Coconut Oil, Ketones and Alzheimer's

[Guest guest]

I am a new member here. This is probably old news to this group but it is new to

me. I knew about coconut oil helping with Alzheimer's but I did not know the

mechanism by which it helped. The presentation below discusses how coconut oil

is converted to ketones in the liver and it is the ketones that help with

Alzheimer's.

- Steve

COCONUT OIL & ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Ketones as Fuel for Neurons

http://www.coconutketones.com/CoconutOilandAlzheimersWAPFconference11_09.ppt

Medium chain triglycerides converted in liver to Ketones

Ketones can be taken up by neurons that cannot use glucose

KETONES CONVERT TO ENERGY IN NEURON

Normal neurons can use glucose or ketones but usually use glucose if available

For neurons that cannot use glucose, Ketones can serve as an " alternate fuel. "

http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/alzheimers-disease.html

Recent research on Alzheimers disease is revealing that a diet chronically high

in carbohydrates and low in dietary cholesterol is associated with the

development of a brain based insulin

resistance<http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/support-files/ejim01.pdf> (now

being called Type 3 Diabetes) which can lead to an imbalance in the cellular

function and repair mechanisms of the brain.

The brain is extremely active metabolically, and it is in a constant state of

maintaining a balance between the destructive aspects of burning sugar for

energy and rebuilding its neurons (brain cells) from incoming cholesterol

molecules.

If blood cholesterol levels fall too low, and blood sugar is chronically high,

this delicate balance is upset, and the destruction of the brain cells begins to

take the upper hand as oxidative stress increases.

Because the affected brain lacks enough cholesterol for rebuilding its neuronal

cell walls, it substitutes beta-amyloid substances instead. This leads to the

buildup of the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimers disease. For more

information on this theory, see Alzheimer's Solved: Condensed

Edition<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419616846?ie=UTF8 & tag=healeatipoli-20 & \

linkCode=as2 & camp=1789 & creative=390957 & creativeASIN=1419616846> by Henry O.

Lorin, DMD.

Other Alzheimers disease

research<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182387/> has found that

cholesterol plays an essential role in the mechanisms of neuronal synaptic

function, plasticity and neuron degeneration and destruction.

New treatments for Alzheimers disease include the potential use of medium chain

triglycerides (MCT oil) or ketone bodies (also called ketoacids) the end product

of MCT metabolism. Ketones may not only treat, but also prevent Alzheimer's

disease. MCTs are found in abundance in virgin coconut oil.

In 2001, Dr. L. Veech of the NIH, and others, published an article

entitled, " Ketone bodies, potential therapeutic uses. " In 2003, F.

Cahill, Jr. and Veech authored, " Ketoacids? Good Medicine? " and in 2004,

Veech published a review of the therapeutic implications of ketone

bodies.

Our cells can use ketone bodies as an alternative fuel when glucose is not

available. Brain cells, specifically neurons, are very limited, more limited

than other cells, in what kinds of fuel they can use to function and to stay

alive. The body can produce ketone bodies from coconut oil and when on a very

low carb diet. Ketones can serve as food for the brain and nervous system in the

event that insulin resistance and a lack of glucose availability develops.

Providing the ketone bodies appears to protect the brain cells from destruction.

Ketones and ketosis have gotten a bad reputation because of misinformation given

during the debate over low carb diets. Dr. Veech has said publicly:

" Simply put, ketosis is evolution's answer to the thrifty gene. We may have

evolved to efficiently store fat for times of famine, says Veech, but we also

evolved ketosis to efficiently live off that fat when necessary. Rather than

being poison, which is how the press often refers to ketones, they make the body

run more efficiently and provide a backup fuel source for the brain. Veech calls

ketones " magic " and has shown that both the heart and brain run 25 percent more

efficiently on ketones than on blood sugar. "

In addition, one study has shown that ketones trigger a cellular process called

chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA).

What is CMA? It is a cellular process that allows cells to remove junk proteins,

organelles, and foreign bodies from the watery interior of the cell and deliver

them to the cell's waste disposal system for degradation. If this " junk " isn't

removed regularly from the cell's interior, it eventually overwhelms and kills

the cell.

This line of ketone research is also yielding answers for Parkinson's,

Huntington's and other neurodegenerative disorders.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/wheregenesfail.php

Where Genes Fail - Dietary Interventions for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's?