A Dose of Health

As a result of one of my reader’s comments, I did a little research on Vitamin K. He suggested checking out vitamin K because I had shared my experience about my brain calcification scare. Thanks Stew for the heads up.

Apparently vitamin K helps the blood to clot normally, and helps to prevent heart disease. It also appears to help prevent calcification of the arteries. Does it help with brain calcification? I don’t know. I would think that since it prevents calcification in the arteries, it would help with the brain also.

According to the Health Encyclopedia, on the subject of Vitamin K “it has been hypothesized…it’s possible mechanisms include inhibiting brain calcification…”

Vitamin K also helps to prevent osteoporosis. Apparently it seems to be a facilitator in keeping the calcium in places where it’s supposed to be (the bones) and not deposited in places where it shouldn’t be (the arteries).

As if that wasn’t enough, Vitamin K also helps fight tooth decay. According to a study performed in the 1940’s by Dr. Leonard S. Fosdick , chewing Vitamin K coated gum for 10 minutes after every meal yielded a 60 to 90% decrease in new cavities over a period of 18 months. Vitamin K appeared to be more effective than fluorinated drinking water. Imagine that?

Where to get Vitamin K

Green leafy vegetables have an abundance of Vitamin K. Things like kale, spinach, collard greens, Swiss chard, mustard greens, broccoli and so on and so on. Go into your garden or your neighbor’s garden (with permission, of course) and start chomping away.

From what I’ve read, there are no ill effects of eating too much of the stuff. There might be ill effects if you choose to get your vitamin K through synthetic supplements. So, do yourself a favor and get it naturally.

Daily Recommended Dose of Vitamin K

I’ve read anywhere from 1-10 mg per day. To save yourself the headache of having to calculate how much to eat, just get your daily serving of greens each day. You’ll have your required amount of Vitamin K. According to The World’s Healthiest Foods, 1 cup of boiled kale gives you 1327.6% of the daily value.

Does Vitamin K Prevent Brain Calcification?

I can’t say that it does for sure, but it sure can’t hurt to get your daily required dose of vitamin K.

If you are anywhere near my age group, you ladies know what I’m talking about. I remember when I got my first hot flash oh about…3 years ago. At first I didn’t know what was going on. Eventually I realized that I was having a hot flash.

Once I realized what was going on, I knew that I could not put up with it. It was like an unruly child that would ‘act up’ at the wrong time. Just like finding a solution to an unruly child, I had to find a way to stop the annoying hot flashes from dictating my life.

My Hot Flash Solution

I read everything I could on natural ways to alleviate hot flashes. Heck, all you have to do is watch the Oprah Winfrey show and you’ll get a ton of info on natural hot flash deterrents.

Not having the patience to go through finding the right creams or tinctures I stumbled upon my hot flash cure quite by accident. As a matter of fact it’s a serendipitous gift. I’ll keep it short, but here’s my story:

I was in the process of trying to obtain optimal health through exercise and proper eating. In the process I stumbled upon the alkaline vs. acid pH theory. If you’re not familiar with that, you should read Alkalize for Health and Why pH Matters.

Anyway, one of the ways in which I sought to achieve a better alkaline/acid balance was to drink green drinks. Green drinks are also known as super foods. They are high in lovely things such as probiotics containing barley, wheat grass, spinach and a host of other green leafy healthy stuff.

Being a full-time employee, I couldn’t spend my time juicing such stuff so I looked for a quicker alternative. I found a product called Green Vibrance that came in capsules. Capsules are cool because they don’t have any flavor. I started slowly, only a couple of capsules a day. Since it has a detoxing quality, you have to start slow.

The long and the short of it is that eventually I decided to use the powdered form. All I had to do was add a scoop to a glass of water each day and I was done. I found that my energy level increased and my endurance improved. My spinning classes seemed less difficult so I increased my intensity. I realized that it was a side effect of the Green Vibrance.

Now to the Hot Flashes

Once I started drinking the Green Vibrance I noticed that in about a week the hot flashes diminished. Not only were they less frequent, but they were less intense. After the second week they were entirely gone! I’ve been taking Green Vibrance for 3 years and the only time I ever had a hot flash was when I stopped drinking it for about a month or so. It wasn’t until I started with the night sweats that I realized that I hadn’t been taking my green juice. Once I began drinking my Vibrance again and it took approximately 4 days before the dreaded hot flashes ceased.

Here are A Few Tips/Warnings

1. What works for me may not work for you.
2. Green Vibrance works to detoxify your system so if you’re used to eating corn dogs and drinking Pepsi all day long, you’re going to feel bad before you feel better. Read up on detoxing and how it works.
3. Green Vibrance does not taste bad. My daughter who absolutely hates vegetables says, “It doesn’t taste like nothing.” (Excuse the grammar. It’s a shame school isn’t in session year round.)
4. If you stick with it, you’ll experience increased energy and the ability to recover quicker from workouts.

I started a small series on making small steps towards health but was side tracked. There are some things that have to be addressed before taking a few small steps towards health (I had to butt in with this colon post).

Very recently after undergoing a colonoscopy, someone very dear to me was diagnosed with colon cancer. I think addressing a diagnosis of colon cancer takes front stage when it comes to taking small steps towards health.

A Little History

For many years I’ve watched as this person’s steps towards health got smaller and smaller until they became non existent. As a matter of fact, this person took an about face and started taking more and more steps towards unhealthy living (dis ease).

This person’s dietary habits were less than stellar, but so is most of America’s. The meat based, processed food diet is a killer. Fortunately the body is very forgiving and youth is often a first line of defense for many ailments. Being young and active helped to stave off some of the affects of an unbalanced diet.

As youth began to fade and exercise became minimal, evidence of poor eating habits began to crop up. The midsection is one of the first noticeable places for fast food and carbohydrates to deposit themselves. The declining energy level and increasing weight opened the door to annoying things like increase in blood sugar, increase in blood pressure and decrease in iron count.

This person’s diet was not void of fiber and fresh fruits and vegetables, it’s just the portions were way too small to counteract the large amounts of processed foods, sweet drinks, meat consumption and rich desserts. Over an extended period of time, the body began to show more and more signs of dis ease.

The Catch Up Years

If you’re fortunate to live long enough, the body plays the catch up game. All of the things that we do in our youth catch up to us sooner or later. No longer invincible, the sins of our youth begin to come out to play.

If you are anywhere near the age of 50, you know what I’m talking about. Now is when you really see who did what when they were in their teens, 20’s, 30’s and so forth. That’s why the medical profession gets to have a piece of you. The opthalmologist gets to play with your eyes, the podiatrist tickles the toes, proctologists get to see just what you’re made of, gynecologists are no longer looking to help you bring a new life into the world, they’re trying to prevent you from developing life sucking diseases.

The doctors aren’t the only ones that get a piece of you; there are the ever so sweet radiologists. I still wonder what to do in the event of a fire during a mammography. Gravity has played a few mean tricks on me but elastic woman I’m not.

Oh, almost forgot about the colonoscopy. There is a reason why colonoscopies are strongly recommended at the age of 50. If there is a history of colon cancer in the family, you shouldn’t wait until 50. Have yourself checked beforehand.

Next we’ll discuss colon cancer symptoms (first let me say this, in the early stages of colon cancer there are no symptoms, so if you have a symptom, don’t wait for my next post, go to your doctor now).