E-Mail Edition  Volume 9   Number 1

Published Winter, 2012

Published by Piccadilly Books, Ltd., www.piccadillybooks.com.

Bruce Fife, N.D., Publisher, www.coconutresearchcenter.org


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Contents

  • Ask Dr. Coconut: Is Coconut Oil Safe to Use as a Personal Lubricant?

  • New Study Shows Link Between Statins and Diabetes

  • Coconut Oil Touted As Alzheimer's Remedy

  • A Wonderful Coconut Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ask Dr. Coconut

 

Is coconut oil safe to use as a personal lubricant?

 

An interesting question has come up to which we do not know the definitive answer! A customer has written to ask whether virgin coconut oil is 'sperm safe' because she and her husband have been using it as a lubricant but now she wants to become pregnant and wonders whether the VCO would damage the sperm. Do you have any info on this matter? We understand that many people do use coconut oil in this way now and it could well have been a good tool traditionally in societies where coconuts grew in abundance. But would the coconut oil be strong/destructive enough to actually be a contraceptive (being anti-bacterial and anti-microbial etc) or would it rather stimulate conception and protect the sperm?

 

To my knowledge there have not been any studies on this topic. However, we can logically assume that coconut oil would not harm sperm because it does not attack human tissue, but rather feeds it. Human cells absorb the MCFAs and use them like they would glucose, as food, to produce energy. Sperm would be no different. If anything, I would think it might make the sperm more motile and thus increase the odds of pregnancy. Coconut oil should be a safe lubricant for those wanting to get pregnant.

 

 

 

  

  
 

 

 

New Study Shows Link

Between Statins and Diabetes

 

 

 

 

A new study from the Woman's Health Initiative published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that people taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs experience a significant increase in the risk of developing diabetes.1 The study followed more than 150,000 women over the age of 50 both with and without heart disease for nearly 10 years. Those taking statins had a 48 percent increased chance of developing diabetes. This increased risk was seen among all brands of statin drugs, with both low and high doses, and with both short and long term use.

Statin Drugs

 

This is an interesting revelation, especially since diabetes is a strong risk factor for heart disease—much stronger than elevated cholesterol. What this study is saying is that patients who take statins to lower cholesterol, believing that doing so will reduce their risk of heart disease, are increasing their risk of diabetes, which also increases their risk of heart disease! This study provides more proof that statins are not only useless in preventing heart disease but may actually promote it.

Doctors already must constantly monitor their statin patients because these drugs damage the liver and muscle tissue. One statin drug, Baycol, was withdrawn from the market a few years ago because it caused severe muscle degeneration leading to kidney failure and death. If statins cause muscles to break down, what are they doing to the heart? The heart is a muscle too! Cognitive loss and Alzheimer's disease have recently been linked with statins and with low cholesterol.2-3 Now doctors will probably be encouraged to monitor statin patients for diabetes as well.

Anticipating that consumers might question the sanity of using statins, medical authorities were quick to respond to the new study to ease patients' fears. Robert Eckel past president of the American Heart Association explains that a 62-year-old woman who had one heart attack is still better off on a statin, even if she has diabetes in her family or impaired blood sugar levels. In other words, Eckel is saying that it is better to suffer with diabetes than it is to have high blood cholesterol. Tell that to a diabetic. Diabetes is a serious disease that can lead to blindness, amputations, kidney failure, dementia, heart attack, stroke, and death. High blood cholesterol doesn't cause any of these things, including heart attack and stroke (most heart attack victims have normal total cholesterol levels).

Vivian Fonseca, the American Diabetes Association president for medicine and science adds her two cents, "You don't want people to have heart attacks because they are so worried about getting diabetes."  Like Eckel, Fonseca is trying to reinforce the outdated cholesterol theory in support of the pharmaceutical industry.

Even the authors of the study cautioned patients not to stop taking their statins without talking to their doctors. "These studies shouldn't be a cause for alarm," says JoAnn Manson, a co-author of the study. "Statins' proven power to prevent heart attacks and strokes outweighs any potential increase in type 2 diabetes," she says reassuringly.

Sounds good if you believe that high cholesterol causes heart attacks, but it's not true. Statins have never proven to prevent heart attack deaths and according to this study may actually increase the risk of dying early. Studies have already shown that statin users, in comparison to non-users, have an increased risk of dying from all causes, especially from suicide and cancer, which negates any possible benefit statins might have at preventing a heart attack.4

This isn't the first time statins have been linked to diabetes. An increased risk of diabetes among statin users was first seen in 2008, in a randomized controlled trial of the statin drug Crestor. A 2010 analysis published in the Lancet and a 2011 analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found an increased risk of diabetes among statin users. So the link is apparently real.

Since participants in this last study were all women, the study results apply primarily to women. Interestingly, statins have never been shown to prevent or reduce risk of heart attacks or strokes in women. In fact, women with low cholesterol are at higher risk of dying from heart disease then women with high cholesterol.5 In women, higher cholesterol is associated with longer lifespan. So there is no sense for a woman to be on statins in the first place, doing so only increases their risk of heart disease and diabetes, not to mention poverty (Lipitor costs about $100/month).

Why such a hard push to get people to take statins when studies show they are associated with many adverse side effects and are of questionable value? It's all about the money. Drug companies make more money selling statins than any other type of drug. Lipitor, is best selling drug in history, outselling all other statins combined. In 2008 Pfizer made $12 billion from the sales of Lipitor, and that's just from US sales, worldwide sales push their profits much, much higher.

Doctors in the US write 255 million prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering drugs each year. According to the National Center of Health Statistics, about one in four Americans over age 45 take a statin, yet heart disease is still our number one cause of death! Apparently these drugs are not saving lives. Use of statins among people older than 45 has increased tenfold in the past two decades, from just 2 percent in the years 1988 to 1994 to 25 percent in the years 2005-2008, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Americans spent about $19 billion a year on them, according to IMS Health, which researches the drug market.

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lower-limb amputations, and blindness among adults in the United States. It is also a major cause of heart disease and stroke. It is the seventh leading cause of death. This death statistic is misleading because diabetes isn't an isolated disease, it is intimately connected to other causes of death such as heart disease (the # 1 cause of death) , stroke (# 4), and kidney disease (#8), as per the latest statistics (2010). Statins are not only linked to diabetes (#7), but to cancer (#2), Alzheimer's (#6), Parkinson's (#14), suicides (#10), and violence (#16). [Note; the connection between statins and mental health (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, suicides, and violence) is due to cholesterol lowering, the brain is the most cholesterol rich organ in the body and depends on it for proper health and function.6 Lowering cholesterol artificially through drugs can have a significant impact on brain health.] When a person with diabetes dies from a heart attack the cause of death is recorded as a heart attack or heart disease even though diabetes was the underlying cause that injured the heart in the first place.

Currently nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes or 8.3 percent of the population according to the American Diabetes Association. One out of every four people 65 years or older has diabetes. About 1.9 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Another 79 million are considered prediabetic. Medical authorities claim that the obesity epidemic is the primary driver of the increase in diabetes. But is that really the case? Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, but so is statin use. In fact, statins may be a more significant risk factor. Look below at the graph of the percentage of the US population with diagnosed diabetes from 1958 through 2009.

 

Source: CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation. National Diabetes Surveillance System www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics.

 

The first statin drug, Mevacor, was launched in 1987. It was followed by Zocor in 1994 and Pravachol and Lescol soon after. Lipitor went on sale in 1997. Prior to 1994 only a small number of people (2 percent) over age 45 used statins.  Due to aggressive marketing efforts by Pfizer and other drug makers, statin use started to increase dramatically with the introduction of Lipitor. Look at the graph again. The rate of diabetes gradually increased from 1958 to 1996. Then around 1997 the rate of diabetes suddenly jumps by 500 percent! Is this just a coincidence? Did our current obesity epidemic suddenly increase by 500 percent in 1997? I don't think so. The obesity trend has been steadily increasing for the past 30 years or more. So has consumption of trans fatty acids found in hydrogenated vegetable oils, which have also been linked to diabetes. Diet has likely been the primary reason for the gradual increase in diabetes since 1958, but something else happened in the mid to late 1990s to accelerate this trend. Statin use seems to be the most likely suspect.

 

 

References

1. Statins Linked to Diabetes Risk MSNBC News. To view MSNBC report go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45934937/ns/health-diabetes/#.Twxvx1bNkqM

2. Meske, V., et al. Blockade of HMG-CoA reductase activity causes changes in microtubule-stabilizing protein tau via suppression of geranylgeranylpyrophosphate formation: implications for Alzheimer's disease. Eur J Neurosci 2003;17:93-102.

3. Muldoon, M.F., et al. Effects of lovastatin on cognitive function and psychological well-being. Am J Med 2000;108:538-546.

4. Muldoon, M.F., et al. Lowering cholesterol concentrations and mortality: a quantitative review of primary prevention trials. British Medical Journal 1990;301:309-314.

5. Ravnskov, U. The Cholesterol Myths. Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease. New Trends Publishing, Washington, DC 2000.

6. Fife, B. Stop Alzheimer's Now! Piccadilly Books, Ltd., Colorado Springs, CO, 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

Stop Alzheimer's Now!

by Dr. Bruce Fife

 

Available from Piccadilly Books, Ltd.

click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy

 

Pat Robertson, the commentator for CBN News 700 Club, reports that coconut oil can ease Alzheimer's disease.

 An estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that number is expected to increase exponentially as baby boomer generation enters their golden years. "But for some people, coconut oil has proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer's and may even prevent it," says Robertson.

One of those people is Steve Newport, whose Alzheimer's has slowed considerably. Some of his symptoms have even reversed, thanks to the unlikely treatment prescribed by his wife, Dr. Mary Newport, a physician who runs a neonatology ward at a Tampa, Fla., hospital. Dr. Newport became determined to help her husband after neurology tests showed her husband was entering the severe stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's doesn't just happen overnight. It's a long, slow process that takes at least 10 or 20 years to develop before symptoms start to show. Recent research has revealed that Alzheimer's is a form of diabetes caused by insulin resistance in the brain. It is now referred to as type 3 diabetes. Insulin resistance prevents brain cells from accepting glucose, their primary fuel. Without it, the brain cells eventually die. But there is an alternative fuel -- ketones, which brain cells easily accept. Ketones are metabolized in the liver after eating medium chain triglycerides, found in coconut oil. Dr. Newport added coconut oil to Steve's diet. He showed almost immediate improvement. Over the course of a year Steve Newport has gone from being on the verge of sever Alzheimer's to now being diagnosed as a mild case and has regained much of the cognitive skills and memory he had once lost.

Some people are afraid to eat coconut oil because they think it's bad for the heart. "But it's actually very healthy," says Dr. Beverly Teter, a lipid biochemist researcher at the University of Maryland and an expert in the area of dietary fat. "Years ago, coconut oil was criticized for raising cholesterol. But scientists have since learned there are two kinds of cholesterol -- LDL, the bad kind, and HDL, which is very good for you. HDL, the good cholesterol, is the kind that coconut oil raises. So they put out the message that it increased serum cholesterol," Teter explains. "But the truth of the matter is, it was helping the profile of the serum cholesterol. That never has been corrected in the public press, and I think that's the reason people have misconceptions about it."

 Teter said the way it helps the brains of Alzheimer's patients can even be extended to people with Parkinson's disease, ALS, epilepsy, dementia, even schizophrenia and autism. "Coconut oil also kills bacteria, making it a natural antibiotic without the negative side effects," Teter says.  "Because of that, it also helps defend against viruses like HIV and herpes. The coconut oil tends to keep the bacteria down so that if you're assaulted with a virus, your immune system can concentrate on the virus. It doesn't have to concentrate on 27 other bacteria that day."

Click the link below to watch the entire Alzheimer's segment of the 700 Club.

click here to play video

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

A Wonderful Coconut Story

By Elizabeth Wangari Gachiri

 
 

 

 

My name is Elizabeth Wangari Gachiri. I work at an orphanage in Kenya. I have a wonderful story to tell you about coconut oil.

A week ago I attended a weeklong camp meeting with about 150 other people (Fig. 1). One of the teachers was a lady named Miriam. I know her because she was a social worker at the orphanage. Miriam is HIV positive and has been very sick for a number of years. She was wasting away and had lost so much weight that she was literally just skin and bones. Her friends and family expected her to

Figure 1: A group of people gather at the camp meeting.

click here for more details or to order

 

 

 

die any day. Suddenly, for seemingly no reason, she started to regain weight and get better. Over the following weeks and months her health continued to improve. No one knew why. We were all mystified by her miraculous recovery.

Her health had improved to such an extent that she was able to participate as one of the instructors at the camp meeting. Here she revealed her secret. During the time she was sick, the orphanage received a donation of hundreds of books from Australia. One of the books was The Coconut Oil Miracle by Dr. Bruce Fife. Intrigued by the title, she began reading it. What she learned stunned her. She was particularly fascinated by the section on the antimicrobial properties of coconut oil and its successful use by those with HIV. By this time, her illness had reduced her to a mere 26 kg (57 pounds). Encouraged by the book, Miriam began eating coconut oil and milk daily. As her health improved, her weight returned to its normal 70 kg (154 pounds). When the doctors saw her remarkable improvement they began asking questions.

At the meeting she was bursting with enthusiasm for what coconut had done for her and was anxious to share her newfound knowledge with those in attendance (Fig. 2). She taught them how to prepare coconut milk from coconuts brought in from the coast (Fig. 3). Her lecture and demonstration captivated the audience since many there had known her when she was deathly ill. Everyone was excited about the coconut oil.

 

 

Figure 2: Miriam reading aloud from the Coconut Oil Miracle.

 

Figure 3: Teaching the audience how to make coconut milk.

 

 

One mother brought her four-year-old son. His hands, face, and head were covered with some kind of infection (Figs. 4-6). His hands were painfully swollen and covered with oozing sores and pealing skin. He looked an awful sight. A coconut porridge was made and applied to the boy's sores. By the end of the week he was recovering remarkably well. I saw him with his parents at church the following week and could not believe my eyes (Fig 7). When I saw him full of energy and fully recovered from head to toe, oh, I could not hold back my tears! The only traces of the infection are a few spots of lighter coloration from the growth of healing skin.

 

 

Figure 4: Infection on boy's hand.

Figure 5: Infection on boy's head.

 

 

Figure 6: Infection on boy's face.

 

Figure 7: After using coconut oil for a couple of weeks the infection has completely healed.

 

 

Miriam is very happy to have The Coconut Oil Miracle and won't let it out of her hands for a minute. We in Africa are poor and often can't afford medications. This is why so many are dying. We need books like this that offer inexpensive, yet effective alternatives.

 

Dr. Fife's Comments:

This story is yet another example of the antimicrobial effects of coconut oil and its effectiveness against the HIV virus and other infections. I sent Elizabeth an entire case of The Coconut Oil Miracle free of charge to be distributed to those in her community.

After receiving the books she replied: "Thank you for the books and I know God will do miracles with them to help the poor people who are struggling to heal their loved ones but can't afford the medical bills. I will do my best to see that as many people as I can get the message of the coconut oil miracle. For me and my family we are 100 percent and it is working miracles. For the two months that we have used coconut oil on our bodies and eating it daily there has been a great change. My daughter's face is now smooth and pimple free, my husband's face is also smooth. He also used to have dandruff in his hair, he used to scratch his head all the time but now that is no more, thanks to the coconut oil. Because of a sunburn, I had spots on my face. After using coconut oil daily, the spots are fading away (Fig. 8). Soon I will have a spotless face thanks to coconut oil."  ■

 

Figure 8: Elizabeth and her daughter.

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

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Copyright © 2012,  Bruce Fife. All rights reserved.