Coconut Oil and Alzheimer’s Disease

[Serpo]

Coconut Oil and Alzheimer’s Disease
October 5, 2010


fresh coconut halves on beachHow worried should drug companies be about supplements eating into their monopoly profits? A lot—as this story will show. Please share it with anyone you know who is suffering from Alzheimer’s or is worried about it.

Of course, just about everyone worries about Alzheimer’s. It currently afflicts 5.2 million people in the US and is the seventh leading cause of death. The cost of treating it is estimated at $148 billion.

Mary Newport, MD, has been medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Spring Hill Regional Hospital in Florida since it opened in 2003. About the same time the unit opened, her husband Steve, then 53, began showing signs of progressive dementia, later diagnosed as Alzheimer’s Disease. “Many days, often for several days in a row, he was in a fog; couldn’t find a spoon or remember how to get water out of the refrigerator,” she said.

They started him on Alzheimer’s drugs—Aricept, Namenda, Exelon—but his disease worsened steadily. (It should be noted that the latest research shows that the various Alzheimer’s drugs, like Aricept, have proven disappointing, with little real benefit and often distressing side effects.) When Dr. Newport couldn’t get her husband into a drug trial for a new Alzheimer’s medication, she started researching the mechanism behind Alzheimer’s.

She discovered that with Alzheimer’s disease, certain brain cells may have difficulty utilizing glucose (made from the carbohydrates we eat), the brain’s principal source of energy. Without fuel, these precious neurons may begin to die. There is an alternative energy source for brain cells—fats known as ketones. If deprived of carbohydrates, the body produces ketones naturally.

But this is the hard way to do it—who wants to cut carbohydrates out of the diet completely? Another way to produce ketones is by consuming oils that have medium-chain triglycerides. When MCT oil is digested, the liver converts it into ketones. In the first few weeks of life, ketones provide about 25 percent of the energy newborn babies need to survive.

Dr. Newport learned that the ingredient in the drug trial which was showing so much promise was simply MCT oil derived from coconut oil or palm kernel oil, and that a dose of 20 grams (about 20 ml or 4 teaspoons) was used to produce these results. When MCT oil is metabolized, the ketones which the body creates may, according to the latest research, not only protect against the incidence of Alzheimer’s, but may actually reverse it. Moreover, this is also a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), drug-resistant epilepsy, brittle type I diabetes, and type II (insulin-resistant) diabetes.

So Mr. Newport, not being able to get into the drug trial, started taking the coconut oil twice a day. At this point, he could barely remember how to draw a clock. Two weeks after adding coconut oil to his diet, his drawing improved. After 37 days, Steve’s drawing gained even more clarity. The oil seemed to “lift the fog,” and in the first sixty days, Dr. Newport saw remarkable changes in him: every morning he was alert and happy, talkative, making jokes. His gait was “still a little weird,” but his tremor was no longer very noticeable. He was able to concentrate on things that he wanted to do around the house and in the yard and stay on task, whereas before coconut oil he was easily distractible and rarely accomplished anything unless he was directly supervised.

Over the next year, the dementia continued to reverse itself: he is able to run again, his reading comprehension has improved dramatically, and his short-term memory is improving—he often brings up events that happened days to weeks earlier and relays telephone conversations with accurate detail. A recent MRI shows that the brain atrophy has been completely halted.

Let’s take a moment to consider what actually happened here. Synthetic (patentable) Alzheimer’s drugs have failed. A drug company reluctantly decides to put a non-patentable natural substance (medium-chain triglycerides derived from coconut or palm) through an FDA trial. It works. But, darn it, a smart doctor figures out that a natural food can be substituted for the super-expensive drug. Not only that, the ketones from natural coconut oil last in the body longer than the drug version—eight hours instead of three hours. This is enough to make a drug company start worrying about its future. What if this natural health idea really catches on? Goodbye to monopoly profits!

Coconut oil can be found in many health food stores and even some grocery stores. One large chain sells a non-hydrogenated (no trans-fat) brand of coconut oil in a one-liter size (nearly 32 ounces) for about $7. It can be purchased in quantities as small as a pint and up to five gallons online. It is important to use coconut oil that is non-hydrogenated and contains no trans-fat. We would also strongly encourage the use of virgin oil (chemicals used to extract non-virgin oil are potentially dangerous, and better still, virgin organic, still quite reasonably priced.)

For more information, see Dr. Newport’s website. Sadly, you will not find any information on ketones, or the use of coconut oil or MCT oil, on the Alzheimer’s Association website.

Coconut oil is not the only natural product that has the potential to turn Alzheimer’s around. We will cover some other ones, and drug industry efforts to steal some of them, in a future issue.

http://www.anh-usa.org/coconut-oil-and-alzheimer%E2%80%99s-disease/

[Silver Shield]

Stop giving old people their mercury laced flu shots and that will help even more.

[keehah]

Now I know why I cannot find coconut oil at the supermarket anymore. Too good a product for slaves.

http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

___________

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/10/06/1467229/karen-mccarthy-former-us-representative.html

Karen McCarthy, the former English teacher turned five-term member of Congress, died Tuesday afternoon of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

She was 63.

McCarthy, a longtime resident of Kansas City's Roanoke neighborhood, championed the environment, public education, women's rights and an expansion of prescription-drug coverage under Medicare during a career in public office that spanned nearly three decades.

[Heimdhal]

We recently found out that my wifes grandmother may (and very, very likley does) have alzheimers. Shes only 61 or 62. Found out a couple weeks ago. This came about 3 days after we found out my mother in law, who is in her early 40's was diagnosed with breast cancer.


Theres definitley something going on....those ages just arent that old. (BTW, I lost my father to cancer 10 years ago when he was 62 and he was a picture of health and vitality)

[AOW]

My dad passed in 2007 at the age of 65 from Alzheimers and I'm concerned about getting that myself at some point. I'm adding coconut oil to the shopping list, thanks!

[lapis]

Mary Newport, MD, has been medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Spring Hill Regional Hospital in Florida since it opened in 2003. About the same time the unit opened, her husband Steve, then 53, began showing signs of progressive dementia, later diagnosed as Alzheimer’s Disease. “Many days, often for several days in a row, he was in a fog; couldn’t find a spoon or remember how to get water out of the refrigerator,” she said.

They started him on Alzheimer’s drugs—Aricept, Namenda, Exelon—but his disease worsened steadily. (It should be noted that the latest research shows that the various Alzheimer’s drugs, like Aricept, have proven disappointing, with little real benefit and often distressing side effects.) When Dr. Newport couldn’t get her husband into a drug trial for a new Alzheimer’s medication, she started researching the mechanism behind Alzheimer’s.

She discovered that with Alzheimer’s disease, certain brain cells may have difficulty utilizing glucose (made from the carbohydrates we eat), the brain’s principal source of energy. Without fuel, these precious neurons may begin to die. There is an alternative energy source for brain cells—fats known as ketones. If deprived of carbohydrates, the body produces ketones naturally.

Dr. Newport's finding was featured in a St. Petersburg's Times article back in 2008.

"Doctor says an oil lessened Alzheimer's effects on her husband"
[NOTE: There's such a pervasive Mainstream Media disinformation
campaign against saturated fats that they can't even mention the
words "coconut oil" being beneficial in an article title!]
http://www.tampabay.com/news/aging/article879333.ece

Look at the clock face pictures her husband drew from memory before and after the coconut oil treatment:

http://www.tampabay.com/multimedia/archive/00043/HercoupleCopy102908_43910c.jpeg


But this is the hard way to do it—who wants to cut carbohydrates out of the diet completely? Another way to produce ketones is by consuming oils that have medium-chain triglycerides. When MCT oil is digested, the liver converts it into ketones. In the first few weeks of life, ketones provide about 25 percent of the energy newborn babies need to survive.

You don't have to cut them out completely. But you would need to cut down drastically at first if you want to go into ketosis (I don't think taking coconut oil alone would do it). Sure beats having Alzheimer's!


For more information, see Dr. Newport’s website. Sadly, you will not find any information on ketones, or the use of coconut oil or MCT oil, on the Alzheimer’s Association website.

What a surprise! :oo-->

[lapis]

Now I know why I cannot find coconut oil at the supermarket anymore. Too good a product for slaves.

Don't even get me started!!

This is one subject I'm passionate about. I think it's part of the NWO campaign to render us useless eaters sick and unable to reproduce (but not outright kill us, as long as BigPharma can make profits off us being this way).

Foods that are high in saturated fat are often also the richest source of extremely crucial vitamins like A, D3, and K2.

Vitamin A is a biggie, and that's why all the mainstream health "experts" warn you not to eat foods that contain it: foods like egg yolk, liver, and whole-fat milk

Our kids are being targeted, so they can get them started being sick at a young age: Only skim and non-fat milk is served at school lunch programs.

When the butterfat is taken out of milk, most of the vitamins are also eliminated. In addition, the body needs the fat to absorb the nutrients that are in the milk!

The FDA allows milk producers to add back synthetic vitamin A to replace the natural retinol. Because this is an "industry standard," it doesn't have to be put on the label.

Non-fat dry milk is also added to it in order to help it taste better. NFDM still contains traces of cholesterol, which get oxidized when the liquid milk is heated and processed. This oxidized cholesterol, is definitely bad for you to consume.

Back in the day, people didn't consider skimmed milk fit for human consumption. Farmers gave it to their pigs.

I have heard rumors that some Wal Marts sell coconut oil. But it certainly isn't being sold in urban "health-conscious" areas.

On the bright side, you can usually get it at health food stores or online.

[chad]

i was going to make some smart ass comment about how shitty those clock drawings are, but then i thought better.

[lapis]

It makes me angry when I go to 99 cent stores and see the kind of food aimed at the poor.

At one of my local stores, the "sour cream" it was selling contained water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and whey as the top three ingredients. There was ZERO cream in it.

The canned cream boasted a "now with much less fat!" type label.

The tinned anchovies and other type of fish were filled with cottonseed and/or soybean oil.

This is pure GARBAGE masquerading as food!

[lapis]

i was going to make some smart ass comment about how sh*tty those clock drawings are, but then i thought better.


LOL.

That is one of the tests they give to Alzheimer's patients.

[Jersey Thursday]

i was going to make some smart ass comment about how sh*tty those clock drawings are, but then i thought better.


http://www.theexpressionist.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/08-06-21-lexus-salvador-dali.jpg

[Shorty Harris]

I am currently the full time caregiver for my mother who has A.D. She was diagnosed back in 2004, at the age of 61. I will have to do some digging about this coconut oil and see what I can come up with.

Btw..My Father passed away due to cancer in 2002, at the age of 61. Thats the day I lost my best friend.

[chad]

my grandfather died from it at 79. at the end it was horrible. went really fast, too. he went from fine to not knowing anything in about 3 years.

[Bullion_Bob]

Cool Cliff Claven factoid. I switched to coconut oil a couple years ago when I learned you can cook it at much higher temperatures than pretty much every other oil, and it will still hold it's integrity.

[Serpo]

This is really great news,just have to remember to take the stuff or if we take coconut oil the brain will stay intact.

This is a more in depth look at what is going on with .....

I have already discussed the many toxic effects of the unsaturated oils, and I have frequently mentioned that coconut oil doesn't have those toxic effects, though it does contain a small amount of the unsaturated oils.

The unsaturated oils in some cooked foods become rancid in just a few hours, even at refrigerator temperatures, and are responsible for the stale taste of left-over foods. (Eating slightly stale food isn't particularly harmful, since the same oils, even when eaten absolutely fresh, will oxidize at a much higher rate once they are in the body, where they are heated and thoroughly mixed with an abundance of oxygen.)

Coconut oil that has been kept at room temperature for a year has been tested for rancidity, and showed no evidence of it. Since we would expect the small percentage of unsaturated oils naturally contained in coconut oil to become rancid, it seems that the other (saturated) oils have an antioxidative effect: I suspect that the dilution keeps the unstable unsaturated fat molecules spatially separated from each other, so they can't interact in the destructive chain reactions that occur in other oils.

To interrupt chain-reactions of oxidation is one of the functions of antioxidants, and it is possible that a sufficient quantity of coconut oil in the body has this function. It is well established that dietary coconut oil reduces our need for vitamin E, but I think its antioxidant role is more general than that, and that it has both direct and indirect antioxidant activities. Coconut oil is unusually rich in short and medium chain fatty acids. Shorter chain length allows fatty acids to be metabolized without use of the carnitine transport system.

Mildronate, which I discussed in an article on adaptogens, protects cells against stress partly by opposing the action of carnitine, and comparative studies showed that added carnitine had the opposite effect, promoting the oxidation of unsaturated fats during stress, and increasing oxidative damage to cells. I suspect that a degree of saturation of the oxidative apparatus by short-chain fatty acids has a similar effect--that is, that these very soluble and mobile short-chain saturated fats have priority for oxidation, because they don't require carnitine transport into the mitochondrion, and that this will tend to inhibit oxidation of the unstable, peroxidizable unsaturated fatty acids.

When Albert Schweitzer operated his clinic in tropical Africa, he said it was many years before he saw any cases of cancer, and he believed that the appearance of cancer was caused by the change to the European type of diet. In the l920s, German researchers showed that mice on a fat-free diet were practically free of cancer. Since then, many studies have demonstrated a very close association between consumption of unsaturated oils and the incidence of cancer. Heart damage is easily produced in animals by feeding them linoleic acid; this "essential" fatty acid turned out to be the heart toxin in rape-seed oil.

The addition of saturated fat to the experimental heart-toxic oil-rich diet protects against the damage to heart cells. Immunosuppression was observed in patients who were being "nourished" by intravenous emulsions of "essential fatty acids," and as a result coconut oil is used as the basis for intravenous fat feeding, except in organ-transplant patients. For those patients, emulsions of unsaturated oils are used specifically for their immunosuppressive effects.

General aging, and especially aging of the brain, is increasingly seen as being closely associated with lipid peroxidation. Several years ago I met an old couple, who were only a few years apart in age, but the wife looked many years younger than her doddering old husband. She was from the Philippines, and she remarked that she always had to cook two meals at the same time, because her husband couldn't adapt to her traditional food. Three times every day, she still prepared her food in coconut oil. Her apparent youth increased my interest in the effects of coconut oil.

In the l960s, Hartroft and Porta gave an elegant argument for decreasing the ratio of unsaturated oil to saturated oil in the diet (and thus in the tissues). They showed that the "age pigment" is produced in proportion to the ratio of oxidants to antioxidants, multiplied by the ratio of unsaturated oils to saturated oils. More recently, a variety of studies have demonstrated that ultraviolet light induces peroxidation in unsaturated fats, but not saturated fats, and that this occurs in the skin as well as in vitro. Rabbit experiments, and studies of humans, showed that the amount of unsaturated oil in the diet strongly affects the rate at which aged, wrinkled skin develops.

The unsaturated fat in the skin is a major target for the aging and carcinogenic effects of ultraviolet light, though not necessarily the only one. In the l940s, farmers attempted to use cheap coconut oil for fattening their animals, but they found that it made them lean, active and hungry. For a few years, an antithyroid drug was found to make the livestock get fat while eating less food, but then it was found to be a strong carcinogen, and it also probably produced hypothyroidism in the people who ate the meat.

By the late l940s, it was found that the same antithyroid effect, causing animals to get fat without eating much food, could be achieved by using soy beans and corn as feed. Later, an animal experiment fed diets that were low or high in total fat, and in different groups the fat was provided by pure coconut oil, or a pure unsaturated oil, or by various mixtures of the two oils. At the end of their lives, the animals' obesity increased directly in proportion to the ratio of unsaturated oil to coconut oil in their diet, and was not related to the total amount of fat they had consumed. That is, animals which ate just a little pure unsaturated oil were fat, and animals which ate a lot of coconut oil were lean. In the l930s, animals on a diet lacking the unsaturated fatty acids were found to be "hypermetabolic." Eating a "normal" diet, these animals were malnourished, and their skin condition was said to be caused by a "deficiency of essential fatty acids."

But other researchers who were studying vitamin B6 recognized the condition as a deficiency of that vitamin. They were able to cause the condition by feeding a fat-free diet, and to cure the condition by feeding a single B vitamin. The hypermetabolic animals simply needed a better diet than the "normal," fat-fed, cancer-prone animals did. G. W. Crile and his wife found that the metabolic rate of people in Yucatan, where coconut is a staple food, averaged 25% higher than that of people in the United States. In a hot climate, the adaptive tendency is to have a lower metabolic rate, so it is clear that some factor is more than offsetting this expected effect of high environmental temperatures. The people there are lean, and recently it has been observed that the women there have none of the symptoms we commonly associate with the menopause.

By l950, then, it was established that unsaturated fats suppress the metabolic rate, apparently creating hypothyroidism. Over the next few decades, the exact mechanisms of that metabolic damage were studied. Unsaturated fats damage the mitochondria, partly by suppressing the repiratory enzyme, and partly by causing generalized oxidative damage. The more unsaturated the oils are, the more specifically they suppress tissue response to thyroid hormone, and transport of the hormone on the thyroid transport protein. Plants evolved a variety of toxins designed to protect themselves from "predators," such as grazing animals. Seeds contain a variety of toxins, that seem to be specific for mammalian enzymes, and the seed oils themselves function to block proteolytic digestive enzymes in the stomach. The thyroid hormone is formed in the gland by the action of a proteolytic enzyme, and the unsaturated oils also inhibit that enzyme.

Similar proteolytic enzymes involved in clot removal and phagocytosis appear to be similarly inhibited by these oils. Just as metabolism is "activated" by consumption of coconut oil, which prevents the inhibiting effect of unsaturated oils, other inhibited processes, such as clot removal and phagocytosis, will probably tend to be restored by continuing use of coconut oil. Brain tissue is very rich in complex forms of fats. The experiment (around 1978) in which pregnant mice were given diets containing either coconut oil or unsaturated oil showed that brain development was superior in the young mice whose mothers ate coconut oil. Because coconut oil supports thyroid function, and thyroid governs brain development, including myelination, the result might simply reflect the difference between normal and hypothyroid individuals.

http://www.heall.com/body/healthupdates/food/coconutoil.html

[zusn]

Alzheimer's scares the shit out of me. It took my grandmother almost 8 years to die from it. It was a slow, painful transition, watching her become a totally different person. My godfather on the other hand died in about a year. I read this article a few months ago in a news letter that my grandfather gets. Very promising stuff. I've been lazy about sourcing some good coconut oil, but I think it's time to get off my ass and buy some.

[Serpo]

part 2

However, in 1980, experimenters demonstrated that young rats fed milk containing soy oil incorporated the oil directly into their brain cells, and had structurally abnormal brain cells as a result. Lipid peroxidation occurs during seizures, and antioxidants such as vitamin E have some anti-seizure activity. Currently, lipid peroxidation is being found to be involved in the nerve cell degeneration of Alzheimer's disease. Various fractions of coconut oil are coming into use as "drugs," meaning that they are advertised as treatments for diseases. Butyric acid is used to treat cancer, lauric and myristic acids to treat virus infections, and mixtures of medium-chain fats are sold for weight loss. Purification undoubtedly increases certain effects, and results in profitable products, but in the absence of more precise knowledge, I think the whole natural product, used as a regular food, is the best way to protect health.

The shorter-chain fatty acids have strong, unpleasant odors; for a couple of days after I ate a small amount of a medium-chain triglyceride mixture, my skin oil emitted a rank, goaty smell. Some people don't seem to have that reaction, and the benefits might outweigh the stink, but these things just haven't been in use long enough to know whether they are safe. We have to remember that the arguments made for aspartame, monosodium glutamate, aspartic acid, and tryptophan--that they are like the amino acids that make up natural proteins--are dangerously false. In the case of amino acids, balance is everything.

Aspartic and glutamic acids promote seizures and cause brain damage, and are intimately involved in the process of stress-induced brain aging, and tryptophan by itself is carcinogenic. Treating any complex natural product as the drug industry does, as a raw material to be fractionated in the search for "drug" products, is risky, because the relevant knowledge isn't sought in the search for an association between a single chemical and a single disease. While the toxic unsaturated paint-stock oils, especially safflower, soy, corn and linseed (flaxseed) oils, have been sold to the public precisely for their drug effects, all of their claimed benefits were false.

When people become interested in coconut oil as a "health food," the huge seed-oil industry--operating through their shills--are going to attack it as an "unproved drug." While components of coconut oil have been found to have remarkable physiological effects (as antihistamines, antiinfectives/antiseptics, promoters of immunity, glucocorticoid antagonist, nontoxic anticancer agents, for example), I think it is important to avoid making any such claims for the natural coconut oil, because it very easily could be banned from the import market as a "new drug" which isn't "approved by the FDA."

We have already seen how money and propaganda from the soy oil industry eliminated long-established products from the U.S. market. I saw people lose weight stably when they had the habit of eating large amounts of tortilla chips fried in coconut oil, but those chips disappeared when their producers were pressured into switching to other oils, in spite of the short shelf life that resulted in the need to add large amounts of preservatives. Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, potato chip producers, and movie theater popcorn makers have experienced similar pressures. The cholesterol-lowering fiasco for a long time centered on the ability of unsaturated oils to slightly lower serum cholesterol. For years, the mechanism of that action wasn't known, which should have suggested caution.

Now, it seems that the effect is just one more toxic action, in which the liver defensively retains its cholesterol, rather than releasing it into the blood. Large scale human studies have provided overwhelming evidence that whenever drugs, including the unsaturated oils, were used to lower serum cholesterol, mortality increased, from a variety of causes including accidents, but mainly from cancer. Since the l930s, it has been clearly established that suppression of the thyroid raises serum cholesterol (while increasing mortality from infections, cancer, and heart disease), while restoring the thyroid hormone brings cholesterol down to normal. In this situation, however, thyroid isn't suppressing the synthesis of cholesterol, but rather is promoting its use to form hormones and bile salts. When the thyroid is functioning properly, the amount of cholesterol in the blood entering the ovary governs the amount of progesterone being produced by the ovary, and the same situation exists in all steroid-forming tissues, such as the adrenal glands and the brain. Progesterone and its precursor, pregnenolone, have a generalized protective function: antioxidant, anti-seizure, antitoxin, anti-spasm, anti-clot, anti-cancer, pro-memory, pro-myelination, pro-attention, etc.

Any interference with the formation of cholesterol will interfere with all of these exceedingly important protective functions. As far as the evidence goes, it suggests that coconut oil, added regularly to a balanced diet, lowers cholesterol to normal by promoting its conversion into pregnenolone. (The coconut family contains steroids that resemble pregnenolone, but these are probably mostly removed when the fresh oil is washed with water to remove the enzymes which would digest the oil.)

Coconut-eating cultures in the tropics have consistently lower cholesterol than people in the U.S. Everyone that I know who uses coconut oil regularly happens to have cholesterol levels of about 160, while eating mainly cholesterol rich foods (eggs, milk, cheese, meat, shellfish). I encourage people to eat sweet fruits, rather than starches, if they want to increase their production of cholesterol, since fructose has that effect.

Many people see coconut oil in its hard, white state, and--as a result of their training watching television or going to medical school--associate it with the cholesterol-rich plaques in blood vessels. Those lesions in blood vessels are caused mostly by lipid peroxidation of unsaturated fats, and relate to stress, because adrenaline liberates fats from storage, and the lining of blood vessels is exposed to high concentrations of the blood-borne material. In the body, incidentally, the oil can't exist as a solid, since it liquefies at 76 degrees. (Incidentally, the viscosity of complex materials isn't a simple matter of averaging the viscosity of its component materials; cholesterol and saturated fats sometimes lower the viscosity of cell components.)

Most of the images and metaphors relating to coconut oil and cholesterol that circulate in our culture are false and misleading. I offer a counter-image, which is metaphorical, but it is true in that it relates to lipid peroxidation, which is profoundly important in our bodies. After a bottle of safflower oil has been opened a few times, a few drops that get smeared onto the outside of the bottle begin to get very sticky, and hard to wash off. This property is why it is a valued base for paints and varnishes, but this varnish is chemically closely related to the age pigment that forms "liver spots" on the skin, and similar lesions in the brain, heart, blood vessels, lenses of the eyes, etc.

The image of "hard, white saturated coconut oil" isn't relevant to the oil's biological action, but the image of "sticky varnish-like easily oxidized unsaturated seed oils" is highly relevant to their toxicity. The ability of some of the medium chain saturated fatty acids to inhibit the liver's formation of fat very likely synergizes with the pro-thyroid effect, in allowing energy to be used, rather than stored. When fat isn't formed from carbohydrate, the sugar is available for use, or for storage as glycogen. Therefore, shifting from unsaturated fats in foods to coconut oil involves several anti-stress processes, reducing our need for the adrenal hormones.

Decreased blood sugar is a basic signal for the release of adrenal hormones. Unsaturated oil tends to lower the blood sugar in at least three basic ways. It damages mitochondria, causing respiration to be uncoupled from energy production, meaning that fuel is burned without useful effect. It suppresses the activity of the respiratory enzyme (directly, and through its anti-thyroid actions), decreasing the respiratory production of energy. And it tends to direct carbohydrate into fat production, making both stress and obesity more probable. For those of us who use coconut oil consistently, one of the most noticeable changes is the ability to go for several hours without eating, and to feel hungry without having symptoms of hypoglycemia.

One of the stylish ways to promote the use of unsaturated oils is to refer to their presence in "cell membranes," and to claim that they are essential for maintaining "membrane fluidity." As I have mentioned above, it is the ability of the unsaturated fats, and their breakdown products, to interfere with enzymes and transport proteins, which accounts for many of their toxic effects, so they definitely don't just harmlessly form "membranes." They probably bind to all proteins, and disrupt some of them, but for some reason their affinity for proteolytic and respiration-related enzymes is particularly obvious. (I think the chemistry of this association is going to give us some important insights into the nature of organisms. Metchnikof's model that I have discussed elsewhere might give us a picture of how those factors relate in growth, physiology, and aging.)

[Serpo]

part 3

Unsaturated fats are slightly more water-soluble than fully saturated fats, and so they do have a greater tendency to concentrate at interfaces between water and fats or proteins, but there are relatively few places where these interfaces can be usefully and harmlessly occupied by unsaturated fats, and at a certain point, an excess becomes harmful. We don't want "membranes" forming where there shouldn't be membranes. The fluidity or viscosity of cell surfaces is an extremely complex subject, and the degree of viscosity has to be appropriate for the function of the cell. Interestingly, in some cells, such as the cells that line the air sacs of the lungs, cholesterol and one of the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil can increase the fluidity of the cell surface. In many cases, stressful conditions create structural disorder in cells. These influences have been called "chaotropic," or chaos-producing. In red blood cells, which have sometimes been wrongly described as "hemoglobin enclosed in a cell membrane," it has been known for a long time that lipid peroxidation of unsaturated fats weakens the cellular structure, causing the cells to be destroyed prematurely. Lipid peroxidation products are known to be "chaotropic," lowering the rigidity of regions of cells considered to be membranes.

But the red blood cell is actually more like a sponge in structure, consisting of a "skeleton" of proteins, which (if not damaged by oxidation) can hold its shape, even when the hemoglobin has been removed. Oxidants damage the protein structure, and it is this structural damage which in turn increases the "fluidity" of the associated fats. So, it is probably true that in many cases the liquid unsaturated oils do increase "membrane fluidity," but it is now clear that in at least some of those cases the "fluidity" corresponds to the chaos of a damaged cell protein structure. (N. V. Gorbunov, "Effect of structural modification of membrane proteins on lipid-protein interactions in the human erythrocyte membrane," Bull. Exp. Biol. & Med. 116(11), 1364-67. 1993.

Although I had stopped using the unsaturated seed oils years ago, and supposed that I wasn't heavily saturated with toxic unsaturated fat, when I first used coconut oil I saw an immediate response, that convinced me my metabolism was chronically inhibited by something that was easily alleviated by "dilution" or molecular competition. I had put a tablespoonful of coconut oil on some rice I had for supper, and half an hour later while I was reading, I noticed I was breathing more deeply than normal. I saw that my skin was pink, and I found that my pulse was faster than normal--about 98, I think. After an hour or two, my pulse and breathing returned to normal. Every day for a couple of weeks I noticed the same response while I was digesting a small amount of coconut oil, but gradually it didn't happen any more, and I increased my daily consumption of the oil to about an ounce. I kept eating the same foods as before (including a quart of ice cream every day), except that I added about 200 or 250 calories per day as coconut oil.

Apparently the metabolic surges that happened at first were an indication that my body was compensating for an anti-thyroid substance by producing more thyroid hormone; when the coconut oil relieved the inhibition, I experienced a moment of slight hyperthyroidism, but after a time the inhibitor became less effective, and my body adjusted by producing slightly less thyroid hormone. But over the next few months, I saw that my weight was slowly and consistently decreasing. It had been steady at 185 pounds for 25 years, but over a period of six months it dropped to about 175 pounds. I found that eating more coconut oil lowered my weight another few pounds, and eating less caused it to increase. The anti-obesity effect of coconut oil is clear in all of the animal studies, and in my friends who eat it regularly.

[chad]

popcorn is THE BEST popped in coco oil. try it. it's an incredible delicacy, and a great way to ingest it.

[Hillbilly]

That's good to hear. I have been using coconut oil for about 2 years now to cook with and I love it. Works better in my cast iron than Krisco.

[sunshine05]

Alzheimer's scares the sh*t out of me. It took my grandmother almost 8 years to die from it. It was a slow, painful transition, watching her become a totally different person. My godfather on the other hand died in about a year. I read this article a few months ago in a news letter that my grandfather gets. Very promising stuff. I've been lazy about sourcing some good coconut oil, but I think it's time to get off my ass and buy some.


zusn, I've been buying Nutiva coconut oil from Vitacost and I'm happy with it. I add it to smoothies and cook popcorn with it mostly.

http://www.vitacost.com/Nutiva-Certified-Organic-Extra-Virgin-Coconut-Oil

[platinumdude]

can you drink it straight or do you have to mix it an existing drink?

[MNeagle]

It's not liquid, it has a consistency more like Crisco. Melts when heated though. I don't know about blending it...

[sunshine05]

can you drink it straight or do you have to mix it an existing drink?


Mine is still liquid but you can take it straight, even when it is solid. It dissolves in my mouth quickly and doesn't bother me. I sometimes do oil pulling with it too.

[platinumdude]

can you drink it straight or do you have to mix it an existing drink?


Mine is still liquid but you can take it straight, even when it is solid. It dissolves in my mouth quickly and doesn't bother me. I sometimes do oil pulling with it too.


Thanks. I also just found this info

There are many ways to use coconut oil and incorporate it into one’s diet. Since it is a stable cooking oil, one can simply replace unhealthy oils in their diet with coconut oil. Since it is a solid most of the time at room temperature or when refrigerated, it can be a butter or margarine substitute for spreads or for baking. Any recipe calling for butter, margarine, or any other oil can be substituted for coconut oil. It is popularly mixed in with “smoothies.” Many people do eat it simply by the spoon full. If you refrigerate or freeze Virgin Coconut Oils the taste changes completely, and some describe it like a “candy” or “white chocolate.” Some people fill up ice cube trays with coconut oil and then store them in the freezer. Some people use it as a spread, and a lot of people put it into their coffee or tea. There are also hundreds of FREE recipes here that have been submitted by our customers over the years.

http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/faq.htm#3

[LuckyStrike]

I am currently the full time caregiver for my mother who has A.D. She was diagnosed back in 2004, at the age of 61. I will have to do some digging about this coconut oil and see what I can come up with.

Btw..My Father passed away due to cancer in 2002, at the age of 61. Thats the day I lost my best friend.


My mom had uteran cancer when she was in her early 50's and never fully recovered, after about 3 years of just not being right eventually she was diagnosed with Alzheimers. Now she is in her early 60's and within months of death (maybe less).

For those who haven't seen alzheimers in action, especially with someone relatively young it's some rough ass shit. You go from being on top of your game to not remembering family, how to walk, to finally how to even recognize food so even though someone feeds you it means nothing you won't swallow it. So you either stay on life support as a vegetable with an inevitable death or starve.

I know people how have had and died of cancer (who doesn't) and I stand here and tell you right now, that I'd rather take bone cancer, lung cancer and ass cancer together than lose my mind.

Unless you have seen someone get frustrated as hell because they can't do simple tasks that even a 5 year old could do yet at the time still be cognizant and coherent enough to know something is amiss, than you have no idea what it would be like to lose your mind and be trapped in a body that you can't control.

Alzheimers is one hell of a cruel disease.

[Serpo]

I am currently the full time caregiver for my mother who has A.D. She was diagnosed back in 2004, at the age of 61. I will have to do some digging about this coconut oil and see what I can come up with.

Btw..My Father passed away due to cancer in 2002, at the age of 61. Thats the day I lost my best friend.


My mom had uteran cancer when she was in her early 50's and never fully recovered, after about 3 years of just not being right eventually she was diagnosed with Alzheimers. Now she is in her early 60's and within months of death (maybe less).

For those who haven't seen alzheimers in action, especially with someone relatively young it's some rough ass sh*t. You go from being on top of your game to not remembering family, how to walk, to finally how to even recognize food so even though someone feeds you it means nothing you won't swallow it. So you either stay on life support as a vegetable with an inevitable death or starve.

I know people how have had and died of cancer (who doesn't) and I stand here and tell you right now, that I'd rather take bone cancer, lung cancer and ass cancer together than lose my mind.

Unless you have seen someone get frustrated as hell because they can't do simple tasks that even a 5 year old could do yet at the time still be cognizant and coherent enough to know something is amiss, than you have no idea what it would be like to lose your mind and be trapped in a body that you can't control.

Alzheimers is one hell of a cruel disease.




Yes its a terrible thing

Reading about this it was in fact pointing the finger at the using of the other oils ,polyunsaturated and all those sort that have caused alzheimers in the first place.

[Bigjon]

can you drink it straight or do you have to mix it an existing drink?


Mine is still liquid but you can take it straight, even when it is solid. It dissolves in my mouth quickly and doesn't bother me. I sometimes do oil pulling with it too.


Thanks. I also just found this info

There are many ways to use coconut oil and incorporate it into one’s diet. Since it is a stable cooking oil, one can simply replace unhealthy oils in their diet with coconut oil. Since it is a solid most of the time at room temperature or when refrigerated, it can be a butter or margarine substitute for spreads or for baking. Any recipe calling for butter, margarine, or any other oil can be substituted for coconut oil. It is popularly mixed in with “smoothies.” Many people do eat it simply by the spoon full. If you refrigerate or freeze Virgin Coconut Oils the taste changes completely, and some describe it like a “candy” or “white chocolate.” Some people fill up ice cube trays with coconut oil and then store them in the freezer. Some people use it as a spread, and a lot of people put it into their coffee or tea. There are also hundreds of FREE recipes here that have been submitted by our customers over the years.

http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/faq.htm#3


Beat me to it, I was just going to post a link to this company, as I just placed an order there and wanted to inform plus maybe get some feedback as to the reliability of the company and their products.

[sunshine05]

Beat me to it, I was just going to post a link to this company, as I just placed an order there and wanted to inform plus maybe get some feedback as to the reliability of the company and their products.


I bought Tropical Traditions in the past. It is fine, but I prefer the Nutiva, plus I think the price is better.


EDIT: Fixed quoting. -Gaillo

[learn2swim]

Beat me to it, I was just going to post a link to this company, as I just placed an order there and wanted to inform plus maybe get some feedback as to the reliability of the company and their products.
[/quote]

I bought Tropical Traditions in the past. It is fine, but I prefer the Nutiva, plus I think the price is better.
[/quote]

Yes, it seems to get the best reviews too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GAT6NG/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1EC3XA4MNBD0XPYQ9FFX&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

[gunDriller]

i don't know about coconut oil, but 3-6-9 oil is good nutrition.

i wish i had treated my own father's Alzheimer's differently. once he got to a point where my Mom couldn't handle him, she found a managed care facility that cost about $2000 a month.

i wish i had taken him to the ocean or to a swimming pool for some light exercise. i think that's good for clearing the mind.

what i notice happens with Alzheimer's patients is that they get warehoused, sort of, and an exercise program is not on the agenda.

but i find that exercise helps clear & focus the mind - why would it be different for someone with Alzheimer's ? if they have one moment of clarity during or after the exercise session, or just seem to enjoy boogie boarding on some smaller waves near shore, i think it's a good thing to do.

i'm NOT talking about taking an old person out to 10 foot Sunset.

[Neuro]

Now I know why I cannot find coconut oil at the supermarket anymore. Too good a product for slaves.

Don't even get me started!!

This is one subject I'm passionate about. I think it's part of the NWO campaign to render us useless eaters sick and unable to reproduce (but not outright kill us, as long as BigPharma can make profits off us being this way).

Foods that are high in saturated fat are often also the richest source of extremely crucial vitamins like A,
D3, and K2.

Vitamin A is a biggie, and that's why all the mainstream health "experts" warn you not to eat foods that contain it: foods like egg yolk, liver, and whole-fat milk

Our kids are being targeted, so they can get them started being sick at a young age: Only skim and non-fat milk is served at school lunch programs.

When the butterfat is taken out of milk, most of the vitamins are also eliminated. In addition, the body
needs the fat to absorb the nutrients that are in the milk!

The FDA allows milk producers to add back synthetic vitamin A to replace the natural retinol. Because this is an "industry standard," it doesn't have to be put on the label.

Non-fat dry milk is also added to it in order to help it taste better. NFDM still contains traces of cholesterol, which get oxidized when the liquid milk is heated and processed. This oxidized cholesterol, is definitely bad for you to consume.

Back in the day, people didn't consider skimmed milk fit for human consumption. Farmers gave it to their pigs.

I have heard rumors that some Wal Marts sell coconut oil. But it certainly isn't being sold in urban "health-conscious" areas.

On the bright side, you can usually get it at health food stores or online.

Good post, just want to add that skimmed milk gives the consumer blood sugar swings, since the fat that is extracted are metabolized slower, blood sugar swings is what make people fat, not fat. This fact is probably why farmers gave skimmed milk to pigs, to fatten them quickly...

[Serpo]

Good post, just want to add that skimmed milk gives the consumer blood sugar swings, since the fat that is extracted are metabolized slower, blood sugar swings is what make people fat, not fat. This fact is probably why farmers gave skimmed milk to pigs, to fatten them quickly...


It isnt good for the prostate either......I believe


EDIT: Fixed quoting. -Gaillo