Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

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Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby wesweber » Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:38 pm

There is a site going around the Inet about the use of ketones to treat Alzheimers. Anyone know about the the study and if it's just not another sales pitch.
The video is here"
http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.a ... JO190v1_WS
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby didi » Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:42 pm

I do not think it is a sales pitch. I have read submissions from lay people who have taken the time to do literature searches and swear by coconut oil. This woman must care about her husband and is doing what she believes to be the best treatment. If I had a loved one that was progressively getting worse on a starch or plant based diet I guess I would try the coconut oil. Any ship in a storm.

The doctor used the term diabetes of the brain where the brain is resistant to insulin and thus sugar cannot get into the cells so ketones are used as an alternate fuel.

I also do not think they were lying about the husband showing improvement.

However it is early on and there are lots of questions to be answered.

If the brain is resistant to insulin, why wouldn't a fat free diet which would allow insulin to unlock the cell's door so to speak, also cause improvement? Ketones are an alternate fuel during starvation so using ketones to feed the brain is not a new idea. Nature does it.

Why use coconut oil? If you are on a ketogenic diet why wouldn't that do the same thing as the coconut oil? A ketogenic diet helps some (not all) children whose epileptic seizures are resistant to drugs. It has side effects though and is used as a last resort, not the primary approach.

I have read often that anything that prevents or halts diabetes or heart disease is also good for the brain and would prevent
Alzheimers. I do not know if this is true. Evidently this is an illness more prevalent in our culture among those on the western diet.

What effect does coconut oil have on the development or progression of artery disease. Will using it improve the Alzheimers only to injure the arteries or will it also be beneficial to those using this treatment?

Are they eliminating all sugars and carbs from the man's diet?

Didi
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby Katydid » Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:33 am

Check out the following video from the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii:

A Nutritional Approach to Alzheimer's Disease:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1IsXHr ... ata_player

Excellent resource on what's really important in treating and preventing Alzheimer's.

Kate
This diet can save your life - it saved mine! Read my story at:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/stars/cathy_stewart.htm
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby didi » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:07 pm

I have some reservations about the presentation to the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii. For one thing, his list of diets has Dr. McDougall's diet as being very low in vitamin C and vitamin E. According to Nathan Pritikin who spoke of this years ago, Oils (and I guess nuts and seeds which contain fats) have vitamin E because they are needed to counteract the rancidity of the oils. If you are on an extremely low fat diet you would not need so much vitamin E.

I also can't figure out how a McDougall diet would be low in vitamin C when he recommends green and yellow vegetables and some fruit. Broccoli has plenty of C and a red pepper has more C than an orange. I am sure McDougall's dieters eat both as well as other vitamin C containing plants. I know I do. His other numbers might also not be entirely accurate.

He also is big on supplements. I personally would not want to have to rely on supplements (especially since the research to this point cannot give a definite answer about supplements.) It seems to me if you have an abundant and varied diet you ought to get a nice mix of healthful vitamins and minerals and also all the phytochemicals. If you don't have a plant based diet like this then you are really in the dark about the amounts and proportions of nutrients you need and it is unlikely that the health food store can supply them. On the other hand from experience I know that it is sometimes difficult to get a dementia patient to eat properly and get the proper nourishment.

The McDougall diet is a great diet, not a religion. If it does turn out that someday careful studies show that coconut oil will reverse Alzheimers then so be it. Even if it helps the Alzheimers and causes artery blockage and eventual heart attack, I would rather have the use of my brain and suffer a heart attack.

My dear mother had dementia (the vascular kind which coconut oil won't help) which progressed over the years after by pass surgery. After her surgery I sat by her bed and prayed that she would live. She lived for 15 years after the surgery. For months before her death I prayed that a merciful God would take her. Dementia patients do suffer and the people who love them suffer with them.

Didi
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby r-marie » Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:32 pm

@ didi - why coconut oil? because

"The vast majority of the fats and oils you eat, whether they are saturated or unsaturated or come from an animal or a plant, are composed of long-chain triglycerides. Probably 98 to 100% of all the fats we eat consist of LCT. Coconut oil is unique because it is composed predominately of MCT. The size of the fatty acid is extremely important because physiological effects of medium-chain fatty acids in coconut oil are distinctly different from the long-chain fatty acids more commonly found in our diet. It's the MCT in coconut oil that make it different from all other fats and for the most part gives it its unique character and healing properties. Almost all of the medium-chain triglycerides used in research, medicine, and food products come from coconut oil."

http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/article10612.htm
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby didi » Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:07 am

It is entirely possible that someday research using a control group and a group of people using coconut oil as their only fat will show that coconut oil is healthful and can prevent, halt or reverse artery disease. Until then, the health and longevity records of traditional people on their traditional diets and other studies such as Esselstyn's have shown a way to increase the odds of living well past your reproductive years by drastically reducing fat and eating a plant based diet.

It seems that with the information we have now it is possible to improve health without coconut oil. Which isn't to say that it might not be a proven without a doubt to be a good addition to the diet. But I am wondering why, when cooking methods are available that do not need to use any fat or oil at all, you would use coconut oil except to replace another oil or fat which we don't use anyway.

If it is one's purpose to incorporate some fat into the diet, at this point I would go with walnuts which have been shown to increase blood flow by 24% where most other fats decrease blood flow. I do not know if the brachial artery test has been done using coconut oil. I do think it would be something to consider if, like walnuts, it either improves blood flow or does not cause clumping of the blood cells.

Didi
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby Vegan Hunter » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:27 am

didi wrote:I do not think it is a sales pitch. I have read submissions from lay people who have taken the time to do literature searches and swear by coconut oil. This woman must care about her husband and is doing what she believes to be the best treatment. If I had a loved one that was progressively getting worse on a starch or plant based diet I guess I would try the coconut oil. Any ship in a storm.

The doctor used the term diabetes of the brain where the brain is resistant to insulin and thus sugar cannot get into the cells so ketones are used as an alternate fuel.

I also do not think they were lying about the husband showing improvement.

However it is early on and there are lots of questions to be answered.

If the brain is resistant to insulin, why wouldn't a fat free diet which would allow insulin to unlock the cell's door so to speak, also cause improvement? Ketones are an alternate fuel during starvation so using ketones to feed the brain is not a new idea. Nature does it.

Why use coconut oil? If you are on a ketogenic diet why wouldn't that do the same thing as the coconut oil? A ketogenic diet helps some (not all) children whose epileptic seizures are resistant to drugs. It has side effects though and is used as a last resort, not the primary approach.

I have read often that anything that prevents or halts diabetes or heart disease is also good for the brain and would prevent
Alzheimers. I do not know if this is true. Evidently this is an illness more prevalent in our culture among those on the western diet.

What effect does coconut oil have on the development or progression of artery disease. Will using it improve the Alzheimers only to injure the arteries or will it also be beneficial to those using this treatment?

Are they eliminating all sugars and carbs from the man's diet?

Didi



I think a whole food, plant based diet is the answer to darn near every question, but Coconut oil is probably the latest stop on the train to Denialville. I think more money and effort will always go toward sustaining the SAD diet with supplements than searching for the unbiased truth, whatever it may be.
There are three kinds of people in this world. Those that are good at math, and those that aren't.
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby r-marie » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:36 am

I'm sure most of you are aware that it's almost impossible to get adequate funding to do double blind or other studies involving natural foods/herbs, etc. because big pharma can't patent it and/or turn it into a pill for profit. So it is mostly relegated to the 'anectodal' category and those cultures that use them - which has little credibility for most 'scientists'.
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby didi » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:36 pm

Yes. And I am also sure everyone is aware that the supplement industry makes billions of dollars just like the pharmaceutical industry and without having to go through years of research and testing, is not regulated nor are their products standardized, and has lobbied successfully (and expensively) and aggressively to maintain this status quo.

If no pharmaceutical company is willing to do the necessary research then the billion dollar supplement industry should do it. They are the ones making the profit. The supplement industry is intent on making people think that they practically go out and pluck their "nutrients" from the trees. The supplement industry is intent on criticizing "big pharm" but "big supp" is just as devious and anxious to protect its territory. While it may be true that without the patent protection pharm companies will not do the research, then the ones who ARE making money from supplements should take some of their enormous profits and do the research. And stop the farce of saying, "Gee, we can't prove anything because big pharm won't spend the money".

Didi
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Re: Ketones in Coconut for Alzheimers

Postby r-marie » Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:34 pm

Good answer didi, there's only one little 'rub' - the supplement industry by law is not allowed to make any medical claims on their products. That right is reserved for 'big pharma'.

But Dr. Newport (a medical doctor herself) is convinced she's on to something and is encouraging others to try this method. Time will tell if this helps others as much as her husband. People respond differently and if coconut oil helps some, it certainly won't diminish Dr. McDougall's or any other vegan's approach but enhance it. It's not being forced on anyone. They can try or not.
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