Scientists have recently discovered a powerful new weapon against heart disease. As surprising as it may seem, this new weapon is coconut oil. Yes, ordinary coconut oil. Eating coconut oil on a regular basis can reduce your chances of suffering a heart attack!
Coconut oil is composed of a group of unique fat molecules known as medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA). Although they are technically classified as saturated fats, this fat can actually protect you from getting a heart attack or suffering a stroke.
Although coconut oil is predominately a saturated fat, it does not have a negative effect on cholesterol. Natural, nonhydrogenated coconut oil tends to increase HDL cholesterol and improve the cholesterol profile. HDL is the good cholesterol that helps protect against heart disease. Total blood cholesterol, which includes both HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol, is a very inaccurate indicator of heart disease risk. A much more accurate way to judge heart disease risk is to separate the two types of cholesterol. Therefore, the ratio of the bad to good cholesterol (LDL/HDL) is universally recognized as a far more accurate indicator of heart disease risk. Because of coconut oil’s tendency to increase HDL, the cholesterol ratio improves and thus decreases risk of heart disease.
People who traditionally consume large quantities of coconut oil as part of their ordinary diet have a very low incidence of heart disease and have normal blood cholesterol levels. This has been well supported by numerous population studies. The research shows that those people who consume large quantities of coconut oil have remarkably good cardiovascular health.
At first, this observation confused many researchers. They did not recognize the difference between the MCFA in coconut oil and other saturated fats. New research, however, has demonstrated that medium-chain fats in coconut oil protect against heart disease and may one day even be used as a treatment to cure it.
Studies in the 1970s and 1980s indicated that coconut oil is heart friendly even though saturated fat at the time was being accused of promoting heart disease. Coconut oil consumption was found to have many factors associated with a reduced risk of heart disease compared to other dietary oils namely, improved cholesterol readings, lower body fat deposition, higher survival rate, reduced tendency to form blood clots, fewer uncontrolled free radicals in cells, low levels of blood and liver cholesterol, higher antioxidant reserves in cells, and lower incidence of heart disease in population studies.
From this evidence alone coconut oil should be viewed as heart healthy or at least benign as far as heart disease is concerned. But there is another factor, that is even more important, that reveals coconut oil as not simply a benign bystander but a very important player in the battle against heart disease. So remarkable is it, that it may soon become a powerful new weapon used against heart disease.
Heart disease is caused by atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) which is manifest by the formation of plaque in the arteries. According to current thought atherosclerosis initially develops as a result of injury to the inner lining of the arterial wall. The injury can be the result of a number of factors such as toxins, free radicals, viruses, or bacteria. If the cause of the injury is not removed further damage may result. As long as irritation and inflammation persist scar tissue continues to develop.
Special blood clotting proteins called platelets circulate freely in the blood. Whenever they encounter an injury they become sticky and adhere to each other and to the damaged tissue acting somewhat like a bandage to facilitate healing. This is how blood clots are formed. Injury from any source triggers platelets to clump together or clot and arterial cells to release protein growth factors that stimulate growth of the muscle cells within the artery walls. A complex mixture of scar tissue, platelets, calcium, cholesterol, and triglycerides are incorporated into the site to heal the injury. This mass of tissue forms arterial plaque. When this process occurs in the coronary artery, which feeds the heart, it is referred to as coronary heart disease-the most common cause of death in the United States.
One area of investigation that is gaining a great deal of interest is the relationship between chronic infection and atherosclerosis. It appears that there is a cause and effect relationship associated with persistent low-grade infections and heart disease. Recent research has shown that certain microorganisms can cause or at least are involved in the development of arterial plaque, which leads to heart disease.
