The good “natural cure” recovery stories are total hit on internet these days and are spread incredibly fast. A perfect example of such a story is the story of Dr. Mary Newport, MD, who said that she revered her husband’s symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease after just two weeks of adding coconut oil to his diet, after which thousands of people enthusiastically share the story. But the problem with these stories is that anecdotes rarely stand for the test of time and there are no published experimental researches published in peer-reviewed biomedical journals.
But unlike the other the study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Diseasetitled, “Coconut Oil Attenuates the Effects of Amyloid-β on Cortical Neurons In Vitro” is based on a experimental support to an accumulating body of anecdotal reports that coconut oil may alleviate and regress cognitive deficits associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s.
A research was conducted by the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada in which the investigated the effects of coconut oil supplementation directly on cortical neurons treated with amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide in vitro. Aβ peptide is the main component of certain deposits found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease believed to contribute to the development of the disease.
According to the researchers MCT Fats Found in Coconut Oil Boost Brain Function in Only One Dose reported significant improvements in Alzheimer’s disease patients after 45 and 90 days of treatment with medium chain triglycerides from coconut oil. They also said that this trial led to the marketing of the FDA-approved ‘medical food’ caprylidene (trade name Axona), but still the interest was bigger in coconut oil as a therapy.
They tried to test the hypothesis that coconut oil is beneficial for neurodegenerative conditions using a cell model. For testing this they used a rat. They exposed the rat to different combinations of Aβ peptide and coconut oil, the result showed that Aβ peptide reduced survival of neurons while coconut protected against this Aβ-induced reduction in survival time.
According to them coconut treated Aβ cultured neurons appeared “healthier,” and that coconut oil “rescued” Aβ-treated neurons from mitochondrial damage caused by their toxicity. They also observed coconut oil preventing Aβ-induced changes in mitochondrial size and circularity. These finding are of huge importance as mitochondria function is often compromised in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
In the research was stated the following “The rationale for using coconut oil as a potential AD [Alzheimer’s Disease] 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.” The researchers proposed that ketone bodies formed as a byproduct of coconut oil metabolism may offset Aβ-induced impairment of mitochondrial function and thus energy metabolism. Considering that the medium chain triglyceride found in coconut known as caprylic acid does cross the blood-brain barrier, and has been found to have anti-convulsant, in addition to, ketogenic effects, coconut oil likely does have a neuroprotective effect.
In the end was concluded that “The results of this pilot study provide a basis for further investigation of the effects of coconut oil, or its constituents, on neuronal survival focusing on mechanisms that may be involved.”
The way in which coconut oil saves the brains of Alzheimer’s patients is by focusing on the metabolic degeneration in the brain known as “type 3 diabetes”. With the ages the brain develops resistance towards insulin which prevents it from using glucose effectively. Luckily there is alternative source for energy for the brain independent of glucose utilization and the insulin signaling system, namely, the use of ketone bodies. Coconut oil provides the substrate for the immediate production of these ketone bodies, enabling significant quantities to be produced in several minutes.
Coconut oil is similar to walnuts, and they both contain within a fatty acid-rich ‘meat,’ that feed the brain, which form they resemble. And after realizing these facts should we still stay blind in front of the truth and let doctors and the economic forces earn millions to prove in randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled fashion?
Sourced: expand-your-consciousness
