Anyone tried Coconut Oil to treat dementia?

Have you tried using it in cooking? I now use it almost exclusively for sautéing, frying eggs, fish, etc. it has spectacular flavor! And smells heavenly when you cook with it. Replace any shortening with it, it's so much better for you than hydronated oils. Use in cookies, muffins, in oatmeal, on steamed veggies. Doesn't really taste like coconut, per se, but does add a slight sweetness and richer taste. If you really need the butter flavor, you can use half butter and half coconut oil. And yes, it's also good for skin and hair!

After a lot of reading, it seemed the dosage might be critical - there might be a minimum dosage of about 40 ml a day (someone else on this forum uses even more). We put 1 tablespoon (20 ml) in porridge in the morning and 1 in a pre-dinner soup in the evening before we saw any effect. It seemed to arrest the decline (things that happened now seem like a long time ago rather than no memory of them at all) and slightly improve the capacity to anticipate events, but the main effect was on mood (worth it alone).

Some reading suggested, indirectly, it might be effective for only 20% of people with some sort of Alzheimer disease (my interpretation of the information).

Some clinical trials of dosage matched with brain scans, stage and type of the disease, and overall mental health would be really helpful.

You know, as caregivers, WE should be the ones taking coconut oil in an effort to ward off the effects of aging as much as possible, since we can already see how our loved ones suffer with those effects. (I use it every day already.)

I have also heard good reports on using coconut oil. One sib spreads it on toast. Negative side effect with my Mom is severe intestinal disturbance. Check YouTube to check usage and amounts. I imagine you could add coconut oil to most anything. My Mom's brain is too deteriorated at this point. Even if we could find something to slow the progression of the disease, why would we do that? Damage done cannot be repaired.

To date there is no reason that coconut oil prevents dementia. However, it is a good source of Omega 3s and it can do no harm in moderation. Know it has a lower point at which it boils, so if you cook with it, it will burn quickly at medium heat. There solid coconut oil for your hair (use lightly), and I use a hair masque made with coconut oil.

I bought Virgin Coconut Oil in a softgel pill form on Amazon. It's probably a placebo effect but I feel like I think more clear when I'm working (I do not have dementia.) Also mentioned above was how Coconut oil is not a high-temp oil. I would like to mention that olive oil when heated high actually turns toxic but many of us do this. The point is to understand the oil you are cooking with.

LaurieAC, could you describe more specifically in what ways your father improved on coconut oil? I'm sincerely interested. What do you mean that he "wasn't good" without it? And it sounds like he eats about 700 calories from the oil each day. What was his weight like?

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Dr Mary Newport's husband was not cured. He improved dramatically in the first year and was stable for two years after that, and then declined. Improvement is awesome and worthwhile, but it is not a cure.

My husband was reading bank statements upside down, was paranoid, very confused, hallucinating, and then improved dramatically over a year and remained stable for about 8 years. Then he gradually declined physically (though never to the same cognitive and behavioral level of the first year.) He died in year 10.

In other words, my husband's improvement was as dramatic as Dr. Newport's husband's, and he sustained it much longer. What caused this remarkable "cure"? Well, I'm not sure, but I know for a positive fact that it wasn't coconut oil, because he never used it. Thinking about it, he did eat a lot of ramen noodle soup that first year. Maybe I should be promoting Ramen Noodles as the amazing hidden cure for dementia. Maybe I should write a book advocating high-sodium diets for persons with dementia. That is pretty absurd, of course. But I hope you see my point that anecdotal stories are not the same as evidence. One person's history can be suggestive and suggest other avenues of study, but in itself it proves nothing.

As far as I know, coconut oil is a perfectly fine food. I don't see big red flags in using it. But I wouldn't pin my hopes on its curative powers against dementia.

Glad, no plants have cholesterol -- only animal products can contain cholesterol. Egg yolks have a lot, coconuts have none. All the years my husband followed a heart-healthy diet he was discouraged from having coconut oil because the types of fat it contains were thought to provide the building blocks of our bodies producing our own cholesterol. Science has learned a great deal about fat types in the last decade or so. At least some people now consider coconut oil healthy. I really don't know. I do know I could not afford 700 calories of fat per day just on the basis of weight control.

I am not sure that coconut oil is really the villain we once thought it was. I also don't think there is enough research evidence to claim it cures dementia.

I have a friend who works at a nursing home,, claims they gave it to alot of patients and they improved.. But in my opinion if there were a mircle cure we would have all heard of it.. like a magic weight loss cure. My dad has good days and bad days.. no rhyme or reason. I;d love to find one (or both...LOL)

Not a doctor or scientist here, but arteries clog from eating too much sugar and refined carbs....actually makes cells sticky....read Gary Taubes' book Good Calories, Bad Calories (or whatever it's called). Ingested fats are not the problem--it's carbs, and too many calories overall.