Can coconut oil reduce the viral load of HIV-AIDS patients? "Initial trials have confirmed that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients", University of the Philippines' Emeritus professor of pharmocology Dr. Conrato S Dayrit said.

A minimum of 50 ml of coconut oil would contain 20 to 25 grams of lauric acid, which indicates that the oil is metabolized in the body to release monolaurin which is an antibiotic and an antiviral agent. Among the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has the maximum antiviral activity, he said. Based on this research, the first clinical trial using monolaurin as monotherapy on some of the HIV patients was conducted recently. Dr. Dayrit's conclusions after the study: "This initial trial confirmed the anecdotal reports that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients. The positive anti-viral action was seen not only with the monoglyceride of lauric acid but with coconut oil itself. This indicates that coconut oil is metabolized to monoglyceride forms of C-8, C-10, C- 12 to which it must owe its anti-pathogenic activity."

The entire results of Dr. Dayrit's study can be found here in PDF format.

On July 19, 1995, Dr. Mary Enig, noted biochemist and nutritionist, was quoted in an article published in The HINDU, India’s National Newspaper as stating that coconut oil is converted by the body into “Monolaurin” a fatty acid with anti-viral properties that might be useful in the treatment of AIDS. The staff reporter for The HINDU wrote about Enig’s presentation at a press conference in Kochi and wrote the following:

“There was an instance in the US in which an infant tested HIV positive had become HIV negative. That it was fed with an infant formula with a high coconut oil content gains significance in this context and at present an effort was on to find out how the 'viral load' of an HIV infected baby came down when fed a diet that helped in the generation of Monolaurin in the body.”

The reporter commented on Enig’s observations that “Monolaurin helped in inactivating other viruses such as measles, herpes, vesicular stomatitis and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and that research undertaken so far on coconut oil also indicated that it offered a certain measure of protection against cancer-inducing substances."

Enig stated in an article published in the Indian Coconut Journal, Sept., 1995 that Monolaurin, of which the precursor is lauric acid, disrupted the lipid membranes of envelope viruses and also inactivated bacteria, yeast and fungi. She wrote: “Of the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has greater antiviral activity than either caprylic acid (C-10) or myristic acid (C-14). The action attributed to Monolaurin is that of solubilizing the lipids ..in the envelope of the virus causing the disintegration of the virus envelope.”

Dr. Mary Enig has also written a book entitled "Nutrients and Foods in AIDS," and one of the chapters is published on her website here.

In a July 1997 newsletter entitled "Keep Hope Alive" an interview with Chris Dafoe was recorded. Chris Dafoe of Cloverdale, IN who, based on his lab numbers, thought the end was near in September, 1996. His HIV viral load was over 600,000, CD4 count was 10 and CD8 at 300. He prepaid his funeral and decided to take his last vacation in the jungles of South America with an Indian tribe in the Republic of Surinam. Around October 14, 1996, he began eating daily a dish of cooked coconut which was prepared by the local Indians. By Dec. 27th, 1996, a mere 2 and 1/2 months later, his viral load was at non-detectable levels and he had gained 32 lbs and was feeling great. He had some other people he knew with HIV try using coconuts in their diet, and they experienced the same results. The entire interview is recorded here.

Recently the PATA International-Potato and Products Aid Alliance To Africa committed to purchase and send several hundred container loads of Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil to Africa for distribution among HIV - AIDS sufferers. They state:

"AIDS is the modern day Black Plague. Millions have all ready died from this disease, leaving behind millions of orphans. Millions more will follow in death, unless a low cost way of controlling this illness is found quickly.

Several long term world studies sponsored by various health organizations have found that the high content of lauric acid in unrefined coconut oil can prolong the lives of AIDS patients by dissolving the covering of the virus itself. This same action has been found effective against other infectious, tropical based diseases as well."

If the results from the smaller studies duplicate themselves in the clinics in Africa, PATA intends to extend the distribution of Virgin Coconut oil in Africa.

http://www.coconut-info.com/aids.htm

From the front page of the Mail & Guardian (South Africa) Jan. 24, 2001

The AIDS Blunder by David Rasnick, PhD
Member of Thabo Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel (South Africa)

The contagious, HIV hypothesis of AIDS is the biggest scientific, medical blunder of the 20th Century. The evidence is
overwhelming that AIDS is not contagious, sexually transmitted, or caused by HIV. I have come to realize that embarrassment is the
main obstacle to exposing this simple fact.

So why are we barraged, almost daily, by an endless litany of AIDS horrors and HIV statistics? Why do virtually all doctors and
public health officials profess their unswerving allegiance to the unproven hypothesis that AIDS is contagious and sexually
transmitted when the evidence is greatly against it?

There are more than 100 thousand doctors and scientists who have built
their careers and reputations by simply accepting the articles of faith
about AIDS. At this late date, it is simple human embarrassment that is
the biggest obstacle to bringing the AIDS insanity to an end. It is the fear
of being so obviously and hopelessly wrong about AIDS that keeps lips sealed, the money flowing and AIDS rhetoric spiraling to
stratospheric heights of absurdity.

The physicians who know or suspect the truth are embarrassed or afraid
To admit that the HIV tests are absurd and should be outlawed, and that the
anti-HIV drugs are injuring and killing people. We are taught to fear
antibodies, and to believe that antibodies to HIV are a harbinger of disease and death ten years in the future. When you protest this
absurdity and point out to health care workers that antibodies are the very essence of anti-viral immunity your objections are met
with either contempt or
embarrassed silence.

The National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the
Medical Research Council of South Africa, and the World Health
Organization are terrorizing hundreds of millions of people around the world by their
reckless and absurd policy of equating sex with death. Self preservation
compels these institutions to not only maintain but to actually compound
their errors, which adds to the fear, suffering, and misery of the
world-the antithesis of their reason for being.

The only way we can free ourselves from the AIDS blunder and bring an
End to the tyranny of fear is to have an open international discourse and
debate on all things AIDS. Anger will be a natural response to facing
the enormity of the scandal of AIDS. Anger has its place but it should be
put aside quickly. It is a mistake to focus on villains and on whom to
punish. The AIDS blunder is a sociological phenomenon in which we all share a
measure of responsibility.

Ultimately, the AIDS blunder is not really about AIDS, nor even about health and disease, nor even about science and medicine. The
AIDS blunder is about the health of our democracies. A healthy democracy demands that it’s citizens keep a skeptical, even
suspicious, eye on its institutions in order to prevent them from becoming the autonomous, authoritarian regimes they are now.

The AIDS blunder shows that we need to rethink and restructure our
institutions of government, science, health, academe, journalism and media.
We must replace the National Institutes of Health as the primary gatekeeper of research funding with numerous competing sources
of funding. We must restructure the peer review processes of scientific publishing and funding so that they do not promote and
protect any particular dogma or fashion of thought or exclude competing ideas. A robust and mean investigative journalism must be
revived, rewarded and cherished.

Finally, as citizens we must take back the authority and responsibility
for our own health and well being and that of our democracies.