Vitamin K - The Forgotten Vitamin

It's often called the forgotten vitamin. It was I discovered in 1934 by a Danish scientist and the letter "K" stands for the Danish spelling of "Koagulation."

Vitamin K is typically the first nutritional supplement that most American children receive as newborn; It helps the liver produce several proteins that control blood clotting. In more recent years, additional benefits have been identified as well. Among those new benefits:

• The Heart. In a study of 4,800 people over age 55, researchers in the Netherlands compared those with the lowest and highest intake of vitamin K. Those in the highest intake group were 52 percent less likely to have severe calcification of the aorta, the major artery leading to the heart. The research was published in the international journal of "Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Disease" and is summarized on www.healthyfellow.com/138/vitamin-K-and-heart-disease
  

• The Liver. The "Journal of the American Medical Association" reported a Japanese study that found vitamin K may help control the progression of liver cancer and may lower the risk of liver cancer significantly. See www.docguide.com. Search for vitamin K and liver disease research.
  

• Arthritis. Research published in the April 2006 journal "Arthritis & Rheumatism" found that higher blood levels of dietary vitamin K were associated with a lower risk for osteoarthritis of the hand and knee. For more information: use any search engine and enter the keywords "vitamin K deficiency linked to osteoarthritis."
  

• Osteoporosis. Studies at the Harvard Medical School and also in England have found that women with the highest dietary intake of vitamin K had a 30 percent decreased risk for hip fracture. A British researcher analyzing data from 13 Japanese clinical trials found the rate of spinal fractures reduced by 40 percent and hip fractures by 13 percent. Search online for "Harvard and Tufts vitamin K research."
  

How much is enough? There's no specific RDA for vitamin K for healthy adults. The suggestion is 90 micrograms (mcg) for adult women and 120 for adult men to prevent deficiency. But that's "minimum wage nutrition". Some of the best formulas for bone health contain a lot more than that. OsteoPrime Forte for example, contains 300 mcg.

To maximize your intake, do as you were told as a child: Eat your vegetables-especially the green, leafy variety. The best food sources are collard greens (440 mcg per 100 gram serving) and spinach (380 mcg per 100 gram serving); salad greens are a close third (315 mcg per 100 gram serving).

I think it's interesting that the standard advice from the conventional medical establishment is to avoid vitamin K if you're on blood clotting meds like Coumadin (also affectionately known as "rat poison"). To me, this is another example of the prevailing "wisdom": nothing must interfere with the drugs.

But vitamin K is enormously important for bone health, and the foods containing vitamin K have multiple benefits. Wouldn't it be wiser to simply adjust the medication, rather than eliminating the vitamin and the foods that contain it? Just a thought.

That said, anyone on blood thinning medication should still talk to their doctor. Supplemental vitamin K- or even a diet high in vitamin K containing foods (like salads) - can affect the required dose of blood thinners.

Take Two Walks and Call Me in the Morning

It's no secret that many people don't exercise, even though they know they should. (Not you of course- but maybe someone you know.) Recent studies show that a written prescription for exercise from a doctor might just help motivate people to get off the couch and start moving!

Professor Miriam Morey led the most recent study on prescribing exercise, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. She focused on cancer survivors like Joe Collie, who had surgery for prostate cancer. "The operation was in July of '93, so it's been 16 years since I had that procedure," explains Collie.

Collie and more than 600 other cancer survivors went on diets and exercise programs tailored to their needs. They also spoke with counselors over the telephone on a regular basis.

After 12 months, researchers were surprised to find that those who participated in the diet and exercise program increased their physical activity, lost weight and reported less physical decline than those in a control group.

Professor Morey says the study's results should help change patient care. "We can deliver this intervention to your home. You don't have to go anywhere. You can be on a mountaintop living by yourself, or in another country, and we can deliver this intervention," she said.

Professor Loretta DiPietro heads George Washington University's Department of Exercise Science. She says she was not surprised by the results of Morey's study. "We've been working with physicians for years and years to get them to discuss exercise with their patients," DiPietro states.

She says it is easier to prevent disease with exercise than it is to use exercise as part of treatment after the illness is diagnosed.

"Exercise has its greatest benefits on the prevention end of the equation," PiPietro adds. "It's much more effective in preventing excessive weight gain or excessive rises in blood sugar and cholesterol."

But she also says different exercises can help people with different diseases. For example, people at risk for osteoporosis benefit from weight bearing exercise. People with high blood sugar benefit the most when they exercise after a meal.

And Professor Morey says her study proves that cancer survivors suffer less decline in mobility when they get exercise tailored to their needs.

Joe Collie sums it up like this: "You've got to be able to get up and move around."

Researchers are not only discovering which exercises are best, but how often, how intense and how much time per week exercises should be done to maximize the benefit.

But you don't have to wait while they figure out all the details, which would be like waiting for a study to show that water puts out fire.

Exercise is the single best predictor of good health outcomes that I know of. It almost doesn't matter what you do-- just do something. In my book, The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth I had to give "exercise" a special place simply because I was unable to find any "treatment" or "intervention" or "supplement" or "diet" that had as far-ranging and profound effects on human health and longevity.

Great if doctors start "prescribing" this info for their patients, just as other health professionals have been doing for decades.

Even better if we start listening to them!