Alzheimer’s disease, often called AD, is a brain sickness that mainly affects older people.
It’s more common in women and it’s the top reason why some people’s brains stop working properly as they age.
There are no known cures, so scientists are always looking for new treatments.
What’s a Mediterranean Diet?
A Mediterranean diet is a way of eating that’s popular in places near the Mediterranean Sea.
It includes a lot of olive oil, legumes (like beans), grains, fruits, veggies, and fish. It also includes a bit of dairy, wine, and non-fish meat.
This diet is good for our health. It helps prevent heart problems and stroke, reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, lowers the chance of getting type 2 diabetes, and can help people live longer.
The Secret Ingredient: Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is made from a fruit called coconut. It’s 100% fat, with most of it being a kind of fat called saturated fat.
It doesn’t have much else, except for a tiny bit of vitamins, minerals, and plant substances.
But even though it’s mostly fat, coconut oil can do many good things for our bodies. It can help burn fat, reduce hunger, make skin and hair look better, and decrease seizures.
The Coconut Oil Experiment
Researchers from the Catholic University of Valencia in Spain believed that coconut oil could help improve the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
They thought that the fat in coconut oil can give energy to our cells, making our brains work better.
They tested their idea on 44 people with Alzheimer’s disease. Half of them ate a Mediterranean diet that included coconut oil for 21 days, while the other half did not.
The researchers tested the people’s memory and other brain functions before and after the diet.
The Findings
After 21 days, they found that the people who had coconut oil in their diet had better memories and knew more about time and space.
Interestingly, the diet seemed to help women with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s more, although it also improved the condition of men and those with severe Alzheimer’s.
What’s Next?
The study was not perfect. Because there were only 44 people in it, the researchers could not be sure if the diet worked the same way for men and women or for people with different stages of Alzheimer’s.
In the future, they hope to do more research with more people to better understand the benefits of coconut oil.
The research was done by a team led by José Enrique de la Rubia Ortí and was shared in a book called the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about Vitamin D deficiency linked to Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, and Oral cannabis extract may help reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about Vitamin B9 deficiency linked to higher dementia risk, and results showing flavonoid-rich foods could improve survival in Parkinson’s disease.
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