Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Health Benefits of Vitamin K2: A Revolutionary Natural Treatment for Heart Disease and Bone Loss
    Health Benefits of Vitamin K2: A Revolutionary Natural Treatment for Heart Disease and Bone Loss
    Health Benefits of Vitamin K2: A Revolutionary Natural Treatment for Heart Disease and Bone Loss
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    Health Benefits of Vitamin K2: A Revolutionary Natural Treatment for Heart Disease and Bone Loss

    By Larry M. Howard and Anthony G. Payne

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Though largely unknown, vitamin K is critical for our health. It is needed for the normal clotting of blood and for the formation and maintenance of healthy bones. Although vitamin K2-- also called menaquinone--is naturally produced by some of our intestinal bacteria, only a limited amount of this essential vitamin is stored in our bodies. A lack of this vitamin, which can be caused by a poor diet and the regular use of certain drugs such as antibiotics, is not uncommon. Now, a new supplemental form of vitamin K, specifically vitamin K2--menaquinone-7 (MK-7)--is becoming more widely available to health consumers. It is showing great promise as a natural treatment for heart disease and bone loss. Available in soy products and as a nutritional supplement, MK-7 is clinically proven to be safe and effective. It may also be helpful for lowering cholesterol levels, preventing Alzheimer's disease, and treating some forms of cancer. And MK-7 is a powerful antioxidant without side effects.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTurner Publishing Company
    Release dateSep 1, 2006
    ISBN9781591205579
    Health Benefits of Vitamin K2: A Revolutionary Natural Treatment for Heart Disease and Bone Loss
    Author

    Larry M. Howard

    Holds degress in teacher education and physical education and after working as a teacher and therapist, he becan a seminar speaker, marketing consultant, vice present and ultimately president of companies that specialize in nutritional and fortified food products. Since 2000 he has created, patented, and implemented nutritional therapies for pain, drug addiction, and depression.

    Related to Health Benefits of Vitamin K2

    Related ebooks

    Wellness For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      New Frontiers in Breast Cancer

      Oct 8, 2016

      TERRIFYING AS THE C WORD CAN BE, breast cancer today means something very different than it did a decade ago. Doctors know more than ever about what causes cancer in the first place and when it’s best to screen for the disease as well as which cancer

      1 min read

    • Article

      Supplements For A Healthy Prostate

      Jan 24, 2021

      Supplements For A Healthy Prostate
      6 min read

    • Article

      Undoing The Damage

      Sep 26, 2021

      Undoing The Damage
      3 min read

    • Article

      Gut Healing 101

      Mar 20, 2020

      Poor digestion and bloating can be due to intestinal gut flora imbalance, ’dysbiosis’ as it is known. Naturopaths will often favour a three-phase, ‘weed, seed and feed’, approach. Eliminate the bad bugs (weed), introduce more of the positive ones (se

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Natural Cancer-fighters

      May 24, 2020

      The Natural Cancer-fighters
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Anti-Kidney Stone Diet

      Oct 11, 2019

      The Anti-Kidney Stone Diet
      3 min read

    • Article

      WHY SATURATED FAT IS GOOD for you

      Jan 22, 2021

      WHY SATURATED FAT IS GOOD for you
      3 min read

    • Article

      At The First Sign Of Viral Infection...

      Jul 26, 2020

      At The First Sign Of Viral Infection...
      1 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Mention The Warburg: Finding Cancer’s Sweet Spot

      May 24, 2020

      What’s going on in the body when we have cancer? The standard definition is that healthy cells mutate and grow rapidly. As the abnormal cells cluster, they form a tumor, which can spread to other parts of the body—and this gets treated with chemother

      4 min read

    • Article

      Try These Herbal Recommendations

      Jan 24, 2021

      According to herbalist Meilyr James, owner of the Herbal Clinic in Swansea, Wales (www.herbalclinic-swansea.co.uk), endometriosis is often linked to overactivity of the adrenals, and this must be addressed for the body to heal. He recommends nervines

      1 min read

    • Article

      How To Have A Healthy Gut

      Jun 16, 2021

      How To Have A Healthy Gut
      4 min read

    • Article

      How Old Is My Heart?

      Jun 23, 2019

      How Old Is My Heart?
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Word On Absorption

      Dec 31, 2020

      Evidence shows that the higher the dose we take, the less vitamin C we’re able to absorb. It’s estimated that, when taking regular supplements, just 2000mg of a 12,000mg dose will find its way to our immune cells, for instance, and that delivering mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Vitamin Hype

      Nov 1, 2018

      Vitamin Hype
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Tortured Love of Vitamin D

      Feb 21, 2017

      A Tortured Love of Vitamin D
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Best Supplements To Take, According To Experts

      Jan 3, 2024

      If there can be a good thing to come out of a deadly pandemic, it is that it has done much to concentrate our minds on improving our health. We might not have gone full Gwyneth Paltrow, but many of us have been exercising that little bit more, making

      6 min read

    • Article

      No Silver Bullet

      Nov 14, 2021

      No Silver Bullet
      2 min read

    • Article

      From Adequate Nutrition to Optimum Nutrition

      Jun 1, 2019

      Perhaps it has to do with our entire philosophy of nutrition called reductionism, where everything is broken down into its constituent parts; food is reduced to a collection of single compounds with supposed single effects. “The reductionist approach

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Superfoods (and Drinks) Of The Year

      Jan 23, 2022

      Health research in 2021 was dominated by the Covid-19 epidemic, which gave new focus to researchers to explore dietary and nutritional answers to the outbreak. It soon became clear that the epidemic had a lot to do with a poor diet of processed food;

      15 min read

    • Article

      Nature’s Anti-spikers

      Sep 26, 2021

      Nattokinase is a fermented soybean product that is eaten mostly in Japan. It’s also been researched and found to be a “versatile and potent fibrinolytic enzyme that can be used to combat blood clots.” In one study, when dogs with chemically induced b

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Unbalanced Diet: Why You Need High-dose Vitamins

      Jan 23, 2022

      Ask Dr Google if you need to take vitamins, and you’ll get the emphatic answer that, no, you don’t, as you get all the nutrients you need from eating a healthy, balanced diet. Ask the more pointed question, “Are vitamins a waste of money?”and you get

      5 min read

    • Article

      Meet The Super Healthy HYPERFOODS

      Dec 29, 2022

      Meet The Super Healthy HYPERFOODS
      2 min read

    • Article

      Healing Hyperfoods

      Mar 22, 2022

      Healing Hyperfoods
      2 min read

    • Article

      Risky Business

      Jul 21, 2019

      Except smoking, nothing impacts heart health so much as what you put in your mouth. Just one apple a day offers better protection than a statin.6 There are so many books and websites from doctors offering their advice on how to eat for a healthy hear

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Health Benefits of Vitamin K2

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Health Benefits of Vitamin K2 - Larry M. Howard

         

      Introduction

      We have all read or heard stories about how we are on the cusp of one revolution or another in medicine and health care, or about the advent of some miraculous drug, product, or device. Some, if not most, of these turn out to be largely hype, while others are genuinely promising—and, yes, on occasion we see the debut of something that truly turns the tables on a human affliction or malady.

      This holds true with respect to both pharmaceuticals and natural health products. For example, coenzyme Q10 (coQ10) was discovered in the United States in 1957 by Professor Frederick Crane at the University of Wisconsin, and a year later its chemical structure was published. During the ensuing fifty years, a great many studies have been done, some in the United States and most in Japan, which have provided clear scientific evidence that coQ10 is of benefit in treating some forms of heart disease and cancer, as well as periodontal disease and more. A similar path from lab novelty to scientifically validated has attended s-adenosylmethionine (SAMe), a compound that relieves depression on par with Prozac.

      Now we have menaquinone-7 (MK-7), a form of vitamin K2 that laboratory studies and clinical trials indicate may be one of biomedicine’s most powerful tools for halting and reversing bone loss, as well as for pulling calcium out of hardened arteries. No, it isn’t a miracle by a long shot, but it appears to qualify as near miraculous in the sense that it is likely to put a significant dent in some major medical challenges of our time, such as osteoporosis and atherosclerosis.

      In this book, you will learn what vitamin K2 is and what it does, as well as how diet and lifestyle can complement its activity in your body. And in so doing, you will come to know how this compound can help you in your personal pursuit of one of humankind’s most cherished and universal goals: to live a long high-quality life.

      The value of an idea lies in the using of it.

      —THOMAS ALVA EDISON (1847–1931)

       1 

      What Is Vitamin K?

      Vitamin K is critical for building and maintaining vibrant health. This vitamin performs two primary functions in our bodies: it is essential for healthy blood clotting and plays a vital role in maintaining strong and healthy bones. When it is deficient or not well utilized in our bodies, serious, life-threatening conditions and even death can result.

      Unfortunately, our bodies store only limited amounts of vitamin K. Healthy bacteria living in our intestines produce much of the vitamin K we need. The rest of the vitamin K we require for optimal health must come from the foods we eat. Vitamin K deficiencies often go undetected and can escalate unnoticed, culminating in serious health conditions (see page 7); thus, it is paramount to keep a watchful eye out for deficiency symptoms in concert with receiving proper medical testing. Vitamin K deficiencies can be brought about by a number of factors, including poor diet, the use of certain prescription or illicit drugs, the long-term use of antibiotics, or certain genetic conditions and predispositions.

      Recently, scientists have isolated specific compounds in vitamin K that appear to be the active players in generating its health benefits. One of the most effective components in the vitamin K family of compounds is menaquinone-7, also known as MK-7. The menaquinones in vitamin K have been studied extensively worldwide and offer the promise of preventing and even reversing specific diseases. MK-7, for example, has been shown in several studies to reverse and even prevent some forms of cardiovascular disease by eliminating excess calcium in the blood. In other studies, MK-4 and especially MK-7 have been shown to be effective in reversing osteoporosis. Furthermore, studies indicate that MK-7 may help lower cholesterol, play a role in preventing Alzheimer’s disease, and treat some forms of cancer. Vitamin K is also a well-known and powerful antioxidant.

      MK-7 has been shown in several studies to reverse and even prevent some forms of cardiovascular disease by eliminating excess calcium in the blood. MK-7 is also effective in reversing osteoporosis.

      THE DISCOVERY OF VITAMIN K

      In 1929, Danish scientist Henrik Dam discovered that when chicks were fed a fat-free diet, their blood began leaking out from various blood vessels. In addition, he observed that their blood-clotting abilities were seriously impaired. Closer scrutiny disclosed that the restricted diet also caused the reduction of a unique compound typically found in fat. Dam figured out that this compound was integral to the blood’s ability to coagulate or clot normally. Dam dubbed this compound that promoted blood clotting the koagulation vitamin, which later became known as vitamin K (for koagulation). Years of follow-up research verified its integral role in coagulation, among other vital functions in the body.

      Although there are technically five forms of vitamin K, the name generally refers to three basic substances: K1, known as phylloquinone; K2, a group of compounds called the menaquinones; and a synthetic version known as K3 or menadione. The natural K compounds are found in the fatty part of foods. For example, green vegetables (such as broccoli) and soybean, canola, sunflower, and other plant oils are good sources of vitamin K1. Butter, some cheeses, chicken, liver, egg yolks, and fermented soybean foods contain K2.

      THE K FAMILY OF VITAMINS

      Five different compounds, numbered one through five, make up the vitamin K family:

       Vitamin K1: Phylloquinone (also known as methylphytyl naphthoquinone, phytonadione, phytomenadione, phytonadione, 2-methyl-3-phytyl-1-1, 4-naphthoquinone)—Used to treat and prevent hypoprothrombinemia (deficiency of prothrombin) and hemorrhagic disease. It is also prescribed as a supplement for people who take broad-spectrum antibiotics or oral anticoagulants in high doses or for prolonged periods of time. It can be used topically to treat burns and stretch marks.

       Vitamin K2: Menaquinone 1 through 13 (also known as menatertenone)—Used in the prevention and treatment of bone loss and the reduction of calcification of the arteries. It may be supportive in reducing total cholesterol levels.

       Vitamin K3: Menadione (also known as menadione sodium bisulfite, 2-methyl-1-4, 4-naphthoquinone)—Used primarily by the pet-food industry in animal feed.

       Vitamin K4: Menadiol acetate (also known as menadiol diacetate, menadiol sodium diphosphate, menadiol sodium phosphate, menadiolum solubile methylnaphthohydroquinone)—Used to treat hypoprothrombinemia (deficiency of prothrombin) via injections.

       Vitamin K5: 4-amino-2-methyl-1-naphthol—Used to inhibit the growth of fungi.

      Unfortunately, the human body can store only a small amount of vitamin K, primarily in the liver. Consequently, consuming foods rich in vitamin K and ensuring that our bodies are producing adequate amounts of this compound will help support optimal health.

      THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF VITAMIN K

      Given its importance in health and healing, it follows that we need to maintain optimal levels of vitamin K in our bodies. Naturally, eating a balanced diet containing vitamin K–rich foods and taking a dietary supplement containing K is important. Nevertheless, the primary source for all forms of vitamin K is the friendly bacteria in our colons and intestinal tract.

      This colony of good bacteria is vital to health and plays an important role in the proper function of our immune system. Good bacteria keep harmful bacteria and fungi under control in our bodies. Bad bacteria and fungi, like all living things, want to live and proliferate when they enter our bodies, but do so at our

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1