CETYL MYRISTOLEATE

What does it do? Cetyl myristoleate (CMO) is the common name for cis-9-cetyl myristoleate. CMO was discovered in 1972 by Harry W. Diehl, Ph.D., a researcher at the National Institutes of Health. At the time, Dr. Diehl was responsible for testing anti-inflammatory drugs on lab animals. In order for him to test the drugs, he first had to artificially induce arthritis in the animals by injecting a heat-killed bacterium called Freund’s adjuvant. Dr. Diehl discovered that Swiss albino mice did not get arthritis after injection of Freund’s adjuvant. Eventually, he was able to determine that cetyl myristoleate was the factor present naturally in mice that was responsible for this protection. When CMO was injected into various strains of rats, it offered the same protection against arthritis.¹ It has been proposed that CMO acts as a joint “lubricant” and anti-inflammatory agent. Patents were granted to Dr. Diehl for the use of CMO in both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, based upon the animal studies and several case histories.^{2 3 4} In a double-blind study, 106 people with various types of arthritis who had failed to respond to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs received cetyl myristoleate (540 mg per day orally for 30 days), while 226 others received a placebo. These people also applied cetyl myristoleate or placebo topically, according to their perceived need. Some 63.5% of those receiving cetyl myristoleate improved, compared with only 14.5% of those receiving the placebo (a statistically significant difference).⁵