Frank, who I will call for the purposes of privacy, is an 80-something-year-old senior, who lives in our neighborhood. During the pandemic our families became close, sharing our joys and frustrations, challenges and solutions. Part of our conversations centered around my knowledge as a scientist and my improved health after months of Long COVID. They wanted to understand how I was managing my recovery.
Their whole family also had COVID in the first year of the pandemic and had been left with Long COVID-like health issues. Specific to Frank, who had had mild dementia prior to COVID, the COVID-associated brain fog seemed to make his cognitive state worse. He had also been completely dependent on hearing aids for several years prior to COVID. With his poor hearing, early-phase dementia and the apparent Long COVID brain fog, he was slipping deeper and deeper into isolation and depression.
Seeing improvements in my energy level and cognitive state as I modified my diet, Frank’s family adopted a Mediterranean style diet. They also added medium chain triglycerides (MCT) in the form of organic liquid coconut oil. Addition of MCT oil was a change that I had made to my diet based on research that shows that MCTs are converted to ketone bodies and become a readily available fuel source for mitochondria. For me, providing a ready source of fuel for mitochondria made sense in the context of supporting repair and replication (biogenesis) of these vital organelles that are reportedly damaged by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Several weeks after starting the new diet with the addition of MCT oil, a member of Frank’s family shared a curious observation: Frank was apparently able to have conversations without the use of his hearing aids. His cognitive state also had reportedly improved. What seemed at the time like a possible fluke, a passing happenstance, Frank’s hearing and cognitive state have continued to improve as he approaches his 87th birthday. He is again engaging with friends and family and has returned to activities that he had previously abandoned.
My own personal observation of the effects of MCTs have been that it provided meaningful benefit, helping to relieve my Long COVID fatigue and supporting cognition. However, this is within the context of a diet rich in nutrients and leafy green vegetables and one where I avoid foods, including those high in vegetable lectins, to which I became sensitive during my bout with COVID.
As I searched and found research papers related to MCT oil consumption and supplementation, something caught my eye. There were several articles reporting the benefits of MCT supplementation for patients with Alzheimer’s. The mechanism that stands behind this benefit is that the brains of Alzheimer’s patients do not metabolize glucose as efficiently as the brains of non-Alzheimer’s individuals. In contrast to glucose as a fuel for brain cell mitochondria, MCTs provide and efficient source of fuel that is converted to ketone bodies to make energy (ATP). The evidence strongly suggests that long-term use of MCTs in the diets of early and mid-stage Alzheimer’s patients led to stabilization or even improvement of their cognitive state. (Please see below for links to peer reviewed articles that address this topic.)
The role and benefit of MCTs in relationship to COVID, Long COVID, brain and nervous system health are areas of research that need immediate attention. Fortunately, MCT oil is considered a safe food to consume. Beyond the immediate need for COVID related research, it is perplexing that many primary care providers are not aware of the value of this useful food in protecting the health of their patients. How sad to consider the darkness of Alzheimer’s closing the mind when a change in diet may protect the brain.
Frank’s ongoing recuperation and regaining of his hearing may be an anomaly or a testament to the benefits of something as simple as MCT oil along with a nutritious, non-inflammatory diet; these are some of the elements that may be helping mitochondria in his brain to successfully engage in biogenesis, leading to regeneration of nervous system tissues. Based on supporting data and my own personal experience, I lean to the latter conclusion. Whatever the cause may be, we are glad to have him back.
Approximately a third of the readers of this series of blog posts are scientists, physicians and allied health care professionals. I urge you to review the relevant links on the topic of MCTs and brain health.
‘That’s Just Part of Aging’: Long Covid Symptoms Are Often Overlooked in Seniors
Mitochondrial dysfunction in cell senescence and aging
Coconut oil as a therapeutic treatment for Alzheimer’s disease: a review
Medium Chain Triglycerides enhances exercise endurance through the increased mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolism
Medium-Chain Triglyceride Oil and Blood Lipids: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trial
Review of the Toxicologic Properties of Medium-chain Triglycerides
Ketones: Metabolism’s Ugly Duckling
Feeding mitochondria: Potential role of nutritional components to improve critical illness convalescence
My perspective on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in Long COVID with links to supporting research: Mitochondria Get Center Stage.
I love stories like this. I am going to explore this topic more to see if MCT will help my dad with his chemo brain which I've seen described as being similar to chronic fatigue brain fog.
A question for you: is it the additional supplementation of MCT or the reduction or elimination of LCT that is seen to be beneficial? Also, do you think that MCT are the driving force behind an anti-inflammatory diet?