Coconut oil and Alzheimer’s disease

On April 12 at the Black Forest Community Church, the Black Forest chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation sponsored a program presented by Bruce Fife, N.D.(doctor of naturopathic medicine), on the prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease through nutrition. Fife specifically spoke on the positive effects that coconut oil has on people who have Alzheimerís.ìAlzheimer’s is by far the most common form of dementia,î Fife said. ìConventional medical wisdom states that Alzheimer’s is incurable.î However, Fife said just because there aren’t any effective drugs for Alzheimerís itís not a hopeless situation for those with the disease. ìTreatment involves diet,î he said. ìThe center of this diet is coconut; specifically, coconut oil.î Fife relayed the story of Dr. Mary Newport, who had success treating her husbandís moderate dementia with coconut oil. Fife said Newportís husband had been rejected from an experimental drug trial because his dementia was moderate, not severe. Newport discovered that medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil was the main ingredient in the trial drug. She calculated the amount of coconut oil needed as two and one-half tablespoons to equal that of the drug. Over the course of a year’s treatment using coconut oil, her husbandís symptoms improved to the point that his dementia was considered mild, Fife said. ìAlzheimer’s is a form of diabetes in the brain,î Fife said, adding that the disease is often referred to as type III diabetes. He said the brain becomes insulin-resistant and cannot absorb glucose as energy. ìIn Alzheimerís disease, the brain cannot absorb glucose, but it can absorb ketones,î Fife said. ìWhen ketones come into the bloodstream, the brain is able to get energy.î Fife said ketones are produced by the body from the medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil.Gary Johanson, M.D., practices palliative care in Santa Rosa, Calif. In a separate interview with the NFH, Johanson expanded on the definition of Alzheimerís and discussed Fifeís presentation.Johanson said Alzheimerís is one of four main types of dementia, and dementia itself is ìa syndrome of cognitive deficit that is generally progressive and not associated with an acute explanatory reason which is reversible, which would be more like a delirium. Delirium is acute and usually has an explanation and a cause.î Both Fife and Johanson agreed that Alzheimerís disease is considered a terminal illness. Primarily, Alzheimer’s is the most rapidly growing cause of death in terms of the subset of population that dies,î Johanson said. One reason that Alzheimerís is on the rise as a cause of death is because medicine has developed treatments for heart disease and certain cancers; thus, people are aging to the point where the dementia becomes the cause of death because they were able to avoid other diseases that, in the past, might have caused their death, he said. ìYou see something get better, and something gets worse,î Johanson said. ìYou save people from X, Y and Z, and they have to get A.îDelirium can be reversible, Johanson said. However, he said, ìIt is still really hard to get a lot of benefit from treatment (for dementia). There are sanctioned ways to treat in naturopathic ways, but the results are disappointingly skimpy in helping the disease process.î More conventional treatments such as the medication memantamine could have ìmodestî benefits in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimerís disease, Johanson said.Johanson recommended a couple of articles posted on UpToDate.com, a kind of Google site for doctors.ìThere is little, if any, evidence that patients with milder Alzheimerís disease benefit from memantamine,î according to the article, Treatment of Dementia, by Daniel Press M.D., and Michael Alexander, M.D. Fife said that conventional medications can lose their efficacy in six months to a year, and only half the people receiving the drugs see any effect at all.According to another article by Press and Alexander, Prevention of Dementia, (A) ìhigh dietary intake of fish and omega-3 fatty acids may decrease the risk of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease, while cholesterol and fatty acid intake may increase the risk, but the evidence is conflicting.î The authors said there are currently no studies with a randomized and controlled design to assess diet in the prevention of the disease, and these studies are necessary to make ìconclusive recommendations.î Fife recommends one to three tablespoons of coconut oil a day as a preventative measure, and five to six tablespoons a day if someone already has Alzheimerís disease. He also recommends whole, natural foods with minimal processing; low carbohydrates and sugars; healthy meats and dairy. ìAvoid polyunsaturated vegetable oils because they promote inflammation,î Fife said. ìReplace the oils you are using now with coconut oil. That’s the first and easiest step.îJohanson said he would use some precautions before recommending five to six tablespoons of coconut oil. ìI would think about what other diseases they have,î Johanson said, listing heart disease as one concern. However, he said that if a patient’s family asked him about using coconut oil for treatment, he would consult with the reputable doctors he knows who practice alternative medicine, and then he would coordinate care. Fife has numerous books out on the benefits of coconut oil, including the ìPalm Oil Miracleî and the ìCoconut Loverís Cookbook.î His latest book is ìStop Alzheimerís Now.î He also established the Coconut Research Center, which maintains a Colorado Springs address, and he manages its website at http://coconutresearchcenter.org. They do not sell products on the site, which is mainly about education and resources.Fife also publishes a newsletter, Healthy Ways Newsletter. Visit the website for more information about Fife and other health-related topics.