Coconut Oil –Health Benefits

“While most individuals use the flesh of the coconut in their cooking, coconut water and oil are also known to have numerous health benefits.”

Amazing Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is a whole host of health benefits, which include but are not limited to hair care, skin care, improving digestion and immunity against a host of infections and diseases. The oil is used not just in tropical countries, where coconut plantations are abundant, but also in the counties like United States and the United Kingdom. Extensive research is going on the wonders coconut oil can create and it is again gaining popularity throughout the world.

Hair care: Coconut oil helps in healthy growth of hair and gives your hair a shiny condition. It is also highly effective in reducing protein loss, which can lead to various unattractive or unhealthy qualities to the hair. It is used as hair care oil and is used in manufacturing various conditioners and dandruff relief creams. It is normally applied topically for hair care.

Hair benefits with Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is widely used in the Indian sub-continent for hair care. It is an excellent conditioner and helps the re-growth process of damaged hair. It also provides the essential proteins required for nourishing and healing damaged hair. Research indicates that coconut oil provides better protection to hair from damage caused by hygral fatigue. By regularly massaging your head with coconut oil, you can ensure that your scalp is free of dandruff, even if your scalp is chronically dry.

Hygral Fatigue: Hygral fatigue is the damage that occurs to the hair fiber from the repeated process of expansion (when the hair is wet) and contraction (when the hair dries). Whenever we wet our hair, the hair shaft must expand to accommodate all the water and goodies from the products we are applying to our hair. Our hair also has to shrink (contract) back to its normal size, but during this process, the hair can split and break. The constant expansion and contraction of the hair can eventually cause damage to the hair fiber, weakening the hair cuticle and cortex.

Heart diseases: 

Heart Health with Coconut Oil

There is a misconception among many people that coconut oil is not good for heart health. This is because it contains a large quantity of saturated fats. In reality, it is beneficial for the heart. It contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in actively preventing various heart problems like high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. Coconut oil does not lead to increase in LDL levels, and it reduces the incidence of injury and damage to arteries and therefore helps in preventing atherosclerosis. Research suggests that intake of coconut oil may help to maintain healthy lipid profiles in pre-menopausal women.

Weight loss: Coconut oil is very beneficial for weight loss. It contains short and medium-chain fatty acids that helps in weight loss. Research suggests that coconut oil helps to reduce abdominal obesity in women. It is also easy to digest and it helps in healthy functioning of the endocrine system and thyroid. Further, it increases the body’s metabolic rate by removing stress on the pancreas, thereby burning more energy and helping overweight people lose the weight. Hence, people living in tropical coastal areas, who use coconut oil every day as their primary cooking oil, are normally not fat, obese or overweight.

Weight Loss with Coconut Oil

Skin care: Coconut oil is a first- rate massage oil that acts as an effective moisturizer on all types of skin, including dry skin. Unlike mineral oil, there is no chance of having any adverse side effects on the skin from the application of coconut oil. Therefore, it is a safe solution for preventing dryness and flaking of skin. It also delays the appearance of wrinkles and sagging of skin, which normally accompany aging.

Because of its well known antioxidant properties it helps in preventing premature ageing. It also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin infections. For these reasons, coconut oil forms the base ingredient of various body care products like soaps, lotions, and creams that are used for skin care.

Immunity: Coconut oil strengthens the immune system as it contains antimicrobial lipids, lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, which have antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which research has supported as an effective way to deal with viruses and bacteria that cause diseases like herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. Coconut oil helps in fighting harmful bacteria like listeria monocytogenes and helicobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia.

Digestion: The wonder coconut oil brings internally occurs primarily due to it being used as cooking oil. It helps to improve the digestive system and thus prevents various stomach and digestive problems including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The saturated fats (87 grams per 100 grams of coconut oil) present in coconut oil have antimicrobial properties and help in dealing with various bacteria, fungi, and parasites that cause indigestion. It also helps in the absorption of other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

Candida: Candida, also known as Systemic Candidiasis, is a catastrophic disease caused from excessive and uncontrolled growth of yeast called Candida Albicans in the stomach. Coconut oil provides relief from the inflammation caused by candida, both externally and internally. Its high moisture retaining capacity keeps the skin from cracking or peeling off. Capric acid, Caprylic acid, caproic acid, myristic acid and lauric acid found in coconut oil help in eliminating Candida albicans.

Coconut oil is strongly recommended for a number of other benefits that are explained below. Using coconut oils has been shown to gently help the following:

Pancreatitis: Coconut oil is also believed to be useful in treating pancreatitis.

Kidney: It helps in preventing kidney and gall bladder diseases. It also helps to dissolve kidney stones.

Stress relief: Coconut oil is very soothing and hence it helps in removing stress. Applying it to the head, followed by a gentle massage, helps to eliminate psychological fatigue. According to research virgin coconut oil gives relief from stress and has antioxidant properties.

Liver: The presence of medium chain triglycerides and fatty acids helps in preventing liver diseases because those substances are easily converted into energy when they reach the liver, thus reducing fat accumulation.

Diabetes: Coconut oil helps in controlling blood sugar, and improves the secretion of insulin.

Bones: As mentioned earlier, coconut oil improves the ability of our body to absorb important vitamins and minerals. These include Calcium and Magnesium which are necessary for the development of bones. Thus, it is very useful to women who are prone to osteoporosis after middle age.

Dental care: Calcium is an integral component of our teeth. Since coconut oil facilitates absorption of calcium by the body, it helps in developing strong teeth. It also stops tooth decay. Recent research suggests that coconut oil is beneficial in reducing Plaque formation and plaque induced gingivitis.

HIV and Cancer: It is believed that coconut oil plays an influential role in reducing a person’s viral susceptibility for HIV and Cancer patients. Basic research has shown an indication of this effect of coconut oil on reducing the viral load of HIV patients.

Coconut oil is often used by body builders, athletes, and by those who are on diet. The reason behind this being that it contains less calories than other oils, its fat content is easily converted into energy, and it does not lead to accumulation of fat in the heart and arteries, preventing atherosclerosis. Coconut oil helps boost energy and stamina, and generally enhances the performance of athletes.

 

Composition of Coconut Oil:

1. Lauric acid: It is the chief component, constituting more than 40% of the total, followed by capric acid, caprylic acid, myristic acid and palmitic. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin. Lauric acid is helpful in dealing with viruses and diseases.
2. Capric acid: It reacts with certain enzymes secreted by other bacteria, which subsequently convert it into a powerful antimicrobial agent, monocaprin.
3. Caprylic acid, caproic acid and myristic acid: They are rich in antimicrobial and antifungal properties
4. Unsaturated fatty acids: Polyunsaturated fatty acids- linoleic acid, monounsaturated fatty acids- Oleic acid
5. Poly-phenols: Coconut contains Gallic acid, which is also known as phenolic acid. These polyphenols are responsible for the fragrance and the taste of coconut oil and Virgin Coconut Oil is rich in these polyphenols.
6. Derivatives of fatty acid: Betaines, ethanolamide, ethoxylates, fatty esters, fatty polysorbates, monoglycerides and polyol esters.
7. Derivatives of fatty alcohols: Fatty chlorides, fatty alcohol sulphate and fatty alcohol ether sulphate.
8. Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamins E & K and minerals such as iron are present in coconut oil.

Buying Coconut Oil

There are primarily 6 varieties of coconut oil: pure, refined, virgin, organic, fractionated and extra virgin. When you want to buy coconut oil, first of all, you need to decide why you need it and where you are going to use it. Your choice should be based on your need, like whether you want it for edible purposes or as a carrier oil to be used in aromatherapy, for massaging, for weight loss, or for medicinal purposes. Below is a list of such purposes and the type of coconut oil to buy.

  

Purpose	Preferable Type of Coconut Oil to Buy
Cooking	Refined
Weight Loss	Virgin
As a Carrier Oil	Virgin, Fractionated
Massaging	Pure, Refined
Medicinal uses	Virgin, Virgin Organic
Good Health	Virgin, Organic

Furthermore, before you buy coconut oil, you should keep in mind that for edible and therapeutic uses, refined oil is the best as it is hygienic and clean. Unrefined oil is good for external applications like hair care and skin care.