How to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease with Coconut Oil

As if coconut oil didn’t offer enough health benefits, at the recent Wise Traditions Conference I learned another reason to include plenty of coconut products in your diet. According to Dr. Bruce Fife, leading coconut expert, coconut oil can prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Turns out this isn’t super recent news, but I, for one, had never encountered it before. As someone with a family history of dementia (possibly caused by Alzheimer’s disease), I have to say that I am enormously excited about this new development.

Coconut Oil May Also Reverse Already Present Alzheimer’s Disease

Dr. Fife also asserted that coconut oil can reverse Alzheimer’s symptoms in someone who has already developed the disease. This is remarkable because currently-available Alzheimer’s medications can only slow the progression of the disease. No medication is able to halt or reverse symptoms. Coconut oil, however, can. (Don’t you love how powerful food can be?)

Why Coconut Oil Can Prevent and Reverse Alzheimer’s Disease  

Healthy brains have two options for fuel: glucose or ketones, a high-energy fuel produced by the liver. Alzheimer’s brains are damaged in such a way that they can no longer utilize glucose for fuel. These brains can, however, still run off of ketones. While normally ketones are only produced during fasting or when carbohydrate consumption is very low, supplementing an Alzheimer’s patient’s diet with a food source of ketones can provide constant fuel for the brain without the need for glucose. One of the best food sources of ketones is coconut oil.

Diet Matters, Too

Of course, Dr. Fife points out that combining coconut oil with an otherwise substandard diet may not produce many benefits. He recommends a “therapeutic diet low in carbohydrate, rich in healthy fats, and nutritionally balanced to enhance brain health.” Personally I’d advocate following a real food, Weston A. Price-type diet, the main principles of which can be found here.

How Much Coconut Oil Do You Need?

According to Dr. Fife, one to three tablespoons of coconut oil per day will help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Five to six tablespoons of coconut oil per day are recommended to reverse Alzheimer’s in people who have already developed the disease.

If you’re taking more than a tablespoon or two, you will probably want to space out your dosage over the course of the day. Eating too much coconut oil at once can result in intestinal upset. (Something I’ve experienced personally!) Tolerance seems to vary, so you may want to start with an especially small amount if you’re new to coconut oil.

Virgin vs. Refined Coconut Oil

As I explained in my post about how to use coconut oil, virgin coconut oil and refined coconut oil have different properties and lend themselves to different uses. For preventing and reversing Alzheimer’s, either type of coconut oil can be used, as it is the fatty acids present in both types that are responsible for coconut oil’s protective effects.

Whichever oil you choose, just be sure to buy a high-quality version, as low-quality coconut oil may be rancid or improperly processed.

Wondering How to Eat All that Coconut Oil?

For starters, read how to use coconut oil. I’m not sure that we’re getting enough with my current methods, though, so I’m also trying to come up with more ways to eat coconut oil as a snack. (I am not very fond of it straight, but that is also certainly an option if you can stomach it.) I’ll keep you posted!

Want to Read More About Preventing or Reversing Alzheimer’s Disease?

This article from the Coconut Research Center (Fife’s website) gives some more information on what I wrote above. For more extensive info, check out Dr. Fife’s book Stop Alzheimer’s Now!. The book also covers preventing and treating other neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s, ALS and multiple sclerosis.

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7 Responses to How to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease with Coconut Oil

  1. Coconut oil is AMAZING. I love this. Shared it on facebook and my readers loved it, too. ;)
  2. Great post! It seems some times like the benefits of coconut oil keep growing and growing! Thanks for sharing on Natural Living Monday! I am excited to see what you have going on this week :)
  3. Where can I purchase Coconut Oil to be used to reverse Alzheimers?
    • Marie, you can find coconut oil online or at various local retailers. Health food stores should definitely have coconut oil, but you may find it at more mainstream stores, too. Right now I buy my coconut oil at Costco!
  4. Jen says:
    To say that coconut oil REVERSES Alzheimer's disease is irresponsible and, frankly, dangerous. Meghan, I really enjoy your recipes but please reconsider posting things like this. Think of the families who are suffering with this awful disease and will grasp on to anything for hope of a cure. Readers, please do your research before buying into this. Coconut oil cannot cure Alzheimer disease. If it seems to good to be true, it most likely is.
    • Hi Jen, Thank you for sharing your thoughts, but I respectfully disagree with you. There hasn't been a lot of research done into this yet, but there are many anecdotal reports of people having success with it. And coconut oil is a healthy food, with no harmful side effects. What's the harm in trying it?

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