Coconut oil
Coconut oil (and MCT oil) and ALS
ALSUntangled conclusions
"Coconut oil has plausible mechanisms for use in ALS involving raising ketone bodies and lipid levels. Ketogenic and high fat diets may have helped slow motor neuron loss in small ALS animal studies with many flaws. Two online PALS have reported subjective improvements in muscle strength while taking coconut oil, while four others have not. One of these two is anonymous and described on a website promoting a book about coconut oil, and the other apparently has a very atypical slowly progressive form of ALS and takes at least one other supplement. Coconut oil at doses of 1–4 tablespoons per day appears generally well tolerated but it is not entirely clear how well these doses raise blood ketone levels. Although several large respected groups have warned against coconut oil intake in large amounts, the rationale behind these warnings has recently been called into question. Given all this, ALSUntangled supports further careful study of coconut oil or other methods of raising ketone bodies in patients with ALS. A reasonable next step would be a small case series of well-characterized PALS using coconut oil or other methods to raise blood ketone levels into the range found to be effective in epilepsy and possibly Alzheimer's, compared to a well-matched historical control group on objectively verifiable outcome measures.[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/17482968.2012.671629 The ALSUntangled Group (2012) ALSUntangled 15: Coconut Oil, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, 13:3, 328-330, DOI: 10.3109/17482968.2012.671629]
