Of all the health books I have read over the last 21 years, this one has the best info to save my life, heck, all of our lives! My birth mother died of a heart attack at 48. I am 46. I needed this info years ago!
Cholesterol in and of itself is not an indicator of coronary heart disease, calcium deposition is. Short hand reason why K2 is important is that it is the funnel which directs calcium away from soft vessels and tissues to where it is needed – in the bones! It also activates the endocrine function of our bone tissue! What? You didn’t know that our bone tissue is an endocrine gland? Well, neither did I until I read this book. I mean they may have taught that in nursing school, but they certainly didn’t teach about Vitamin K2 because it wasn’t rediscovered until 2007. I graduated in 2005. How many docs out there have gotten the memo?? Be your own health advocate!
I will give a simplified version of what K2 does. Dr. Rheaume-Bleue’s book goes in depth behind the science of how K2 does what it does in the body, but for the purposes of this post I will be succinct. Her book is a rich source for the what why and how K2 can change our health for the better. She has two great analogies for K2. It is both the funnel that directs the calcium from K1 rich greens into the bones where it is needed and is also the broom that sweeps calcium out of soft tissues like blood vessels or a gland like the pineal gland I discussed earlier.
K2 is mainly from animal sources, but there is one plant-based form and it is called natto. A slimy, stinky fermented dish usually made from soybeans. She says she really wanted to like this and tried many times, but couldn’t do it. It has been used in eastern Japan for centuries and the research shows that those Japanese who consume natto, the stinky breakfast food, have less disease overall than their western counterparts in significant numbers. Think, Okinawa. The western part of Japan doesn’t consume natto and has more hip fractures and heart disease! It is quite striking the difference in disease rates.
Vitamin K2 works in synergy with Vitamin A (only from fish oil, not from veggies or beta carotene) and D. If we take calcium and vitamin D3 supplements to ward off osteoporosis without Vitamin K2 two things can happen that are the opposite of health, the calcium we take can end up in our soft tissues not in our bone and if we take Vitamin D3 unopposed to K2 it can cause our bone tissue to dissolve. Vitamin A works to break down old bone tissue and stimulates bone to grow, but only in the presence of both K2 and D3.
Arterial plaque is mainly composed of calcium. When I was an OR nurse and worked in vascular surgeries where they removed plaque from the carotid arteries, what was removed resembled rubbery bone. It retained the shape of the artery even after removal. K2 has the ability within the body to remove these types of blockages when combined with Vitamin D3. Dr Rheaume-Bleue gives the example of a patient who had a 50% blockage of the aortic valve. His cardiologist, a believer in targeted supplementation, had already had good success stopping further blockage with high doses of Vitamin D3 in other patients. When he found out about the groundbreaking K2 study he also put his patient on the version consumed in natto. In 10 months the K2 and Vitamin D3 had worked to remove 95% of that blockage! Those kinds of numbers from supplementation have huge implications for everybody. Why isn’t this information mainstream?
We are all Vitamin K2 deficient unless we have been consuming either Natto (slimy stinky Japanese fermented soybeans) or FULL FAT dairy from cows that eat FRESH rapidly growing green grass, which I know we aren’t because of our broken food system. The real and serious danger is when we take calcium and Vit D supplements without it!!!
READ THIS BOOK!!
If your doc doesn’t know about K2 get her to read this book too. It just may save your life!
Here is the supplement I got since it is winter and even if you had a source of organic grass fed raw milk AND it was legal to consume grass isn’t growing rapidly now or at all. It’s vegan, but contains soy.
Seriously get this book!
Soul Kitty 