The forgotten Vitamin

This “forgotten” vitamin can prevent cancer and destroy certain types of cancer cells.

Its anti-cancer properties were first discovered by accident.

Researchers in Japan were studying this vitamin’s role in the prevention of bone loss in women with cirrhosis.

It’s well known that those with cirrhosis of the liver due to viral infection (like Hepatitis C, for example) are at a much higher risk of developing cancer.

The study followed 40 women over the span of two years. One group supplemented with 45 mg a day of this vitamin. The other did not. Almost half (47%) of the women in the placebo group developed liver cancer. But here’s what amazed the researchers: The rate of liver cancer in the group of women taking this vitamin was less than 10%!1

Preventing liver cancer isn’t the only thing this vitamin can do.

Another study, published in the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, found this vitamin can literally kill off leukemia, pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells.2,3 It does this by programming the cells to “self destruct.”

And to think, this vitamin hasn’t been given much attention for almost a century.

I’m talking about vitamin K.

For decades, it’s only been thought of as a blood coagulant. Most doctors overlook its significance and the critical roles it plays in your body.

Truth is vitamin K is one of the most unique vitamins of all. It is produced in your gut by “good” bacteria.

Normally, you get your daily requirement through a combination of diet and what your body produces.

And that’s good news. It’s pretty easy to incorporate vitamin K-rich foods into your diet.

Here’s a quick list*:



Food (1 Cup Serving Size) Vitamin K (mcg) Food (1 Cup Serving Size) Vitamin K (mcg/100g)
Spinach 1,027
Collard Greens 836
Kale 1,062
Mustard Greens 419
Broccoli 220
Beet Greens 697
Brussels Sprouts 218
Asparagus 144
Turnip Greens 851
Sauerkraut 135
Egg Yolk, Raw 15.5
Ground Beef 8
Raw Chicken Liver 12.6
Barbeque Chicken 22

*(source: USDA.Gov)

It’s most common in dark, leafy greens. But you can get smaller amounts of vitamin K in organ meats such as chicken liver and in raw eggs. You can also take a supplement.

Vitamin K forLong Term Health Benefits!

An analysis conducted by Joyce C. McCann, PhD and Bruce N. Ames, PhD at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute provides support for Dr Ames' triage hypothesis, which proposes that our bodies have evolved to allocate often scarce micronutrients to functions that are critical to short term survival rather than to those which protect long term health.

Chronic insufficient intake of many vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids causes DNA damage, mitochondrial decay and cellular aging, which, while not affecting immediate survival, can lead to degenerative diseases later in life. "Natural selection favors short-term survival at the expense of long-term health," explained Dr Ames in an introduction to his hypothesis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. "I hypothesize that short-term survival was achieved by allocating scarce micronutrients by triage, in part through an adjustment of the binding affinity of proteins for required micronutrients. If this hypothesis is correct, micronutrient deficiencies that trigger the triage response would accelerate cancer, aging, and neural decay but would leave critical metabolic functions, such as ATP production, intact."

Drs Ames and McCann reviewed hundreds of articles concerning vitamin K and its 16 known dependent proteins for the current analysis. Studies of mice in which vitamin K-dependent proteins were rendered inoperative revealed that five of these proteins have functions that are essential to survival, and 5 are less critical. The body preferentially distributes vitamin K to the liver to preserve coagulation when vitamin K levels are reduced; however, suboptimal vitamin K intake and anticoagulant-induced vitamin K deficiency have been linked with such age related conditions as bone fragility, arterial and kidney calcification, cardiovascular disease, and possibly cancer. "A triage perspective reinforces recommendations of some experts that much of the population and warfarin/coumadin patients may not receive sufficient vitamin K for optimal function of vitamin K-dependent proteins that are important to maintain long-term health," the authors write.

The report, which appeared online on August 19 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was published in the October, 2009 issue. The analysis is the first in a series conducted by Drs Ames and McCann to test the triage hypothesis. "Encouraging support for the triage theory from our vitamin K analysis suggests that experts aiming to set micronutrient intake recommendations for optimal function and scientists seeking mechanistic triggers leading to diseases of aging may find it productive to focus on micronutrient-dependent functions that have escaped evolutionary protection from deficiency," Dr McCann stated.