Nice blog. The food looks great. Is that your German Shepherd?

Personal anecdote. I’ve been taking it (menatetrenone – MK-4 – the kind found in animals and not MK-7 from fermentation such as natto) for some months, along with A and D via cod liver oil (plus additional D3).

K2 MK-4 is found in the highest concentrations in things like foie gras, ruminant liver, fish eggs, bone marrow, and to lesser extent other animal tissues. However, if cows are grian fed instead of grass fed, concentrations go way, way down. So, there’s evolutionary context.

My personal experience is an overnight softening in my skin that has persisted. If you’ve ever been on tetracycline, it’s like that, all the time. Getting off grains cured and actually reversed my gum disease (2 surgeries, 7 or 8 years ago), but I would still get massive plaque buildup on my teeth, especially inside lower. Within a few days of a cleaning, I could no longer suck liquid or water between my teeth, it was that bad.

Within some days of supplementing, the plaque began to dissolve. Not all of it, but most. I had a cleaning about a month ago, now, and I have zero plaque buildup. Zero, and I don’t even brush every day, and I never floss (I prefer wooden toothpicks).

I just recently noticed a new thing. Guess it needed a few months for my finger and toe nails to grow out, but first, they are amazingly smooth on the surface, as though they’ve been polished. No ridges whatsoever. And, they are way stronger — thicker, actually.

Anyway, the best series of blog posts I’ve seen yet are those of neurobiology PhD candidate Stephan at Whole Heath Source (these are his posts from some months back):

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/06/activator-x.html
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/06/vitamin-k2-menatetrenone-mk-4.html
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/06/vitamin-deficiency.html
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/06/vitamin-deficiency.html

And this one is by Chris Masterjohn of the Weston Price Foundation:

http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitamin-k2.html

Stephan also has a couple of recent posts. Here’s one about reversal of arterial calcification in mice supplemented with K2 MK-4:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/11/can-vitamin-k2-reverse-arterial.html

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/11/vitamin-k2-in-marrow.html

Finally, note that Weston Price used this, along with A and D supplementation to actually get cavities in teeth to reclassify.

In essence, it’s looking more and more like A, D, and K2 MK-4 work in concert to get calcium to go everyplace it should (bones, teeth) and not where it shouldn’t (artery walls).

Hope that gives you a place to get started, Doc Eades, and / or anyone else who’d like to dig.

Thanks for the links.

Thank you for the comment. Much appreciated.

Marc

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/uoia-oi120908.php

I saw this paper. The fructose response is mediated by carbohydrate response element binding protein, which is a fairly complex operation. Interesting paper. Would be nice to see if same happens in humans.

Your son reminds me of my younger brother. He was very short most of his childhood, about 5ft. When he was about 15 or 16, he suddenly grew and grew and then grew some more. No joke! He is the tallest in my family by far, hovering at 6′2. Not only did he grow upwards, but he also filled outwards, though he is by no means fat, but a powerful son of a gun. Until his growth spurt, he was very conscious of and concerned about his height. Hope this offers some help.

I chose the week I chose because I thought we would be home most of the time. I was forgetting that MD was up to her eyes in preparation for her concert, so we actually ate out a lot more than we normally do.

>”… only finished with grain the last couple of weeks to add extra fat and remove the taste the meat gets when not grain-finished …”<

According to “FACT SHEET: Feedlot Finishing Cattle” by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
http://www.beefusa.org/uDocs/Feedlot%20finishing%20fact%20sheet%20FINAL_4%2026%2006.pdf

“Cattle are raised on range or pasture land for most of their lives (usually 12-18 months), then transported to a feedlot for finishing. These cattle usually spend about three to six months in a feedlot, during which time they gain between 2.5 and 4 pounds per day. The cattle are fed a scientifically formulated ration that averages 70 percent to 90 percent grain. On this special diet, cattle will gain about 1 pound for every 6 pounds of feed they consume. … ”

So, I did the math – the proportion of a steer’s life spent in this feedlot system could range from 14-33%. If a steer was sent to the feedlot at 12 months and fed for 6 months, that would be a third of it’s life. Even if the steer were sent to the feedlot at 18 months and fed for just 3 months, that would be 14 % of it’s life. Seems like more than “the last couple weeks” to me …

And actually these numbers may be a little off. If you go to this link,
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/livestock/html/b1-35.html
you’ll get information from the Iowa State University Extension Service. It states the following assumptions:
For “Finishing Steer Calves” – starting weight 550 lb – ending weight 1150 lb, average daily gain of 2.95 lb/day, requiring 203 days (gaining 600 lb or ~52% of final weight).
For “Finishing Yearling Calves” – starting weight 750 lb – ending weight 1250 lb, average daily gain of 3.15 lb/day, requiring 159 days (gaining 500 lb or ~40% of final weight). Seems a bit more than “finishing” to me …

The concept of feeding grain to cattle for “cheaper gain” (questionable depending on how thoroughly one accounts for ALL costs), for adding “extra fat” (too much fat and the value of the cattle will be discounted. The buyers don’t want to pay for fat these days), and removing “the taste the meat gets when not grain-finished” (ah, maybe that’s the way beef is SUPPOSED to taste …) are all canards. I’ve no doubt that a rancher’s wife would believe them to be true, but the reality is different. Grass farmers who know what they’re doing can and do finish cattle to prime condition on high-quality pasture. As Monica stated in her comment, New Zealand farmers compete in the world market – without subsidies, with higher fuel and fertilizer costs, and higher transportation costs to reach their markets. Here in the Pacific Northwest I can purchase grass-fed beef for only slightly more than the supermarket stuff.

Pete

K2 is the newest miracle vitamin. I have to admit that I know very little about it. I need to do my own research before I can give an intelligent answer to the question.

I enjoyed your food diary a lot!
I have been keeping one for the past few years.
I enjoy taking the pictures (except for in restaurants ) and sharing it with others looking for inspiration. I keep it really simple but really tasty. If you have the time (or Mrs. MD) take a quick peak.
Sorry for this off topic question, but was hoping you could point me to some quality resources.
My son is 10 years old. I have been referred by my pediatrician to a pediatric endocrinologist, to check on his growth and development. I pretty much know they are not going to find anything other than that he is developing slower than his peers. Doesn’t take much observation, He is smaller then most in his class and his 8 yeard old sister is as tall as him. However, he’s in great shape, eats healthy, has never drank drink milk (there might be something to that, so thought I’d mention) and is never sick, especially compared to his 3 sisters. When they get school colds, the worst he gets is a stuffy nose. But always good to rule out anything, just in case. (another side note, I’m 5′7 and was a real late bloomer)
So where does this take us. Growth hormone. What are your feelings on it and where can you perhaps point me to, to investigate on my own.
I want to be prepared when they come back with their “predictions” and let’s say they “predict” he will be 5″3 (or similar) at most.
Thank you in advance for you time.
Kind regards,
Marc

Let’s wait and see what they come up with. He may just be developing a little slowly and will have a real growth spurt when he reaches adolescence. I always remember a patient I had when I was in primary care medicine. He was about 6′ 8″ tall. When he first came to see me I asked him the question I’m sure he was asked a thousand times: Did you play basketball? He told me that he was only 5′ 8″ when he graduated from high school. And that he started growing in his second year of college. By the time he was a couple of years out of college he had reached 6′ 8″. So it can happen. He also told me he had an interesting time when he went back to his 10 year high school reunion a foot taller than when he had graduated.

If the endocrinologists do recommend growth hormone, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s given in physiologic doses and stopped when growth stops.