Did you know hospitals use coconut oil in Intravenous (IV) therapy solutions to treat critically ill patients? How about the fact that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists coconut oil as a "generally regarded as safe" food?

Surprised?

Indeed, coconut oil has been wrongly branded as a bad saturated fat for many years now. Although both Ayurvedic and Indian folkloric medicine has used it for thousands of years to protect the Native Americans from many illnesses, it's a shame that people now come to shun it as an unhealthy food.

The fact is, unlike animal fat, coconut oil's saturated fat does not raise blood cholesterol levels because it contains medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) that are burned almost immediately for energy use.

Modern medical science has discovered that coconut oil can actually protect against heart disease, diabetes, cancers, liver and kidney diseases, osteoporosis, dental decay and skin infections.

It also relieves symptoms associated with illnesses like pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis, chronic inflammation, prostate enlargement, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, stomach ulcers, constipation, psoriasis, eczema and dermatitis.

Don't these illnesses sound scary and unpleasant to you? Coconut oil helps you ward off these illnesses. But that's not all.

Coconut oil continues to astonish doctors by its ability to kill viruses such as influenza - aka flu, hepatitis C, herpes, measles and bacteria such as pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and fungi and yeast such as candida, ringworm, and thrush. These are resistant to drugs and antibiotics.

The credit goes to MCFAs in coconut oil as they basically strengthen your immune system while killing bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites ever present around us.

Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds, right now some doctors are including coconut oil in their treatments against the world's most deadly incurable killer - HIV / AIDS.

All thanks to the super antimicrobes in coconut oil, which can rip the HIV viruses apart, and kill them on the spot.

Weight Loss Benefits of Coconut Oil

If you're concerned about gaining more weight by eating coconut oil, fret not. Because eating good fat like coconut oil can actually help you get rid of those excess ugly fat off your body. How?

First of all, coconut oil burns off immediately as energy to be used so you don't have to worry about them ended up as fat storage.

Secondly, coconut oil improves thyroid function, the gland that controls metabolism.

Finally, the ultimate success of weight loss is to be able to burn more calories than your caloric intake, continuously in the long run. And the key to success is metabolism. You need to set your metabolism to burn calories at all times. Simply put, the more boost up your metabolism, the more calories you can burn.

Here's the best part - coconut oil amazingly boosts your metabolism due to its abundant MCFAs.

MCFA creates a thermogenic (or calorie-burning) effect where it burns more calories at an accelerated rate to produce more heat. Hence you can remove unwanted fat faster than you expect.

The thermogenic effect actually makes you feel warmer and more energetic, up to at least 24 hours!

Of course, if you don't control your caloric intake based upon your activity levels, you still can't lose weight even if you include coconut oil as part of your diet.

Healing and Repairing

Having an active metabolism also enables your injuries to heal and repair faster so as to reduce your risk to inflammation.

When used as a topical cream, coconut oil actually soothes and heals the irritated or affected areas on your skin caused by skin diseases such as psoriasis, hemorrhoids, warts and athlete's foot.

It's also an effective healing salve against blisters and sunburns.

Again it's the work of MCFAs which accelerates the metabolic rate activity and hence the healing process of the damaged tissues.

Finally, being smaller in size, MCFA carries less calories than polyunsaturated or monosaturated fat. Hence you'll feel satisfied easily without the add-on of excess calories.

Coming from a natural vegetable source, rich in antioxidants and free from pesticides and other chemicals and contaminants, coconut oil is an excellent beauty and hair care product.

It does more than what a simple skin cream can do. While other creams temporarily moisturize the surface of your dry skin, coconut oil penetrates into the layers under your skin to prevent free radical formation, remove dead layers and encourage growth of new, healthier tissue.

When applied to your hair, coconut oil is a natural hair conditioner and dandruff controller. Use it regularly and you'll be able to see the benefits over time.