Recently at a presentation I was giving on cognitive interventions with individuals with Alzheimer’s disease I was asked if I’d heard about the use of coconut oil as a treatment regime. I have to admit that I didn’t really have an opinion on it as I had not studied it in any depth. I had noticed some Youtube videos about the effects…but as much as I love Youtube – I decided to dig a little deeper. So I read about coconut oil and interestingly it seems there are some positive effects that could be attributed to its use:

1. Antioxidants available in coconut oil may play a role in tempering the inflammation of tissue which causes damage in Alzheimer’s disease, and

2. Coconut oil can break down into useful energy for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease since their brains typically suffer from low glucose levels.

So are people seeing a positive effect with the use of coconut oil? Quite likely they are, however it should be noted though that there are no scientific studies that look at the efficacy of coconut oil. Secondly, coconut oil is a saturated fat and could be detrimental to the cardiovascular system of the individual; so before you start on a coconut oil regime, it is certainly a subject worth discussing with your doctor.