I attach a response a scientist, who shares my interest in coconut oil for PD, recently made to an inquiry about coconut oil therapy. He gave me his permission to post:

I am so sorry to hear of your unfortunate encounter with a Coconut Oil advocate. One of the very attractive things about this forum is that "reamings" are very rare. You make some good points, however there are also other good points to be made. Most of the Coconut Oil work that has been done for the benefit of those with neurological diseases has been led by Dr. Mary Newport, not a lightweight. She has found dedicated scientists from around the world who have added credence to her theories and her findings.

One of the benefits of freedom is the freedom to do and the freedom to do not. Some have chosen to try a therapy, which is counter to traditional medicine, but which has clearly benefited a few Parkinson's patients (Dr. Newport reports nineteen impressive cases, a couple of whom participate in this forum). She has concentrated more on Alzheimer's and has documented evidence on a few hundred improvements from massive doses of Coconut Oil, for those suffering from the disease. The (unproven) hypothesis is that the medium chain triglycerides in Coconut Oil are converted to ketones by the liver (that is a fact, verified by science) and that the ketones more easily cross the blood brain barrier to nourish brain cells that are otherwise undernourished. She hypothesizes that undernourished brain cells are a common factor in several neurological diseases and that the benefits which she has observed for Alzheimer's patients may be more generally available in the neurological disorder community.

I am a professional scientist, who has an interest in history. I have observed many situations where the big advances in the field or made by people who dared to depart from the conventional ways. Imaging is one of the most important tools for the diagnosis of disease available to medical science. The first physicist who discovered that invisible rays could penetrate objects and expose photographic plates discarded that information as an annoyance that exposed his photographic plates. Shortly thereafter another physicist made the same discovery and asked why, became the father of x-rays and received the Nobel Prize in medicine. He followed on as a medical researcher to become the father radiology.

We learn from history that it is foolish to grab desperately because we have lost hope in conventional approaches, but that it is also foolish to discard promising discoveries, just because other experts pooh-pooh them.

We share your concern that there is no organized scientific basis for understanding the process, the measures of success and failure, and the scientific basis for the benefits we have seen from Coconut Oil on a few Parkinson's patients. To that end we are conducting a non-clinical trial based on quarterly reports from people who have dedicated themselves to a regular consistent Coconut Oil treatment. You can find an introduction to our non-clinical trial as a forum topic under Research. Our hope is that we can generate enough evidence to encourage a more conventional medical team to conduct regular clinical trials. We have received encouragement in this effort from several doctors. You may want to consider the fact that there are some dedicated levelheaded people who are trying to lend understanding and to motivate conventional approaches to the understanding of the benefits of Coconut Oil. I

I repeat that we all have the freedom to do and the freedom to don't. The best we can do is to respect the choice that each one of us makes