This is from Susan Owen's refute of Catherine Tamaro's K2 protocol.
"I also recently did a lit review here looking at any established relationship
between vitamin K and calcium channels, and again, the effect appeared to be
negative rather than positive, but involved a form of vitamin K no longer given
to humans, but only pets. There were no studies on other forms of vitamin K and
certainly no studies showing a beneficial mechanism."
Does anyone else see anything ridiculous in that statement?
First of all, magnesium and K2 both are calcium channel blockers.
K2 can help inhibit soft tissue calcification in the brain.
K2's effect on calcium channels:
"A study published in May 2012 showed that calcium supplements may increase risk of cardiovascular disease. This study tracked almost 24,000 Europeans and suggested (in a subgroup analysis) that people taking only calcium supplements were about twice as likely to have a heart attack.1
We carefully examined this report and found multiple design flaws that clearly skewed the results. But for the purposes of this editorial, I am going to assume this finding is accurate and explain how to protect against deadly calcification processes.
Later in this piece, I'll reveal startling information as to who really makes the most popular dietary supplements in America.
Calcium Should Not Be Taken By Itself
Those involved in nutritional medicine have long known that people who supplement with calcium should also take adequate amounts of magnesium. The reason is that magnesium is a natural calcium channel blocker.2
Magnesium deficiency can induce elevation of intracellular calcium concentrations, and accelerate atherosclerosis.3Calcium is a component of atherosclerotic plaque and when calcium salts build up in soft tissues it causes hardening, which is technically called calcification.
The take home message is to ensure sufficient ingestion of calcium and magnesium and as you'll read next—vitamin K2. Regrettably, the majority of aging women still take calcium supplements with no magnesium or vitamin K2, thus setting the stage for arterial calcification and subsequent heart attack and ischemic stroke.12-20
Calcium is so essential that if blood levels fall too low, you will die from an electrolyte imbalance that causes your heart to lose contractile rhythm needed to circulate blood.
Remember there are four chambers to your heart that have to precisely expand and contract or your heart will not beat in a stable manner. Electrolytes are minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium that are needed to maintain the heart's electrical synchronicity.
Adequate calcium is so critical that your body has evolved mechanisms to saturate your blood with calcium if there is even a perception of calcium deficit. In the presence of low calcium, parathyroid hormone is secreted that often pulls too much calcium from bones.21 The downside to this as we age is our arterial walls can become infiltrated with calcium (i.e. calcification).
Fortunately, nature has developed a protective mechanism to keep excess calcium out of your arteries. For this important mechanism to function, vitamin K2 is required. The problem is that our diet provides little vitamin K2 and the result is that virtually all aged people suffer calcification of their
brain, glands, heart valves, and arteries.
Published data about the ability of vitamin K2 to protect against cardiovascular disease is compelling. For instance, people with higher intake of vitamin K2 intake have a 57% reduction in risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.17 Those with blocked arteries and damaged heart valves show low vitamin K2 status.23-26 Women taking vitamin K2 have reductions in nonvertebral fractures as high as 81%.27
The reason vitamin K maintains bone density while simultaneously protecting against atherosclerosis is that it activates factors in bone to grab and retain calcium while functioning as a lock in the arterial wall to keep calcium out.15,28-32
EFFECTS OF HIGHER INGESTION OF VITAMIN K17
Reduction in All-Cause Mortality 26%
Reduction in Severe Aortic Calcification 52%
Reduction in Coronary Artery Disease 57%
To explain this further, just imagine a set of calcium-regulating proteins in your arteries that determine whether calcium is allowed in or kept out. If these proteins are locked, they won't allow calcium to enter arterial cells. If the proteins are unlocked, calcium freely flows into cells and destroys them.
The key to turning on calcium-regulating proteins in the body is vitamin K2. If enough K2 is present, these proteins prevent calcium infiltration into soft tissues.3
