Reports of responses to coconut oil and medium‐chain triglyceride oil in 288 persons with Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairment

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundGlucose hypometabolism is an early key feature of AD. Ketones provide alternative fuel to glucose during fasting, ketogenic diet (KD), and ketogenic oil consumption, and are taken up normally in the AD brain (Croteau J Alz Dis 2018). RCTs of KD ± MCT oil or CO (in program recipes) report improvement in people with cognitive impairment (reviewed in Cunnane NRDD 2020; Phillips Alz Res Therapy 2021), usually attributed to generation of ATP by circulating ketones. Ketones are also anti‐inflammatory (Kim Frontiers Immunol 2022) and reduced beta‐amyloid plaques and tau tangles in animal models (Kashiwaya PNAS 2000; Wu FASEB 2020). While blood ketones from CO are lower than from MCT oil, lauric acid (50% of CO) potently stimulated ketone production in cultured KT‐5 astrocytes (Nonaka J Oleo Science 2016), suggesting a more direct effect. Virgin CO also contains antioxidants and substances that inhibit amyloid plaque formation (Chatterjee Mech Ageing Devel 2020).MethodResponse/non‐response to CO ± MCT oil from all communications about persons with AD and other memory impairment collected by the author from 2008 to mid‐2014 were analyzed. Respondents were not prompted regarding expected improvements. Verbatim phrases allowed further categorization of improvements.Result288 reports were tabulated (33‐94yo; 48% male/52% female; 55% AD, 25% other dementia, 6% Parkinson’s, 2.4% MCI, 12% other memory complaints). 72% consumed only CO, 26% CO+MCT, and 2% MCT only. 89.2% reported improvements overall, further categorized as Memory/Cognition (72.6%), Social/Behavior/Mood/Personality (37.4%), Speech/Conversation (37.7%), Resumption of Self‐Care/Other Activities (28.4%), Physical Symptoms (20.7%), and Sleep (3.9%).ConclusionJust a few targeted FDA‐approved drug therapies claim slowing of cognitive decline. However, nutritional ketosis broadly addresses important pathological changes in the AD brain, including insulin resistance, glucose hypometabolism, and inflammation. A growing number of RCTs of KD ± MCTs/CO with positive cognitive outcomes and improvement in biomarkers add weight to this large collection of communications reporting meaningful improvements while consuming CO and/or MCT oil in cognition, social interaction, self‐care, and other areas important to daily life. Nutritional ketosis deserves more attention from funding organizations and greater public awareness for the potential to improve the lives of people with AD and other neurological impairments.