Only 1 TBSP Of Coconut Oil Produces Powerful Health Changes, Study Confirms

A simple tablespoon daily of coconut oil could promote weight loss and improve cardiovascular health, reveals a new clinical study. 

A new study titled, “A coconut extra virgin oil-rich diet increases HDL cholesterol and decreases waist circumference and body mass in coronary artery disease patients,” holds great promise in those suffering from overweight, obesity, and heightened cardiovascular disease risk, and against which pharmaceutical approaches often fail.

Coconut oil was once considered a “bad fat,” as it contains saturated fatty acids which conventional nutritionists did not distinguish from synthetically produced ones such as margarine. We know far better now, and increasingly, natural sources of saturated fats are gaining appreciation as not only “not-bad,” but actually beneficial, particularly for the brain. You can check out the first hand literature on coconut’s helath benefits on the GreenMedInfo.com database, or read our article, 13 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Coconut Oil.

The new study evaluated the health effects of a nutritional treatment with extra virgin coconut oil, focusing primarily on how it affects HDL cholesterol and a range of anthropmetric measurements (e.g. body weight, size, circumference).

The average age of the participants was 62.4 ± 7.7 years, with 70% of elderly individuals, and 63.2% of males. All of them were hypertensive and 94.5% had blood lipid profiles indicating “dyslipidemia” and on standard, cholesterol lowering drug treatment.

In the first phase, a three month period, 136 enrollees were put on a standardized diet. From the third month onward, the 116 who completed the first phase were place in two intervention groups: 22 remained on the diet, and 92 were put on the diet + 13 ml (.43 ounces) daily of extra virgin coconut oil, which is equivalent to about 14 grams, or about 1 Tablespoon (15 grams).

The results of the the three-month coconut oil intervention showed that relative to the standard diet, the coconut group saw a decrease in all six of the bodily parameters measured, including:

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  Weight: -.6 kilograms (1.322 pounds)

  
  


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  Body Mass Index: – .2 kg/m2

  
  


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  Waist Circumference: -2.1 cm

  
  


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  Neck Perimeter: -4 cm

  
  


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  Systolic Blood Pressure: -3.3 points

  
  


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  Diastolic Blood Pressure:  -3.5 points

  
  

Additionally, the coconut oil intervention group saw a 3.1±7.4 mg/dL increase in HDL cholesterol.

The researchers concluded:

“Nonpharmacological interventions are essential for risk factor control in secondary prevention among patients with coronary disease. Our study showed that a diet rich in extra virgin coconut oil seems to favor the reduction of WC and the increase of HDL-C concentrations, aiding with secondary prevention for CAD patients.”

Discussion

This study is far more powerful than may first meet the eye. For instance, at present, pharmaceutical interventions to raise HDL cholesterol lack solid scientific support. Only yesterday, I reported on a new JAMA review which revealed an astounding number of medical procedures have no benefit, even harm, wherein it was concluded that ,”In patients with low HDL-C levels who are treated with statins, there is no clinical benefit to HDL-C–targeted therapies.” Considering the fact that pharmaceutical interventions to lower HDL cholesterol have a wide range of serious side effects, the new finding that coconut oil may provide a natural alternative with side benefits, is all the more encouraging.

Additionally, midsection fat, also known as abdominal obesity, is a serious risk factor for cardiovascular events and cardiac mortality. In fact, a 2007 study published in the journal Circulation found that of three risk factors evaluated for heart attack, namely, abdominal obesity, abnormal lipids, and smoking, abdominal obesity was the most powerful: 48.5%, versus 40.8% for abnormal lipids, and 38.4% for smoking.

When one considers these two factors, any safe, diet-based lifestyle modification that can safely raise HDL-C cholesterol, and reduce midsection fat and related anthropometric parameters such as BMI and midsection circumference, is a home run.

This is, of course, not the first time we have reported on the powerful health benefits of coconut oil. In fact, it doesn’t take months, or even days, to observe positive changes in certain populations. We reported previously on what can only be described as an amazing study where just one dose of coconut oil derived medium chain triglycerides produced positive cognitive changes in Alzheimer’s patients in only 90 minutes. You can read about it in greater detail here:  MCT Fats Found In Coconut Oil Boost Brain Function In Only One Dose.

For additional research on how to raise HDL cholesterol, take a look at our database on the topic here: Raise HDL Cholesterol Naturally. For reducing abdominal obesity, you can take a look at our database on the topic: Reduce Belly Fat (Abdominal Obesity).

© March 30, 2018 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.

The post Only 1 TBSP Of Coconut Oil Produces Powerful Health Changes, Study Confirms appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Stoned To Death: Calcium Supplements Proven To Kill Again

Calcium Supplements Increase Heart Attack Risk by 86 Percent

Research published in the journal Heart has confirmed the findings of two controversial studies on calcium supplementation and heart attack risk published in the British Medical Journal last year, and which found a 24-27% increased risk of heart attack for those who took 500 mg of elemental calcium a day.[1] [2]

The results of this newest review, involving 24,000 people between the ages of 35 and 64, were even more alarming. Those participants who took a regular calcium supplement increased their risk of having a heart attack by 86% versus those who took no calcium supplements at all.

Why Do We Obsessively Consume Rock, Bone And Shell Calcium?

People really should not be so surprised at the idea that calcium supplementation may be toxic to cardiovascular health. After all, many subject themselves to coronary and cardiac calcium scans in order to ascertain their risk of cardiovascular events and/or cardiac mortality. This is because we know that calcium of the wrong kind in the wrong place can result in serious adverse health effects. There are, in fact, quite a few in the field of nutrition who have long warned against supplementation with elemental calcium; which is to say, calcium from limestone, oyster shell, egg shell and bone meal (hydroxylapatite). There are also those who have not needed to be “experts,” because they exercised common sense when it came to not eating rocks or shells.

The seemingly universal popularity of taking elemental calcium supplements results from the promotional efforts of conventional health “experts” and organizations like the National Osteoporosis Foundation (whose corporate sponsors include the calcium manufacturers Oscal and Citrical). Also, the World Health Organization created a radically new definition of “normal” bone density in 1994 when it took the 25-year old young adult standard (which is peak bone mass in a women’s life cycle), also known as the “T-score,” and applied it to all women, irrespective of their age.

This resulted in redefining the normal and gradual loss of bone mineral density that comes with aging as a disease, essentially medicalizing a non-condition. It also resulted in millions of women being coerced into taking unnecessary (and dangerous) “bone-building” drugs and inorganic calcium supplements to drive bone mineral density higher, by any means necessary. Suddenly, healthy women were being told they had a disease called “osteopenia” or “osteoporosis,” even while their bone mineral density was normal for their age, gender and ethnicity (which would have been clear as day, had the age-mediated “Z-score” been used). Moreover, the #1 and #2 cause of death in women are heart disease and cancer, respectively, with heart attack and breast cancer being the primary causes of morbidity and mortality.

When you consider that the risk of death as a side effect of fracture associated with low bone mineral density is infinitesimal relative to that of dying from calcium-induced heart attack, and/or high bone mineral density associated malignant breast cancer (300% higher risk for those in the top quarter percentile of BMD), the justification for promoting osteopenia/osteoporosis prevention and/or treatment in women’s health above far more serious and likely health threats completely falls apart. In fact, it appears that this myopic fixation may be significantly contributing to their premature death.

[Further reading on the topic: Osteoporosis Myth: The Dangers of High Bone Mineral Density]

Turned To Stone: When Calcium Goes To The Wrong Place

The reality is that the habit of consuming inorganic, elemental calcium simply does not make sense.  After all, have you ever experienced visceral disgust after accidentally consuming eggshell? If you have, you know your body is “hard-wired” to reject low-quality calcium sources (stones and bones as it were), in favor of getting calcium from food.

Inorganic or “elemental” calcium, when not bound to the natural co-factors, e.g. amino acids, lipids and glyconutrients, found in “food” (which is to say other living beings, e.g. plants and animals), no longer has the intelligent delivery system that enables your body to utilize it in a biologically appropriate manner. Lacking this “delivery system,” the calcium may end up going to places you do not want (ectopic calcification), or go to places you do want (e.g. the bones), but in excessive amounts, stimulating unnaturally accelerated cell-division (osteoblasts), resulting in higher bone turnover rates later in life (this is explained in the article below).

Or, the body attempts to disburden itself of this inappropriate calcium and dumps it into the bowel (constipation), or pushes it through the kidneys (stones). Worse, high levels of calcium can accumulate in the blood (hypercalcemia), which can contribute to destabilizing the atherosclerotic plaque through the formation of a brittle calcium cap on the atheroma, can contribute to thrombosis (clot) formation, hypertension (that’s why we use calcium channel blockers to lower blood pressure), and perhaps causing arrhythmias/fibrillation and or heart muscle cramping, or coronary artery spasm (a rather common, though rarely recognized trigger of ‘heart attack’).

The breasts too are uniquely susceptible to ectopic calcification, which is why we use the same x-rays to ascertain bone density that we do to discern pathological microcalcifications in the breast, i.e. x-ray mammography. Due to the fact that the hydroxylapatitate crystals found in malignant breast tissue may act as a cellular ‘signaling molecule’ or mitogen (inducing cell proliferation), it is possible that certain breast calcifications may be a cause, and not just an effect, of the tumorous lesions (“breast cancer”) found there. This may also help to explain why women with the highest bone density (often obtained through massive, lifelong calcium supplementation) have up to 300% higher incidence of malignant breast cancer.

“Brain gravel” is also an increasingly prevalent phenomenon, where autopsied patients have been found to have pebble-size calcium deposits distributed throughout their brains, including the pineal gland (‘the seat of the soul’). The wide range of existing calcium-associated pathologies, and their increasing prevalence in calcium-fixated cultures, demand further investigation and explanation.  One aspect of this, no doubt, is our obsessive cultural fixation on mega-dose calcium supplementation for non-existing “conditions” associated with bone mineral density that is normal-for-our-age, but not for our doctors and the “experts” who guide them with industry-friendly misinformation.

I believe this new research puts the nail in the coffin of any remaining doubt that we should stay as far away from inorganic calcium supplements as possible, as well as the empirically and intellectually bankrupt disease models being used to coerce women into taking them in the first place.

To learn more, read “How Too Much Calcium & Over-Medication Can Break Your Bones”

For a comprehensive list of Vegetables with high calcium levels, visit the NutritionData.com page on the topic.

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[1] BMJ 2010; 341 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c3691 (Published 29 July 2010)

[2] Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women’s Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2011;342:d2040. Epub 2011 Apr 19. PMID: 21505219

© February 16, 2018 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.

The post Stoned To Death: Calcium Supplements Proven To Kill Again appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.