The Philippines and Singapore are Testing Coconut Oil as a Natural and Safe Antiviral Agent Against Coronavirus

It takes an emergency to get anyone interested in testing natural cures. For the most part, Big Pharma funds and controls most scientific studies and they have no interest is running expensive trials on anything that can’t be patented; there’s no profit in that. As I reported in my last post, China is now conducting a controlled study of vitamin C as an antiviral agent against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). According to another recent report, the Philippines and Singapore are now looking into clinical trials using an extract of coconut oil to fight the virus. 

Contagious disease is natural; it’s just Mama Earth cleaning house. But the risk is greater now because there are so many of us and we travel and interact more often. According to The U.S. Census Bureau, 675,000 died in this country in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. World War 1 made it hard to get an accurate count for the rest of the world, but an estimated 30 to 100 million died worldwide. Americans are already the sickest and most medicated people in the world, which puts us in even more danger.

The current approach to fighting the coronavirus is to slow down the rate of infection so we don’t overwhelm our healthcare facilities; we are more likely to survive if we have adequate tests, medical care, hospital beds, and respiratory equipment (which we don’t at this time). But there are things we can be doing right now to make sure that when we inevitably are exposed we will have mild symptoms and recover quickly.

Fabian Dayrit, professor emeritus from Atneo de Manila University in the Philippines, recently raised the possibility of using monolaurin from coconut oil as a natural and safe antiviral agent against the new coronavirus strain. Dayrit and co-author, Mary Newport, asked, “What if there is a treatment candidate against the coronavirus that might already be available and whose safety is already established?” (From: “The Philippines and Singapore look into coconut oil molecules as potential cures for the coronavirus,” March 06, 2020, Natural News.)

Their paper proposed three mechanisms to explain why lauric acid (C12) and monolaurin, its derivative, harbor potent antiviral properties. They claim that previous research has shown that both lauric acid and monolaurin contribute to the disintegration of the virus membrane, inhibit the maturation of the virus, and prevent the binding of the viral proteins to the host cell membrane.

They noted that, “coconut oil and its derivatives are safe and effective antiviral compounds that can be used on both humans and animals. In fact, because of the antiviral and antibacterial protection these compounds provide to animals, they are often used as veterinary feed supplements for chickens, swine and dogs. Monolaurin, in particular, has been shown to be effective at protecting chickens against the avian influenza virus.”

The National University of Singapore has agreed to test samples of virgin coconut oil (VOC) to determine its efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2 viral strain and according to Francisco Duque III, Secretary of the Philippine Department of Health, his department is also looking into the beneficial effects of VCO. However, he said, while they have heard of reputable studies regarding the efficacy of VCO, they will not use it in the Philippines “until the WHO confirms its antiviral effects.”

Fortunately, we can already buy monolaurin supplements and we can increase our consumption of coconut and coconut oil whether the WHO gives its official blessing our not!

Melatonin

Here is an interesting article that suggests the reason the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia are clearly age-related may be the result of declining levels of melatonin: “COVID-19, Pneumonia & Inflammasomes – The Melatonin Connection.”

How to increase your consumption of monolaurin:

Replace MCT oil (medium chain triglyceride), an extract of coconut oil with whole coconut oil to make Bulletproof coffee or use both. (Note: MCT oil has no monolaurin.)

Use coconut oil for cooking and baking in place of butter, lard, vegetable oil, or shortening (it can be heated up to 350 degrees F) and use full-fat coconut milk and coconut cream in place of dairy products in recipes.

Use coconut oil as a spread, instead of nut or dairy butter. (Coconut oil solidifies at 76 degrees F and under.)

And of course you can always just eat it with a spoon.

Recipes:

Here are two recipes that feature coconut from my blog. I’m sure you can find tons more online.

Also, see my previous post about some of the many benefits of coconut:

We live about 15 minutes from Ground Zero here in Washington. We just found out we were in contact with someone about 10 days ago who has tested positive for the virus. That puts us in the window of exposure, so we are hunkering down here for the next two weeks.

I’m taking my own advice to stay busy, get out in the sunshine if you can, and breathe! Good luck.

© 2020, Judy Barnes Baker