Coconut Oil: Health benefits proven by science
There are many studies that have been conducted on coconut oil relating to various health issues and the results have been very positive. For example:
Neural Functioning & Altzheimers
In 2006 a study was conducted on the impact of coconut oil of sufferers of Alheimers disease. The study was specific to people with a mild form of the disease. The MCT’s in coconut oil are easily converted to ketones in the liver. As Altzheimers is a condition where the brain has difficulty deriving energy from glucose, ketones provide an effective alternate energy source. The study showed a marked improvement in health as a result of consuming virgin coconut oil on a daily basis. Further studies have served to re-affirm that coconut oil can improve neural functioning and aid in the treatment of Alzheimers.
Cardiovascular health
As a rule health professionals often analyse the blood lipid profiles in order to determine the health or risk of cardiovascular disease. Key indicators are HDL and LDL cholesterol. HDL is the type of cholesterol that can contribute to arteriosclerosis and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. LDL on the other hand is considered the good type of cholesterol and can actually help clean out HDL cholesterol in the blood. Coconut oil has shown to effectively reduce the levels of HDL cholesterol while increasing the levels of LDL cholesterol.
Seizure treatment
Coconut oil has been used as part of a ketogenic diet as a method of treating epilepsy and other seizure related conditions. The effectiveness lies in the metabolism of the medium chain triglycerides that are easily converted to ketones
Antibacterial & antifungal
Lauric acid monolaurin are believed to be the key ingredients that have the ability to fight off viruses, bacteria and fungi. Virgin coconut oil is s valuable source of these ingredients as it contains at least 50% lauric acid. Some treatments include athlete’s foot, candida albicans and other harmful bacteria.
Weightloss
Coconut oil turns the belief that eating fat makes you fat on it’s head. As it turns out coconut oil can be instrumental in aiding weight loss. Because it is mostly medium chain triglycerides, by consuming coconut oil, a person can increase their energy expenditure and lose weight as a result. In additional studies it’s been shown that eating coconut oil helps to reduce appetite once again due to the medium chain triglycerides. It is believed that this is because the way the fatty acids are metabolised in the body and that the conversion to ketones provides a more efficient energy source.
Healthy skin
Coconut oil can be used in a number of beauty applications as is detailed later in this article. Coconut oil is a nutritious skin moisturiser which has the added bonus of having a build in sun protection factor. The antibacterial and anti-fungal properties of coconut oil make it and ideal body lotion for sports people who can easily be exposed to pathogens during sporting activities.
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