The You Docs: Can coconut oil really help you lose weight?

My friend is discouraged because she's not losing weight. She's heard that coconut oil will make you lean and healthy. What do you think?

- Brenda, Frederick, Md.

Did you know that there's a manufacturing plant in the Philippines that is turning coconut oil into a biofuel?

We say put it in your car before you put it in your body. While most plant products are good for you, coconut oil is a complete misfit. It is loaded with saturated fat, the kind that clogs up your internal engine (your arteries and heart) with lousy LDL cholesterol and puts you on the wait list for the cardiac care unit. Virgin coconut oil recently got a PR makeover, claiming it can do all kinds of miraculous things, from speeding up weight loss to stopping cancer. Coconut oil is a health food? Not.

It has more saturated fat than butter, burgers, even lard, which means it can lead to everything from heart attack to - if you live long enough - dementia.

Some say it is a medium chain saturated fat, and that makes it healthy. That's BS (bad science). The data give coconut oil no more a clean bill of health than butter or menthol cigarettes.

What makes you lean and healthy isn't the trend-of-the-month PR, it's a no-BS lifestyle: plenty of fruits, vegetables, beans, fish and whole grains that fill you up without filling you out; modest amounts of skinless white-meat poultry and the good fats found in nuts, avocados, olive and canola oils; and walking for 30 minutes every day.

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007. My doctor wants me to start taking medication to prevent paralysis, but it has side effects I don't like. I've found some research that says swallowing worms called helminths can ease MS. Could that be true? - Anonymous

Remember that old childhood ditty, "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me; guess I'll eat some worms"?

About a decade ago, some serious scientists must have been humming that as they began investigating whether swallowing certain parasites might help Crohn's disease, Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis patients. It's not a therapy someone just pulled out of the air - or the ground - either. It's an outgrowth of the so-called hygiene hypothesis, which suggests that asthma, allergies and some chronic conditions are on the rise because we're just too clean. That is, because our immune systems aren't challenged enough as kids and overreact when confronted by pollen, peanuts, the family cat or wriggly, parasitic helminths, like whipworms.

One study has found that feeding helminths (well, actually, their eggs) to people with inflammatory bowel disease turns off the inflammation and sends them into temporary remission. Another reports that swallowing them could alter the immune system in a way that suppresses MS. In fact, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has funded a helminth study. Interested? Check for clinical trials of the treatment at www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=helminth+therapy. We're not ready to endorse this one, or dismiss it, yet.

What's the best way to brush your teeth? When is the best time to floss? I am 68 and know how I was taught, but things change.

- Margo, Morriston, Fla.

One of the biggest things that has changed is why you should brush and floss. Today, we know that oral hygiene doesn't just keep your teeth around. It helps keep you thinner and younger, largely by squelching inflammation. Researchers suspect that inflammation from gum irritation and infection can lead to cardiovascular problems.

So floss at least once a day. If you don't, you'll miss cleaning 40 percent of each tooth. Don't snap the floss in place; gently slide it between your teeth, then move it up and down. If you're all thumbs, try a floss holder. Make it a habit to start and end in the same place, and you won't miss a spot.

At least twice a day, position a soft-bristle brush at a 45 degree angle where your teeth meet your gums, then gently scrub in a circular motion. To clean the inside surfaces and biting edges, hold the brush vertically and use gentle, short, back-and-forth strokes. Then lightly brush along the gum line and over your tongue. This should take two minutes twice a day. Follow these steps, and you'll head off dentures and heart disease, and keep your brain younger.

► ► ►Watch the Calcium

Considering a man's prostate only is about the size of a walnut, you wouldn't think it could cause so much trouble. But after skin - your largest organ - prostate cancer is the most common malignancy and the No. 2 cancer killer among men. What makes good prostate cells go bad? Trying to discover that keeps scientists busy, but hormones and diet are suspects.

The latest suspect is calcium. That mighty mineral keeps bones strong and blood pressure down, but now there's evidence that overdoing it (like overdoing all good things) could bump up prostate cancer risk as much as 25 percent. So what's a guy to do? Strike a healthy calcium balance: Be sure you get enough to fight fractures and high blood pressure, but not so much that you attract cancer. Here's how:

Aim for 1,000 to 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day. You can get that easily by drinking a glass of skim milk (300 mg), taking a 400 mg calcium supplement and getting about 300 mg in other foods (calcium-fortified cereal, low-fat cheese/yogurt, canned salmon, spinach, white beans).

Make sure your calcium pill contains vitamin D-3. Getting plenty of D-3 (the vitamin's most absorbable form) may offset any calcium effects on your prostate by upping a cancer-inhibiting form of D called calcitriol.

Eat a plant-based diet, walk 30 minutes a day and find time to de-stress. These are three of our favorite things anyway, but they fight prostate cancer on the genetic level, too.

► ► ►Tai Chi for Joints

You've probably seen people doing tai chi every time you've seen a U.S. president land in China. TV crews love filming the crowds gathering at dawn's early light to wrestle demons in the air - all right, that's not what th

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