21 Comments
User's avatar
Ivan Denker's avatar

How specific a binder could it be? What good or ambiguous compounds are at risk of being captured too? Fat-soluble vitamins? Flavonoids? Hormones with enterohepatic circulation? How much might those overlaps matter?

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

So far, from our initial simulations, it looks like we won't capture any vitamins, flavonoids, or hormones. We'll confirm with testing.

Expand full comment
Melius abundare quam deficere's avatar

There are probably better solutions to the actual problem, but this could certainly be highly commercially remunerative if marketed correctly.

It would obviously only partially mitigate dietary plastics/plasticizers/etc absorption, not extant compounds deep in tissue. In addition to the solubility of hydrophic miconutrients in this supplement, I'd also be concerned with a potentially high phytic acid concentrations in a daily supplement needed to be taken in probably 20-100g amounts. PA will invariably chelate divalent and trivalent cations, particularly iron (Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺), zinc (Zn²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), and calcium (Ca²⁺), for excretion in the digestive tract.

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

20-100g is a big overestimate. A serving of NutraOat would probably be 2-5g, so maximum 15g taken per day. So, I'd assume this would add a maximum of 300 mg phytic acid/day. This is way less than a bowl of oatmeal.

The processing we'll do to the oat fiber will likely further reduce the level of phytic acid, but we'll need to test that.

Expand full comment
Auros's avatar

This seems like somewhere where you could both sell capsules, and sell something like an enhanced oatmeal -- have it for breakfast on a regular basis, as a way to get your plastic protection.

I'm assuming it also should have many of the same benefits as other fiber supplements that people already use, like for "maintaining regularity" as they say?

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

Correct!

Expand full comment
A. Potentilla's avatar

Will this do anything about micro plastics that are already embedded deep in our tissues (like the brain)?

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

Probably not. It would be most effective at preventing absorption of new plasticizers.

Expand full comment
A. Potentilla's avatar

That's a shame, but still, better than doing nothing! If you have any ideas about that particular problem many people would pay a lot for that.

How many micronutrients will you test your product against? There are many out there.

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

I think just the ones that chemically would make sense. The oat fiber will have small, hydrophobic pockets, which could only pick up small, hydrophobic molecules. Most micronutrients don't fit into that category.

And yeah, it'd be good to fix that problem, but it's tough to remove stuff from the brain without causing bigger issues than keeping the stuff there. My goal with this supplement is, above all, to do no harm.

Expand full comment
A. Potentilla's avatar

I hope that it works well for you. There's definitely a market for it.

Also, please don't package the thing in plastic. That would be hilariously ironic.

Expand full comment
Jos T's avatar

Super cool, Trevor! What kinds of plastics would this target Trevor? And would it be packaged as a drug or health food? How would you test it for efficacy and do you have ideas for tuning performance?

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

It would be a supplement, primarily targeting DEHP and BPA, but it should also work for other plasticizers. Efficacy would be based on in vitro binding efficiency, in rats, and then in humans, as verified by blood levels. I do have ideas for tuning performance.

Expand full comment
Jos T's avatar

Would you want it regulated as a supplement or a drug? If the average American ingests about 5 grams a week (unfortunately mostly through our lungs), about what quantities of this product do you think might work best?

I ask because if it were a supplement, going direct to consumer might be less effective than engaging some health food stores or food retailers to add it as a topping or a “shot” — bulk buys plus spreading the word.

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

Supplement. And that's a reasonable idea.

Expand full comment
Ben Shlomo's avatar

Would this supplement be gluten-free?

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

Yep!

Expand full comment
Counterfactual's avatar

How long would the effect be?

Will it be consumed as an additive to food, or a od supplement?

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

It would look and act almost the same as an oat fiber supplement. So it's effective until you excrete it out. You would take it around the same time as you eat food, plus or minus an hour or two.

Expand full comment
Counterfactual's avatar

Ideally then it would come as extended release or as an additive to food - is it heat stable?

Expand full comment
Trevor Klee's avatar

Yes, should be.

Expand full comment