LAGOS – Dr Olufunke Dosumu, a Neuroanatomist, has urged memory-impaired persons to drink coconut oil daily for healthier functioning of the neurons of the brain.
Dosumu, a member of the Lagos Neuroscience Group (LNG), gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
She said that coconut oil contained medium and short chain fatty acid which provided assistance in the production of energy for enhanced brain function.
“The first thing to know is that coconut oil has medium chain and short chain fatty acid.
“Then the good thing about this fatty acid is that they are easily converted to ketones; they are readily available for use.
“Many at times because they are readily available for use, they are able to assist in the production of energy to do their function.
“So in essence, if you have cells that are not metabolising energy the way they are supposed to for one reason or the other because ketones does not go through all the long chain processes metabolism.
`They are just readily available for use for these cells. That is how they end up helping such neuron.
“So through that means, they are able to help these cells.
“Each neuron has mitochondria to boost energy. If you look at the mitochondria, how it generates energy, the cycle itself, there are stages to it.
“There’s a particular stage you call the first stage. Now if you have a problem at that stage, there will not even be progression through the other stages not to talk of through being able to generate energy.
“So when you make ketones available, they are able to help, jump-start even at that second stage and then you can have energy available to these neurons to perform their function.
“So it is good for them (memory-impaired persons) to know that coconut oil can readily be converted to ketones, which is energy that is readily available for the brain to use.’’
A neuroanatomist is an expert in the study of the anatomy and stereotyped organization of nervous systems.
The first known written record of a study of the anatomy of the human brain is the ancient Egyptian document the Edwin Smith Papyrus. The next major development in neuroanatomy came from the Greek Alcmaeon, who determined that the brain and not the heart ruled the body and that the senses were dependent on the brain.
Dosumu said that coconut oil was good for everybody, even children, adding: “If you give children too it will go a long way toward preventing anything that can be infectious to the body.’’
Dosumu, therefore, advised parents to always apply coconut oil to children’s skin.
