Alzheimer’s: The debilitating brain illness
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline. A neurodegenerative type of dementia, the disease starts mild and gets progressively worse over the course of time. The total brain size shrinks with Alzheimer’s – the tissue has progressively fewer nerve cells and connections.
Alzheimer’s patients experience the metabolic derangement in the brain associated with the condition, or what is known as “Type-3 diabetes”. As the brain ages, it becomes increasingly resistant to insulin, and therefore incapable of using glucose efficiently to meet its significant energy needs — hence the metaphor “type 3 diabetes.”
Ketones: Key to Brain Health
Our brains rely on glucose from carbohydrates. But if we do not get it in our diet, then our brain cells switch to using the energy from our fat. Thankfully, nature has devised an alternative fuel source for the brain that is independent of glucose utilization and the insulin signaling system, namely, the use of ketone bodies. Coconut oil provides the substrate for the immediate production of these ketone bodies, enabling significant quantities to be produced within a matter of only minutes following ingestion, enabling quick metabolic restoration of cognitive function.
Coconut oil shows great potential for Alzheimer’s Disease therapy as it can be metabolized to ketone bodies that provide an alternative energy source for neurons, and thus offset Aβ-induced impairment of mitochondrial function and thus energy metabolism. Considering that the medium chain triglyceride found in coconut known as caprylic acid does cross the blood-brain barrier, and has recently been found to have anti-convulsant, in addition to, ketogenic effects, coconut oil likely does have a neuroprotective effect.
The Video below helps understand why the West is waking up to the miracles of Coconut Oil: