Coconut oil and anti-aging

[Guest guest]

Hello,

Any comments on the following article about oils by Ray Peat?

http://www.mercola.com/2001/mar/24/coconut_oil.htm

I'm a new member and my priorities in anti-aging have so far been to

combat various bugs that interfere with my chance of reaching a

respectable age.

I have been taking roughly 3.5 tablespoons of natural coconut oil per

day for 6 months to combat chronic fatigue. It works by disrupting the

lipid membranes of lipid enveloped virii. My herpes reactivations has

stopped and I have much less fatigue and other benefits which I

attribute to the coconut oil. I have tried stopping and starting

again, and it's like pressing an on/off button with regard to some

of my symptoms.

I'm not sure to what degree it would be an important issue for other

anti-agers to make an effort to kill or inactivate various virii like

herpes, CMV etc, but more and more studies seem to point to infections

as causes or cofactors in many degenerative diseases. Perhaps it would

be a good thing to go after some of these bugs using methods that are

friendly to the host organism.

I use a number of natural bug killers like monolaurin and also

d-Lenolate (Olive leaf extract) in combination with Bromelain,

ImmunePro Whey and sometimes niacin for vasodilation to keep the likes

of HHV-6, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Mycoplasma fermentans at bay.

I wouldn't be surprised if a similar approach could have anti-aging

benefits even if you are not experiencing any major symptoms from the

various virii and other organisms you have accumulated over time.

For some reason not many people think something as simple as coconut

oil can have an effect, but I'm impressed with the effect on my health.

I better add that for virus killing purposes it is important to

ingest quite a lot of oil, maybe a minimum of 3.5 tablespoons,

otherwise there will be no effect, but I don't see this as a problem.

Should I?

- Jan (from Sweden)

Coconut oil and monolaurin:

http://www.apcc.org.sg/special.htm

http://www.westonaprice.org/coconut_oil.htm

d-Lenolate:

http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Antioxidant/jack21.htm

http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/15/15/20.html

ImmunePro:

http://www.users.skynet.be/nvdeynde/cfs/cheney/12nf.htm

http://www.users.skynet.be/nvdeynde/cfs/cheney/8nf.htm

-----------------

The following is from " Coconut: In Support of Good Health in the 21st

Century " by G. Enig, Ph.D., F.A.C.N.

(http://www.apcc.org.sg/special.htm)

[...]

The antiviral, antibacterial, and antiprotozoal properties of lauric

acid and monolaurin have been recognized by a small number of

researchers for nearly four decades: this knowledge has resulted in

more than 20 research papers and several U.S. patents, and this past

year it resulted in a comprehensive book chapter, which reviewed the

important aspects of lauric oils as antimicrobial agents (Enig 1998).

In the past, the larger group of clinicians and food and nutrition

scientists has been unaware of the potential benefits of consuming

foods containing coconut and coconut oil, but this is now starting to

change.

Kabara (1978) and others have reported that certain fatty acids (FAs)

(e.g., medium-chain saturates) and their derivatives (e.g.,

monoglycerides (MGs)) can have adverse effects on various

microorganisms: those microorganisms that are inactivated include

bacteria, yeast, fungi, and enveloped viruses. Additionally, it is

report-ed that the antimicro----bial effects of the FAs and MGs are

additive, and total concentration is critical for inactivating

virus-es (Isaacs and Thormar 1990).

The properties that determine the anti-infective action of lipids are

related to their structure: e.g., monoglycerides, free fatty acids.

The monoglycerides are active; diglycerides and triglycerides are

inactive. Of the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has greater

antiviral activity than either caprylic acid (C-8), capric acid

(C-10), or myristic acid (C-14). In general, it is reported that the

fatty acids and monoglycerides produce their killing/inactivating

effect by lysing the plasma membrane lipid bilayer. The antiviral

action attributed to monolaurin is that of solubilizing the lipids and

phospholipids in the envelope of the virus, causing the disintegration

of the virus envelope. However, there is evidence from recent studies

that one antimicrobial effect in bacteria is related to monolaurin's

interference with signal transduction (Projan et al 1994), and another

antimicrobial effect in viruses is due to lauric acid's interference

with virus assembly and viral maturation (Hornung et al 1994).

Recognition of the antiviral aspects of the antimicrobial activity of

the monoglyceride of lauric acid (monolaurin) has been reported since

1966. Some of the early work by Hierholzer and Kabara (1982) that

showed virucidal effects of monolaurin on enveloped RNA and DNA

viruses was done in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control of

the U.S. Public Health Service. These studies were done with selected

virus prototypes or recognized representative strains of enveloped

human viruses. The envelope of these viruses is a lipid membrane, and

the presence of a lipid membrane on viruses makes them especially

vulnerable to lauric acid and its derivative monolaurin.

The medium-chain saturated fatty acids and their derivatives act by

disrupting the lipid membranes of the viruses (Isaacs and Thormar

1991; Isaacs et al 1992). Research has shown that enveloped viruses

are inactivated in both human and bovine milk by added fatty acids and

monoglycerides (Isaacs et al 1991), and also by endogenous fatty acids

and monoglycerides of the appropriate length (Isaacs et al 1986, 1990,

1991, 1992; Thormar et al 1987).

Some of the viruses inactivated by these lipids, in addition to HIV,

are the measles virus, herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), vesicular

stomatitis virus (VSV), visna virus, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). Many

of the pathogenic organisms reported to be inactivated by these

antimicrobial lipids are those known to be responsible for

opportunistic infections in HIV-positive individuals. For example,

concurrent infection with cytomegalovirus is recognized as a serious

complication for HIV+ individuals (Macallan et al 1993). Thus, it

would appear to be important to investigate the practical aspects and

the potential benefit of an adjunct nutritional support regimen for

HIV-infected individuals, which will utilize those dietary fats that

are sources of known antiviral, antimicrobial, and antiprotozoal

monoglycerides and fatty acids such as monolaurin and its precursor

lauric acid.

Until now, no one in the mainstream nutrition community seems to have

recognized the added potential of antimicrobial lipids in the

treatment of HIV-infected or AIDS patients. These antimicrobial fatty

acids and their derivatives are essentially nontoxic to man; they are

produced in vivo by humans when they ingest those commonly available

foods that contain adequate levels of medium-chain fatty acids such as

lauric acid. According to the published research, lauric acid is one

of the best " inactivating " fatty acids, and its monoglyceride is even

more effective than the fatty acid alone (Kabara 1978, Sands et al

1978, Fletcher et al 1985, Kabara 1985).

The lipid-coated (envelope) viruses are dependent on host lipids for

their lipid constituents. The variability of fatty acids in the foods

of individuals as well as the variability from de novo synthesis

accounts for the variability of fatty acids in the virus envelope and

also explains the variability of glycoprotein expression, a

variability that makes vaccine development more difficult.

Monolaurin does not appear to have an adverse effect on desirable gut

bacteria, but rather on only potentially pathogenic microorganisms.

For example, Isaacs et al (1991) reported no inactivation of the

common Escherichia coli or Salmonella enteritidis by monolaurin, but

major inactivation of Hemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus

epidermidis and Group B gram positive streptococcus.

The potentially pathogenic bacteria inactivated by monolaurin include

Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus

agalactiae, Groups A,F & G streptococci, gram-positive organisms, and

some gram-negative organisms if pretreated with a chelator (Boddie &

Nickerson 1992, Kabara 1978, Kabara 1984, Isaacs et al 1990, Isaacs et

al 1992, Isaacs et al 1994, Isaacs & Schneidman 1991, Isaacs & Thormar

1986, Isaacs & Thormar 1990, Isaacs & Thormar 1991, Thormar et al

1987, Wang & 1992).

Decreased growth of Staphylococcus aureus and decreased production of

toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 was shown with 150 mg monolaurin per

liter (Holland et al 1994). Monolaurin was 5000 times more inhibitory

against Listeria monocytogenes than ethanol (Oh & Marshall 1993).

Helicobacter pylori is rapidly inactivated by medium-chain

monoglycerides and lauric acid, and there appears to be very little

development of resistance of the organism to the bactericidal effects

(Petschow et al 1996) of these natural antimicrobials.

A number of fungi, yeast, and protozoa are inactivated or killed by

lauric acid or monolaurin. The fungi include several species of

ringworm (Isaacs et al 1991). The yeast reported is Candida albicans

(Isaacs et al 1991). The protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia is

killed by free fatty acids and monoglycerides from hydrolyzed human

milk (Hernell et al 1986, Reiner et al 1986, Crouch et al 1991, Isaacs

et al 1991). Numerous other protozoa were studied with similar

findings; these findings have not yet been published (Jon J. Kabara,

private communication, 1997).

Research continues in measuring the effect of the monoglyceride

derivative of capric acid monocaprin as well as the effects of lauric

acid. Chlamydia trachomatis is inactivated by lauric acid, capric

acid, and monocaprin (Bergsson et al 1998), and hydrogels containing

monocaprin are potent in vitro inactivators of sexually transmitted

viruses such as HSV-2 and HIV-1 and bacteria such as Neisseria

gonorrhoeae (Thormar 1999).

[...]