by Sayer Ji
(GreenMedInfo) A new study in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients using dietary supplementation with a unique saturated fat has confirmed earlier research that a non-drug based approach can stabilize and even improve a degenerative disease whose symptoms are usually managed with drugs and not cured.
Published in the journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment and titled “Retrospective case studies of the efficacy of caprylic triglyceride in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease,” [i]this exploratory study sought to test whether caprylic acid triglycerides (CT) – a type of fat found naturally in the milk of mammals and a constituent of coconut and palm kernel oil – would improve the condition of mild-to-moderately afflicted AD patients.
The researchers noted that, “The limitations of current pharmacotherapy have prompted interest in diet and dietary supplementation as part of the overall treatment regimen for patients with AD.”
The researchers reviewed the case records of eight patients with extensive monitoring of cognitive function using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and who had received on average 20 grams a day of CT for at least 6 months. The patients were at least 50 years of age, were undergoing conventional drug-based therapy for AD of mild-to-moderate severity (MMSE 14-24).
Caprylic acid is commonly isolated from coconut oil. One cup (218 grams) contains approximately 16.3 grams, according to NutritionData.com’s coconut oil nutrition facts. While the prospect of consuming over a cup of coconut oil in order to obtain the 20 gram ‘clinical dose’ used in this study may be unappealing, consider that preclinical research on whole coconut oil, which contains other beneficial medium chain triglycerides, is quite encouraging, and that generally speaking one needs to take less of the whole food complex in order to obtain the kind of therapeutic effect observed in one of its isolated components.
The results of the 8-person case study revealed that 2 patients experienced disease stabilization and 2 saw modest improvement, i.e. the CT actually reversed the disease trajectory, with a reduction in symptoms corresponding directly with the initiation of the dietary intervention.
The researchers concluded:
“Results from this case review study indicated that addition of CT to pharmacotherapy for AD was associated with stable disease or improvement for some patients. In particular, addition of CT seemed to have slowed the rate of decline, as measured by MMSE scores, compared with rates of decline reported in larger longitudinal studies. These findings warrant further investigation in a larger study.”