Alzheimer’s disease: Attention senior citizens

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects an estimated 20 million people worldwide and is the third leading cause of death for persons over 65 years old. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 10 percent of all people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease, and as many as 50 percent of people over 85 have it. There is as yet no known cure for AD and its incidence is increasing exponentially.

For years, a close friend has been constantly extolling the virtues of coconut oil as a cure for pimple, hemorrhoids, allergies and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Most of us didn’t take her seriously because she was related to the coconut industry. A few days ago, a classmate forwarded to me the following received from another individual:

“In the United States, an estimated 5.4 million people have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This figure is growing rapidly with the ageing population. One of them was Steve Newport. His wife, Mary Newport, was a doctor.

When the doctor examined her husband at the hospital, he asked Steve to paint a clock. Instead, he drew a few circles and then drew a few figures without any logic. It was not like a clock at all! The doctor pulled her aside and said: “Your husband is already on the verge of severe Alzheimer’s disease!”

It turned out that it was a test of whether a person had Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Mary was very upset at that time, but as a doctor, she would not just give up. She began to study the disease. She found out Alzheimer’s disease was associated to glucose deficiency to the brain.

Her research says: “The dementia of the elderly is like having diabetes in the head! Before one has the symptoms of diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease, the body has already had problems for 10 to 20 years. According to Dr. Mary’s study, AD is very similar to Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. The cause is also insulin imbalance.  Because insulin has a problem, it prevents the brain cells from absorbing glucose. Glucose is the nutrition of brain cells. Without glucose, brain cells die.

The next question is, where to find glucose? It cannot be the ready-made glucose that we buy from the store. It is not from fruits such as grapes. She started looking for alternatives. The alternative nutrients for brain cells are ketones. Ketones are necessary in brain cells. Ketones cannot be found in vitamins.

Dr. Mary found that “virgin coconut oil” (VCO) contains a high concentration of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), which after consumption, is metabolized into ketones in the liver. This is the alternative nutrient for brain cells!

After this scientific verification, Dr. Mary added VCO to her husband’s food. After only two weeks, when he went to the hospital again to do painting and clock tests, the progress was amazing.

Dr. Mary said: “At that time, I thought, has God heard my prayers? Wouldn’t it be coconut oil that worked? But there is no other way. Anyway, it’s better to continue taking coconut oil”.

Three weeks later, the third time she took him to do a smart clock test, the performance was better than the last time. This progress was not only intellectual, but also emotional and physical.

Dr. Mary said: “He could not do his running, but now he can run. He could not read for a year and a half, but he can read again now after taking coconut oil for three months.”

Her husband’s actions had already begun to change. He did not speak in the mornings. Now she noticed a lot of changes: “Now after he gets up, he is spirited, talking and laughing. He drinks water himself and take utensils for himself on his own.”

Dr. Mary continues to be an advocate of ketone rich diet in which VCO features. This diet has gained a huge following over the years as a key part of nondrug interventions to AD, such as physical activity, diet, and cognitive training. Evidence has largely been anecdotal because scientific research is still lagging.

That said, I don’t believe this is fake news. I will give it a try if anything for its proven nutritional value. VCO, extracted through cold-pressing coconut meat has the high nutritional value which is removed when coconut oil is refined.

 Plastics: Major source of pollution

About 22 years ago, I hosted a conference for then president which had top CEOS from around the world. One of the most outstanding presentations was given by a Filipino multinational executive on what was then a revolutionary way of retail marketing in low income countries: the introduction of a single use, throw away plastic retail packs. The Filipino was recognized and rewarded by his company and held in high regarded globally by those in consumer marketing. Personally, I thought it was brilliant.

Ironically, this sachet has become the bane of the 21st century.  In June 2018, data gathered by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and Mother Earth Foundation in the past 12 months showed that single-use plastic packaging from six multinational companies (MNCs) comprise almost three-fourths of all collected residual waste, or waste that can neither be composted nor recycled.

The audit also indicated that top corporations producing plastic residual waste earned a total of $22 billion, while cities surveyed spent $73 million in waste management.

“On land and in oceans, these companies are choking the environment with their problematic packaging. It’s time we hold these companies accountable. They cannot continue raking in money and then passing on the responsibility and costs of cleaning their mess to cities and Filipino taxpayers,” said Froilan Grate, regional coordinator of GAIA Asia Pacific and president of Mother Earth Foundation.

In fairness to MNCs, they have announced plans to resolve this problem by developing alternative methods of delivering products to consumers, including biodegrable packaging.

Some critics, however, say MNCs are too slow considering that this issue has already been identified for years.