Cetyl myristoleate
Keeping Moving with Cetyl Myristoleate!
Cetyl myristoleate was isolated for the first time in the early 1990s by Dr. Harry Diehl at the National Institutes of Health. It all began in 1964 when Dr. Diehl, a renowned medical scientist with extensive chemical expertise, noticed that his neighbor was becoming progressively incapacitated and could not work anymore because of arthritis. Dr. Diehl, who worked at the country’s top medical research institute, knew that there was no effective treatment for arthritis available at the time and decided to take matters into his own hands. Working from his house and on his own time, Dr. Diehl had a mission to help his neighbor and the millions suffering from joint pain and stiffness by discovering a new chemical compound.
Dr. Diehl knew that the first step in his journey to find a treatment for arthritis was to induce the disease in an animal model. Mice are the most used animals in medical research and were Dr. Diehl’s obvious choice. Dr. Diehl tried more than once to induce arthritis in Swiss albino mice using Freud’s adjuvant (dried bacteria) but failed every single time. After a lot of research, he discovered an unknown substance inside the mice’s system that was making them immune to developing arthritis. The substance was isolated thanks to analytical chemistry techniques and was found to be cetyl myristoleate.
Cetyl Myristoleate: Biological Activity
To test his theory that cetyl myristoleate can protect from arthritis, Dr. Diehl injected at different times two groups of rats with Freud’s adjuvant in their left hind paw to artificially induce arthritis. After 20 days, both groups had no visible sign of arthritis or any other changes. Then, he re-injected a group with Freud’s adjuvant while the other group received an injection of cetyl myristoleate followed by an injection of Freud’s adjuvant 48 hours later.
After 58 days of observation, the rats that had not received cetyl myristoleate injections had developed important swelling, had excessive weight loss and were lethargic. On the other hand, the rats who received cetyl myristoleate injections were healthy and growing at a normal rate. This experiment was the first of many in the quest to demonstrate the powerful effects of cetyl myristoleate.
A few years after the work of Dr. Diehl was published, a team led by Dr. H. Siemandi oversaw a randomized controlled trial to determine if cetyl myristoleate was efficient in a measurable way in the management and treatment of arthritic conditions. The enrolled patients were assigned into 3 different groups: the first group exclusively received cetyl myristoleate, the second group received cetyl myristoleate as well as a mixture of various natural compounds with proven effects on the joints, and the third group received a placebo. The effects of the different compounds were assessed based on the severity and duration of the arthritic episodes. The results after 32 weeks clearly show that not only the patients treated with cetyl myristoleate or cetyl myristoleate and the mixture had significantly fewer arthritic episodes in comparison, but also that it was an improvement when compared to the treatments they were receiving before the trial.
In 2000, an open pilot study showed that cetyl myristoleate alongside a mixture of natural compounds had beneficial effects in the treatment of fibromyalgia in patients who underwent a 21-day therapy.
With time, researchers have been able to better understand how cetyl myristoleate works. They believe cetyl myristoleate reduces the amount of arachidonic acid in the bloodstream. Arachidonic acid is one of the main drivers of the inflammatory process in our bodies, and decreasing its levels means the inflammatory reactions that lead to the painful sensations in the joints will be reduced.
To assess the toxicity of cetyl myristoleate, high doses were given to animals over a period of 90 days. No toxicity was observed. There have also been no reports of any serious side effects caused by cetyl myristoleate in humans as well as no reports of any interactions with other substances.
Cetyl myristoleate research papers:
CMO (Cerasomol- cis -9-Cetyl Myristoleate) in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia: An Open Pilot Study