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Coconut Oil & Viruses: A Wellness Perspective

| Modified on Jan 13, 2024
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Coconut Oil
Coconut oil, particularly organic and virgin varieties, has long been valued in many cultures for its diverse uses, including potential health benefits. While some people report positive experiences using coconut oil, it's important to approach it as a complementary addition to overall health practices rather than a standalone treatment for viruses.

Understanding Common Viruses

Viruses, such as the common cold, influenza, and chickenpox, vary widely in their severity and symptoms. These typically include runny nose, sore throat, fever, and rash. Traditionally, many viral infections are managed by supporting the body's natural healing process and seeking medical treatment when necessary.

Coconut Oil: A Traditional Approach

Coconut oil has been a part of traditional wellness practices for centuries. It is known for its unique composition, which includes medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs). These components have garnered interest for their potential health benefits.

The Composition of Coconut Oil:

  • MCFAs: Coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids, which have been studied for various health applications.
  • Nutritional Content: Virgin coconut oil also contains vitamins and nutrients that are thought to support general health.

Using Coconut Oil in Daily Life:

  • Cooking: Incorporating coconut oil into cooking is one way people use it. Organic coconut oil is often preferred for its minimal processing.
  • General Wellness: Some individuals consume coconut oil directly, although starting with small amounts is essential to gauge tolerance.

Please continue reading for insights and experiences from our readers who used coconut oil to treat viral infections. Let us know if this remedy helped you!

Related Links:

10 Cold and Flu Home Remedies
Coconut Oil Benefits, Side Effects and Reviews
Top 10 Natural Remedies for Flu

The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
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12 User Reviews

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Posted by Kari (Denver, Co) on 02/23/2014
 ★★★★★

I read your information about coconut oil for viruses and decided to try it this month when a nasty virus I got in February wouldn't go away. I started with 1/8th teaspoon the first couple of days and slowly made my way up to 2 teaspoons a day, one in the am and one in the pm. It took about 10 days, but I feel 100 percent better. Also as a great side effect, my skin got softer!

Coconut Oil
Posted by John (Nashville, Tn) on 08/13/2013

Why are people pushing virgin coconut oil when it is a fraud? Commercial, FOOD GRADE, RBD (76 degree) coconut oil, not the cheap one made for making soap and cosmetics, has more good qualities than VCO and its price is around 800% cheaper?

Replied by Chiquita B
(Colorado)
08/13/2013

Really - more good qualities than virgin oil? I'd love to see your documentation on this. Do you make the same claims for EVOO vs. other grades?

Replied by Mmsg
(Somewhere, Europe)
08/14/2013

John, I actually tried both and here are the differences that I found:

Vco SMELLS like coconut. The regular one does not.

Vco absorbs into the skin, and "disappears" after a bit and doens't even smell like coconut after a while. The regular one leaves a greasy film on the sking that does not disappear.

Replied by Mike
(London)
02/22/2017
★★★★★

Coconut oil does work on flu and colds. I've not had a cold or flu in ten years.

Replied by Mandy
(Markham)
11/13/2017
★★★★★

Me too, coconut oil has extremely helped my flu. My immune system has never been better!

Replied by Jennifer
(Kansas City, Kansas)
11/13/2017

I tried using coconut oil to see if it would help my immune system, since I currently have AIDS. Unfortunately, it did not help and the doctor said it worsened my situation.

Francis
(Solomon Islands)
01/27/2022
★★★★★

This depends on the type of coconut oil you are using because the one with the higher concentration of Lauric Acid that actually resists the presence of viral organisms is the Virgin coconut oil.

We have quite a number of testimonials from people in the Pacific Island countries who are HIV positive that after taking 1 to 3 tablespoons a day have improved a lot in their conditions. So there you go. This is one of the best locally found remedies of all kinds of viral infections like influenza and other flu, used by our pacific Island counties long in history.

Replied by Mandy
(Markham)
11/13/2017

Coconut oil is so natural but is so much better than any medication a doctor can give you. Never gotten the flu ever since.

Replied by Mike R.
(Md)
05/18/2018

The truth is you have to try what may work for you. Everything does does work for everyone.

Replied by Toy Mak
(Cebu)
06/09/2020

Haha, John, some of us, through a combination of ignorance and conviction or for money, can really make stupid statements that are easily refuted by those who have actually experienced the cure and by those who are more knowledgeable!

Replied by Jen
(Creemore, Ontario, Canada)
08/25/2013

What is the safe dose for this? And do we need to increase our intake gradually, or does it matter? Been sick with a virus for over 2 weeks... NEED to get better NOW!! THANKS!

Replied by Mama To Many
(Tennessee, Usa)
08/26/2013

Dear Jen, When we used coconut oil to treat my son's mono (he was about 125lbs and 18 at the time) we gave him 1 T. twice a day. It worked very fast. At the time, I didn't know to gradually increase it. (Some would say start with 1 t. and work up to 1 T.) He had no ill effect from starting with 2 T. per day.

Hope that helps!

~Mama to Many~

Coconut Oil
Posted by WT (Spartanburg, SC) on 05/31/2008
 ★★★★★

Whether it's Bird flu or the regular flu. If any virus is classified a flu virus, coconut oil will kill it.

Any flu virus is contained inside a Lipid envelope. If this membrane is ruptured the virus dies. Apparently the fats in Coconut oil lyse this membrane on contact causing it's destruction.

I used to get colds just about every year and the flu maybe every 2-3 years. Upon switching to coconut oil for cooking, I've been cold and flu free for nine years now! I've even been around others with my business who were fighting the flu and didn't catch it!

We fry stuff in it once a week or so and I try to eat fried eggs weekly for good measure!

For kids in day care you won't believe the difference it makes! Those days of them coming home with a new bug every few days will be a thing of the past!

Coconut Oil
Posted by Mary (Nevada City) on 03/06/2008
 ★★★★★

I had been sick for a month and this was giving me very bad asthma. Advair did not control it. I needed albuterol several times a day. I woke up several times a night with attacks. The viral symptoms decreased very quickly once I started taking coconut oil 2-3 TABL a day. I was also taking Bee propolis which also helped with the viral load. One well cooked turnip, daily, has also helped keep my lungs loose enough to manage, and yes coffee helps when things are bad. Last but not least - I learned to breathe through my nose (unless sinuses are blocked from a cold!) This really helps to calm an attack...

Coconut Oil
Posted by Shalom (N Stonington, CT) on 12/29/2006
 ★★★★★

My family seems to always be sick. I found coconut flour and oil in March of this year and though we do still get sick it's not as often or for as long. and my Papillion LOVES it, especially for his itchy skin. Make sure it is vergin unrefined CO.

Coconut Oil
Posted by Jay (Manila, Philippines) on 12/22/2006
 ★★★★★

In the Philippines, study have shown that coconut oil can cure HIV. Test subjects were given at least 12 tablespoon of coconut oil a day, and and after 6 months, HIV have been cured. I had no time to confirm this report but the story had been featured several times in radio and tv programs.

I have been using coconut oil for years, and it has greatly helped me with my skin tone and digestive system. Some people have diarrhea right after taking coconut oil. This is normal. Doctors here say that the coconut oil helps clean our intestines and removes all toxins inside our body. The diarrhea effect is only temporary and it will last for 2 to 3 days only. I recommend to keep using it. - Jay, Manila Philippines

Replied by ClosedEyes
(Los Angeles, CA)
04/14/2009

I can confirm this. I found the article as listed below...

Coconut Oil, HIV Cure? Paranaque, Philippines
'Expert' calls for more studies on 'coco oil's anti-AIDS' benefits

Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 02, 2004


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 1999 Local study that showed virgin coconut oil (VCO) could reduce, if not totally wipe out, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) needs a follow-up study to validate its results.

Dr. Conrado Dayrit, the man behind what is now called the "miracle oil," says the 1999 study was "just the beginning of an exhaustive work." He says the "follow-up study should involve at least 200 HIV-positive -patients, if possible up to 300 patients.

Dayrit is looking for young researchers to do the study because at 85, he says, he is already "too old" to take part in it.

14 HIV-positive patients
The initial study had involved 14 HIV positive patients of the San Lazaro Hospital in Sta. Cruz Manila. The research took six months and was conducted by Dayrit's group and medical staff of the state-run facility.

The study showed that the coconut chemical lauric acid could inhibit, delay and reduce the spread of HIV.

Dayrit says the viral loads of research subjects went down, while their CD4 cells-the human body's first lines of defense infection-went-went up.

He presented his group findings during the 37th Cocotech meeting in Chennai, India in 2000

Similar presentations followed here and abroad, and his findings have become a fixture in many VCO websites.

More concrete conclusions
The P5-Miliion research was funded was funded by the non-government Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation (PCRDF) where Dayrit was then a trustee.

PCRDF technical supervisor Romulo Conde had described the test results as "promising" but was also quoted as having cautioned for a need for "more concrete conclusions%uFFFDto%uFFFDsatisfy the world scientific community."

Dr. Roderick Poblete, head of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) secretariat, shares Conde's views.

PNAC is the lead agency in the country's fight against the killer disease.

Poblete says s study with a much bigger scope would "erase any doubts on the results of the initial tests."

Dayrit says VCO has become very popular among HIV-positive locals.

In the absence of a cure for HIV/AIDS, he says, "many patients have resorted to alternative medicines like coconut oil. Apparently dissatisfied with what their doctors had been giving them, the gave coconut oil a try."

The Philippine HIV/AIDS Research Agenda, a joint report of the National Economic Development Authority and the United Nations Development Program, noted that VCO was "developed using sound scientific research methods."

"VCO is not only affordable and readily available but also culturally acceptable, " the report said.

"Better late than never"
Dayrit's obsession with coconut oil seems to be paying off. For one@ he is getting a lot of attention from the local med ical community.

"More doctors are acknowledging VCO's antiviral effects as well as its many other health benefits," says Dayrit

"Better late than never," he says, sounding really happy.

Nowadays, he receives many invitations to speak in hospitals.

Dayrit did his first lecture on VCO in 1983, 40 yeas after he started teaching pharmacology at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.

"Wanted: Funds"
Dayrit says the expanded study on the antiretroviral properties of VCO would cost several millions more compared to the initial one. And getting funding is the biggest obstacle they have to hurdle.

Dayrit says that while his son, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, is "fully behind me and my cause, his hands are tied."

He says the DOH, with its annual budget of P92.8 billion, has limited funds, which have been earmarked for various health programs, and not a single centavo of this was allocated for research.

Neither could the Department of Science and Technology, with a budget of P2.21 billion, bankroll his proposed project, Dayiit says.

The DOST-attached National Academy of Science and Technology, which Dayrit headed for nine consecutive years, is not a funding agency. He says its budget of P16 million a year is used mainly to cover honorariums of national scientists and academicians.

A DOH official had suggested tapping the controversial coconut levy fund, estimated at P140 billion.

More good stuff reagrding HIV/VCO

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 anti-viral 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

Dayrit is thinking if cash cows like the Philippine Amusement And Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) could provide the funds.

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.

Coconut Oil
Posted by David (Memphis, TN) on 11/29/2006
 ★★★★★

I have been taking coconut oil for five or six years now. About five years ago, my daughter,who was in college at the time, came down with mononucleosis. I overnighted her a bottle of monolaurin, the main ingredient of lauric acid, which is only found in any quantity in coconut oil and human milk. My daughter was diagnosed on a Tuesday, she got the monolaurin on Wednesday and on Friday, nine days later she had no symptoms and quit taking it. The following Monday (that's 13 days post diagnosis) she had lab work done and was completely normal. Other dorm-mates of hers had mono for months. Coconut oil, lauric acid and monolaurin supposedly lifts the lipid envelopes of lipid viruses and bacteria.

Most colds are caused by lipid enveloped viruses as are a number of major viral infections.

Just last Saturday, a friend of mine called to tell me he had a horrible cold and had made an appointment to see and ENT physician on Monday. I told him to take three tablespoons of coconut oil. When I saw him on Monday, he was obviously fine. He told me he had taken two tablespoons on Saturday and Sunday and was fine on Monday so he cancelled his doctor's appointment.

I take it all the time but every now and then I run out. Usually I will get sick when I do. Then I go get some more. It is particularly effective for sinus infections. I just snort some into my sinus cavities. Most people are amazed when I prescribe it and it works. But I have seen it happen so many times now, I just expect it to work.

Coconut Oil
Posted by Peter (NYC) on 04/18/2006
 ★★★★★

I've had a flu that lasted 3 months. I caught a terrible flu from my father, who had just come back from California. The flu would weaken, but never go away. It gave me terrible aches and pains, constant post nasal drip (but always with clear mucus, never green and infected), plugged ears, sinus aches, very low energy at times, sore throat, and very persistent. I found this site, and nearly made myself ill trying to take Apple Cider Vinegar (Heinz, without the so-called mother). But I kept taking it, and the flu still persisted. Also took lots of Vitamin C, and gargled with H. Peroxide and bubbled in ears, but still this thing wouldn't go away. Finally, I bought Coconut Oil from a local health food store, extra virgin, cold pressed, 24 hours later the flu is gone. I can hardly believe it. I guess Coconut oil is unique and resembles in some way mother's milk, which keeps nursing babies healthy. All I know is nothing else worked with this killer flu but Coconut oil, and I'm certain had I not taken it my sinuses and ears and aches would still be dragging me down.

Replied by Sylvia
(Indpls)
02/21/2016

How much of the coconut oil did you take per day? To rid this flu?

Coconut Oil
Posted by Peter (NYC) on 04/18/2006
 ★★★★★

I've had a flu that lasted 3 months. I caught a terrible flu from my father, who had just come back from California. The flu would weaken, but never go away. It gave me terrible aches and pains, constant post nasal drip (but always with clear mucus, never green and infected), plugged ears, sinus aches, very low energy at times, sore throat, and very persistent. I found this site, and nearly made myself ill trying to take Apple Cider Vinegar (Heinz, without the so-called mother). But I kept taking it, and the flu still persisted. Also took lots of Vitamin C, and gargled with H. Peroxide and bubbled in ears, but still this thing wouldn't go away. Finally, I bought Coconut Oil from a local health food store, extra virgin, cold pressed, 24 hours later the flu is gone. I can hardly believe it. I guess Coconut oil is unique and resembles in some way mother's milk, which keeps nursing babies healthy. All I know is nothing else worked with this killer flu but Coconut oil, and I'm certain had I not taken it my sinuses and ears and aches would still be dragging me down.

Replied by John
(Trumbull, CT)
02/21/2009

How much coconut oil did you take? Please tell us the amount and how many times a day.

Replied by Teapartytime
(Austin, Tx)
12/23/2009

lol for some reason i feel that this tells me "buying" cocout oil will help my virus go away like some lucky penny or something are there a little more detailed directions

Replied by Abk
(Oakland, Ca)
03/09/2013

I am replying to an old post from Peter in NYC, but just wanted to mention that if you are going to try ACV, you should definitely get the ACV with the 'mother'. It really is very different than the over-refined clear versions from Heinz. The 'mother' has additional nutrients that get removed in the clear versions.

Coconut Oil
Posted by Mary (Nevada City)
★★★★★

I had been sick for a month and this was giving me very bad asthma. Advair did not control it. I needed albuterol several times a day. I woke up several times a night with attacks. The viral symptoms decreased very quickly once I started taking coconut oil 2-3 TABL a day. I was also taking Bee propolis which also helped with the viral load. One well cooked turnip, daily, has also helped keep my lungs loose enough to manage, and yes coffee helps when things are bad. Last but not least - I learned to breathe through my nose (unless sinues are blocked from a cold!) This really helps to calm an attack...



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