Don’t Forget Your Vitamin K
Thursday, December 25th, 2008Vitamin K is not well-known compared to others like Vitamin C and A, but it is proven to have a lot of health benefits. Vitamin K is an antioxidant that fights harmful free radicals that work slowly to break down the body. Some view aging as a collection of free radicals that have built up in the body which become too much for the immune system to deal with. Vitamin K is a leader in the battle against anti-aging and perhaps one of the most effective supplements to work against the aging process.
What does this vitamin do? For starters, it helps blood coagulate in the body and helps against the deterioration of the body. The K vitamin is a relatively new subject, since it was thought previously that we had enough K in our bodies to fight disease. We know now that this is not the case for most people, who actually suffer from a certain level of K deficiency. Researchers believe that as we grow old, we experience inflammation in our organs. To deal with this, the body increases and decreases its use of certain hormones accordingly. One of those hormones that increases during the time of need is Interleukin 6, which eventually leads to increased inflammation. Vitamin K is shown to reduce the affects of Interleukin 6.
How does inflammation lead to aging? When we age we experience such inflammation in the body that it leads to disease. The inflammation has been shown to lead to other things that eventually lead to heart disease and osteoporosis. Damages experienced by both the heart and lungs have been reduced with the introduction of Vitamin K. Furthermore, the vitamin has been linked to positively affecting blood sugar levels, Alzheimer’s Disease, and risk of stroke. Foods that are rich in K are leafy green vegetables and other vegetables, and some cheeses. The consumption of hydrogenated oils can stop the health benefits of Vitamin K from occurring in the body also, as it serves as a blocker.
