Vitamin K2 and bone health, the missing link!

Vitamin K has been known as the coagulation vitamin, because of its role in the blood clotting process. However, research over the last few decades has shown that the role of K Vitamins - and natural Vitamin K2, the menaquinones, in particular - has greatly been expanded. Vitamin K2 helps to activate vitamin K - dependent proteins responsible for healthy tissues.
Skeletal metabolism and particularly bone metabolism depend on two Vitamin K dependent proteins, osteocalcin and matrix Gla protein (MGP). Osteocalcin is a non collagenous protein found in bone and dentin. It is secreted by osteoblasts and believed to be involved in bone mineralization and calcium ion homeostasis. Osteocalcin specifically appears to influence the functional quality of bone and its shape. As osteoblasts secrete protein rich bone matrix, they also secrete osteocalcin in response to vitamins A and D. Osteocalcin however only appears to accumulate if it is activated by Vitamin K2. The exact dynamics of this process are not completely clear.
What is known is that by drawing a person's blood and measuring osteocalcin that is activated versus inactivated, we can determine whether that individual's bone cells have enough Vitamin K2 to build healthy bone. According to research people with highest percentages of inactive osteocalcin are at a more than five fold increased risk of hip fracture.
There is good evidence that Vitamin K2 is the preferred K vitamin of the bones.
Humans are very limited in absorbing Vitamin K1 from whole foods. By contrast, large amounts of Vitamin K2 are readily absorbed from foods. According to a study from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, Vitamin K2 was three times more effective at raising the percentage of activated osteocalcin compared to Vitamin K1. The percentage of inactive osteocalcin in the blood can therefore be considered an accurate marker of Vitamin K2 status. It appears that Vitamin K2 deficiency is universal. This means that variations in K2 status within the population may simply reflect varying degrees of deficiency.
These findings provide significant new information regarding the risks and management of osteoporosis.
Please join me next week as I explore the findings of several Japanese trials showing that Vitamin K2 can completely reverse bone loss and even increase bone mass in populations with osteoporosis.

For more information click; http://www.vitamink2.org/ http://64.71.152.183/basicnutrition/vitamin-k2.html#summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteocalcin

Boswellia Serrata for Arthritis pain

Boswellia is an Ayurvedic plant from India that contains anti-inflammatory triterpenoids called boswellic acids. Boswellic acid and its derivatives have anti-carcinogenic, anti-tumor, and blood lipid lowering activities. Dried extracts of the resin of the Boswellia serrata tree have been used since antiquity in India to treat inflammatory conditions.

Clinical studies using herbal formulas with Boswellia have yielded good results in both OA and rheumatoid arthritis. The standard dosage for boswellic acids in arthritis is 400mg tid (three times per day). No side effects due to boswellic adics have been reported. More research data is needed in the future. Preliminary research findings appear to be very promising.
I recommend a product by Mediherb from Australia. For more information check out http://www.mediherb.com/product_pdf/BoswelliaComplexLR.pdf

21 Day detox program

This is the third year we are offering the 21 day detox program by Standard Process to our patients. We usually offer an informational meeting at no cost to interested patients. We enjoyed a nice turnout this year and were privileged to have several "detoxers" attending the meeting. These people actually had just completed the program and were able to provide our attendees first hand experience with the program. I would like to take the opportunity to point out a great testimonial from one of our patients.
He recently had been diagnosed with prediabetes and a gastrointestinal endoscopy had revealed significant erosions in his stomach lining which explained his chronic acid reflux problem. Apparently he had been using NSAIDS for a very long time to manage chronic neck pain and he was a smoker as well. This evaluation took place at the Mayo clinic in Rochester Minnesota. His doctors prescribed Metformin and a proton pump inhibitor. He was also put on blood pressure medication.
His wife who is a patient in our office decided to further investigate this matter and eventually, both her and her husband decided to try the 21 day detox program. Within the first week, he started feeling better and quit the proton pump inhibitor drug. By the second week, his blood sugar readings were in the 80s and 115s after a meal and so he decided to stop taking metformin. To his amazement, his blood sugar readings remained normal. Finally he decided to stop taking his blood pressure medication as well. In three weeks he lost 16 pounds, started to sleep better, had much more energy and his wife commented that his stomach which had been hard as a rock was getting nice and soft. He also started noticing that his neck pain was getting better and that his overall pain in his body was decreased. He can't wait to return for a follow up evaluation at the Mayo clinic in 6 weeks.
Dr. Fred


for more information go directly to http://www.standardprocess.com/display/psppurification.spi

Welcome to my nutrition blog

Welcome to my nutrition blog.
My name is Frederic Falentin. I own Broadway Chiropractic PA in New Ulm. The clinic was founded in 1996 as a home based chiropractic office. Within a few years, it became very obvious to me that providing chiropractic care exclusively did not meet my clinical expectations. There was a missing link. At that point my wife Bonnie and I decided to implement nutritional services in our office. Bonnie acquired a degree as a nutrition consultant and we started offering nutritional services and supplements to some of our patients. Those were the days when taking a multivitamin was essentially a novelty. How times have changed.
This marked the beginning of an amazing journey. Since then we have had the privilege to witness amazing results with some of our nutrition patients and it keeps getting better and better.
Early in 2009 I decided to go back to school and pursue a nutritional diplomate degree offered thru my alma mater, Northwestern Health Science University. Needless to say, this has been a very educational experience. I truly enjoy going back to school and learning more about nutrition. This field is rapidly expanding providing us with new tools to help our patients.
Hopefully, this blog will engage patients in our clinic to ask more questions about nutrition and to learn about new treatment options.
Dr. Fred