Tetradecylthioacetic acid Making a Comeback?

New Clinical Trials for Unique Fatty Acid Hints at Potential Efficacy

Tetradecylthioacetic acid, otherwise known as TTA, is a uniquely modified fatty acid that induces beta oxidation in the liver and muscles of rodents. The same activity has been show to occur in humans and there are some new clinical trials going on, exploring its use in the treatment of obesity, inflammatory disorders and diabetes (which are basically all the same disease albeit in different stages of development).

Basically, in a nut shell, this is a fat that can’t be broken down. The liver is stubborn though, and will ramp up its efforts to break down this fat so that it can be used for energy or stored away. Because of this increased effort, all sorts of magical things happen within the cells of the liver that make it a supercharged fat burning machine. That doesn’t mean that the liver will now burn all the fat off your body in one swoop, however.

What it does mean is that if you have let yourself become Insulin Resistant, your liver has made some pretty wonky adaptations to this state that cause your body to remain in a heightened level of disease. What TTA does esssentially, is it fixes the liver so that it begins behaving as it once did in a healthy state. This affords you, the obese or overweight (or just not ripped yet) user the chance to undo the damage that was done by eating a high carbohydrate diet all these years. Your glucose tolerance (think insulin resistance) will improve greatly and its due to things like increased mitochondrial density (your cells have become stronger).

TTA also has effects within muscle  cells that go to work burning off unneeded triglycerides, and as well glycogen, which explains the cramping a lot of users experience. This will also enhance one’s recomping efforts, leading to increased fat loss within the same caloric intake.

It’s not a miracle, but it certainly has some magic to it that merits revisiting it. So why did we stop looking at it? Well for one, a lot of users online were concerned about its safety profile. After all, the liver can’t break it down, which is part of what makes it so effective. So if it can’t be broken down, does this cause a health risk? According to several studies, no it doesn’t. It’s safe enough, in fact, that studies are taking place right now in an attempt to turn this supplement into a drug. Several supplement companies that used to include this in their formulations are now pulling it because sooner or later there will be a knock on their door. Once a supplement “turns into” a drug, it is no longer kosher to sell it as a supplement.

So how useful would this supplement be to someone healthy? After all most of the studies done on these compounds are done using diseased humans, most notably diabetics. Well to be honest, not a lot. But keep this in mind: During a bulk, when you’re consuming far more carbs than you probably do any other time, especially for an extended period of time, you could be invoking a temporary state of insulin resistance. If you are gorging on food to pack on muscle but you begin to get fat or your muscles fall flat it could be a sign that you need something like TTA to help restore the changes you’ve brought about by changing your eating habits.

My only further thought? I’ve bought a 100g container of the stuff, anxious to try it one more time before it ends up disappearing. I am going to eat like a pig and see if this stuff helps keep me tight during a bulk.

REFERENCES

Pettersen, Reidar J MD*; Salem, Mohamed MD, PhD*; Skorve, Jon PhD†‡; Ulvik, Rune J MD, PhD†‡; Berge, Rolf K PhD†‡; Nordrehaug, Jan Erik MD, PhD*

Tetradecylthioacetic acid attenuates dyslipidaemia in male patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, possibly by dual PPAR-alpha/delta activation and increased mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation.

Tagged as: beta oxidation, diabetes, fat loss, inflammation, mitochondria, obesity, Tetradecylthioacetic acid, TTA