The topical application or intradermal injection of lauric acid working in the case of P. acnes makes sense. It's pure lauric acid rather than a triglyceride, and it's present at the site of the microbe in high concentration. In the case of the mice, it was oral dosing, but they were given pure monolaurin. Monolaurin is a glycerol ester of a single lauric acid molecule. No doubt some of this is formed from the digestion of coconut oil, but how much? And what dose was given to the mice? It was probably quite a lot.
I don't doubt the antimicrobial effects of lauric acid and monolaurin when they can be delivered in high concentration to the site of the microbe, but I'd hate to see someone try to treat an infection by eating a little bit of coconut oil, and ending up septic in the ICU or dead. I think topical EVCO would be a great thing to try on acne.
The question is can you get a clinically effective dose of Lauric Acid from eating coconut oil, and will the dose stay high enough long enough to be effective at exposing pathogens to ones immune system.
From the last link it seems that "...these medium chain free fatty
acids and monoglycerides are absorbed intact from the small intestine, and do not undergo degradation and re-esterification processes..."
So it looks like the bioavailability of the Lauric, Carpic etc Acids is excellent and close to the full 1 gram of Lauric acid in every 2 grams of EVCO will be available for this purpose.
This leaves the questions; how much is reqd to disrupt/dissolve the lipd layers on pathogens in vivo and how long does it take for them to do so.
I have not yet found any studies that answer these questions, but did find the educated guess of "... 10 to 20 grams of lauric acid per day..."
So 20 to 40 grams of EVCO per day is the best dosage recommendation I have found so far.
The remaining question is how long does it take this ingested Lauric, Carpic, etc acids are effective at eliminating pathogens.
As the means by which they are effective at eliminating pathogens is by disrupting/dissolving their lipid layers, the question becomes: 'How long does it take these acids to mess with these lipid layers?'
I can not find any info on this but it seems Lauric acid is incorporated into adipose tissue, so perhaps the question is moot due to the acids being around, in one form or another, for a long time?
http://www.ncbi.nlm..../pubmed/2761351Due to the lack of research (at least that I have been able to find) on the subject and the easy availability of EVCO and in light of the research showing positive effects in other areas of health its probably a good idea to test the effectiveness for oneself.
I once gave about 2 tablespoons to a guy with a bad case of the flu.
About 45 minutes later he was pleasantly shocked to find himself very much improved and I last saw him boarding a plane with a jar of EVCO clutched to his heart.
I have since seen similar results in a number of other people as well as cases where the EVCO did not help. Perhaps in the cases where the EVCO did not help; the virus was not lipid coated?
Edited by Logic, 11 September 2014 - 02:59 PM.