The Coconut Oil Miracle (18 page)

While the antimicrobial power of MCFAs in coconut oil has been experimentally tested in the laboratory, used in biology, and seen in everyday life, there is another side to the healing power of coconut oil when applied topically. This was shown to me by accident.

I experienced the healing power of coconut oil in an unusual way. I was unloading a carload of cement blocks. If you’ve ever worked with cement blocks you know they are heavy. When I went to set one down, I accidentally pinched a piece of the flesh of my hand between two of the blocks. The pain was intense but hardly life-threatening, so I continued on with the task. Immediately a dark red blood blister started to form. When I finished unloading the blocks, I washed my hands and applied some coconut oil, simply as a moisturizer, and thought nothing more of it.

A few hours later I looked at the blister, and it had shrunk from the size of a split pea to that of a pinhead. I was amazed. I’d never seen a blood blister fade away that quickly. Usually they take a week or two
to heal. Since I hadn’t done anything except put coconut oil on it, my first thought was perhaps the oil was somehow involved in the rapid healing. I immediately dismissed the idea as silly and ignored it. I knew coconut oil was good when eaten, but to speed the healing of an injury on the skin seemed too remarkable.

Later I began to see similar miracles in others who had used the oil topically. For example, one of my clients told me he had a flare-up with hemorrhoids that were causing him a great deal of pain and discomfort. He tried various creams, but they didn’t help. He had just purchased a jar of coconut oil and thought he might try that. So he began applying the oil to the affected area, and to his joy and amazement it relieved the irritation. By the next day the swelling was also gone.

In another case a man had been troubled with psoriasis on his face and chest essentially all his adult life. He tried every cream, ointment, and salve that came along and nothing worked. Every few days the condition would flare up, the skin would become dry and scaly, and sometimes it would get so bad it would crack and bleed. It affected his forehead, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, chin, and chest. As he got older the condition worsened to the point that inflammation and peeling became a constant nuisance. He’d gone to several doctors, and they told him there was nothing they could do to cure the problem and that he might get some temporary relief using a prescription cream. The cream provided only minor temporary relief. Because he didn’t get the help he sought from medical doctors, he turned to alternative therapies and began to focus on solving his problem through diet. He cut out convenience foods, reducing sugar and vegetable oil consumption. Eventually he replaced most of the oils in his diet with
coconut oil. The condition gradually improved but still didn’t go away. While the severity of the psoriasis was much reduced, the inflammation and scaling persisted. One day when the inflammation was flaring up he applied a little coconut oil to see what that would do. It worked! He did it again the next day and the next. Within just a few days the skin on his face, which had once been almost constantly dry and leathery, now became soft and smooth. No inflammation and no scaling. He says it’s the best his skin has looked in over 20 years!

One lady told me, “I like using coconut oil on my face. It keeps my skin moist without making it greasy.” She compared it to the medicated cream Retin-A that has been touted by some as a wonder drug. “I used to use Retin-A to prevent pimples,” she told me, “but since I’ve been using coconut oil I haven’t needed it. It works just as well as Retin-A.” Retin-A is a medicated cream prescribed by doctors to prevent acne and improve skin texture. While it provides some benefits, it also causes undesirable side effects, the worst of which is making the skin hypersensitive to sunlight, which increases the potential for sunburn and skin cancer. This is why it is only available by prescription from a medical doctor.

Coconut oil is the perfect medium for almost any herbal salve. One such salve, called GOOT (garlic oil ointment), consists of crushed raw garlic in coconut oil. It’s an ointment you can make yourself and is effective against skin infections. Mark Konlee, the editor of
Positive Health News,
says, “I have never ceased to be amazed at what this ointment can accomplish. Last fall, I met ‘Dan,’ a local resident, who told me he had a bad case of plantar warts and athlete’s
foot. When he showed me the soles of his feet, it was the worst-looking set of feet I have ever observed.”

Mark made some GOOT, put it in a small jar, and gave it to Dan. He told him to keep the bottle in the refrigerator (shelf life of about 30 days) and put a little on his feet every day. Two weeks later he met Dan again. “He took off his socks to show me what looked like a magical transformation—both the fungal infection and the plantar warts were completely gone. He had what looked like a brand new set of feet, totally normal in color and appearance,” Mark reported. “After about 10 days, the plantar warts just peeled off.”

Coconut oil makes an ideal natural, chemical-free sunscreen lotion. It is the only sunscreen I ever use. I discovered the protective effect of coconut oil accidentally. One summer I went outside to work in the yard. I didn’t use any sunscreen. I became so involved in what I was doing that I remained outside for about three hours. I could feel the sun cooking my skin but I was so intent on finishing the job I was doing that I ignored the warning and I knew I would probably get a sunburn. When I went inside and took a shower I didn’t realize how badly I was sunburned. As soon as the warm water hit my skin I cringed in pain. It was excruciating! When I got out of the shower I was desperate to find something to ease the pain. I noticed a jar of coconut oil near the sink. Thinking it might help moisturize my skin and perhaps ease some of the pain, I gently applied some of the oil to my sensitive skin. It felt good and within about a half hour the pain had almost gone away. I was totally amazed. But that’s not all of the story.

The following week I went out in the yard again to work. This
time, however, I thought,
Instead of applying the oil after I burn myself, I will apply it before I go outside.
I did, and I stayed outside in the hot sun for three or four hours. When I came inside, there was no pain and no evidence of sunburn. All I had was a very slight tan. This was remarkable! This has never happened to me before. I burn very easily and within just 20 minutes of full sun exposure I can end up with a nasty sunburn. My arms and face that were exposed to the sun were completely unharmed. However, there was one spot that was burned badly—the top of my head. My hair is very thin on top and even though I was wearing a hat, the sun’s rays penetrated through the many small holes in the hat and burned the top of my head. I never thought of applying coconut oil to my head because it was covered by my hat. Everywhere else on my body that was exposed to the sun and was covered in a thin layer of coconut oil was perfectly normal. Now I use coconut oil every time I go out into the sun, and it has protected me even when I’ve gone to hot, sunny climates.

Coconut oil helps protect the skin from the damaging rays of the sun while allowing the body to gradually adapt so it can withstand greater and greater amounts of exposure. Unlike sunscreen, coconut oil doesn’t necessarily block UV light but enables the body to adjust naturally to sun exposure, naturally increasing the body’s tolerance level over time. For this reason, I recommend that people start by applying coconut oil on their skin and over a period of several days or weeks to gradually increase their time of exposure to the sun, rather than go out and immediately spend six hours in the sun. Because of different skin types, everybody’s level of tolerance is different, so each person needs to experiment, getting a little more sun each day until he or she reaches a level of exposure that feels comfortable.
Traditionally the Polynesians wore very little clothing and exposed themselves to the hot tropical sun nearly all day long. This was especially true when they traveled long distances over open oceans for days or weeks at a time. Coconut oil supplied them with the protection they needed. For this reason, coconut oil was a common ingredient in many of the first commercially produced sunscreen and suntan lotions. Unfortunately, coconut oil has since been replaced by chemicals in these products.

Why is coconut oil able to stimulate healing and repair? I think it is, in part, because of the metabolic effect MCFAs have on the cells. Cellular activity, including healing of injuries, is regulated by the metabolism. When metabolic rate is high, cellular activity is accelerated, and processes such as healing damaged tissues, removing toxins, fighting germs, replacing damaged or diseased cells with healthy new ones, etc., are all performed at a heightened rate of activity. Therefore, the healing process is accelerated; MCFAs provide a quick source of energy to the cells, boosting their metabolic level and healing capacity.

One of the things that has impressed me most about the topical use of coconut oil is its ability to reduce inflammation. I’ve seen it relieve chronic skin inflammation within days. At first this effect was a surprise to me, for at the time I had not found any reference in the scientific literature to coconut oil’s effect on inflammation. With further searching I did locate a study that demonstrated that coconut oil does indeed have an anti-inflammatory effect. In a study reported by Dr. S. Sadeghi and others, coconut oil reduced proinflammatory chemicals in the body. The researchers suggested that coconut oil might be useful in therapies involving a number of acute and chronic
inflammatory diseases. This would help explain my observation that psoriasis and other inflammatory skin conditions seem to improve with the application of coconut oil. I have found, however, that it doesn’t work in all cases. If inflammation is severe, coconut oil alone isn’t enough to eliminate it. But for mild cases it has worked well.

It is interesting to note that when it is taken internally, the healing characteristics coconut oil exhibits on the skin are also in effect inside the body. Conditions associated with inflammation (especially within the gastrointestinal tract), such as colitis, ulcers, hepatitis, and hemorrhoids, may be relieved by this natural, harmless oil. It may also help relieve inflammation in other parts of the body, as has been seen in multiple sclerosis, arthritis, lupus, and the inflammation in the arteries (phlebitis) that can lead to hardening of the arteries and heart disease.

Some of these inflammatory conditions are caused by infections from microorganisms. Most ulcers are caused by bacteria. Inflamed arteries and heart disease can be caused by viruses and bacteria. Hepatitis is usually caused by viral infections in the liver. Coconut oil’s antimicrobial effects can eliminate the offending organisms and relieve the inflammation and pain they cause.

It appears that coconut oil, whether used inside or outside the body, provides numerous health benefits. Coconut is truly one of nature’s miracle foods. It is no wonder that the early European explorers who visited the Pacific Islands were greatly impressed by the natives’ excellent health and physical condition.

Let me take you to the jungles
of northern Brazil, far from civilization. Imagine yourself as a modern-day explorer venturing into the Amazon rain forest, fighting pesky mosquitoes and wading through knee-deep swamps. One morning you wake up sweating like an ice cube in the hot July sun. A fever rages out of control, interspersed with brief periods of icy chills. Every muscle in your body feels like it’s twisted into knots; the strain has sapped your strength, and you lie exhausted, almost too weak to move. With no modern medicine or doctors to help, you seek assistance from the natives. Your health, perhaps even your life, depends on the skill of the tribal medicine man. His treatment consists of a porridge made from
coconut. You’re fed this meal every day. Under the watchful care of the medicine man, you gradually regain your strength, and soon you’re well enough to go on your way.

This story is not beyond belief. The natives of South and Central America regard coconut as both a food and a medicine. It helps to keep them healthy in a climate infested with malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical diseases. If you go along the coasts of Somalia and Ethiopia in Africa, the locals will give you palm kernel oil if you are sick—a traditional remedy used for almost all ills. Whether you are on an island in the Caribbean, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean, or the coast of Southeast Asia or southern India, it is likely that the native people would give you coconut in some form as part of your treatment. Wherever the coconut palm grows, the people have learned of its value as a source of food and as a medicine. This is why it is hailed as the Tree of Life.