Vitamin D and K for Healthy Bones and Arteries

Vitamin D and K are fat soluble vitamins we all need for optimal circulation benefits. Be the expert on OSTEOPOROSIS and HEART DISEASE that advanced knowledge of K-2 provides.

Beyond Bone Defense is vital for the effective dose of K-2, and all the synergistic nutrients to enhance the Vitamin K-2 benefits. Be the first in your family to reach 90 with soft arteries and hard bones. Take it with Vitamin D3 (5000 IU) daily for best results, and then restrict calcium intake to just enough to balance the phosphorus we all consume daily, which on average is 500 mg of calcium a day. Most consume about 800 mg calcium and 1300 mg of phosphorus daily, so taking 500 mg as a good supplement is the CORRECT DOSE, not the huge doses erroneously recommended by those who do not know the facts. Arteries all get calcified as we age unless you do the entire program correctly.

Also do NOT take calcium without the SAME DOSE of Magnesium, as found in the best multiple available anywhere at any price, BAM (Beyond Any Multiple). Available by itself in jars of 180 tablets, or in the 9 pill packets of Beyond Chelation that also eliminates heart attacks for years now in my patients.

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

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Vitamin D and Vitamin K Team Up to Lower CVD Risk
Longevity Medicine Review
by Lara Pizzorno, MDiv, MA, LMT
http://www.lmreview.com/articles/VitaminD-VitaminK_part2.html

Abstract
Strong correlations have been noted between cardiovascular diseases and low bone density / osteoporosis—connections so strong that the presence of one type of pathology is considered a likely predictor of the other. This potentially causal relationship has led to the hypothesis that these conditions share core mechanisms. Recent advances in our understanding of the complimentary roles played by vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 in vascular and bone health provide support for this hypothesis, along with insight into key metabolic dysfunctions underlying cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis.

Part I of this review summarizes current research linking vitamin D deficiency to cardiovascular disease, the physiological mechanisms underlying vitamin D’s cardiovascular effects, and leading vitamin D researchers’ recommendations for significantly higher supplemental doses of the pro-hormone. Part II reviews the vitamin K connection to cardiovascular disease; the ways in which vitamin D and vitamin K pair up to prevent inflammation, vascular calcification and osteoporosis; and the necessity of providing vitamin K along with vitamin D to preclude adverse effects associated with hypervitaminosis D, which include vascular and other soft tissue calcification.

Part I : Vitamin D Deficiency – a Non-Traditional Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease

Introduction
Risk for both cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis significantly increases with age. Even after adjustment for age, strong correlations have been noted between cardiovascular diseases (including atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, hypertension, myocardial infarction and peripheral artery disease) and low bone density and osteoporosis—connections so strong that the presence of one type of pathology is considered a likely predictor of the other. This apparently causal relationship has led to the hypothesis that these conditions share core mechanisms. Recent advances in our understanding of the complimentary roles played by vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 in vascular and bone health provide support for this hypothesis, along with insight into key metabolic dysfunctions underlying cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. This article focuses on the effects of vitamin D deficiency on cardiovascular disease and the mechanisms through which vitamin D sufficiency promotes cardiovascular health.

Vitamin D and Cardiovascular Disease
Technically, vitamin D is not a “vitamin”. Its metabolic product, calcitriol, is a secosteroid hormone that affects more than 2,000 genes in the body (about 10% of the human genome). Current research implicates vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of not only cardiovascular disease (CVD)—the focus of this review—but at least 17 varieties of cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, chronic pain, periodontal disease, sarcopenia, depression and more. A rapidly growing number of recently published studies link vitamin D deficiency with virtually all forms of CVD, including arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, hypertension, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, peripheral artery disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke.

Myocardial Infarction
Serum 25(OH)D (25-hydroxyvitamin D or calcidiol, the pre-hormone produced by hydroxylation of cholecalciferol in the liver and the form measured in blood to assess vitamin D status) has recently been shown to be an independent predictor of CVD morbidity and mortality. A prospective study involving 18,225 men, aged 40-75 years at baseline (April 1993) and followed for 10 years, found that men deficient in 25(OH)D (serum levels ≤15 ng/mL or 37.5 nmol/L [to convert ng/mL to nmol/L, multiply by 2.496]) were at significantly increased risk for myocardial infarction (relative risk 2.09) compared with those considered to be sufficient in 25(OH)D (≥30 ng/mL [75 nmol/L]). Even men with intermediate 25(OH)D levels (22.6-29.9 ng/mL [or 56.4-74.6 nmol/L]) were at elevated risk (RR, 1.60) compared to those with sufficient 25(OH)D levels.

Peripheral Arterial Disease
Other NHANES III-related research indicates an inverse relationship between 25(OH)D serum levels and prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which is associated with a 2-fold increase in incidence of heart failure.19 In this analysis of nationally representative data from 4,839 participants including white, black and Hispanic ethnicities, the prevalence ratio of PAD for the lowest, compared to the highest 25(OH)D quartile (<17.8 and ≥29.2 ng/mL [44.4 and 72.8 nmol/L], respectively) was 8.1% compared to 3.7%.

Hypertension and Cardiac Hypertrophy
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with cardiac hypertrophy and hypertension in animal and human studies. Vitamin D receptor expression is increased in the myocytes, fibroblasts and intact ventricular myocardium of the hypertrophic heart, and 1-α hydroxylase and 24-hydroxylase, the two enzymes involved in the synthesis and metabolism of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D (calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D), are also present in the heart, allowing for local production of bioactive D3 from 25(OH)D.
In animal studies, vitamin D deficiency leads to both hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy, while treatment with the vitamin D analogue, paricalcitol, reverses cardiac hypertrophy. The VDR knockout mouse exhibits hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy. In humans, low circulating levels of vitamin D3 in patients with chronic renal failure on dialysis are associated with ventricular hypertrophy, and treatment with supplemental vitamin D3 results in amelioration of the hypertrophy. All of the above suggests that the key components required for a functional 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D-dependent signaling system are present in the human heart and that it provides an anti-hypertrophic system, which is protectively amplified in cardiac hypertrophy.

Tagged as: chelation, heart disease, osteoporosis, vitamin d deficiency