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AIDS/HIV and Coconut Oil
Can coconut oil reduce the viral load of HIV-AIDS patients? "Initial trials have confirmed that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients", University of the Philippines' Emeritus professor of pharmocology Dr. Conrato S. Dayrit said.
A minimum of 50 ml of coconut oil would contain 20 to 25 grams of lauric acid, which indicates that the oil is metabolized in the body to release monolaurin which is an antibiotic and an anti-viral agent. Among the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has the maximum anti-viral activity, he said. Based on this research, the first clinical trial using monolaurin as monotherapy on some of the HIV patients was conducted recently. Dr. Dayrit's conclusions after the study: "This initial trial confirmed the anecdotal reports that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients. The positive anti-viral action was seen not only with the monoglyceride of lauric acid but with coconut oil itself. This indicates that coconut oil is metabolized to monoglyceride forms of C-8, C-10, C- 12 to which it must owe its anti-pathogenic activity."
On July 19, 1995, Dr. Mary Enig, noted biochemist and nutritionist, was quoted in an article published in The HINDU, India's National Newspaper as stating that coconut oil is converted by the body into "Monolaurin" a fatty acid with anti-viral properties that might be useful in the treatment of AIDS. The staff reporter for The HINDU wrote about Enig's presentation at a press conference in Kochi and wrote the following:
"There was an instance in the US in which an infant tested HIV positive had become HIV negative. That it was fed with an infant formula with a high coconut oil content gains significance in this context and at present an effort was on to find out how the 'viral load' of an HIV infected baby came down when fed a diet that helped in the generation of Monolaurin in the body."
The reporter commented on Enig's observations that "Monolaurin helped in inactivating other viruses such as measles, herpes, vesicular stomatitis and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and that research undertaken so far on coconut oil also indicated that it offered a certain measure of protection against cancer-inducing substances."
Enig stated in an article published in the Indian Coconut Journal, Sept. 1995 that Monolaurin, of which the precursor is lauric acid, disrupted the lipid membranes of envelope viruses and also inactivated bacteria, yeast and fungi. She wrote: "Of the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has greater anti-viral activity than either caprylic acid (C-10) or myristic acid (C-14). The action attributed to Monolaurin is that of solubilizing the lipids ..in the envelope of the virus causing the disintegration of the virus envelope."
Dr. Mary Enig has also written a book entitled "Nutrients and Foods in AIDS,"
In a July 1997 newsletter entitled "Keep Hope Alive" an interview with Chris Dafoe was recorded. Chris Dafoe of Cloverdale, IN who, based on his lab numbers, thought the end was near in September, 1996. His HIV viral load was over 600,000, CD4 count was 10 and CD8 at 300. He prepaid his funeral and decided to take his last vacation in the jungles of South America with an Indian tribe in the Republic of Surinam. Around October 14, 1996, he began eating daily a dish of cooked coconut which was prepared by the local Indians. By Dec. 27th, 1996, a mere 2 and 1/2 months later, his viral load was at non-detectable levels and he had gained 32 lbs and was feeling great. He had some other people he knew with HIV try using coconuts in their diet, and they experienced the same results. The entire interview is recorded here.
Recently the PATA International-Potato and Products Aid Alliance To Africa committed to purchase and send several hundred container loads of Virgin Coconut Oil to Africa for distribution among HIV - AIDS sufferers. They state:
"AIDS is the modern day Black Plague. Millions have all ready died from this disease, leaving behind millions of orphans. Millions more will follow in death, unless a low cost way of controlling this illness is found quickly.
Several long term world studies sponsored by various health organizations have found that the high content of lauric acid in unrefined coconut oil can prolong the lives of AIDS patients by dissolving the covering of the virus itself. This same action has been found effective against other infectious, tropical based diseases as well."
If the results from the smaller studies duplicate themselves in the clinics in Africa, PATA intends to extend the distribution of Virgin Coconut oil in Africa.
Tropical Traditions unrefined Virgin Coconut oil can be ordered
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Expert' calls for more studies on 'coco oil's anti-AIDS' benefits
Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 02, 2004
The 1999 Local study that showed virgin coconut oil (VCO) could reduce, if not totally wipe out, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) needs a follow-up study to validate its results.
Dr. Conrado Dayrit, the man behind what is now called the "miracle oil," says the 1999 study was "just the beginning of an exhaustive work." He says the "follow-up study should involve at least 200 HIV-positive -patients, if possible up to 300 patients.
Dayrit is looking for young researchers to do the study because at 85, he says, he is already "too old" to take part in it.
14 HIV-positive patients
The initial study had involved 14 HIV positive patients of the San Lazaro Hospital in Sta. Cruz Manila. The research took six months and was conducted by Dayrit's group and medical staff of the state-run facility.
The study showed that the coconut chemical lauric acid could inhibit, delay and reduce the spread of HIV.
Dayrit says the viral loads of research subjects went down, while their CD4 cells-the human body's first lines of defense infection-went-went up.
He presented his group findings during the 37th Cocotech meeting in Chennai, India in 2000
Similar presentations followed here and abroad, and his findings have become a fixture in many VCO websites.
More concrete conclusions
The P5-Miliion research was funded by the non-government Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation (PCRDF) where Dayrit was then a trustee.
PCRDF technical supervisor Romulo Conde had described the test results as "promising" but was also quoted as having cautioned for a need for "more concrete conclusions...to...satisfy the world scientific community."
Dr. Roderick Poblete, head of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) secretariat, shares Conde's views.
PNAC is the lead agency in the country's fight against the killer disease.
Poblete says s study with a much bigger scope would "erase any doubts on the results of the initial tests."
Dayrit says VCO has become very popular among HIV-positive locals.
In the absence of a cure for HIV/AIDS, he says, "many patients have resorted to alternative medicines like coconut oil. Apparently dissatisfied with what their doctors had been giving them, the gave coconut oil a try."
The Philippine HIV/AIDS Research Agenda, a joint report of the National Economic Development Authority and the United Nations Development Program, noted that VCO was "developed using sound scientific research methods."
"VCO is not only affordable and readily available but also culturally acceptable, " the report said.
"Better late than never"
Dayrit's obsession with coconut oil seems to be paying off. For one he is getting a lot of attention from the local medical community.
"More doctors are acknowledging VCO's antiviral effects as well as its many other health benefits," says Dayrit
"Better late than never," he says, sounding really happy.
Nowadays, he receives many invitations to speak in hospitals.
Dayrit did his first lecture on VCO in 1983, 40 yeas after he started teaching pharmacology at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.
"Wanted: Funds"
Dayrit says the expanded study on the antiretroviral properties of VCO would cost several millions more compared to the initial one. And getting funding is the biggest obstacle they have to hurdle.
Dayrit says that while his son, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, is "fully behind me and my cause, his hands are tied."
He says the DOH, with its annual budget of P92.8 billion, has limited funds, which have been earmarked for various health programs, and not a single centavo of this was allocated for research.
Neither could the Department of Science and Technology, with a budget of P2.21 billion, bankroll his proposed project, Dayiit says.
The DOST-attached National Academy of Science and Technology, which Dayrit headed for nine consecutive years, is not a funding agency. He says its budget of P16 million a year is used mainly to cover honorariums of national scientists and academicians.
A DOH official had suggested tapping the controversial coconut levy fund, estimated at P140 billion.
Dayrit is thinking if cash cows like the Philippine Amusement And Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) could provide the funds.
By Jarry E. Esplanada
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