I just watched the first two segments of the interview that Lori posted. I have met both Dr. Mary Newport and her husband Steve. I hesitate to write this, because I DO NOT want to give the impression that I am endorsing the use of coconut oil. I AM NOT endorsing, advising, or promoting the use of coconut oil. However, when I met Steve, two years ago, he was basically enveloped in what we call the "Alzheimer Fog". Mary had to lead him around, tell him what to do when, and he barely spoke. When he did speak, he was confused and did not make much sense. At that time, she told me that he was much better after having been taking coconut oil. I could only wonder what he must have been like before. Anyway, you can imagine my shock when I heard him speak coherently and clearly in the video. I don't know if it is from the coconut oil or other reasons, but he was vastly improved compared to when I tried to talk to him 2 years ago. I'll let you know what Mary says when I hear from her.
Steve actually was quite bad before we started the coconut oil and going downhill rather quickly. When we met Joan, we were in a noisy conference room full of 500 people at the Public Forums for Alzheimer's in D.C. I should think that would be overwhelming for someone with AD. He tends to be quiet in a group setting, doesn't speak up much unless spoken to, and definitely needs my help to find his way around in that kind of situation. He was very aware of what was going on and had definite opinions about it. I have had to "take him by the hand" in this type of situation for several years now. He is less anxious this way. His conversational skills are quite good, especially one-on-one. This is one of the things that improved after we started the coconut oil/MCT oil.
The interview was actually conducted in the summer of 2009 and not by Dr. Mercola, but rather Ken Lightburn, who made the video out of the goodness of his heart and then posted it on www.youtube.com to try to help me get the message out.
Steve seems to be holding onto most of his improvements overall since we started using the coconut oil/MCT oil 2 1/2 years ago. He has had a couple of setbacks, one with a severe bronchitis infection in the summer of 2009 and the other possibly related to the Eli Lilly clinical trial last spring (I think he was on the actual drug for 1-2 months based on his side effects), but has slowly bounced back most, but not quite all the way.
I'd also like to know if he is taking Namenda or Aricept along with the coconut oil. I bought coconut oil several months ago but never started DH on it.Wasn't sure if it would clash with the others. He was doing quite well but in the last month has declined rapidly and I want to try the coconut oil. I also purchased MCT powder,is anyone using that.and do you continue the namenda and aricept with that? His Dr. upped the aricept to 23mg. The pharmacist suggested asking him to change it to 10mg. twice a day. Said it would save a lot of money since 10mg. is now generic. Please, I need some feedback on these questions.
Yes, Steve is still taking Exelon and Namenda. I am not aware of any bad interactions between these meds and coconut or MCT oil. He also eats a relatively low carb, whole food diet, gets about 15 ml (3 teaspoons)a day of cod liver oil/fish oil and some other supplements that are aimed at increasing substrates for energy production in mitochondria and decreasing free radical damage to mitochondria. I talk about these in various posts on my blog which you can access through my website at www.coconutketones.com. There are some diet guidelines with questions and answers you can print out from there as well.
Thank you so much for the info,went to the site immediately and it was so helpful,will read it more carefully when my eyes improve,just had catarract surgery and they're a little bothersome. We have an app't with his neurologist today,last visit he said he not heard of MCT oil or coconut oil being used for AZ patients but said I should go for it,since he had nothing else to prescribe.
To give the other side of the story, I tried my wife on MCT Oil. It did nothing but give her diarrhea. I then tried Axona. All this did was give her an upset stomach. So I stopped all such treatments.
On the other hand, my husband has been on MCT oil for two years now with good results. Of course, the fact that he has a tendency toward constipation helped adjust to it. He has been on Aricept for ten years and Namenda for over two years.
My husband, whose diagnosis is Lewy Body Dementia, takes a combination of Coconut oil and MCT oil, and also a low dose of Aricept (the full dose disturbed his balance). His cognitive decline is much slower than I expected (his physical decline with Parkinson's symptoms somewhat faster). I don't know whether the coconut oil and MCT oil are the reason, but something is helping.