Why vitamin K2 is so essential

Today's post:  Thursday, 3-26-2015

All healthy people have in common that they get enough vitamin K2..

This was the theme of the very persuasive email I got recently from Dr Al Sears

I knew vitamin K2 helped calcium go into bones to make them stronger and that it helped calcium STAY OUT OF your blood vessel walls.

And, I took K2 to begin with as I'd heard it helped cut excessive bleeding and bruising.

(I have that and have a bit less of it since I added K2.)

But Dr Sears research turns up a huge set of additional and critically important benefits!

[I added the bolding]

1. The bone building cut fractures by 65% 

2.  K2 helps your body make full use of vitamin D3 and vitamin A. (This may be part of its bone building effect.) 

3.  The heart and death rate protection are high:  "high levels of vitamin K2 lowered the risk of coronary artery disease by 57%.

It lowered calcium buildup in the arteries by 52%.

And it slashed the risk of death from any cause by 26%.3"

4.  K2 also helps prevent or even reverse many cancers.  (Acting as an activator or catalyst for vitamin D3 may be why this occurs.)

"A study in the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, found vitamin K2 kills leukemia, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells.4

It works by programming these cells to "self destruct."5

And men with the highest intake of K2 have 63% fewer cases of advanced prostate cancer.6

5. Vitamin K2 also protects the brain, fights rheumatoid arthritis, balances blood sugar, and boosts energy production in the mitochondria." [That last one is an anti-aging effect!]

Here's what Al Sears MD said in his email:

"Each year, I travel more than 20,000 miles to study what makes people healthy. But most other doctors don't get my research methods. 

Mainstream doctors only treat - and most researchers only study - sickness. They don't consider health. They look at a disease and then try to find a pill.

I'm different because I focus on what healthy people have in common. I ask what protects them from disease.

Western medicine has come to see people's ailments like little packages of symptoms to be drugged or cut out. It has lost sight of the whole person behind the rash or the tumor, and the emotional and environmental factors that have contributed or even caused the physical problems in the first place.

Even in medical school, I was different. I was inspired by a pioneering dentist and nutritionist named Weston A. Price - and I still am!

Dr. Price was different, too. He left his Ohio dental practice in the 1930s. And he went on a mission to find out why native tribes had naturally healthy teeth.

He lived among native peoples in different cultures across the globe. He traveled to Polynesia, Scotland, the Andes, New Zealand and even the Arctic.

As he traveled to these far-flung places, Dr. Price made a unique observation. People were healthier when they ate the traditional diet handed down to them by their ancestors.

Wherever he went, he found all native diets had one nutrient in common. This nutrient seemed to "activate"vitamins A and D, making them more effective. 

He called his discovery "Activator X." And today we know this nutrient to be vitamin K2.

And a growing body of research confirms what Dr. Price saw in the healthy native communities that he studied.

People who get enough of his Activator X, or vitamin K2, have perfect teeth... great physical strength... trim, muscular bodies… and NO chronic disease.

I've seen the same thing among the many traditional tribal communities I've visited. I've seen it in remote villages in Africa, the rainforests of South America and the mountains of Peru.

But when native people switch to a modern, Western diet full of sugar, refined flour, and vegetable oils… things change.

These communities very quickly develop all the chronic health issues of the West: cancer, heart disease, tooth decay, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, and dementia.

Mainstream medicine has tried to ignore Dr. Price's work for more than 70 years.  But now studies confirming his findings - and his conclusions - are mounting.

Research now shows:

"           Vitamin K2 builds strong bones. Researchers from Tufts University found that elderly people with the highest intake of vitamin K had a 65% lower risk of hip fracture than those with the lowest intake.1 And Harvard researchers following more than 72,000 women found those with the lowest intake of vitamin K2 had a 30% higher risk of hip

fracture.2

"           Vitamin K2 stops heart attacks. In a landmark Dutch trial, researchers followed 4,800 people. Their results revealed that high levels of vitamin K2 lowered the risk of coronary artery disease by 57%. It lowered calcium buildup in the arteries by 52%. And it slashed the risk of death from any cause by 26%.3

"           K2 kills cancer. A study in the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, found vitamin K2 kills leukemia, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells.4 It works by programming these cells to "self destruct."5 And men with the highest intake of K2 have 63% fewer cases of advanced prostate cancer.6

Vitamin K2 also protects the brain, fights rheumatoid arthritis, balances blood sugar, and boosts energy production in the mitochondria.

Before you rush out to find vitamin K2, it's important to understand that vitamin K2 is NOT the same as vitamin K1.

Your body needs K1 for clotting blood when you're injured. You get this important vitamin from spinach, broccoli, kale, Swiss chard, and other leafy greens.

Your body also uses K1 to produce vitamin K2. The conversion happens in the intestines using your own gut bacteria.

But if you take antibiotics, the good bacteria in your gut can be wiped out. It won't be able to convert K1.

Fortunately, you can get vitamin K2 directly from some foods. Our primal ancestors got plenty from eating organ meats like liver.

Other rich sources are:

"           Meat

"           Full-fat milk

"           Cottage cheese

"           Butter

"           Cheese

But all of these foods MUST come from grass-fed animals.

You see, animals take in vitamin K1 from the grasses they eat. They convert it to vitamin K2 in their gut the same way we do. When you eat meat, fat, organs, and dairy from grass-fed animals you take in their vitamin K2. 

Animals fed on soy, corn or other grains don't get the vitamin K1 to convert to K2. Also cattle raised in factory farms are shot full of antibiotics, so they couldn't make the conversion in their guts even if they had vitamin K1.

If you ever take antibiotics or if you don't have access to grass-fed meat or dairy, you could be deficient in vitamin K2. That's why I recommend supplements. But make sure you get the right kind.

Vitamin K2 comes in several different forms called menaquinones.  They're numbered from four to nine. The higher the number, the more bioavailable and long-lasting the K2.

Look for vitamin K2 in the form of menaquinone-7. It's much more bioactive than menaquinone-4."

(I take 5,000 mcg a day of the menaquinone-4 form now and may add some menaquinone-7 at some point if I have fractures to heal.  But even if the 7 form in the much smaller amounts is 90% bioavailable and the menaquinone-4 is 10% bioavailable I likely get enough net effect now.)