Friday, March 28, 2014

Coconut oil against Alzheimer's Disease?


Quite a lot of topics are caught in the Internet. I have asked recently, if coconut oil could be used against Alzheimer's. I had to confess my ignorance. But then I couldn’t just lean back and I had to investigate this topic.
A "Health Center" (in Germany) promoted coconut oil: "in addition to all its advantages for weight, a healthy cholesterol level, an active metabolism and a strong immune system, coconut oil can relieve even the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Not only scientific studies, but also case studies demonstrate this as the Alzheimer's disease patient Steve Newport."
Advantages in weight reduction still lack proof. Saturated fatty acids, and that’s what coconut oil is, raise cholesterol levels. What is behind the idea of an active metabolism? What is a strong immune system? How is it measured? And what is this related to Alzheimer's disease?
If you look further and the whole hype is based on one case study (Steve Newport). The hypothesis that that coconut oil could reduce Alzheimer symptoms was developed by his wife, and now serves as the basis for all providers who wish to bring coconut oil to consumers. If it were so effective, there must be no Alzheimer's dementia in Germany anyway, at least not in households where Palmin is used as frying fat, because it consists of coconut oil. But let's search for studies. But there aren’t scientific studies on coconut oil and Alzheimer's disease, at least not known to the medical public.
However, there are studies in mouse models of Alzheimer's dementia (OT: it hurts me in the soul, to speak of mice!). Y. Kashigawa and colleagues found improvements in testing learning and memory in mice under a ketone ester diet, however, these effects were only weakly expressed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23276384).

Have a look at coconut oil/fat, it shouldn’t be expensive. You shouldn't spend more than € 20 per kilogram for organic coconut oil or € 5 for non-organic coconut oil. I think you shouldn’t use coconut oil at all, frying at high temperature increases cancerous substances. And it won’t act prophylactic on Alzheimer's.

(partly rewritten after a German text on this blog)

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