COCONUT OIL AND ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA TREATMENT

 

COCONUT OIL AND ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA TREATMENT 

Normal brain cross section
The fear of Alzheimer’s amongst Western populations is only topped by the fear of getting cancer. This fear is also getting bigger as life span is increasing and the population of pensioners is getting larger. It is a horrible disease involving a person slowly having failing memory, strange behaviors and loss of normal body functions. I had to watch while my mother slowly withered and died away over a period of 6 years. I don’t think
that I have fully recovered from those lost years yet. It is no wonder that people will try almost anything to try and avoid the condition.

There has been a lot of research into Alzheimer’s but as yet there is no identifiable cure on the horizon. There have been the occasional revelation about a discovery but real results quickly fade into the distance as people fail to respond to proposed treatments. There are drugs which can delay the onset of the disease but as I discovered with my mother’s case they can often have side effects that are far worse than the condition itself. The gains she made from the drug were very modest indeed and the doctors said that she may have gained 6 months and that was about it. Eventually she had to go into a home and have 24 hour care. At this point she had been robbed of real speech, concentration and even the ability to stand up.  Even from here there was just over a year of undignified care until she eventually went to her maker. Some people have discovered that coconut oil can help them with this condition and this has led to scientific research into why this should be so.

Alzheimer’s brain cross section
The Alzheimer’s condition in characterized by the development of plaques of the protein amyloid-β(Aβ) inside the brain. . It is thought that these plaques somehow prevent nervous connections happening within the brain. This then leads to the disruption of thoughts and memories that is seen in people suffering from Alzheimer’s. Researchers have concentrated on these plaques in the search for a cure for the disease. The simple idea is that if you remove the plaques then the brain will regain its ability to communicate and that the thought process and memories will return.

Most of the drugs that have been proposed and tested are designed to interfere in some way with the production of the amyloid-β(Aβ) protein. This should result in the delaying of the onset of the Alzheimer’s condition. It is unfortunate that a lot of the tests have had to be abandoned when human trials have started. This has been due to a range of unrelated effects that the newly produced drugs have had and the fact that some have even made the Alzheimer’s condition worse in a number of the subjects.

This is the area where the majority of research money is and has been spent. The failures in this have led other researchers to propose a different idea about how Alzheimer’s actually develops. This new research has been prompted in part from the anecdotal evidence that coconut oil can improve the condition of Alzheimer’s sufferers. Instead of studying the amyloid-β(Aβ) protein plaques which occur in the later stages of Alzheimer’s they were determined to look at changes that occur in the early stages. It is thought that any observations at these times would point more directly to the actual cause of the disease. It may in fact be that the amyloid-β(Aβ) protein is merely the end result of a lot of other changes in the brain. Initial research into the early stages of Alzheimer’s has found some interesting factors that are now being studied in more detail. It has been identified that there is a link between people who have a resistance to insulin and the onset of Alzheimer’s.

This has lead to it being referred to as a form of diabetes. In a small number of cases it has been found that the early stages of Alzheimer’s is also linked to a problem inside cells themselves. Every cell has special organelles called mitochondria. These are the powerhouses of the cell and produce energy from glucose sugars. In Alzheimer’s suffers the mitochondria don’t function very well and as a result there isn’t enough energy produced for the cell’s needs. It also leads to the production of oxidizing compounds which can damage cells. When these cells are in the brain you can see that they won’t be performing as well as they should and this in turn will restrict the mental ability of a person.

There has also been a lot of interest in dietary fat content and its effect on the brain. It should be noted that the majority of the brain is made up of fatty material.  Amongst other things, the fat is used in the brain around nerve cells to insulate them from each other. This is a bit like the plastic cover around wires used in electrical circuits. Without this plastic insulation the electricity could easily move into other wires that it touches. In a similar way nerve cells need to transmit electrical signals down their length and the fatty sheaths around them stop any cross wires and also speed the signals along the length of the nerve cells.

You should see that anything changing the fat content of the brain could easily affect its performance. There is one particular type of fat that appears to be very important for brain function and that is cholesterol. There are 2 kinds of cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is low density and HDL cholesterol is high density cholesterol. The brain appears to need the LDL version of cholesterol for a healthy life. It has been found that people with high levels of LDL cholesterol in their blood tend to live longer and also have better mental acuity when they are older. It has also been suggested that the body will tend to increase the levels of blood cholesterol in an attempt to prevent Alzheimer’s by increasing its availability to the brain.

There is more and more evidence appearing which suggests that problems in the brain involving the use of cholesterol are responsible for the Alzheimer’s condition. This has been backed up by the examination of the brain and spinal fluids. It has been found that in Alzheimer’s sufferers the levels of cholesterol and triglycerides is much reduced. Cholesterol is also important for the integrity of the protective membrane around nerve cells. With low LDL blood cholesterol the cell membranes are weaker which means that they are more prone to attack from bacteria and other pathogens as well as being more easily damaged by substances such as free radicals and hydrogen peroxide. This would all seem to suggest that brain health needs a good supply of LDL cholesterol from the blood stream. Population studies amongst the elderly have shown that those with brain conditions such as depression, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s have far lower blood cholesterol levels compared to those with out the conditions.

Alzheimer’s probably starts with a problem in the supply of cholesterol and other fats to nerve cells in the brain. This then leads to damage due to oxidation and mitochondria that no longer work correctly. The nerve cells have to try and use other sources than glucose for producing their energy because they can no longer rely on their damaged mitochondria. Eventually the nerves can’t transmit their electrical signals effectively. The cells produce amyloid-β(Aβ) as a substitute for cholesterol and to enable the cells to use alternative energy sources. The amyloid β(Aβ) also helps to try and prevent oxidation damage to the cell’s membrane. Eventually even the amyloid-β(Aβ) can not cope with the worsening situation within the nerve cell. At this point these cells are looked on as a danger to the rest of the healthy nerve cells around them and as a result they are destroyed by the body’s own defense system. Destroyed cells mean lost memories and lost mental ability which are the classic symptoms of Alzheimer’s sufferers.

The cell membranes of nerve cells in the brain need to be repaired all of the time.  In order to do this they need to be provided with fresh supplies of LDL cholesterol.  Unfortunately there has been a trend since the 1960s in making people have low cholesterol diets. This is mainly in response to another damaging condition which is heart disease. Unfortunately LDL cholesterol has been targeted as the causative agent for this condition. People have not only been told to avoid cholesterol containing foods they have also been prescribed more and more cholesterol reducing drugs. In particular this has led to a large part of the drug industry being involved in the production of these heavily prescribed Statin type of medicines.

We regularly get doctors saying that everybody over 50 should be given a pill to take every day to reduce the chance of getting heart disease. The main ingredient in these pills would be Statin based. This means that in the future the majority of people would be on cholesterol reducing drugs. It has however been noticed that as these low fat diets have taken hold and more and more Statins have been prescribed there has been a parallel increase in the numbers of people suffering from dementia. This is not direct proof that the two factors are related but it does give prevalence to the notion that the reduction in blood cholesterol levels in people could be linked to the problems that we are now seeing in more and more people’s brains. More information about the proposed role of cholesterol depletion and Alzheimer’s can be found by looking at the following research paper: Cholesterol and Alzheimer's. This is a scientific paper published by the European Journal of Internal Medicine and as a result is very technical in its detail.

Due to the above indicated problems caused by the inability of brain cells to get the cholesterol that they require and the damage caused by oxidation it has been proposed that the best way to deal with Alzheimer’s is to change your diet. The diet needs to have less processed carbohydrates and proportionally more fats and cholesterol. As well as this, the inclusion of antioxidants in the diet will also help to prevent the oxidative damage that is seen in Alzheimer’s. This helps to explain how coconut oil can be good for Alzheimer’s sufferers.

Medium Chain triglycerides in coconut oil seem to help with Alzheimer’s. If you take 2 table spoons of virgin coconut oil every day you could see some positive results even within a day. The best way of taking this oil is with your cooking. However, you can make sure that you have the right amount by including it with your breakfast. You can add it to warm breakfast cereals such as oats. In this form it is also easier to eat because the warmth of the cereal tends to change the coconut oil into a more palatable liquid form.

People taking coconut oil for Alzheimer’s have often described it as being like a light being suddenly turned on as their memory begins to be active once again.  This does not mean that a person with this condition can expect a full recovery.  There is a points system for determining the memory ability with Alzheimer’s sufferers and it had been shown that people taking coconut oil could expect something like a 2 point increase in their ability on the scale used. This could be the difference in knowing where they are, the area where they live and other important information which allows people to be more independent in their day to day lives.  Although it isn’t exactly clear how these increases in cognitive ability are actually achieved, it thought to be due to the way that Medium Chain Triglycerides are metabolized within the body.

They are first delivered to the liver where they are broken down to form new compounds called ketone bodies. These are then released into the blood stream and travel around the body and in particular to the brain. Once in the brain it seems that the brain cells take up the ketone bodies more easily that the normal energy source of glucose. The damaged brain cells then use the ketone bodies to provide energy for the cells to do its work. The cells become more active and this often results in the return of short term memory ability. It is thought that reduced supply of energy rich compounds such as glucose to brain cells is responsible for a lot of the damage in the brain associated with the Alzheimer’s condition. This lack of nutrients causes the brain cells to age before their time and then allows for the dementia condition to develop. In addition to providing an alternative energy source for brain cells it is also thought that coconut oil also has the effect of increasing the supply of blood to the brain and in doing so provides extra nutrients and oxygen for respiration. Ketone metabolism is the alternative energy source that the damaged cells need especially if the nerve cells have malfunctioning mitochondria and can’t use glucose any more.

Coconut oil is not the total answer to dementia and as a result people should look at the rest of their diet, the amount of exercise they do and the level of mental stimulation that they get. It has been shown that taking exercise on a regular basis is a good way of preventing the occurrence of Alzheimer’s. It is a well known fact that people in the Western world take less and less exercise the older that they get.  This exercise can amount to walking for at least half an hour each day. In terms of mental stimulation it is a case of use your brain and memory or lose it. Certainly having coconut oil in your diet can help with Alzheimer’s and it may also prevent people from getting the condition in the first place.

Although coconut oil contains antioxidants it is best to have additional sources of these valuable compounds in your diet. Increasing the fruit content of your diet or consuming Rooibos tea is one way to increase your antioxidant intake. There is also the problem of the Statin drugs that people are taking for heart conditions. This is bound to reduce the effectiveness of the coconut oil that you consume. However, you should consult a medical professional about your Statin intake. You certainly shouldn’t make any changes to the drugs that you take if they are prescribed by your doctor. However, if you think that these might be a problem you should discuss the amount that you are taking with the doctor that has prescribed them for you. ( SOURCE: 107 EVERY DAY USE OF COCNUT OIL)