It has been called "the missing nutrient" and "nature's missing link," as well as "the elusive X-Factor," by various health researchers.
"It" is a vitamin you've probably never heard of, and its absence in your diet could lead to an increased risk of either prostate cancer (in men), heart attack, or stroke, in both sexes.
The western world manufactured "food" diet is mostly lacking in this particular vital vitamin that is so essential to preventing these degenerative diseases.
Adding this vitamin to your diet is easy, once you know where it can be found naturally, and its effects can be enhanced by avoiding certain key dietary sources of illness and disease that are so commonplace in most cuisines today.
The K Factor
The vitamin in question is vitamin K, of which there are up to 10 specific known varieties, those of particular interest being K-1 and K-2.
In 1945 Dentist and nutritionist Weston Price discovered what he called "a new vitamin-like activator" which plays a vital role in the body's ability to utilize minerals (another essential component of a healthy diet sadly deficient in most western-world manufactured and overcooked "foods"), prevention of tooth decay, in normal growth and proper development, especially of the skeletal structure, in the reproductive systems of male and female, and even in the optimal functioning of the brain.
It is also protective against heart disease -- by clearing plaque from arteries -- and prostate cancer.
Price, who called this substance "Activator X" found it occurred most frequently in the butterfat, organs and fat of animals that consumed mostly rapidly growing green grasses, or grass-like plants such as alfalfa and wheat grass, and also in certain sea creatures, and in fish eggs.
This form of the vital vitamin K was later, after Price's death, discovered to be K-2, which is synthesized from the form K-1 -- which occurs naturally in most green and leafy plants -- by the ruminant animals' digestive system and other tissues or cells, and particularly by the mammary glands.
Vitamin K-2 is also produced, to a limited degree, from vitamin K-1 in the human digestive tract, by a certain form of bacteria, when this vitamin is present in the diet (which is rarely the case today, due to an almost universal lack of foods in the diet containing this essential essence of a truly healthy cuisine).
Vitamin K-2, as Price discovered, works synergistically with vital vitamin A, and also with the hormone pseudo-"vitamin" D. This is a key feature that explains how K-2 is so effective at controlling calcium and preventing plaque-hardened arteries.
It also plays such a vital role in the pre-pubescent development of facial bones that the lack of K-2 in the American diet, Price learned, resulted in malformed dental arches, crowded and impacted teeth, and also rampant tooth decay throughout life.
The Basics of K
Phylloquinone, also known as vitamin K-1, is found tightly embedded in the membrane of green plant organelle chloroblasts that produce chlorophyll, and is associated directly with both chlorophyll and beta-carotene.
K-1 is actually utilized to form bridges between chlorophyll and various iron-sulphur centers, when these organelles absorb sunlight, so that the high-energy electrons formed by this interaction can travel across the bridges, to release their energy into cells, which use this energy to synthesize glucose.
In animals, to varying degrees depending not only on the type of animal but even the species or strain of species, vitamin K-1 is converted -- particularly in the mammary glands -- into menaquinone or K-2. This is also produced by the action of a lactic-acid bacterium on K-1, although this produces a slightly different form of K-2 from that made by the cells of animals.
Humans are not known to produce very much K-2, possibly due to dietary deficiencies in sources of K-1, particularly green leafy vegetables such as collard greens, spinach, kale, salad greens, brocolli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, okra, green beans, lentils and olive oil.
K-2 is not just a different form of the same vitamin (K-1), but is actually an entirely new and unique vitamin in its own right, which is synthesized from the base of K-1.
Although K-1 is ten times more prevalent in the typical diet than K-2, it is K-2 that is as essential to good health, vitality and protection from heart disease and cancer as the human immune system itself, if not more so.
A major purpose of K-2 is to put and keep calcium where it belongs, in bones and teeth, and away from where it does not belong, the arteries, soft tissues, the joints and joint fluids. K-2 is also a vital component of healthy nervous and cardiovascular systems and, as Weston Price also discovered, is a vital component of healthy saliva as well.
The richness of the natural yellow or yellow-orange coloring of butterfat is directly related to its beta-carotene and vitamins K-1 and K-2 content.
Both K vitamins belong to a class of compounds known as the quinones. Quinone is a derivative of the aromatic compounds benzene or napthlalene, where the hydrogen atoms on opposite carbon atoms are replaced with two atoms of oxygen. Hydrogenating quinones converts them into hydroquinones (quinizarins), which are a precursor in the production of hydrogen peroxide.
Natural Protection and Enhancement
Both vitamin A and hormone ("vitamin") D are molecules that signal cells to make proteins, which are activated by vitamin K-2, by conferring upon these proteins its ability to physically bind calcium, and these proteins in turn can directly affect the movement and organization of calcium, which also can act as a sort of organic glue that binds the protein into particular shapes.
In every case these proteins are only functional, or fully functional, in the presence of vitamin K-2 activation. An example is osteocalcin, a protein produced by cells only in the presence of vitamin A and hormone D, which organizes the deposit of phosphorus salts and calcium in bones and the teeth, this process only occurring when sufficient vitamin K-2 is present.
These same vitamins also regulate expression of MGP, the Matrix Gla Protein, which protects arteries from becoming calcified and mineralizes bone. In addition, MGP also cannot become functional without access to sufficient vitamin K-2, which further prevents premature calcification of cartilage growth areas in relation to the bones.
In fact, toxic effects related to excess hormone D, and Warfarin (an "anti-coagulant" drug), include bone absorption, soft-tissue calcification, growth retardation, anorexia and lethargy, related directly to vitamin K-2 or K-2-dependent protein deficiency (Warfarin inhibits vitamin K recycling and therefore enhances D toxicity, while additionally created its own form of toxicity).
Therefore vitamin K-2 is an essential requirement in regulating whatever vitamin A and hormone D are present, as well as enhancing and fortifying their actions in proper areas of the body where they are needed most, while protecting other areas from the possible toxic effects of an overabundance of these essential nutrients.
Health Scam Or Health Protector?
When combined with cod liver oil, Weston Price found that vitamin K-2 (which he knew as "Activator X") not only prevented dental caries, it even helps heal them!
Examination of human skeletons of past eras by Price determined that more cavities were prevalent in just the past century than in any previous period of a thousand years!
When vitamin K-2 is absent in the saliva, Price discovered, the bacterial count of the saliva is increased and it leeches phosphorous from the enamel of teeth, weakening their structure and exposing them to decay. By contrast, with vitamin K-2 present in the saliva, the bacterial count is reduced and phosphorous moves from the saliva to tooth enamel, strengthening the teeth and healing decay.
By itself a concentrate of vitamin K-2 enormously reduces the Lactobacillus acidopholus count in saliva down from several hundred thousand to around 15,000, and when combined with cod liver oil, a concentrate of vitamin K-2 reduces the same Lactobacillus content of saliva from a count of several hundred thousand down to zero, Price learned in another of his many experiments.
Weston Price wrote what is still considered by those in the dental profession as the bible on dentistry. Sadly dentists who are in a position to teach their patients the value of healthy diet (and precisely what this entails, thanks to Price's enormous contributions to this field of research), in providing a lifetime prevention of painful and debilitating dental problems, have almost universally failed in this public duty.
Instead, dentistry has become the primary source of a massive amount of unhealthy contamination and degradation in overall health of millions of people subjected to the daily onslaughts of toxic mercury poisoning, electrical pollution from combining various metals in fillings and bridges, artificial hormones leeched from plastic dental fillings, nerve and brain stem suppressing toxic fluoride, and the cost, complications and needless pain of unnecessary surgeries; all in the name of ill-gotten profits.
The stress of rotting teeth, jaw and temporomandibular joint misalignment, toxic substances constantly present in the mouth, poisonous mercury continually leeching into far areas of the body and vital organs (proven by adding a radioactive form of mercury to fillings in a sheep, and then taking an x-ray of the sheep after just 29 days to determine the location and extent of mercury leeching into the body from the fillings), and brain activity overwhelmed by the presence of different metals, that react with the acids in saliva, to produce electrical charges that radiate through the roof of the mouth into the brain and nervous system...
All of these have led to more suffering, illness, and death from every form of modern disease, up to and including cancer!
Healthy Bones vs. Rampant Calcification
The highest concentration of vitamin K-2 is found in the pancreas, and the second highest concentration is found in the salivary glands.
Teeth, for instance, are composed of three types of calcified tissues: cementum which forms the roots of teeth, dentin which forms the supporting structure under the tooth's surface, and enamel which forms the hard surface area of teeth.
Pulp tissue contains stem cells that can differentiate into odontoblasts, which can regenerate dentin when the conditions favor this process, which is assisted by the presence of vitamin K-2, particularly in the presence of vitamin A and hormone D.
Osteocalcin is a vitamin K-dependent protein that regulates and organizes the deposition of calcium and phophorus salts in teeth and bones, which is essential in the growth of new dentin material, from which new tooth enamel may be formed. On the other hand the pulp cells underlying the dentin are destroyed when the dentin is invaded by cavity-creating bacteria.
Vitamin A and hormone D signal odontoblasts to produce more osteocalcin, and help regulate the expression of MGP which is required for proper bone mineralization, but a mineral-rich foundation for dentin can only be laid when vitamin K-2 activates these proteins.
Vitamins A and K-2, and hormone D rich butter oil concentrate, and the K-dependent proteins Matrix Gla Protein (MGP) and osteocalcin, can also cure rickets and increase levels of calcium and phosphorus in bones.
Whole and raw milk is one of the best sources of these protective and health-promoting and restorative properties. Pasteurizing milk destroys the enzymes needed to properly digest it, causing allergic reactions such as lactose intolerance, and actually leads to demineralization and loss of calcium and phosphorus from the bones and teeth, and increases calcification and rupturing of aortal arteries, osteopenia and spontaneous bone fractures.
In addition, mineral deposits in the absence of osteocalcin are organized differently, impacting the functional regulation of bone quality and shape. The cells of this protein are laid down as a calcified foundation of bone, when it is secreted in response to vitamin A and hormone D, but only in the presence of sufficient vitamin K-2, in conjunction with proper MGP-organized mineralization.
Increased levels of inactive osteocalcin in the blood indicates an insufficient amount of vitamin K-2, and a more than five-times increased risk of hip and other bone fractures.
While less than one fifth of the daily amount of one milligram of absorbable vitamin K-1 can be obtained from a whole health food diet, vitamin K-2 can be readily absorbed from such sources, and is much more effective than K-1 in raising the percentage of activated osteocalcin, and does not reach a plateau after just three days, as K-1 does, according to one study.
Blood coagulants produced by the liver are also highly K-dependent, and are always found in their active form, whereas the activated form of circulating osteocalcin is usually just ten to thirty percent of the total inactive osteocalcin, indicating a near-universal deficiency of vitamin K-2 in most "healthy" adults.
In the elderly, Japanese trials have shown that vitamin K-2 completely reverses bone loss and can even increase bone mass for those suffering from osteoporosis, while K-1 supplementation only resulted in small decreases in bone loss.
A group of seven trials in Japan revealed a 60 percent reduction in vertebral fractures and an 80 percent reduction in hip fractures and other non-vertebral fractures when K-2 supplements were given, and even giving high doses of K-2 did not result in any adverse effects over the course of the several years these trials were conducted.
Modern western-world influenced diets simply and plainly do not provide sufficient sources of vitamin K-2, particularly in the form found primarily in green grass, alfalfa and range-fed (never feed lot, grain-fed livestock) animal meats and organs, or whole unpasteurized and non-homogenized whole milk and whole milk byproducts, such as butter, sweet and sour creams, and cheeses of all types.
Vitamin K-2's Many Useful Functions
Vitamin K-2 acts like an activator to vitamin A and hormone D, hence the name "Activator X" prior to the proper naming of this vital vitamin.
Foods particularly rich in K-2, in order of greatest to least concentration, are:
Natto, Hard Cheeses, Soft Cheeses, Curd Cheeses, Egg Yolk, Butter, Chicken Liver, Chicken Breast, Chicken Leg, Ground Beef, Calf Liver, Sauerkraut, Whole Milk, Salmon, and Egg White.
Of these, only the animal sources contained the form menatetrenone or menaquinone-4 (MK-4), produced by cellular activity rather than bacterial fermentation.
The precursor to all animal forms of vitamin K-2 is found in cereal grasses and alfalfa, which accumulate K-1 in direct proportion to their photosynthesis activity. Vitamin K-2, produced from vitamin K-1 precursor by animal cells and digestive bacteria, is essential in preventing degenerative diseases of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, and is critical in creating mineralized tissues in teeth and bones.
Together with vitamin A and hormone D, K-2 commands cells to not only make essential proteins but activates and brings them to life, with all their health-enhancing and protective qualities.
Vitamin K-2 is found in the greatest quantities in the pancreas, liver, kidneys, the brain, and even the testes in men (and very probably in the female ovaries as well).
Activated K-dependent proteins inhibit the growth of calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys, thereby helping prevent kidney stones. Those suffering from this affliction generally have kidneys that secrete the K-dependent protein in an inactive form, which is up to twenty times less effective than its active form in preventing kidney stone formation.
These proteins are only activated by vitamin K-2.
Some recent cellular experiments in Japan have also revealed that K-2 has some powerful anti-carcinogenic properties -- by inducing an antitumor effect in gastric cancer cell lines via cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis (cellular death) -- which may make it useful for helping prevent or treat cancer in humans.
K-2's major role in brain functions supports the activity of the enzymes catalyzing the initial reaction that produces sphingolipids (which play an essential role in the constituents of the brain's structural membranes, cell survival, and signaling abilities), and also the enzyme that catalyzes the final step in the synthesis of sulfatides, which along with sphingomyelin are so vital in the production of the electrical insulators of neurons known as the myelin sheaths.
Another vitamin K-dependent protein, known as gas6, helps to promote the survival of brain cells due to free radical caused death of cells that synthesize myelin, which can be caused by a deficiency of the dimeric amino acid cystine and an excess of glutamate.
While K-1 can protect against glutamate toxicity as well as K-2, only the latter can counteract the harmful effects of low cystine levels, being up to 15 times more effective than K-1 in relieving this condition.
Oxidative stress can lead to seizures, cerebral palsy and mental retardation, particularly in the brains of infants, therefore an adequate daily dietary source of vitamin K-2 may very well help prevent these debilitating conditions.
A Vital And Essential Nutrient
Another form of vitamin K-2, menaquinone-7 (MK-7), is produced by lactic acid bacterial fermentation (as are MK-8 through 10), and is found mostly in fermented foods such as sauerkraut, cheese, and natto, a soy product containing a substantial amount of vitamin K-2 (the highest concentration of any other food found to contain this healthy substance).
MK-7 has been shown to increase the percentage of activated osteocalcin in humans three times more powerfully than vitamin K-1, and it stays in the blood for a longer period of time than MK-4, perhaps because tissues absorb MK-4 more readily.
A co-factor to vitamin K is the enzyme carboxylase, and is fully dependent upon vitamin K for its proper function. Vitamin K-dependent proteins must be acted upon by carboxylase before they can insert themselves into cellular membranes or leave cells.
When carboxylase together with K adds carboxyl groups to the side chains of the amino acid glutamate in some K-dependent proteins, they receive a negative electrical charge, allowing them to bind calcium, which has a positive electrical charge.
Carboxylase is present almost exclusively in multicellular animals and humans, where its functions include intercellular communication and the formation of skeletal and nervous tissues, in conjunction with vitamin K.
Osteoblasts have a receptor for vitamin K-2, which are the cells responsible for bone growth, and vitamin K-2 exists in highest concentrations in the genetic cellular nucleus, and in second-highest concentration in the cellular mitochondria, the cell's power-producing center.
All of this highlights the vital role vitamin K-2 plays in healthy cellular growth, and as an antioxidant within the cells that synthesize myelin sheaths, to become the electrical insulators of nerve cells.
The ability of humans to form vitamin K-2 is limited, along with the limited ability to absorb and utilize K-1 from plant sources (less than 200 micrograms of K-1 per day is acquired from vegetables), unlike ruminant and other animals, which can readily absorb K-1 and synthesize K-2 from this precursor.
To achieve and maintain optimal health, the human diet must contain sufficient preformed vitamin K-2 from either fermented (mostly animal source) whole raw milk and related products, or animal meats/organs high in K-2.
Only soy natto and sauerkraut (both fermented) contain high concentrations of vitamin K-2 among vegetarian sources. Intake of adequate amounts of K-2, unlike K-1, has been shown as directly related to a decrease in heart disease.
Vitamins K-1 and K-2 are also transported through the blood by different types of lipoproteins, which cause K-1 to be sent mainly to the liver, while K-2 is transported primarily to other tissues and cells of the body.
A possible reason the body resists absorbing K-1 from vegetables may be related to the fact that it can cause oxidative damage, such as periodontal disease which results from daily supplementation of more than 1000 micrograms of K-1.
Among animal species, pigeons are very efficient at converting K-1 into K-2, while female human mammary glands are also capable of converting K-1 into K-2. Absorption of K-1 actually decreases when larger amounts of vegetables are eaten, due to the body's limited ability to utilize this form of vitamin K.
Less than a fifth of the amount of K-1 required for skeletal system support can be obtained from the diet, regardless how many of the correct variety of vegetables are consumed, no matter how efficiently the body may be in converting it into K-2.
By contrast, absorption of K-2 from natto is nearly total, in addition to it being a highly concentrated source of this vital form of the vitamin.
Nutritional Superiority
Once again, the anecdotal "efficacy" of the allopathic (drugs, surgery, radiation) methods of disease treatment proves not only fraudulent, but inferior in every way to the evident proofs of the superiority of the nutritional approach to vibrant good health and well-being.
It is doubtful very many will recognize this as the beginning death knell for modern medicine it is, but the day will soon come when that realization can no longer be denied.
Until then, many more tens of thousands, perhaps even millions, must greatly suffer and die, sacrificed upon the alopathic altar of greed and arrogance.
Hopefully, armed with the information you now have at your disposal, you will not find yourself counted among their dreadful ranks.