Category: Vitamins in general

New Theory on the origin of the flu

Claus Hancke

November 15, 2005

A recent theory claims that one does not catch the flu from contagious people, but by the activation of a dormant virus activated by vitamin D deficiency.

Serious medical journals do not often engage themselves with what private individuals think. In the latest issue of “The British Medical Journal” an exception is made on the journal’s last page, which is written regularly by the pretty named but anonymous female doctor, “Minerva.” Minerva has given her readers interesting scientific news, great and small, every week for decades.

This time she has pointed out a “blog” (an internet forum) with a gripping story on the virtues of vitamin D and why the flu sets in during the winter. She relates that the blog’s author is a member of “The vitamin D council,” a non-profit organisation which wishes to combat vitamin D deficiency.

Minerva recounts that he may be just another person who has hopped aboard the flu bandwagon. But could he possibly have found something important?

The blog is written by the Californian Dr. John Cannell. He explains, including many citations, first and foremost his theory about how the flu arises. The theory states that the flu is not so much the result of contagion, but more the activation of a dormant virus which we already have in our bodies. This virus can be activated and cause the flu when we are weakened by vitamin D deficiency during the winter. It is similar to the mechanisms behind cold sores, where the virus is dormant but can be activated causing a break out.

Does this sound like nonsense? In 2003, a department in the United State’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) disclosed that they had been unable to find any English language documentation for the flu being able to be infectious from person to person.

The recently dead epidemiologist, Edward Hope-Simpson discovered that when the elderly get shingles, it is caused by the same virus which causes chickenpox as a child. It becomes dormant in the body but can cause shingles when one is weakened by age.

Hope-Simpson became interested in the well known, but quite strange, fact that the flu only arises when the sun weakens during the winter. In the tropics, one gets the flu during the rainy season. He found that influenza outbreaks with exactly the same virus occurred year after year at almost exactly the same time in two far separated places, Prague and his English home town, Cirencester. With the help of old church records he found that, despite our faster daily lives, flu epidemics arise at the same time of year as they have for the last 400 years. This is true even in isolated towns; in such places the flu comes at the same time as in big cities.

Therefore, Hope-Simpson believed that flu epidemics are not cause by infection, but by a weakened state caused by the absence of sunlight. Canning now adds that vitamin D has a meaningful effect on the immune system and that the Japanese, as far back as 1945, found that it can protect rats against the flu. The well known vitamin D deficiency during the winter could be the reason for the weakened state that Hope-Simpson postulated.

Canning proposes that we should stock up on capsules of 50,000 units vitamin D in the event of a bird flu pandemic. He does not know if this will do any good, but says that it might save your life.

In any event, as Minerva also believes, his blog (as Minerva also believes) gives us something to think about.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. www.knowledgeofhealth.com/report.asp?story=Why%20Flu%20Epidemics%20Occur%20in%20Winter
2. Minerva. British Medical Journal 2005;331:1152.

www.knowledgeofhealth.com/report.asp
bmj.bmjjournals.com
www.iom.dk

Vitamin B12 And Folic Acid Reduce The Risk Of Blood Clots In The Brain

Claus Hancke

October 31, 2005

After Americans enriched their diet with folic acid in 1996, the frequency of blood clots in the brain was reduced by 15%. Now research shows that added supplementation of Vitamin B12 will markedly lower this risk even further.

Immediately, it sounds simple: People with high levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood have an increased risk of blood clots in the brain and in the heart. You also know that you can lower homocysteine with folic acid and, to a lesser extent, with B6 and B12 vitamins. When the Americans began to enrich cereal products with folic acid from 1996, both the average American’s homocysteine and the rate of blood clot in the brain decreased by about 15% in three years.

“The money fits”, and then the result is almost obvious in advance, if you want to conduct a lottery experiment, where every other participant gets folic acid, B6 and B12 vitamins. Of course, they get fewer blood clots in the brain.

But the reality is more varied. In Norway, such an experiment (NORVIT) was conducted with 3,750 patients who had just survived a blood clot in the heart. For 3.5 years, they were supplemented with either folic acid (0.8 mg), vitamin B6 (40 mg), both or blind tablets (placebo). Among those who only received folic acid, mortality decreased approx. 10%, but not statistically certain. But in the other two groups the death tolls were increased, not statistically certain either.

Perhaps it is too late to start taking supplements when you are already severely calcified. Or, as will appear, perhaps it was more decisive that the Norwegians “forgot” to give the participants vitamin B12.

An experiment has also been carried out in the USA (VISP). It was with people who had recovered from a blood clot in the brain, but had an increased risk of a new one. Admittedly, the Americans did not initially find any effect either. Supplementation of folic acid (2.5 mg), vitamin B6 (25 mg) and vitamin B12 (0.4 mg) did not reduce or improve mortality or risk of blood clots in the brain. Therefore, the experiment was simply stopped after two years. It was useless, they thought.

B12 is useful if it is absorbed
A close explanation could be the aforementioned enrichment of cereal products with folic acid. After all, the average homocysteine had already fallen by approx. 15% in the Americans. During the trial, it only dropped a further 2%.

But the Americans have since studied the numbers more closely. In doing so, they discovered one important source of error in particular: Many of the 3,680 elderly participants had reduced absorption of vitamin B12 from the gut and therefore had relatively little B12 in their blood (less than 250 pmol/l). This is often seen in the elderly, and it is now known that these elderly need supplements of at least 1,000 micrograms of vitamin B12 per day. But the participants had only received 400.

What would it look like if you now disregarded these participants and concentrated on those with normal B12 uptake? It was decided to investigate. At the same time, participants with reduced kidney function were disregarded, as they also respond sluggishly to these supplements. Finally, participants who were previously receiving medical treatment with B12 were naturally disregarded.

There remained 2,155 people who had no problems absorbing B12. In this large group, the supplements both lowered homocysteine further and reduced the overall risk of death, blood clot in the heart or blood clot in the brain – by 21%! The treatment helped anyway; even a lot when the ability to absorb B12 was intact.

As stated, it appears that the fortification of cereal products with folic acid has reduced the Americans’ risk of blood clots in the brain by approx. 15%. Now it seems that a solid supplement of vitamin B12 on top of that can reduce it significantly more – but the many elderly people, who absorb vitamin B12 poorly, presumably need larger supplements.

This is the result at the moment. It must be verified before it is approved. But the indications are there.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Toole JF, et al. Lowering homocysteine in patients with ischemic stroke to prevent recurrent stroke, myocardial infarction, and death: the Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention (VISP) randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2004 Feb 4;291(5):565-75.
2. Bonaa KH. NORVIT: Randomized trial of homocysteine-lowering with B-vitamins for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease after acute myocardial infarction. Program and Abstracts from the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2005; September 3-7, 2005; Stockholm, Sweden. Hot Line II. Iflg. Linda Brooks. NORVIT: The norwegian vitamin trial. Medscape sept. 2005. (Ikke publiceret i trykt medie)
3. Spence DJ et al. Vitamin intervention for stroke prevention trial. An efficacy analysis. Stroke 2005;36:2404-2409.

jama.ama-assn.org
www.medscape.com
stroke.ahajournals.org
www.iom.dk

You Must Plug The Hole Before The Boat Sinks

Claus Hancke

October 11, 2005

A Norwegian study has shown that if you have already experienced an acute myocardial infarction, the risk of another such infarction will not be reduced by taking folic acid, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin B12, even if homocysteine levels are lowered thereby.
If you get a great deal of folic acid, the blood content of the amino acid homocysteine will be relatively low. So much is certain. When the content is low, the risk of blood clots in the heart or brain hemorrrhage – other things being equal – is also low. It is also safe, but both are statistics only.

With these facts in the bag, one is tempted to think that supplementation with folic acid must be a good idea. As you know, folic acid is the B vitamin that young women should take to avoid having children with spina bifida. One can agree with the American Heart Association, which advises everyone to get 0.4 mg of folic acid a day, the same dose that women should take as a supplement.

In Tromsø in Norway, the so-called NORVIT trial (Norwegian Vitamin Trial) was the first to test whether supplements also help heart patients who have already had a blood clot in the heart. If the media is to be believed, it ended with a scare.

The results, which were presented in September at this year’s congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), led directly to warnings against folic acid in the press: B vitamins could be dangerous for heart patients, it said, and our own Danish heart association was quick to announce, that folic acid is “still” not recommended for heart patients – even though the month before was said something close to the opposite.

But, as is so often the case, the reports were misleading. Strictly speaking, the Norwegian trial did not show that folic acid is dangerous. If you want to argue that it showed anything at all, it was that the risk of heart attack, stroke, or death decreased—albeit by only a few percent—in those who took 0.8 milligrams of folic acid a day for 3.5 years . However, this was not statistically certain.

The fact is that there were in fact not one, but three trials, with a total of 3,750 people, all of whom had had blood clots in the heart. One showed that a combination of folic acid, vitamin B6 and B12 led to approx. 20% more cases of blood clots in the heart than placebo (cheat pills). The second – the only one where only folic acid was used – showed no difference in reality. There was also no difference in the third trial, where the participants only received vitamin B6.

In one area, the experiments turned out to be successful: those who received folic acid achieved a drop in the blood homocysteine content of approx. 30%. Enough so that one could hope for a nice drop in the number of new blood clots. Which did not appear.

But the questions arise: Is it appropriate for heart patients to be careful about taking folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 at the same time?
Or are we talking about completely different anatomical conditions with secondary prophylaxis than there are with primary prophylaxis? After all, you have had a blood clot.

Also at the congress, the ESC’s designated commentator, Ian Graham, doubted the result. He believed that the experiment might have been too small and too complicated to be credible.

One can go a step further and think that the result is purely due to chance. In any case, it is not supported by any theory.
It is more likely that folic acid is simply not suitable for preventing blood clots in severely arteriosclerotic patients. – In other words secondary prophylaxis.

There is a lot of evidence that folic acid – and low homocysteine – slows the development of atherosclerosis in healthy people – i.e. primary prophylaxis. But the usefulness of this function diminishes when the calcification is already very advanced. The bottom plug must be inserted before the boat is sunk.

If folic acid is to prevent blood clots, you probably have to start in good time. On the other hand, the vitamin has other benefits. Among other things. experiments convincingly indicate that it helps to keep the brain young, even in the elderly.

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Bonaa KH. NORVIT: Randomized trial of homocysteine-lowering with B-vitamins for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease after acute myocardial infarction. Program and Abstracts from the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2005; September 3-7, 2005; Stockholm, Sweden. Hot Line II. Iflg. Linda Brooks. NORVIT: The Norwegian vitamin trial. Medscape Sept. 2005. (Not published in a printed media).

www.medscape.com/viewprogram/4494_pnt
www.iom.dk

High Dose Intravenous Vitamin C Fights Cancer

Admin

September 28, 2005

This was the New York Times’ headline two weeks ago.

The United States National Institute of Health (NIH) has publicized a laboratory study (1) which shows that when cancer cells are exposed to high doses of vitamin C, which can only be achieved though intravenous injection, the cancer cells die without the normal cells being effected.

The NIH pronounced,”These findings give plausibility to i.v. ascorbic acid in cancer treatment.” They rightly add that much separates laboratory studies from human treatment.

Meanwhile this study is an affirmation of similar results of many earlier studies. In 2004 researchers indicated that “the role of vitamin C in cancer treatment should be re-examined” because intravenous doses of vitamin C can give concentrations which have anti-tumour effects (2)

In 1993 a study showed that vitamin C is deadly or cytotoxic to fast growing malignant cells while being non-toxic to non-malignant cells. Supplementary studies showed that ascorbate’s effects on cell growth are due to its direct lethal effect on cancer cells contrary to a cytostatic effect (3).

Earlier it had been proven that vitamin C has a growth inhibiting effect on cancer cells, but only in large concentrations. The addition of the antioxidant catalase to the growth media completely suppressed this growth inhibiting effect.

The authors of this study believed that this indicates that an overproduction of hydrogen peroxide in involved in the mechanisms responsible for vitamin C’s inhibitory effect of tumour cell growth (4).

The authors of the more recent study lean towards this hypothesis from 1989, which is that high dose vitamin C’s toxic effect on cancer cells is due to subsequent high concentrations of peroxide. Normal cells have an intact antioxidant defence in the form of catalase. This is lacking in cancer cells. This is why vitamin C harms cancer cells and not normal cells, which is exactly the finding of the 2005 study.

Vitamin C’s potential in cancer treatment was also shown in two large studies from 1994, where large doses of ascorbic acid had strong cytotoxic (cell poisonous) effects on a wide range of cancer cell types grown in test tubes (5).

The authors of the second 1994 study also argue that ascorbic acids acts as a pro-oxidant in cancer cells, and they recommend the use of ascorbic acid in the treatment of neuroblastoma (6).

So far so good; but remember that researchers from the NIH mention that there is much separating laboratory studies and the treatment of people.

Vitamin C is meanwhile so non-toxic that some have already undertaken large studies on people.

As early as 1936, a young Danish doctor published an article in the Danish medical weekly “Ugeskrift for Læger” outlining a study where vitamin C was used in the treatment of two leukaemia patients where both showed improvement. This young doctor, named Preben Plum later became a renowned professor or paediatrics.

40 years later a study including 1,100 patients suffering from terminal cancer showed that those who were treated with i.v. vitamin C lived considerably longer than those who were not treated (7).

Ten years ago Riordan et. al. showed that ascorbic acid levels in the plasma can reach levels toxic to tumour cells if given intravenously. The authors believe that ascorbic acid’s cytotoxic properties should qualify it to be considered as a chemotherapeutic drug.

These few examples of a large amount of vitamin C studies fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

This has awakened considerable interest in the media and could strengthen the scientific foundation of clinics where i.v. vitamin C treatment for cancer is already used.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Chen et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 20. Sept. 2005;102:13604-9.
2. Annals of Internal Medicine 2004;140: 533-37.
3. P.Y. Leung, et al. Cytotoxic Effect of Ascorbate and its Derivatives on Cultured Malignant and Nonmalignant Cell Lines, Anticancer Research, 13(2), March-April 1993, p. 475-480.
4. V. Noto, et al., Effects of Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C) and 2-methyl-1,4-Naphthoquinone Treatment on Human Tumor Cell Growth in Vitro. I. Synergism of Combined Vitamin C and K3 Action, Cancer, 63(5), March 2, 1989, p. 901-906.
5. M. A. Medina, et al. Ascorbic Acid is Cytotoxic for Pediatric Tumor Cells Cultured in Vitro, Biochem Mol Biol Int, 34(5), November 1994, p. 871-874.
6. S.L. Baader, et al., Uptake and Cytotoxicity of Ascorbic Acid and Dehydroascorbic Acid in Neuroblastoma (SK-N-SH) and Neuroectodermal (SK-N-LO) Cells, Anticancer, 14(1A), January-February 1994 p. 221-227.
7. Cameroun, Proc Natl Acad Sci 1976;73:3685-9.
8. N.H. Riordan, et. al. Intravenous Ascorbate as a Tumor Cytotoxic Chemotherapeutic Agent, Medical Hypotheses, 44(3), March 1995, p. 207-213.

www.nih.gov
www.pnas.org
www.annals.org
www.iiar-anticancer.org/research/research_index.htm
www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp
www.med.unibs.it/biblioteca/pubmed2/biomol6.htm
www.sciencedirect.com
www.cancer.gov
www.nytimes.com
www.iom.dk

Vitamin D as a Universal Remedy

Claus Hancke

September 13, 2005

Vitamin D, which most people lack in the winter and many lack in the summer, has an increasing number of roles to play. A deficiency in Vitamin D increases the risk of multiple sclerosis, several types of cancer, skin diseases, and even increased blood pressure.

Vitamin D plays an important role in the public consciousness, but even a bigger role in the minds of those who develop new medicine. Substances which are related to vitamin D are central to the treatment of many serious diseases. This is shown by a comprehensive and very well documented summary from the American pharmaceutical giant Eli-Lily.

In this summary the status and possibility of vitamin D treatment for (among others) prostate cancer, enlarged prostate, breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, leukaemia, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, skin cancer, hypertension, and of course osteoporosis is examined.

Here are some examples:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a so called autoimmune disease, which means that it is a disease where the body’s immune system turns against parts of the body itself, in this case nerve tissue. In animal models of this disease it is possible to avoid outbreaks with the help of calcitriol. Calcitriol is the active version of the vitamin and is created as needed by the body so long as the vitamin D deposits are sufficient. MS is most common in temperate countries, where the sun in relatively low in the sky and vitamin D deficiency is common.

Rheumatoid arthritis is also an autoimmune disease, but with this disease the joints are attacked by the immune system. People with small vitamin D depots more often suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and the risk is higher in temperate countries than in subtropical climes. In animals it is possible to avoid worsening of symptoms if calcitriol is given early enough.

Psoriasis is already treated with salves which contain the vitamin D containing substance calcipotirol (Daivonex), which helps at least 70% of sufferers. Sunlight also helps. Like vitamin D, calcipotirol has the ability to help cells become mature and specialized without growing uncontrolled.

Death rates from prostate cancer are lowest in sunny countries, and the risk of getting this disease is highest in men who have small vitamin D deposits. In a study prostate cancer growth was inhibited in six out of seven patients with the help of calcitriol tablets (0.5-2.5 microgram per day). This is also explained by the vitamin’s effects on the cells. Because normal prostate cell growth is also slowed, researchers also see a possibility of using such treatment for enlarged prostate.

Breast cancer and colon cancer are more common in people who do no get much sun. Both the growth and the spread of breast cancer are reduced by calcitriol in animal studies. Regarding colon cancer, increased growth has been seen in animals that were artificially given vitamin D deficiency. This cancer inhibiting property is predicted to play an important role in future treatment.

Finally, hypertension should be considered. Lack of sunlight and vitamin D in the blood are believed to contribute to high blood pressure. High blood pressure is quickly caused (in mice) by avoiding vitamin D.

All of the above illnesses have the common factor that they can be provoked by lack of sunlight, the most important source of vitamin D. They are also counteracted by vitamin D and vitamin D like substances.

One could wish that it would be possible to treat and prevent these illnesses with the active form of vitamin D, calcitriol. But this is a risky method which can lead to increase calcium levels in the blood and kidney stones. Therefore we must be content with getting vitamin D the natural way, which is to say from sunlight or by eating fatty fish, and then let the organism create calcitriol as needed.

Unfortunately at our latitudes the fours summer months from May to August are the only months where there is enough sun that we create vitamin D in the skin. Those who do not come out in the sun or are covered in clothing, do not create near enough. This makes it necessary to take vitamin D in pill form.

The task is to get enough vitamin D. This is not possible during the dark months without vitamin supplements or eating a lot of fatty fish. Deficiency creates a larger problem than many are aware.

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Nagpal S et al. Noncalcemic actions of vitamin D receptor ligands. Endocrine Reviews 2005;26:662-87.

edrv.endojournals.org
www.iom.dk

Vitamin D Together With NSAID Medicine Fights Prostate Cancer

Claus Hancke

September 3, 2005

A world-famous Vitamin-D researcher has initiated a study with a very simple treatment of cancer of the prostate. If expectations are met, then it could result in a revolution in the treatment of the most frequent form of cancer in men.

Among men over 60 at least every other have cancer in the prostate, usually without knowing it. It has been discovered many years ago by investigating men who died for some other reason. Cancer in the prostate is typically a disease that you do not die from – but with! Nevertheless, it is the most frequent cause of cancer among men after lung cancer.

It is therefore difficult to deny that there is an obvious need for an effective treatment, but the treatment has been at a standstill for many years. Only now something is about to happen. More and more, the disease has been associated with the extremely widespread lack of vitamin D. Vitamin D has a normalizing and growth-inhibiting effect in many tissues.

Faith in vitamin D has now become so great that one of the world’s leading vitamin D researchers, Professor David Feldman from Stanford University, has launched a clinical study. It targets men with prostate cancer who have relapsed during usual treatment.

Feldman will give them a combination of active vitamin D (calcitriol, see below) and regular arthritis pills (ibumetin or naproxen), both in moderate doses. To avoid side effects of calcitriol, it is given only once a week, but the exact dose is not stated.

Several years of laboratory studies have preceded this. Here, it has recently been shown that calcitriol reduces the growth of prostate cancer by 25%. The same result is obtained by treatment with traditional anti-rheumatic drugs (NSAID preparations, e.g. ibumetin and naproxen).

But most convincingly, when vitamin D and anti-rheumatic drugs are combined, growth slows down by as much as 70%, even if you are content with tolerable doses of each. Both agents counteract the formation of the so-called prostaglandins, which cause the cancer cells to grow and – in another context – cause arthritic pain, etc. If they are combined, the effect is enhanced.

This, as well as the announcement of the new trial, can be seen in, among other things, of a new press release from Stanford University. If the trial fulfills expectations, it will not only have enormous significance for the treatment. It will also be a sleight-of-hand tip for healthy men to get more vitamin D – perhaps a lot more – so they can make enough calcitriol themselves (calcitriol is only available by prescription).

Feldman is not just anyone when it comes to vitamin D. Together with two others, he is behind the book “Vitamin D” (Academic Press), which is a standard work for researchers with 1,800 pages. The newly revised edition costs DKK 3,445, so it is unlikely to be a bestseller. Feldman has been researching vitamin D for many years and has more than 200 scientific articles behind him.

Vitamin D is not a vitamin, but a hormone. It is formed in the skin by sun exposure, but must be converted in the liver and kidneys to become the active calcitriol. It is by now accepted by everyone that the elderly in particular cannot possibly get enough vitamin D if they do not receive supplements or eat plenty of oily fish. This is because, with age, the skin largely loses the ability to form the vitamin. In the dark half-year, the sun is also so low in the sky (in our northern latitudes) that neither young nor old form anything of importance, whether they get sun or not.

There are less than five micrograms of vitamin D in a typical Danish daily diet, but officially it is now recommended that adults get twice as much, nursing home residents four times as much. It is not difficult to find researchers who believe that this too is too little. The upper limit of risk-free intake is estimated at 50 micrograms per day.

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Moreno J, Krishnan AV, Feldman D. Molecular mechanisms mediating the anti-proliferative effects of Vitamin D in prostate cancer. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2004 Nov;92(4):317-25

Vegetables And Dietary Supplementation Protect Against Alzheimer’s

Admin

August 30, 2005

Elderly persons who get adequate amounts of folic acid have a 55% reduced risk of getting dementia induced by Alzheimer’s disease, says an American study.

Lack of the B vitamin folic acid is probably the most common deficiency in Denmark. Too few people manage to chew the 2-300 grams of green vegetables that are needed every day if they want the recommended 0.3 mg from the diet. In the United States, 0.4 mg is recommended, but here grain products are legally enriched with folic acid.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Corrada MM. et al. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2005;1:11-18.
2. Fuso A. et al. S-adenosylmethionine/homocysteine cycle alterations modify DNA methylation status with consequent deregulation of PS1 and BACE and beta-amyloid production. Mol Cell Neurosci. 2005 Jan;28(1):195-204.
3. Quadri P. et al. Homocysteine, folate and vitamin B12 in mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease aqmd vascular dementia. Am J Clin Nutr 2004,80:114-22

www.sciencedirect.com/science
www.ajcn.org
www.iom.dk

Vitamin K against osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis

Admin

August 22, 2005

Researchers recommend Vitamin K supplementation. The need for this vitamin may be even greater than was previously supposed. Vitamin K deficiency leads to weaker bones and calcification of the arteries and vitamin K supplementation will both treat and prevent these problems.

Vitamin K “should be strongly considered as a dietary supplement” for women after menopause and for diabetics, groups which have high risks of developing both osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis. The vitamin is very non toxic and seems to be able to combat these ailments.

This is the very uncompromising conclusion put forth in a new scientific summary of vitamin K which has been published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, which is a serious but lesser known professional journal.

In spite of this journals lack of prominence, it’s very direct message regarding vitamin K will spread throughout the world. It was quickly published in its entirety by www.medscape.com the worlds largest website for doctors. Medscape has millions of readers worldwide.

Vitamin K is found almost exclusively in green vegetables. It is practically nonexistent in other foodstuffs. It was previously believed that the bacteria in our intestines hold us well supplied with the vitamin. This is not the case!

It is officially recommended (in the USA) that one has an intake of no less than 100 micrograms vitamin K daily, corresponding to about 75 grams green salad, spinach, etc. This is supposedly enough for the blood to coagulate properly.

But according to the article ensuring proper coagulation is far from enough. The vitamin is just as important for bones and arteries, and its optimal effect requires much more than officially recommended. In studies with vitamin K1, 10 times the official recommendation (10,000 micrograms) is typically used. This can be done worry free, there are no side effects. No effects have been reported, even when 45,000 micrograms K2 was used per day, 400-500 times recommended, for up to many years.

Vitamin K is responsible for making certain proteins able to bind to calcium. This occurs by the vitamin attaching mild acids (carboxyl groups) to the protein enabling it, like a type of crane, to pick up and move calcium to where it is needed. The protein which has this effect in bones is called osteocalcin and is produced with the aid of vitamin D. With the help of a weak acid osterocalcin can pick up calcium from the blood and place it in the bones. Vitamin K has long been used in Japan to counteract osteoarthritis.

In clogged arteries, for example the coronary arteries, the opposite occurs. It is believed that vitamin K counteracts the depositing of calcium in these vessels by adding a certain protein to the same acids. If the protein is missing or damaged and inaccessible to the acid, the blood vessel clogs quickly. This has been shown in animal studies. Normally the “crane” removes calcium from the arteries so they do not become clogged.

That there is a protein which prevents atherosclerosis and that vitamin K is necessary for its production is a very revolutionary theory. The theory is supported by Dutch research. In a three year long randomised study on older women, half received a daily dose of 1,000 micrograms vitamin K while the rest unknowingly received placebo.

The stiffness of the women’s carotid arteries was measured before and after the three years as a measure for the degree of arthrosclerosis. After the three year period this was unchanged in the women who received the vitamin K whereas nature had marched on in the rest of the women. Their arteries became 8% stiffer.

The strange phenomenon where calcium disappears from the bones and is accumulated in the arteries with age is called the “calcification paradox.” Aging phenomena are without a doubt a part of the explanation, but vitamin K deficiency is probably also contributory. It is without a doubt important to consider this paradox.

Important
If you receive strong blood thinning medicine such as Marevan, you should unfortunately avoid vitamin K supplements. Any such supplement can counteract your treatment and be life threatening.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Adams J, Pepping J. Vitamin K in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis and arterial calcification. Am J Health-Syst Pharm 2005;62:1574-81.
2. Braam LA et al. Beneficial effects of vitamin D and K on the elastic properties of the vessel wall in postmenopausal women: A follow up study. J Thromb Haemosta. 2004;91:373-80.

www.ajhp.org
www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp
www.iom.dk

Vitamin E Protects Against Blood Clots And Brain Haemorrhages

Admin

August 9, 2005

Healthy women over 65 can lower their risk of serious consequences of arthrosclerosis by 25 %. This is confirmed by the world’s longest study of vitamin E, so far.

In 1997 44 % of all American cardiologists regularly used antioxidants, especially vitamin E, to prevent coronary thrombosis and strokes. The confidence in vitamin E was so strong that it surpassed the confidence in aspirin, which was only used by 42 %.

The cardiologists relied on the universal theory that arthrosclerosis arises when cholesterol is oxidized and that vitamin E, amongst other things, prevents this oxidization. Unfortunately solid evidence that vitamin E truly protects against arthrosclerosis, and thereby prevents thromboses, has been lacking. Large randomized studies have been disappointing, but also encumbered by obvious faults. Everything is shrouded in doubt. But if the doctors have stopped using vitamin E in disappointment, maybe they will begin using it again now.

The occasion is the largest and longest randomized study up until now with vitamin E. It showed that when healthy women over 65 received vitamin E as a supplement, their risk of suffering a coronary thrombosis or a stroke decreased by 26 %. And not only was the incidence lowered, the diseases also became less dangerous. The total mortality rate was approximately halved (to 51 %).

Other studies of vitamin E have been relatively short, and have had participants who suffered from serious arthrosclerosis. However this study lasted ten years, and the participants were healthy. Exactly because they did not suffer seriously from arthrosclerosis from the beginning, it was hoped that it was not too late to prevent it. A total of 20,000 women received 600 units of natural vitamin E (alpha-tokoferol) every other day for ten years. Just as many other women were given a placebo (fake pills).

The women who were over 65 benefited. However, the large majority was younger than 65. They had no obvious benefits from the treatment. 18,000 women under 65 received vitamin E. 352 of these suffered a coronary thrombosis or a stroke, some with a fatal outcome. That number was eleven higher than amongst the 18,000 who received placebos. A small and random difference. Apparently vitamin E did not benefit the younger women.

For comparison only 2 times 2000 women over 65 participated. In the group receiving vitamin E, there were 130 cases of either cardiac thrombosis or stroke. In the placebo group there were 46 cases more. This difference is relatively large, and statistically quite certain.

But why does vitamin E not benefit the younger? The obvious answer is that maybe it does, but younger women more seldom suffer cardiac thrombosis, and the potential effect is difficult to measure. In the course of the ten years the study ran, less than two percent of those under 65 suffered a cardiac thrombosis or a stroke. Those older, of course had a bigger risk (about eight percent). One can speculate that despite the neutral numbers, the younger group did in fact become less atherosclerotic because of the vitamin E supplement. No one knows, since a direct measurement of the blood vessels was not conducted. The only measurement for the degree of arthrosclerosis was the rough numbers for cardiac thrombosis and stroke.

If seen under the same light, statistically there was only tendency towards benefit from vitamin E. It is a natural consequence of the fact that there were nine times as many young participants, as there were older. The researchers did however choose to conclude on the basis of this result. They believe that the study does not warrant a general recommendation of vitamin E for the prevention of cardio-vascular disease. With regards to those over 65, it is being said that the result deviates from “the total knowledge” and should be investigated further.

This is a somewhat weak comment. A more direct comment came from Maret Taber who is professor at the Linus Pauling Institute in California and one of the World’s leading vitamin E experts:

“Vitamin E has its clear value in the fight against cardiac disease and other degenerative sufferings. It is most important for smokers, persons suffering from hypertension and those who eat an unhealthy diet.”

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Lee, I-Min. Vitamin E in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease
and cancer. The Womens Health Study: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA
2005;294:56-65.

jama.ama-assn.org
www.iom.dk

On-time “Delivery” with Vitamin C

Admin

June 28, 2005

Vitamin C is necessary for the creation and maintenance of connective tissue. Therefore, it protects pregnant women against damage to the fetus membrane so that the uterine fluid in which the fetus floats does not leave the uterus prematurely. The typical Danish diet contains much too little Vitamin C for pregnant women.

It is well-known that pregnant women should take folic acid – even before the conception of the fetus – to prevent the birth of children with Spina Bifida. Now it seems that Vitamin C is important for the pregnant in another area: It protects against premature birth.

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Casanueva E, Ripoll C, Tolentino M, Morales RM, Pfeffer F, Vilchis P, Vadillo-Ortega F Vitamin C supplementation to prevent premature rupture of the chorioamniotic membranes: a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Apr;81(4):859-63.