Dr. Weeks’ Comment: Vitamin K2 (not K1 or K3) is a very potent vitamin which is neither understood nor utilized by all the endocrinologists with whom I discuss cases. That is worrisome and bewildering until I remind myself that medical doctors are taught to traffic in drugs and not training in corrective health principles. If you are a male (at risk for heart disease and cancer) or a female (at risk for osteoporosis, heart disease and cancer) …. (i.e. everyone!) , we recommend that you ask your doctor to check your vitamin K2 levels and to consider adding vitamin K2 to your corrective protocols!
Vitamin K-2 is now so well documented to reduce coronary heart disease and decrease fracture incidence, that I strongly feel that you must plan to incorporate it in your own antiaging program now. Osteoporosis is widespread and calcium accumulation in aging arteries is universal so I suggest that you take action now!
I have the link for the latest research on K-2 and decreased fracture incidence. The University of MAASTRICT in Holland has an entire department devoted to the exciting research in vitamin K-2. There will be even more important benefits uncovered in the coming years.
Also fractures decrease with higher intakes of vitamin D. Also the list of other nutrients reported to lower fracture incidence but with no mention of the vital role of a SERM-Beta like Purestrol, as found only in H.R.T. Plus. Fractures are a serious threat to health, as we age, and the goal I repeat is to have soft arteries and hard bones when we are 90!
Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
Review Supports Vitamin K’s fracture reducing power
By Stephen Daniells, 20-May-2009
High dose supplements of vitamin K are effective for reducing the risk of fractures in post-menopausal women, according to a new review of the ”˜reliable literature’.
Japanese scientists, led by Jun Iwamoto from Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, reviewed seven randomized clinical trials for vitamin K1 and K2 in relation to bone health in post-menopausal women.
“Despite the lack of a significant change or the occurrence of only a modest increase in bone mineral density, high-dose vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 supplementation improved indices of bone strength in the femoral neck and reduced the incidence of clinical fractures,” wrote the researchers in Nutrition Research.
“The review of the reliable literature confirmed the effect of vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 supplementation on the skeleton of postmenopausal women mediated by mechanisms other than bone mineral density and bone turnover.”
K definitions
There are two main forms of vitamin K: phylloquinone (vitamin K1) and menaquinones (vitamins K2). K1 is found in green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli and spinach, and makes up about 90 per cent of the vitamin K in a typical Western diet.
K2 makes up about 10 per cent of consumption and can also be obtained from the diet. Menaquinone-4 (MK-4) can be found in animal meat, while MK-7, MK-8, and MK-9 are found in fermented food products like cheese, and natto is a rich source of MK-7.
Review details
The randomized clinical trials identified by the researchers involved at least 50 subjects, with vitamin K1 doses ranging from 200 micrograms to 5 milligrams per day, or vitamin K2 doses of 45 milligrams per day.
According to the results, found that both forms of the vitamin reduced blood levels of undercarboxylated osteocalcin levels regardless of dose. Osteocalcin is a vitamin K-dependent protein and is essential for the body to utilize calcium in bone tissue. Without adequate vitamin K, the osteocalcin remains inactive, and thus not effective.
“The most important findings in this review are that although supplementation with lower doses of vitamin K may be sufficient to reduce serum ucOC levels, supplementation with higher doses may be required for optimal bone health,” wrote the reviewers.
“However, further study will be necessary to establish the efficacy of vitamin K supplementation as a means of preventing vertebral, nonvertebral, and hip fractures.
“Further research is also needed to elucidate the function of OC and the mechanism by which vitamin K exerts a protective effect against fractures,” they added.
Source: Nutrition Research
Volume 29, Issue 4, Pages 221-228
“High-dose vitamin K supplementation reduces fracture incidence in postmenopausal women: a review of the literature”
Authors: Jun Iwamoto, Yoshihiro Sato, Tsuyoshi Takeda, Hideo Matsumoto
#2: From: LymeAngl@aol.com
Hip Fractures Soar When Hormone Therapy Stops Fran Lowry
October 12, 2010 (Toronto, Canada) ”” Women who discontinue postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) have a significantly increased risk for hip fracture, and the protective effect of HT disappears 2 years after cessation, according to new research presented here at the North American Menopause Society 21st Annual Meeting.
These findings have huge public health implications, especially as there is an approximate 25% increase in mortality after hip fracture, Roksana Karim, MBBS, PhD, from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said.
“There was a huge drop in the use of [HT] after the publication of the initial Women’s Health Initiative report came out in mid-2002. Millions of women all over the world suddenly stopped taking their hormones,” Dr. Karim toldMedscape Medical News. “HT is one of the best medications that has been proven to protect from fracture, so we were wondering what happened to these women after they abruptly stopped their HT, as there are little data describing the effects of HT cessation on hip fracture incidence in the general population.”
In this longitudinal observational study, Dr. Karim and her team assessed 80,955 postmenopausal women aged 60 years and older who were enrolled in the Southern California Kaiser Permanente health management organization from July 2002 through December 2008 after the Women’s Health Initiative report of June 2002.
Data on the use of HT, antiosteoporotic medication, and occurrence of hip fracture were obtained from electronic medical records. These records showed that dual energy X-ray absorptiometry scans were performed on 54,209 of these women once during this period.
The average age of the women was 68.8 years, slightly more than half (54%) were white, and the average body mass index was 27 kg/m2.
After 6.5 years of follow-up, women who discontinued HT were at a 55% greater risk for hip fracture compared with those who continued using HT (hazard ratio [HR], 1.55; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.36 – 1.77).
The risk for hip fracture increased as early as 2 years after the women stopped taking hormones (HR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.26 – 1.84) and remained even after adjusting for factors considered protective against fracture, including obesity and the use of bisphosphonates and other antiosteoporotic medication.
Hip fracture risk increased with longer duration of cessation (P for trend < .0001), and bone mineral density likewise decreased with longer duration of hormone cessation.
“In all, 1412 women who had stopped [HT] had hip fractures during the follow-up period, even though they were still taking bisphosphonates,” Dr. Karim reported.
“This is one of the first studies studying these women and looking at this effect,” she commented to Medscape Medical News. “I would like more studies like this to confirm our finding, and the ultimate implication would be to reconsider the use of [HT]. Women are making decisions to stop hormones based on [Women’s Health Initiative] findings, which are basically based on cardiovascular and other outcomes. But hormones are beneficial for hip fracture.”
She added that she and her team are currently in the process of looking at mortality rates after hip fracture in these women.
“This study reinforces something that is very important for people to keep in mind ”” that there is a very positive effect of estrogen on bone,” Steven R. Goldstein, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University Langone School of Medicine in New York City, and current president of the North American Menopause Society, said in an interview with Medscape Medical News.
“Estrogen is probably as good a bone drug as anything else that you can be on, and this study underscores that fact. It also underscores the fact that, unlike some of the bisphosphonates that hang around for 6, 10, 19 years, estrogen doesn’t hang around. Very soon after you discontinue it, its effects in bone go away. I think that’s an important message,” he said.
Whether or not a woman chooses to take HT will be a matter for each individual woman to decide, he added. “While you take estrogen or while you make estrogen, there’s a protective effect on your bones. When you withdraw that estrogen you are going to lose bone at a fairly predictable rate.”
If bone loss is the only consideration, there are other nonestrogen agents that will reverse the tide, he said.
“Most middle-of-the-road clinicians, myself included…believe in the lowest effective dose for the shortest period of time possible, usually for the treatment of symptoms. The question is, for the woman who is totally asymptomatic, has no hot flashes, no vasomotor symptoms at night, not waking up at night, perhaps using a local vaginal preparation in her vagina, can you justify giving her systemic [HT] simply for bone protection?”
The answer might be yes for a very thin woman at very high risk for hip fracture, Dr. Goldstein said. “You’re going to have to take each woman on a case-by-case basis.”