Overview
🎧 Podcast: Fitness Confidential Podcast | 👨⚕️ Expert: Dr. Mary Newport
🎯 Topic: Coconut Oil and Brain Health
⏱️ Key Takeaway: Coconut oil provides ketones that can fuel the brain and potentially help with Alzheimer’s disease
Introduction
- Host: Vinnie Tortorich
- Guest: Dr. Mary Newport, a neonatologist known for her work with ketogenic diets and Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Newport’s Background and Story
- Career: Spent 30 years in newborn intensive care.
- Husband’s Health: Her husband, Steve, developed early-onset Alzheimer’s at 51. His initial symptoms were memory lapses, progressing to severe cognitive and physical decline.
Discovery of Ketones
- Turning Point: After Steve failed to qualify for a clinical trial due to low cognitive scores, Dr. Newport discovered a study linking medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) from coconut oil with cognitive improvement in Alzheimer’s patients.
- Implementation: She introduced coconut oil into Steve’s diet, seeing dramatic improvements in his cognitive function in just days, including mood, physical coordination, and memory.
Ketogenic Diet and Alzheimer’s
- Mechanism: Explained Alzheimer’s as a type of “diabetes of the brain” where glucose metabolism is impaired, and ketones can provide an alternative fuel source.
- Steve’s Experience:
- Before: Could not draw a simple clock, indicative of severe cognitive impairment.
- After: Showed significant improvement in clock drawing and overall cognitive function after starting coconut oil.
Research and Advocacy
- Further Studies: Discussed ongoing research on ketogenic diets, including work by Dominic D’Agostino and Stephen Cunnane, focusing on ketone salts and esters.
- Benefits: Noted potential benefits of ketones for other conditions like epilepsy, cancer, heart, and kidney diseases.
Practical Advice
- Coconut Oil: Advocated for using unrefined organic coconut oil over MCT oil due to additional health benefits.
- Ketone Supplements: Mentioned brands like Prüvit, Real Ketones, and KetoStart for ketone salts, and KetoneAid for esters, but emphasized starting with natural sources like coconut oil.
Dr. Newport’s Book
- Title: “Clearly Keto for Healthy Brain Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention”
- Content: Covers the ketogenic diet’s role in brain health, with chapters on insulin resistance, brain energy gaps, and other lifestyle factors influencing cognitive health.
Personal Impact and Loss
- Steve’s Later Life: Despite initial improvements, Steve suffered a severe seizure due to an unrelated incident, leading to further deterioration and eventual death in 2016 from Alzheimer’s.
- Reflections: Dr. Newport shared how these experiences led her to hospice work, where she continued helping others with dementia.
Closing Remarks
- Advocacy: Encourages exploring ketogenic strategies for health maintenance or disease management, emphasizing the need for more research and acceptance in the medical community.
- Consultation: Vinnie mentions his consultation services for those interested in diet and health.
This episode highlights Dr. Newport’s journey from a personal health crisis to becoming a proponent of ketogenic diets for neurodegenerative diseases, offering both personal anecdotes and scientific insights.