New Research on Coconut Oil Focuses on Replacing Antibiotics to Combat Antibiotic-resistant Pathogens

Coconut oil is nature's richest source of lauric acid, long known to be a powerful antimicrobial. As a saturated fat, coconut oil is almost 50% lauric acid. Nature's next most abundant source of lauric acid, human breast milk, comes in a distant second. For years now, research (primarily outside of the U.S.) on coconut oil has focused on the use of lauric acid as an adjunct or replacement for antibiotic drugs that have lost their effectiveness due to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. 2019 has seen more studies published where coconut oil is studied in this context: how to deal with the emergence of antibiotic resistant pathogens, and the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotic drugs. A Japanese study published in the journal Cell Transplant was especially promising, as it showed that lauric acid could potentially be used as a broad spectrum anti-microbiological agent without disrupting the "good bacteria" in the human gut microbiota.

Study: Lauric Acid from Coconut Oil Proves a Promising Weapon in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistant Infection with Severe Burns

Lauric acid, found predominately in coconut oil, may be a powerful tool in the prevention of infection and promote wound regeneration in severe burn patients, according to a recent study. Along with research that has previously shown the effectiveness of the use of lauric acid in combatting barrier-disrupting issues, the future for the use of saturated fatty acid in inhibiting infectious Gram-positive microbial bacteria and in skin barrier restoration is promising. A mere thirty years ago patients who had sustained burns over 50% of their body were given little to no hope of survival, a history which stands in stark contrast to the current status where people who have sustained burns covering even ninety percent of their bodies are now capable of recovery, albeit often with serious disabilities.  The increase in survival rates is directly related to the advances made in specialized burn care by the medical community, with better fluid resuscitation, nutritional support, pulmonary care, wound care and infection control playing critical roles. Still, in patients whose burns cover over 40% of the entire body, approximately seventy-five percent of deaths are largely attributable to sepsis from infected wounds or complications derived from infection.  Because the damaged tissue, which in its healthy state would act as a protective barrier, is seriously compromised in burn victims, topical antibiotics are necessary in keeping the moist wounds from becoming hotbeds of infection. The increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains is creating a necessity for researchers to identify substances that are both antibacterial and regenerative. Lauric acid, with its anti-viral and anti-microbial properties, is one such substance that researchers are hopeful may fit the above criteria perfectly. 

More Research Published Supporting Coconut Oil’s Claim to Heal Alzheimer’s Disease

In May, 2018, I wrote about a new study published in Iran that looked at the "neuroprotective effects" effects of virgin coconut oil for Alzheimer's patients. The title of the study is Virgin coconut oil (VCO) by normalizing NLRP3 inflammasome showed potential neuroprotective effects in Amyloid-β induced toxicity and high-fat diet fed rat and was published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology. While we have been publishing reports of coconut oil reversing the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease and other neurological diseases for several years now, we believe this was the first peer-reviewed study to actually look at some of the mechanisms of how coconut oil benefits Alzheimer's patients. Now, a second peer-reviewed study has been published here in 2018 looking at the mechanisms of how coconut oil positively affects Alzheimer's patients. Published in the journal, Neurochemical Research, researchers in Japan examined the effects of lauric acid, the most predominant medium chain fatty acid found in coconut oil, on activated microglia in mice. Coconut oil is nature's richest source of lauric acid at about 50% of its composition, and human breast milk comes in a distant second at around 6% lauric acid. The title of the study is Lauric Acid Alleviates Neuroinflammatory Responses by Activated Microglia: Involvement of the GPR40-Dependent Pathway.

Study: Lauric Acid from Coconut Oil Inhibits Cancer Cell Growth Without Affecting Healthy Cells

A study published September 2017 by researchers from the Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, at the University of Calabria in Rende, Italy, and from the Department of Health Sciences at the University Magna Graecia in Catanzaro, Italy, looked at the anti-cancer activity of lauric acid, the main fatty acid found in coconut oil. While coconut oil continues to get slandered in the U.S. by those with close ties to the pharmaceutical industry, research mainly outside the U.S. continues to show how healthy coconut oil can be, dispelling the common saturated-fat-is-bad myth still being promoted in the U.S. The study title is: "The lauric acid-activated signaling prompts apoptosis in cancer cells," and it was published in the journal "Cell Death Recovery." The study looked at the effects of lauric acid in both breast cancer and colon cancer: "The saturated medium-chain fatty-acid lauric acid (LA) has been associated to certain health-promoting benefits of coconut oil intake, including the improvement of the quality of life in breast cancer patients during chemotherapy. As it concerns the potential to hamper tumor growth, LA was shown to elicit inhibitory effects only in colon cancer cells. Here, we provide novel insights regarding the molecular mechanisms through which LA triggers antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects in both breast and endometrial cancer cells." Coconut oil is nature's richest source of lauric acid, by far, comprising almost 50% of the fatty acids in coconut oil. Human breast milk comes in a distant second at around 6% lauric acid. Lauric acid has a rich and long history of fighting pathogens, and has been a popular food preservative for many decades. Perhaps the most significant observation documented in this study was the ability of lauric acid to target cancer cells but not affect healthy cells, unlike most chemotherapy drugs: "Lauric Acid inhibited the viability of both cancer cell types without altering the growth of MCF-10A normal breast epithelial cells, thus suggesting its specific potential to trigger antiproliferative effects in malignant cells."

Study: Coconut Oil’s Lauric Acid Reduces High Blood Pressure

There have been numerous studies on lauric acid for various health supporting factors. Did you know that virgin coconut oil is 50 percent or more lauric acid? So whatever healthy attributes lauric acid contains so does coconut oil, and more. And more will be explained later in this article. For now we’ll focus on coconut oil’s major component, lauric acid, and a recent animal study with dramatic results discovered for reducing hypertension (high blood pressure) and oxidative stress.

MCT Oil vs. Coconut Oil: The Truth Exposed

There is a lot of misinformation on the Internet regarding the differences between MCT oil and coconut oil. Is MCT oil better than coconut oil, as many bloggers today would like you to believe? How can a product that has the most famous and most dominant medium chain fatty acid (lauric acid) removed from the original product be considered "better"? How many people realize that "MCT oil" is simply a by-product of coconut oil after the more valuable lauric acid has been removed?