Can Coconut Oil On Skin Raise Cholesterol

Is kokosnoot oil good or bad for your cholesterol?

The latest then-called 'superfood' whose sales are rocketing considering of its health claims is coconut oil.

We spend around £xvi million a yr on it in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, some 70 times more than than just half-dozen years ago.

Perhaps the near surprising merits is that eating coconut oil can cut your run a risk of heart disease by reducing your cholesterol levels.

Kokosnoot oil is more 80% saturated fatty, which has long been associated with raising cholesterol levels.

And there are some reports suggesting that coconut oil does this, too, in line with expectations.

Nevertheless, other reports claim that coconut oil is skilful for your eye, because it reduces levels of the harmful form of cholesterol, LDL.

There are ii different types of cholesterol which have opposite health implications.

LDL cholesterol is so-called 'bad' cholesterol, linked with increased risk of eye disease and stroke.

HDL cholesterol is 'good' cholesterol, idea to be beneficial considering information technology carries away LDL from the blood stream.

Conventional scientific thinking would advise coconut oil is bad for health considering information technology is rich in saturated fat, and evidence suggests that saturated fat raises LDL levels.

Therefore, the health claims that coconut oil is good for your heart run counter to the body of scientific evidence. Nevertheless, it is at present marketed on a large scale, and its health effects in a British population are untested.

So is coconut oil skilful, or bad, for cholesterol? Trust Me I'm a Doctor wanted to find out.

We teamed up with Prof Kay-Tee Khaw and Prof Nita Forouhi from the University of Cambridge, to run a ground-breaking experiment.

Nosotros recruited well-nigh 100 volunteers, all over 50 years of historic period, to test what consequence eating coconut oil would take on their cholesterol, compared to other fats.

We split our volunteers into three groups, who each added one of three fats to their diets every solar day for 4 weeks:

Group ane had 50 grams of coconut oil a 24-hour interval, around two table spoons.

Grouping 2 had 50 grams of olive oil a day. This is an unsaturated fat already known to lower harmful 'bad' cholesterol.

Grouping 3 ate fifty grams of butter a 24-hour interval. Like coconut oil, butter is high in saturated fatty.

Before our volunteers started their regime, their baseline levels of both types of cholesterol in their blood — the 'bad' LDL and 'proficient' HDL – were measured. These measurements were repeated at the stop of the study.

For LDL cholesterol, associated with an increased chance of center disease:

For butter, study participants had an average increment in LDL cholesterol by 0.three millimoles per litre, representing a rise of around 10%. The increased gamble to heart health reverted dorsum again once the regime was stopped.

For olive oil, at that place was a very small-scale average reduction which was not statistically significant. This means at that place was essentially no deviation in LDL cholesterol with participants on the olive oil diet.

For kokosnoot oil, LDL cholesterol decreased by 0.09 millimoles per litre. This was also not statistically meaning, and then overall the results testify there was no increase in LDL cholesterol for the coconut oil group.

We also measured HDL, so-called 'practiced' cholesterol. Butter and olive oil both raised HDL past well-nigh 5%, merely coconut oil raised it by around fifteen%. So our results showed that coconut oil increased HDL ('practiced') cholesterol more than olive oil and butter.

Considering HDL helps remove LDL, the more expert cholesterol yous have compared to bad, the better for your health.

In our study, coconut oil did not raise 'bad' cholesterol, despite beingness high in saturated fatty. It also seemed to increase 'expert' cholesterol.

These results were surprising and not in line with expectations about the furnishings of consuming saturated fatty.

One explanation for the results is that coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, which may be processed in the torso differently from other saturated fatty acids. Within the form of saturated fats, evidence suggests in that location are probably 'practiced' and 'bad' saturated fats. Identifying beneficial saturated fats is an of import adjacent step in understanding the health implications of consuming saturated fat in foods such every bit coconut oil.

Farther studies are needed to notice out the longer term furnishings of kokosnoot oil, but our results suggest it is a comparatively healthy addition to the nutrition with respect to cholesterol.

This written report has been accepted for publication in the medical journal BMJ Open and the total version will be available shortly.