Coconut Oil Could Prevent Neurodegeneration in Diseases like Alzheimer’s

The anecdotal evidence for coconut oil treating, and even reversing, Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as other neuro-degenerative diseases, has become so strong, that you can be sure the medical community has definitely taken notice. We have documented more testimonials on the remarkable effects of coconut oil and Alzheimer’s Disease than probably any other source on the Internet over the past several years, and you can find them on the Alzheimer’s research page of CoconutOil.com.

As we have reported numerous times, however, the Alzheimer’s Association and pharmaceutical companies will not fund studies on coconut oil, since it is a natural product that cannot be patented. Therefore, we can expect funding looking at research to develop patent-able drugs that mimic the effects of coconut oil, as the success of coconut oil in treating neuro-degenerative diseases continues to spread.

A study just released by the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland might be one of the first of many such studies. The title of the study, just released on the Internet, is “Coconut Oil Attenuates the Effects of Amyloid- on Cortical Neurons In Vitro.” Rather than study the dietary effects of coconut oil, or the ketogenic diet, on neuro-degenerative diseases, this was actually an in vitro study that examined “rodent cortical neurons exposed to AB peptide” and virgin coconut oil, most likely in a petri dish or beaker, inside of a laboratory.

The study found that coconut oil had “a positive effect of mitochondrial size” and therefore it was assumed that the coconut oil had a protective effect on the nuerons extracted from their rats. I think this might be a key statement made by the authors of the study:

“The rationale for using coconut oil as a potential AD therapy is related to the possibility that it could be metabolized to ketone bodies that would provide an alternative energy source for neurons, and thus compensate for mitochondrial dysfunction. However, there is little scientific evidence that coconut oil ingestion can improve cognition or other behavioral aspects in AD or other neurodegenerative diseases.”

Could they be setting the stage for yet-to-be-developed drugs that will be marketed as being more effective than virgin coconut oil? Why else would they be doing an in vitro study that bypasses the digestive system?

All in all, I am not sure how valuable this study is in proving anything, other than the fact that coconut oil’s effect on neuro-degenerative diseases is making people take notice.
A far better study currently being researched is the one at the University of South Florida’s Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute. This coconut oil and Alzheimer’s study enrolled 65 individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s to measure the effects of coconut oil, versus a placebo, on the disease. The funding for the study was from a private foundation, and not the pharmaceutical industry.

While the Big Pharma interests would like to keep reminding people that there is “no scientific evidence” that coconut oil has any effects on Alzheimer’s and other neuro-degenerative diseases, there most certainly is plenty of research and documentation on the low-carb high-fat ketogenic diet originally developed at John Hopkins Hospital back in the 1920s, before the USDA dietary guidelines came out and condemned saturated fat. The diet was originally developed to treat children with epilepsy where drugs failed. And the diet has been a huge success over the past 90 years.
The dietary interventions in both preventing and treating Alzheimer’s shows great promise, with a lot of documented success stories already in place. So there is no need to wait for Big Pharma to come out with drugs that will supposedly mimic the same effects as are already being seen with common coconut oil.

Here is an excellent video with a round table discussion with 5 doctors and two nutritionists discussing the low-carb high-fat diet and coconut oil in relation to treating Alzheimer’s Disease, and the absurdity of current Alzheimer’s expenditures in the health care system that threatens to bankrupt our country.