think that it would make sense that people are low in

this because everyone has been fed by the media to avoid dairy, but I think they just need to get the right dairy. What is your feeling on that? Yeah, spot on. So Lauren, you're right. It's not just a feeling, it's a fact. So we know that as dairy fat has decreased, so generation after generation has not only taken down their intake of whole dairy fat, they've stopped cow's milk altogether. Right. Right. So as you take out our primary source of C15, we know that C15 levels have been declining on population wide, especially since the 1990s.

That's when recommendations came in. In 1977, it was, okay, adults, all, basically all adults and older children should stop drinking whole fat milk and avoid butter. It wasn't until the 1990s that then they moved to one-year-olds and they said one-year-olds and they really moved to the infant and baby category saying that they also should avoid whole fat cow's milk. So that has led to what we're seeing today, which is what we published in Metabolites just a couple of weeks ago of the emergence of this nutritional C15 deficiency syndrome called cellular fragility syndrome. So think about like vitamin C deficiency in scurvy and vitamin D deficiency in rickets. This is C15 deficiency and cellular fragility syndrome.

Our cells become more fragile. It accelerates our aging and accelerates the onset of type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and type 2 diabetes. So it really is the urgency. And we're so glad to be having this conversation. It's really about increasing awareness of something that probably 10 out of 10 people that you talk to is like, I've never heard of C-15. I also think like everyone is, you mentioned since the 90s, we've been told switch milk out

for almond milk and switch it out for oat milk. Almonds are sprayed with glyphosate. Is that what it's called? I think that's, I can't pronounce anything. Everyone gets mad. Okay. Yeah. It's sprayed with pesticides. So you're essentially eating pesticides and you're, you're not getting your milk, which sounds like you're not getting your C15. And then oat milk is filled with so much sugar. If you look at the back of oat milk, it is so fucking disgusting. The fact that oat milk is so popular, like I'd rather eat a Snickers. And to your point, plant-based milks have no C15 in them. And when we talked about the quality of dairy fat, Michael, both you and Lauren brought it up, right, is the quality of dairy fat has also been changing. So even if you have whole fat milk, we know that, for example, cows that eat grass have

twice as much C15 in their fat than cows that are fed corn, right? And so we don't always know when you're drinking milk, what was the diets of these. And there's been a lot of studies, even ones showing that the higher the altitude of the grass that an animal eats, the higher the C15 levels. An example is Sardinia in one of these. I know the longevity zones

are going through a thing right now, but hold tight, they will survive. The current challenges that we're hearing about. But in Sardinia, where there are a lot of centenarians, people who live to 100, they have C15 levels that are three times higher than the average American. Move me there. Literally, if Michael said, let's go there tomorrow, I'd be so in. I've said it so many times on this show and I'm not a scientist and I'm not a doctor, but intuitively I'm somebody, I feel that's in touch with myself.

But also I've read a lot of history. My passion is reading about history. And if you think about just the way human beings have evolved and how we're able to survive, it is with dairy, it's with meat sources. If you read about Genghis Khan and the Mongolians, they were able to go past such far swaths of land because they would take the horses and drink the mare's blood with the milk. And that would sustain them to go very long distance. So when you hear all this, people that did not have access to almond milk and oat milk and refrigerators and modern... This is how we've evolved for thousands and thousands of years.

So it seems strange to me that all of a sudden these things would not be good for us. Right, right. Because we didn't evolve away from that. So you're exactly right. And Sardinia is another great example. It is in this mountainous, there's a specific region within Sardinia

that is this high longevity zone. And they have gone through, historically, have gone through periods historically, have gone through periods of famine and challenges where they've had to, they have developed diets, just like you're saying, Michael, that are meant to be long lasting. So they create this hard cheese from local mountainous goats and sheep. One's called Pecorino, which is one most of us know about that has twice as much C15. But again, what we keep coming back to with C15 and longevity is it's about resilience. It's how well our bodies are ourselves able to combat challenges when they come our way. And the more resilient we are, it makes sense, right?

The longer we're going to survive and live also if babies survive on milk when they're little what in the fuck makes people think that we should be switching to oat milk like i just well they would say it's from the cow and it's not you know then you switch to the cow's milk and not the mother anymore so what though they they start on milk don't you think it would make sense they obviously can't drink mother's milk i know you have a couple of your guy friends that still breastfeed their mom but you can't stop breastfeeding after here's what i would say is to me the leap from human milk to cow's milk is a much easier leap from human milk to oat or almond milk, right? Like that's the, when people make the argument, like macadamia, but you know what I'm saying? When

people make the argument of like, Oh, the plant version, like it's much like, I would assume that the mammal milk is much closer than the plant milk to this, to our genetic makeup. That's right. Exactly. So, so as we, and it opens up, right, this really fascinating conversation with let's follow nature, right? So start with nature, Lauren, just like you're saying, every mammal gets milk at birth. Milk is created to be the perfect food for newborns and for early development. Then we move, Michael, like you're saying, we move into cow's milk, which is a proxy. And not everybody can drink cow's milk, but for those who can, there is a supportive role for milk, especially getting the C15 and a lot of other nutrients. Then the question is, as we get older, because when you look at other mammals, you don't see other mammals continue to find milk sources,

for example, as adult mammals. So with us, what we started looking into is like, as you start looking at adult studies and cow's milk or dairy fat, the studies get mixed, right? It's really messy. It's no longer super clear that drink milk and you're healthier. I think it gets to your point, Lauren, what you're saying, which is it could depend on what quality of the dairy that you're eating and how much does it have the good nutrients versus nutrients that you don't want. But the take-home story that we've learned is that for what we need throughout, like not, you know, past our first 20 years, we want to live to 100 years and beyond, is that dairy fat on its own, because it has a lot, it does have a lot

of pro-inflammatory saturated fats in it. It wasn't like the recommendations were all wrong. That is why the Navy and Office of Naval Research funded us to do this work to develop a pure C15 ingredient that could be given for throughout adult life to allow us to get this good beneficial fatty acid without having to compete with other fatty acids or what we can't control of kind of the messiness of dairy fats. Dr. Stephanie, I get eaten alive on TikTok every single day because of my feelings on raw dairy, raw milk, raw cheese, raw everything. What is your take on it? And be as honest as you want. Rip me to shreds if you want. I won't rip you to shreds. I think there are a lot of nutrients with regard to the point of milk, whole milk, right, is to offer these important nutrients.

You don't pasteurize milk. Calves don't pasteurize. You don't pasteurize milk then to give it to the calves to benefit from it, right? So it is there to be able to support their whole body health. I think the part that becomes more challenging is ensuring the quality of that raw milk as with the impact of time and quality control of the environment that it's in. And that's really about growth of bacteria. So you just want to make sure that that product, that raw milk is protected in such a way that it doesn't enable the growth of that bacteria. Can I ask the farmer that I buy from, What are the questions that I can go ask him? You know, they can test for bacterial levels. So one thing you could ask, and it's super easy to test for bacterial levels. So it would be like, you know, because again, I come from the public

health world, right? And so the biggest concern with regard to raw milks, it was not about the nutrients. In fact, it's very nutrient rich. It's just saying it's the balance between, because it's not pasteurized. So let me ask you the question in a different way then. Say that you knew there was a good source of raw milk that was unpasteurized, that was untouched, that you knew was safe and free of bacteria because of the way, the benefits of drinking that,

knowing that it did not have the bacteria versus drinking pasteurized milk. That I, if you could take away the risk of the bacterial infection, Michael, then yeah, then, then the assumption is that that raw milk, the nutrients in it would be wholer and more reflective of what, you know, mammals are supposed to get for their health. The reason I asked it that way is I know people have to make sure that the milk they're drinking is safe and it doesn't have bacteria and all that. But I think the pushback is because people

hear raw milk and they assume that the pasteurization makes it healthier to drink. What the pasteurization does is it just makes sure that it's safe from bacteria, correct? But a clean, good source of raw milk could be very nutrient dense and healthy to drink. That's right. And that's where I think a good discussion, a good thing that the three of us just brought up is being able to put positive pressure on raw milk providers on having measurements of bacterial counts. Yeah. The reason I asked you is what I'm trying to share and make sure this audience knows is that raw milk, if it's a good source, is not unhealthy or worse, right? The things that you

outline, people have to be very cautious of. You have to make sure you're getting it from a very responsible provider and storing and all that stuff. But I think there's a misconception online, especially where they just hear raw milk and they assume raw milk is not healthy. Right. And that's why, and it's because of that. It's because of the bacterial counts and not really for the other reasons. Let me ask you a follow-up. What are things that we're doing as humans to deplete our C15 levels? Like, are there big no-nos? Is it alcohol? Is it lack of sleep? Are there

certain things that you've come across like this really crushes those levels? Yeah. For the most part, it's been our decreased intake of dietary intake of C15. The second is that the quality of the amount of C15, even in whole fat milk, has been declining. And we also know that as we get older, our C15 levels decline. So even in Sardinia, who have three times higher levels of C15 than those of us in the U.S., even those as they hit 100 years old, their C15 levels decline for those reasons. So for all of those reasons, it's why, as far as like, how can we, what do we need to do to get C15 back into our lives? The other good thing is exercising is shown to increase C15 levels. And that's believed because as long as you have C15 stored in your tissues, exercising helps to release that C15, get it into the blood flow and let it go to work. And we can talk about, there's a lot of other fun release that c15 get it into the blood flow and let it go to work

and we can talk about there's a lot of other fun things that c15 does aside from strengthening yourself please talk so um so we uh you created this um pure ingredient with the with the navy which is you know fatty 15 and we put it out to the world it was just one ingredient just one ingredient yeah and and on and this was all done in support of dolphin health, by the way. So it was like we, uh, Erica, my husband, uh, and I physician husband, and I always joke about this is no, no humans were harmed in the making of this dolphin supplement. It really was created to help supplement the dolphins diet because unfortunately the fish have less fat than they used to have. And it's getting harder

and harder for dolphins in the wild and at the Navy to get enough C15 in their diet. Waters are getting a little warmer and the fish are, the abundance of fish in the ocean is the same, but they're smaller, if that makes any sense. So as they're smaller, they're not as fat as they used to be. And so because of that, they have less C15. I would think they would be bigger because of the GMOs in food. I would think they'd be fat fish. Yeah, I know. They're smaller. They're not like pulling up to McDonald's, Lauren. Yeah, but people throw stuff in the ocean all the time. You would think that there's plastic, they're eating microplastics. I think they would be fatter. That's confusing.

The plastics maybe, but they don't have access to our food. Is that not confusing? Yeah, it can be confusing. From a fish survival standpoint, if you have to turn around fish, like if fisheries are getting overfished, for example, then they will reproduce to kind of refill as long as you don't reach a certain threshold. But they're going to reproduce faster. That just means you have a lot more smaller fish. They just aren't given enough time to get older and accumulate fat.

And they have less need for fat because, you know, waters are warmer than they used to be. And so they just don't need as much fat as they as they used to. So so even dolphins. So anyway, so, you know,ty 15 was developed for the dolphins. But what was wonderful is as all of the science was coming out, we were finding C15 is not just essential for dolphins, essential for all long-lived mammals, including us. So as far as benefits, as we started getting Fatty 15 out, we launched it in January of 2021.

We were taking it, obviously, and then our family and others. And we started getting reports and feeling it ourselves like I'm sleeping better and my skin, my dry elbows have gone away and I have a calmer mood and my joints have stopped hurting. I'm 52. So I've got lots of broken things to fix. And so we started hearing this reliably from about one in two people within two weeks, which was, this is not the reason why we developed this ingredient with the Navy, right? Let's get our C15 levels back to where they need to fix nutritional deficiencies. So as we continued with the science, we found that our bodies use C15, which already does all these wonderful, you know, has all these wonderful

benefits, but our bodies use this molecule to make a second molecule called pentadecanolacarnitine. That's the longest word I'm going to say. I'm not going to, I'm going to call it PDC to be easier. Thank God. I thought you were going to make me repeat that. Okay, everybody. Pentaseca, saccadine. Pentadeca. Noil, carnitine. We're just going to call it PDC.

Okay, PDC. So PDC, this is called a metabolite. It's our body's UC15 to make PDC. And when we took PDC and we worked on it in the lab, we found it was the second ever discovered full acting endocannabinoid, which means it targets the same receptors, CB1 and CB2 as cannabis and better sleep, calmer mood, less joint pain. And so what we've come to learn is C15 is not only essential

because it strengthens our cells, it repairs mitochondria, it activates receptors that support our longevity, but it also helps our bodies make a metabolite that activates these cannabinoid receptors. Because we weren't- It's like a stress regulator almost. Exactly. Because we don't have receptors for cannabis to find cannabis, right? Dogs have these receptors and pigs have these

receptors and they don't need cannabis. We have these receptors throughout our body and brain specifically so that we could get this essential nutrient in part to make this metabolite to help our sleep. So it enters the question of, has the increase in type 2 diabetes and heart disease and liver disease and cancer in people in their 30s not is that is it not only is that caused by c15 deficiencies but mood disorders sleep disorders that we've seen on the rise could this be part of that solve as well is there beauty benefits skin nails hair from this yeah so so um again who cares about our heart let's just talk about it well yeah let's get down to the important shit laurie you're making a good point which is it is a critical question because if something is essential if it's truly an essential nutrient

which means our bodies must have certain levels of it in order to maintain our baseline health or we'll fall apart. And our bodies don't make enough of it on their own, which means we have to get certain levels from our food. One of the first signs of a lot of nutritional deficiencies is issues with your skin, your hair, your nails. And so we weren't... The audience isn't going to like that. So it wasn't surprising when we had a lot of people, a lot of customers sharing that my skin is glowier. My hair is thicker. You know, my nails are growing stronger.

I have atopic dermatitis. It's this weird allergy to like plant cells, which is wacko. So I can't eat any raw fruits, vegetables, or nuts, or I get a skin reaction. It's really hard to avoid, completely avoid plants. So Fatty15 has, for me, for the skin issues that I had with that and with menopause, hair thinning issues, Fatty 15 fixed that for me. So it's hard to go down this long list of all the things that C15 does because it starts feeling like not believable, like too good to be true,

but it's just more of, it's an essential nutrient that helps all of our cells be stronger and perform better. And that reflects, that gets reflected, you reflected. It's kind of where people say it fixes you where you're broken. I actually think this is way easier to understand than some of the other health topics we've covered. It just sounds like if you're lacking C15, you're going to age at an accelerated rate, in which case your skin is not going to look as great. You're going to be more inflamed. Your organs aren't going to work as well. Your hair is not going to look as good. To me, I always get the most interested when you can get to the root of something and have the biggest impact. I try not to isolate one thing.

I want my eyelashes to do something different. This sounds like if you get these levels in a better level or at a better level, then you would solve potentially many of the issues that you might be facing. And then you can kind of acutely focus on whatever, you know, issue remains. Since I started drinking raw milk, that's really weird that you're saying all this. My hair will not stop growing. Yeah, that's that's and listen, there's things that other things I've done to change, but that is one benefit. I think I mean, it makes sense. It's minerals, enzymes, vitamins. I have to tell you, I'm still obsessed with the fact that you were working with dolphins. Michael, one thing he's never done in our relationship that I'm really upset about is I have wanted to swim with dolphins since I was literally born.

This has been something I think there's something intriguing about their skin that's really soft. I've wanted to ride on one. You know how you can do that? And then he took his ex-girlfriend before me to ride dolphins. That's the real thing. And literally for the last hundred years, I've been telling him in a roundabout way, hey, I'd really love to ride a dolphin. Do you really want to ride a dolphin or are you just mad that she did it and you didn't?

Both. I want to ride a dolphin. Yeah, I want to ride a dolphin. So maybe after this podcast, you guys could coordinate me riding a dolphin. Maybe if the Navy will set it up. Maybe we can get in touch with them and we can go there. Really? Is that like, do you, did you ever ride them?

I want to ride one. I love being thrown into the middle of that. But it's just joking. I thought you meant with the dolphin. No, no. Maybe all three of us can go ride together we can um uh yeah we can help resolve okay this uh it's been years this has been a year i've been talking about it for 10 years hinting yeah i'd really love to ride a dolphin he gets me roses presents i'm like i'm still waiting

to ride a doll good thing i have my c15 so i can live longer so you can coordinate it. This year for our anniversary, we can forego any of the fancy stuff. Here's a couple dolphins. Is that something that you can coordinate? Not with the Navy dolphins because they're busy doing good stuff for us all. But yes, I can help out.

We don't need you to look for that ballistic missile. We need you to take Lauren to go on a dolphin ride. I don't know if that's what they're looking for. I haven't myself because as some um folks know um who have heard me chat before but everyone has an achilles heel mine is that i i am terrified of water and don't know how to swim what wait you don't know how to swim how did you get like what would you do you just pull them up onto something well i'm a super nerd. So what they would do is they'd say, hey, Steph, here's a bunch of dolphin data.

Your office overlooks the dolphins, but you know, clickety clack all day long. So at this point, you don't feel like you want to learn how to swim? I'm terrified. I guess it's just something- Are you terrified because you haven't learned yet? I'm terrified because I guess I haven't.

It's something I'm going to have to take on michael but it is i'm sweating right now talking about you seem to be working in an aquatic environment so you know i would think it would it would be important maybe i think it's kind of cool it's like it's mysterious it's like i'm a i'm i work with dolphins but i don't want to swim and i don't know how yeah but it's also kind of like makes me think like it's like a ski instructor that doesn't ski, you know? It could be. What if you fall in helping one of the dolphins? I'm sure that the dolphin will help me.

You would say. Dolphin would certainly kick in and save me. I wouldn't know about that because Michael still hasn't taken me to ride a dolphin. I'll let you know in the next 40 years if he takes me. They're gentle, smart creatures. I'm sure you've rode one with 40 years if he takes me. They are gentle, smart creatures. I'm sure you've rode one with your ex-girlfriend. It wasn't what you thought it was.

It wasn't as exciting as... I imagine it like in my head. It's like Flipper, the movie. You should see how I imagine. It's so romanticized for me. You hold on to its fin. You're smiling. You're gripping like a horse. I think she got like a

bunch of like water in her mouth and there might have been like some dolphin shit honestly in her mouth yeah it could have happened it may not i think she got really sick from it i don't think it was that great if you could tell our audience something if you could wave a wand and tell them something about C15, what would it be? It would be that C15 leverages, right, an evolutionary trick to enabling mammals to live longer and that we, as in thanks to the Office of Naval Research, have been able to optimize the C15 ingredient so that we can help explain, can facilitate not only explaining how humans live longer than mice, but that we can actually help individuals live longer.

Can anyone take it? Can I give it to my dogs? Anyone can take it. We went through generally recognized as safe status. It's called grass status. You don't have to do it for a supplement. You do it for a food ingredient. We went through that and based upon that initial study in which there was no toxicity detected at all, we edged on the safe side and we said four-year-olds and up. But this includes pregnant women and women who are nursing. There's a bunch of exciting, really exciting studies that have come out with regard to how much C15 mom has dictates how much C15 is in her milk, dictates how much C15 baby

gets. There's no C15 in infant formula. And that- You guys got to do that. Right. Yeah. So we're working on that. And the more C15 baby gets, now multiple studies following children up to six years old,

showing they have better cognitive development, better body growth. So lower risk of getting food allergies, type 1 diabetes. So these are epidemiological studies, so it's associations. But with all the things that we know about C15 now, you know, it's really understanding. It's important at all levels and ages. Is there anyone that's even a competitor to this? I've never heard of this. And we talked to a lot of different people about supplements.

Yeah. Are you the first to market? We're first to market. So I was at the Navy when I made the discovery. So the discovery is the Navy's. It's the Navy's discovery. And it's patented. I was at the Navy when I made the discovery. So the discovery is the Navy's. It's the Navy's discovery. And it's patented.

And, you know, the work and risk that went into developing, being able to do the science. And as you can imagine, I mean, Eric and I, we must have talked to like a thousand VCs during the early days of fundraising. And they're like, what are you talking about? You know, and there was the effort. It wasn't just like, oh, we published the science and now there it was. It really has been a 10 year journey with support of the Navy to be able to do the responsible science, to understand

what it is that C-15 does, at what form is the most optimal, what doses do we need to achieve specific levels. I mean, all of these things that are so important that not every supplement goes through that. So our ability to work through all of that is, in a large part, we were able to do a lot of that because of the patented protection from the name. Some of those VCs are listening to this and hearing patented and hearing this podcast and they're banging their heads on their desk right now. I have to say something about VCs, sorry. But investors, and I've seen

this across the board, when they look at you like you're a two-headed monster and they don't know what you're talking about, I believe you're onto something. If I went to an investor and I was like, I'm launching this and they were like, yeah, we get it. I love telling an investor when I started going out for investors four years ago and they would be like, I don't get it. What do you mean? People don't roll their face like a roller. No one's going to buy that mouth tape. When people don't get it, I'm like, okay, I'm on to something. So the fact that they all said no, I feel like is such, it's such a guiding light that you're doing the right thing. It's a hard gig because I think the majority of that job, I've met a lot of these guys, I think it's a lot of pattern recognition.

So if there's something new that's never been done and, or it's being done in a different way and it's not like, it's not mapped to something that's been done before. It's just hard for them, I think, to one grasp and to underwrite it, right? VCs call me. I know what's on the pulse. They're calling to give me a call. It's getting your, and you're exactly right. I mean, in the early days, right? The science was still early. It was encouraging, but it really, it's those ones looking back now, it's finding those renegade VCs that wanted to do good and do well. And they weren't about wait until everybody else is on board.

They were the ones who said, you're on to something here. And if this really does pan out, like this is an opportunity truly to do well and to get to truly improve global health, you know, and so it was those people were lucky enough to find a handful of those investors. And now, you know, you fast forward 10 years, and a paper was actually just published in France that re-evaluated C15 as an essential fatty acid. And they just reconfirmed, yeah, it meets the criteria of an essential fatty acid. So, and you know, hindsight, it's like you said, it's just finding those investors that are not just following the pack, but have, they're just ones that have a good eye and they believe in a passionate founder that is, that you have data to back and experience to back what you're

saying. So it's, we've always been science-led, always data-led, and it led to this amazing journey. And most importantly, people feeling better and helping to fix a problem. I have to tell you, we look at supplement companies all the time. We really do our due diligence on who we want to work with, and we get to see all of this behind the scenes and talk with founders like you. And I've looked at a lot of different ingredients. I'm no expert on that, but I am a practitioner. And this to me is really interesting. I mean, you guys are really, really on to something. This is a product that I will be taking every single day. I might sneak it to my four-year-old.

Can you dump the powder? Yeah, I might get a little sneak. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but I might. You can do it if she's over for it. Wait, quickly, if someone were to start taking this now, if they're going to get the Fatty 15 and they're going to start implementing their body and their routine every day. When do they do it? Well, when and how long until you think they'll notice a result?

So we encourage people to take one, start with one capsule a day, and that's $100 million. And you can see how tiny, like these are super tiny. It's easy. 98% of our customers say that it's become part of their daily routine at two weeks, four weeks, 16 weeks. So it's easy to take. So that's the first. Morning, night. Give him a bottle because I want my own. Morning. Most people take them in the morning because there are those, that metabolite benefit

I talked about as far as calmer mood, that peaks, kind of has a good four to eight hour benefit window after you take it. So a lot of people take it in the morning for that. There are other people who take it at night for the sleep benefits. I still get the sleep benefits even though I take it in the morning. But to be honest, I melt it in my coffee. I open up the capsule, I melt it in my coffee in the morning. So you could do hot. You could put it in hot.

With food or does it matter it's on an empty stomach? It can be either. We're learning more. If I had to choose given the latest data, I would probably take it on an empty stomach. And it's in part because we're learning that when, and this is in mice, when mice are fed high fat diets, their C15 levels actually decrease. And the belief is that it goes down because there are too many other fats it's competing with. And so it's harder for it to make its way to get absorbed. So just taking C15, let that. And it's a free fatty acid bioavailable form.

So it's just ready to be absorbed. You guys gave us a code, fatty15.com slash skinny. Use code skinny for 15% off your first purchase. That's very generous. I also just have to say that the bottle is so beautiful. It's like a wood top with a glass, beautiful bottle. Something that I would not want to... It's very important for her. It is important. And you have a book coming out. Yeah. You have a book. We have a book called... The Longevity Nutrient.

The Longevity Nutrient. So Simon and Schuster, we have a weekly blog called Science Says. One of the editors at Simon and Schuster reached out last fall and she said, I've been reading your blog for a year. And she's like, this story, and it's a TED Talk too. So we have a TED Talk as well. She's like, man, this is a book. Like, this is important book. And not just the story, but now all the science. There's over 100 peer reviewed papers now on the benefits of C-15, not just from us, but all over the world. So the book brings together the story, but all the science from what was happening in Thailand versus in Italy and all these different scientists around the world who over the last 10

years have culminated into C15 as the longevity nutrient. And then us bringing out VATI15 as your longevity supplement. Amazing. So the longevity nutrient, yeah, it's available wherever books are sold. We got to thank our friend Ari. He's going to cry if we don't give him longevity nutrient. Yeah, it's available wherever books are sold. We got to thank our friend Ari. He's going to cry if we don't give him a mention. Ari, hello. Thank you for setting this up, buddy. Everybody, fatty15.com slash skinny.

Use code skinny 15% off. Dr. Stephanie, you're the best. Thank you for having us on. Please set up the dolphin trip. Where can everyone find you and the brand if they want to ask questions? Yeah, so fatty15.com is where you can learn about the brand. And we're on there too. There's an Our Story page out there. And then the book, you'll learn a lot about me, more than you'll possibly want to know in that book. And then the science,

if you really want to nerd out on the peer-reviewed science on C15. I keep that up to date. And that's at discoverc15.com. If you really want to fall asleep, go there. Because that's where all the deep, deep, deep science is kept. I'll look forward to my dolphin ride. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. All right, it was a blast. Thank you both.