Why we are using the MCT oil/Coconut oil mixture

Rose asked me if we are using Axona and why or why not. We don't use Axona. It costs $100 per month for just one dose a day, is a prescription and Steve is doing well with what we are doing. I have read about some people who feel that the effect of the single dose of Axona wears off after a few hours and they have continued to use MCT oil and/or coconut oil later in the day. I have read that the people who make Axona say they only recommend one dose a day because they only studied one dose a day. We are using MCT oil because Steve's ketone levels were higher with MCT oil than coconut oil, but were also gone twice as fast (by three hours). We kept the coconut oil because the levels last longer (at least 6-7 hours). I figure that by mixing the two he will get the benefit of the higher levels from the MCT oil and the longer lasting levels of the coconut oil. Also, there are several other properties of coconut oil that may be helpful, such as the anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal properties of capric and lauric acid, 2 of the medium chain triglycerides that are not found in Axona. There is some research by Dr. Ruth Itzhaki and others showing that, in certain people, the herpes simplex type I virus that causes fever blisters/cold sores is present in the plaques in the Alzheimer's brain. These two fatty acids kill this type of virus. Steve has a history of frequent and fairly severe fever blisters on his mouth and since we started using coconut oil has had only two very tiny blisters in the past year. The virus lives in the nerve and the nerves to the mouth start deep in the brain near the region affected by Alzheimer's. It seems logical to me that if an outbreak can occur on the lip it could also occur in the brain elsewhere along the path of the nerve. Coconut oil can also help one absorb certain vitamins and other nutrients better from the intestine. Some of the components of coconut oil support the growth of the normal bacteria that are supposed to be in the bowel.

Most of the time now Steve is getting just over 2 tablespoons of a mixture of MCT oil and coconut oil, three times a day, but we also use coconut oil to cook in and sometimes use coconut milk or grated coconut, and depending on how much is in the food, I may subtract a little from the mixture that he takes at that meal. This is not cut in stone. It is just what we arrived at after a lot of experimentation. We found out what the limits of his tolerance were for the oils and when we reached the point that he was having some diarrhea we cut back. Many people cannot handle as much of this as Steve can, so each person will to find their own limit. We push it to the limit to try to maximize how much ketone he will receive - the more medium chain triglyceride in his diet, the more ketones he should have available for his brain. That is how I look at it.