You Need Vitamin K2 to Prevent Arterial Plaque & Heart Disease

Accumulating evidence suggests that atherosclerotic calcification shares features with bone calcification. Vascular calcification, or harding of the arteries, is common and clinically significant in atherosclerosis (Coronary artery disease) and heart failure. It was long believed to be an end stage process of "passive" mineral precipitation. However, there is now a growing awareness that vascular calcification is a biologically regulated phenomenon.

In addition to being involved in the formation of osteocalcin, vitamin K2 is known to be involved in the formation of matrix Gla-protein (MGP). Osteocalcin is a protein produced by the osteoblasts, and is utilized within the bone as an integral part of the process of its formation. However, osteocalcin must be carboxylated before it can be effective in bone formation. Vitamin K2 functions as a cofactor for the enzyme that catalyzes the carboxylation of osteocalcin.

MGP is synthesized in a vitamin K2-dependent way in smooth muscles cells of the healthy vessel wall.

A SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF THE PREVIOUS THREE PARAGRAPHS. WHEN YOU HAVE A PROPER LEVEL OF VITAMIN K2 IN YOUR BODY, EITHER FROM YOUR DIET OR SUPPLEMENTS, THE VITAMIN K2 TAKES THE CALCIUM WHICH NORMALLY WOULD BE DEPOSITED IN THE ARTERIES, CARTILAGE AND SOFT TISSUES, AND DEPOSITS IT IN THE BONES WHERE IT BUILDS STRONG BONES. THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT YOU HAVE MUCH LESS HEART DISEASE, PAIN IN THE JOINTS AND MUCH STRONGER BONES.

You can get vitamin K2 from your diet or supplements. The best foods are dark leafy vegetables, cheese, eggs and fermented foods such as the Japanese food Natto. A good policy is to also take vitamin K2 pills, which are a little expensive, but are a very good source of vitamin K2.

Vitamin K2 Shows Potential in the Fight Against Wrinkles

Recent studies have linked vitamin k2 to the elasticity of skin in patients suffering from pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), an inherited condition resulting in severe wrinkling of the skin on the face and body.

Scientists see a strong link between the skin's elastic qualities and an adequate intake of vitamin k2 in the diet or by taking supplements.

The loss of elastic qualities is due to the calcification of the elastic fibers in the skin. The high concentrations of calcium and phosphate in the extracellular space would lead to calcification if it wasn't inhibited by families of proteins.

The recent study published online in the journal Laboratory Investigation illustrates the involvement of carboxyglutamic acid protein (MGP) in the inhibition of calcium precipitation in suffers of PXE. However this protein must be activated by a vitamin k2 enzyme.

Also, prior research has shown that individuals who are unable to metabolise vitamin k2 also exhibit the PXE symptoms, thereby confirming the role of vitamin k2 in the prevention of skin wrinkling.

What Diabetes Can Do To Your Body

Peripheral neuropathy is nerve damage caused by chronically high blood sugar and diabetes. It leads to numbness, loss of sensation, and sometimes pain in your feet, legs, or hands. It is the most common complication of diabetes.

About 60 to 70 percent of all people with diabetes will eventually develop peripheral neuropathy, althought not all suffer pain. Yet this nerve damage is not inevitable. Studies have show that people with diabetes can reduce their risk of developing nerve damage by keeping their blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible.

What causes peripheral neuropathy? Chronically high blood sugar levels damage nerves not only in your extremities but also in other parts of your body. These damaged nerves cannot effectively carry messages between the brain and other parts of the body.

This means you may not feel heat, cold, or pain in your feet, legs, or hands. If you get a cut or sore on your foot, you may not know it, which is why it's so important to inspect your feet daily. If a shoe doesn't fit properly, you can even develop a foot ulcer and not know it.

"The consequences can be extraordinarily devastating and life threatening," Tom Elasy, MD, director of the Diabetes Clinic at Vandebilt University in Nashville. "An infection that will not heal because of poor blood flow causes risk for developing ulcers and can lead to amputation, even death."

This nerve damage show itself differently in each person. Some people feel tingling, then later feel pain. Other people lose the feeling in fingers and toes; they have numbness. These changes happen slowly over a period of years, so you might not even notice it.

"It's not like you wake up one morning and feel it," Elasy says. "The changes are very subtle. And because it happens as people get older, they tend to ignore the little tingles or subtle loss of sensation that is occurring--the signs of nerve damage. They thing it's just part of getting older."

But there are treatments that can help slow the progression of this condition and limit the damage. "We have a lot options for management of this condition," Elasy says. "Don't be too stoic. Talk to your doctors about it. This is important stuff. But the bad news is, it can get worse. If you got tingling now, in 10 years it can be painful."

Symptoms of nerve damage from diabetes can include numbness, tingling, pins and needles, prickling, burning, cold, pinching, buzzing and sharp deep stabs.

Still others have exaggerated sensitivity to touch. "The minute you touch them, they feel extreme pain," Elasy explains. "When they lay a sheet over their feet at night, they are exquisitely sensitive to that touch."

Fasting on a Regular Basis Benefits Your Health and your Heart

While a large majority of Utahns and Mormons around the world perform a periodic fast for religious purposes, doctors are now saying it would be a health conscious and heart conscious thing to do as well.

"We've shown it is not a chance finding. Fasting is not just an indicator for other healthy lifestyles. It is actually the fasting that is working to reduce the risk of disease," Dr Benjamin D Horne said Thursday in the Deseret News.

Horne is among more than a dozen doctors with Intermountain Medical Center's Heart Institute who discovered the most recent round of physiological benefits from fasting and are presenting their findings at the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans.

"Fasting causes hunger or stress,. In response, the body releases more cholesterol, allowing it to utilize fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. This decreases the number of fat cells in the body," Horne said.

The fewer fat cells a person has, the less likely they are to have elevated cholesterol, insulin resistance, or diabetes, he said.

Doctors found that skipping at least two meals on a regular basis led to a dramatic increase of human growth hormone (HGH), which plays a metabolic role in adults, regulating glucose and insulin within the body, "so you are burning fat cells when you fast." Horne said.

During a 24 hour fasting periods, he said HGH increased to an average of 1,300 percent in women and nearly 2,000 percent in men, as part of the study.

The newest research expands on a 2007 study that revealed an association between fasting and reduced risk of coronary artery disease-the leading cause of death among men and women in America, according to Intermountain Healthcare. IT SHOWS THAT FASTING WAS ALSO FOUND TO REDUCE OTHER CARDIAC RISK FACTORS, SUCH AS TRIGLYCERIDES, WEIGHT AND BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS.

Perhaps fasting on a regular basis could become part of current programs to prevent, control or reduce type two diabetes.