The perfect oil for Alzheimer’s patients?
July 22, 2015
The perfect oil for Alzheimer’s patients?
Dear reader,
Your brain is a large energy consumer. Its main fuel is glucose (sugar).
Without this fuel, not only your brain cells, called neurons, cease to function but they begin to wither and die.
If they die in large amounts, you lose your brain’s capacity to function properly. This is what happens to people with Alzheimer’s. When you look at their brains with a scanner, you see holes everywhere, even more so as the disease progresses.
Then, of course, a patient affected by Alzheimer’s disease loses memory, thinking ability, increasingly behaves strangely and inconsistently, and eventually lose all normal abilities, even getting dressed, eating, or go to the toilet.
Researchers now believe that, in Alzheimer’s patients, brain cells are becoming unable to absorb glucose, without knowing exactly why. This would explain that neurons stop functioning and die massively. They are deprived of fuel.
Alzheimer’s, or “type 3 diabetes”
Alzheimer’s mechanism would be similar to that of diabetes.
In diabetes, our body’s cells don’t properly absorb glucose from the blood, leading to a dangerously rise in blood sugar (glucose) and causing all kinds of damage in our body. In diabetes’ case the problem is related to insulin, the hormone produced by our pancreas which helps to “open the cells’ doors to glucose”.
In fact, cells alone don’t know how to absorb glucose. They need insulin to allow glucose to pass through cells’ walls to be used as fuel by the little “power plants” called mitochondria.
Sometimes the pancreas is at fault. It no longer produces insulin (type 1 diabetes) or sometimes the cells no longer respond to insulin (insulin resistance leading to type 2 diabetes). In both cases, the result is that our cells lack in glucose and therefore energy. Meanwhile, our blood becomes overloaded with glucose, a paradoxical and very dangerous situation.
Therefore, Alzheimer’s disease could be a form of “brain diabetes”. That’s why some researchers today call it the “type 3 diabetes”.
In the absence of glucose, our cells can still operate thanks to ketones
Starving our neurons is the greatest danger to our brain.
The danger is worst because when we stop eating, our glucose reserves run out in less than 48 hours!
Yet it is possible to fast 48 hours or more without fainting or losing our mental capacities and better yet, up to 40 days without problem for a healthy person, and up to two months for those who have good fat reserves.
How is that possible?
Because, as usual, nature has a backup plan. It provides us with an alternative fuel in case of prolonged starvation.
Our cells are also able to produce energy with “ketones”, which are molecules derived from the breaking down of our body fat. Furthermore, our liver is also capable of producing ketones from ingesting certain dietary fats called medium chain triglycerides (MCT). Among natural food products, virgin coconut oil is the richest in MCT.
Some doctors in the US have recently noticed that many people sick with Alzheimer’s whose brain can no longer feed on glucose, can still create energy from ketones instead. All they need to do is for them to eat MCT oil and/or coconut oil (which is rich in MCT).
In fact, ketones have the ability, unlike other fatty acids, to cross our blood-brain barrier. They are then able to connect with our neurons, where they enter easily without the need for insulin. They can then be used as fuel instead of glucose to produce cellular energy. These neurons that were starving for energy and possibly dying, can then come back to life.
The fact that our brain has the ability to use another fuel than glucose was discovered in 1967 and published in an article titled “Brain metabolism during fasting” in the Journal of Clinical Investigation by Dr. George Cahil and his associates.
In addition, the presence of ketones in our blood can initially accelerate blood flow to our brain by up to 39%, which can contribute to neurons’ better nutrition. [1]
This is one of the reasons why a diet promoting ketones production can be beneficial in the fight against epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by poor neurons coordination.
More and more scientific evidence is also accumulating regarding the benefits of a ketogenic diet to help fight against cancer growth. Indeed, contrary to our brain cells, cancer tumors need glucose to survive but don’t know how to use this alternative fuel.
The extraordinary Dr. Mary Newport
Dr. Mary Newport became famous by publishing a book in which she explains how her husband Steve, suffering from Alzheimer’s, has regained some of his mental capacities in the days that followed his daily intake of coconut oil rich in MCT. [2]
“It was like the lights were turned on. The fog has dissipated“, Steve said in the hours following his new “treatment”. He was indeed able to talk, to find his way back to the dinner table, use his silverware and serve himself a glass of water. The most obvious changes was his personality. From being sad and silent he started smiling, talking and was even able to joke.
As a matter of fact, his improvement was observed by doctors. There is a famous test to measure the degree of Alzheimer’s disease called the “Clock Test”. The patient must try to draw a circle, and to show time by drawing the hands of a clock.
Steve Newport used to only grade at 14 at this test, a sign of a severe Alzheimer’s disease before taking 35 grams of coconut oil daily. Thirty-seven days later, he got a grade of 18 at the same test, a very rare improvement in this disease. No current drug is known to improve this test at this time. At best, medications can help stabilize the disease or slow down the patient’s degeneration, but not to improve it.
Steve continued to take his coconut oil daily and his condition continued to improve slowly. On two occasions, it was not possible for him to take it and he started to regress immediately, showing again the tremors typical of Alzheimer’s disease, his anguish and sadness came back as his brain was deprived of ketones to fuel its neurons and stopped working properly.
To enhance the effect of MCT on neurons
Caution: for our brain cells brain cells to operate optimally, they not only need ketones, they also need other important elements without which ketones will have little or no benefits.
A lack of vitamin B, vitamin D and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, a type of omega-3) also contributes to dementia.
When a fuel such as glucose or ketones enters the mitochondria (mini factories that produces energy in our cells), a chain reaction is triggered which results in the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which allows the cell to thrive. But some additional ingredients such as CoQ10, L-carnitine, and magnesium are required to create this chain reaction.
Each one of these ingredients can be found in short supply for various reasons then less ATP is produced. To increase the efficiency of coconut oil or MCT oil output, I recommend you supplement with these substances.
How to increase your ketones level
One way to produce ketones is to follow a diet high in fat (80%) and low in carbohydrates and protein (20%). This is what is called the ketogenic diet, used to treat epilepsy in children. This diet has been used for about a century (1921), following the research of Dr. Rawle Geyelin. This diet should be followed under medical supervision.
Another way is to consume foods rich in medium chain triglycerides such as coconut oil. The fatty acids are then absorbed in the small intestine and transported directly to our liver where they are partly converted to ketones. Ketones are then released directly into our bloodstream. And instead of being stored as fat, these fatty acids are used directly as a fuel cell by the mitochondria of muscle cells while some will cross our blood-brain barrier to reach neurons.
The most concentrated dietary sources of medium chain fatty acids are coconut oil and palm kernel oil, which contain about 55 to 60% fatty acids. You can also use MCT oil which contains 100% and can be found in health stores or online.
Caution: Diarrhea is possible
In both cases, these oils can cause severe diarrhea in people who are not used to them. Therefore, start with small amounts, always mixed with food during meals (I use it I my hot chocolate, soups and salad dressings). Gradually increase your dose to reach four to six tablespoons per day spread over two to four meals, depending on the person’s size.
Cooking with coconut oil
You can also use coconut oil in place of other fats in your kitchen as long as you do not heat it above 350° F to cook a salmon filet in a frying pan or in the oven. Solid at room temperature, it becomes liquid around 76° F, which is not very hot, and can therefore be used for a slightly warm salad dressing. It can also be used pastries in vegan pie crusts or cakes, keeping in mind that virgin coconut oil can add a light coconut flavor which is really delicious with chocolate.
100% Pure MCT Oil
You can find it here: Viva Labs #1 Highly Concentrated MCT Oil
Simple recipe to introduce coconut oil smoothly in your diet
Here’s a classic recipe by Dr. Mary Newport for a “Simple dinner for two with salmon”:
Ingredients
2 sweet potatoes or yams, whole
10 to 12 oz salmon fillet
Olive oil
12 oz asparagus, peeled
2-3 Tbsp coconut oil, liquefied
Garlic and herbs of choice
Salt and pepper to taste
Procedure
1. Preheat your oven to 350° F.
2. Wash, dry and prick sweet potatoes several times with a fork, put them on a pan in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until tender (according to size).
3. Put the salmon fillet oiled brushed with olive oil on both sides and skin on top in a glass, ceramic or non-stick metal pan.
4. Spread the peeled asparagus stalks around the salmon. Melt 2 ½ tablespoons of coconut oil, and brush generously salmon and asparagus. Sprinkle with the garlic and herbs mixture, and salt and pepper to taste.
5. When sweet potatoes are cooked, set them aside. Keep them warm.
6. Put your salmon and asparagus dish in the oven. Cook for 20minutes or until the salmon is very soft and separates easily with a fork.
7. Cut each sweet potato in half, cut grooves inside each half with a knife and pour the remaining half tablespoon of coconut oil in it.Adjust seasoning as needed and enjoy!
A Votre Santé – To Your Health
Alain Braux
Culinary Chef/Nutritionist
Sources :
[1] Changes in cerebral blood flow and carbohydrate metabolism during acute hyperketonemia
[2] Dr Mary T. Newport, “Alzheimer’s Disease, What if there was a cure?”
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