It was discovered 69 years ago by the famous nutritional pioneer, Dr. Weston A. Price – yet the vitamin he dubbed the “X-factor” continues to be misunderstood even today. Now, a growing body of research confirms Dr. Price’s discoveries. The studies show his “X-factor” may be a potent cancer fighter.
But don’t expect to hear much about this from mainstream medicine. It could be years or decades before the medical establishment embraces the remarkable properties of this low-cost nutrient – due to their prejudice against nutrition and their penchant for pushing drugs, surgery, and radiation.
If you can’t wait years or decades, read on, and find out about this wonder nutrient today.
The nutrient I’m talking about today reminds me of how things stood with vitamin D just a decade ago. Now, everyone knows that vitamin D is a potent enemy of cancer.
One study showed a stunning 77 percent reduction in the incidence in ALL cancers, over a four-year period for those who maintained even the modest vitamin D blood level of 40 ng/ml.1 (Optimal anti-cancer levels are 50 to 70 ng/ml.)
Yet for many years, vitamin D was demonized. People were told that more than 400 IU per day in a supplement could be toxic, and that they should also avoid vitamin-D-generating sunshine like the plague.
Now comes another vitamin few people know about. I’m talking about vitamin K. Some call Vitamin K the “new” vitamin D, though many are still quick to dismiss it.
Vitamin K2: A wonder nutrient against cancer
Major news… Those with higher vitamin K intake may be less likely to develop cancer, or to die from it.
A large German study of 24,340 adults ages 35 to 64 showed that the quartile (one-fourth of the participants) consuming the most vitamin K2 were 28 percent less like to die from colon, breast, prostate, or lung cancers than those in the lowest quartile of consumption. (This was after factoring in things like age, weight, exercise, and the like.)
The connection was strongest for lung and prostate cancers.
There’s more: A study published in the International Journal of Oncology found that cancer cells grow more slowly in lung cancer patients treated with vitamin K2.
A previous study found the same effect with leukemia patients. Vitamin K2 also safely suppressed growth of hepatocellular carcinoma, a common and deadly type of liver cancer, by blocking cell replication and triggering apoptosis.2, 3, 4, 5
Vitamin K also slashed the risk of liver cancer coming back, in a group of patients who had experienced remission. Here’s the story. . .
Sixty-one liver cancer patients were declared free of cancer following surgery.6 Thirty-two of them received a vitamin K2 analogue, whereas 29 received placebos. Here’s the comparison of recurrence, plus their one and three year survival rates… impressive for a highly feared type of cancer.
| RecurrenceRate | At 12months | At 24months | At 36months |
| K2 group | 12.5% | 39.0% | 64.3% |
| Placebo group | 55.2% | 83.2% | 91.6% |
| Percentage still alive: | At 1 Year | At 36 Months |
| K2 group | 100% | 87% |
| Placebo group | 96.4% | 64% |
This could be a new frontier in leukemia treatment
A disorder previously nicknamed “pre-leukemia” called Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) often leads to full-blown leukemia, with all its disastrous consequences. In MDS, the bone marrow churns out young white blood cells instead of mature ones. But vitamin K treatment can induce apoptosis, and cause MDS cells to differentiate into healthy, mature white blood cells that can help your immune response, even in the face of full-blown leukemia.7, 8
Vitamin K2 combined with vitamin D3 may be even better. In a recent study, it more than doubled the response rate of patients with low white blood counts, boosting it from 13 percent to 30 percent.9
Vitamin K may also help against non-Hodgkin lymphoma, stomach, nasopharynx, and oral cancers.
More benefits: It helps prevent falls
Vitamin K2 may be an important ally for improving bone density and preventing what can turn out to be a deadly fall.
K2 is the biological super-glue that holds calcium and other minerals tightly inside your bone matrix. Your bone strength truly rides on far more than just calcium.
Several Japanese trials have shown vitamin K2 completely reverses bone loss – and in some cases even increases bone mass. And researchers in the Netherlands found that vitamin K2 was three times better than K1 in building osteocalcin, needed to bind calcium into the matrix of your bone.
Also prevents hardening of the arteries
and heart disease
A common forerunner to cardiovascular disease is hardening of the arteries. Calcium can get into all the wrong places, but vitamin K2 actually directs it to your skeleton, where you want it. Not to your arteries, where you don’t want it.
K2 helps produce the Matrix GLA Protein (MGP), which protects your blood vessels from calcification. To best encourage MGP, use K2 with synergistic vitamin D3. K2 may also have a robust effect on many other systems. To name a few:
- May help prevent Alzheimer’s
- Improves insulin sensitivity, decreasing your risk of type 2 diabetes by 20%
- May stave off varicose veins
With the surge of interest in K2, more benefits will likely be discovered.
Unraveling vitamin K’s complexities
Vitamin K has two basic classifications: K1 and K2.
K1 is found in green vegetables and is known for its support of blood clotting. It also helps keep your blood vessels from calcifying and helps your bones maintain the right crystalline structure.
K2 is generally produced by bacteria. It goes to your vessel walls, bones, and tissues (other than your liver).
To further complicate matters, there are different forms of K2. Research shows MK7 to be highly effective.
MK7 stays in your body longer, so you’re more likely to build consistent blood levels. MK7 comes primarily from the Japanese food, natto.
It may be time to ditch these
food fairy tales
Most people associate green leafy vegetables with vitamin K. And for good reason, as kale, spinach, collard greens, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts can increase your K1 levels naturally.
But the other form of the vitamin — K2 — is primarily found in fermented foods. Natto and sauerkraut are typical fermented foods – and widely applauded by alternative doctors. But some of the world’s most demonized foods are also high in K2.
Take these, for example:
- Hard cheese
- Soft cheese
- Egg yolk
- Butter from grass fed cows
- Chicken liver
- Cheese and cheese curds contain bacteria that produce K2.
So, you might want to ditch the myth that cheese and animal fats are bad for you. Of course, you’d want to avoid cheese made with rBGH (growth hormone) or GMO (genetically modified) milk.
Dr. Price discovered that commercial butter can vary wildly in its K2 content. He analyzed more than 20,000 samples of butter from around the world. He found the “Activator X” concentration varied as much as 50-fold between samples.
K2 levels are low in butter from grain-fed cows raised in commercial feedlots. You only get significant K2 from raw butter obtained from cows raised on green pasture. Raw butter, of course, is rare because the government requires pasteurization.
You can get all the K2 you need by eating half an ounce of natto daily. It’s super cheap, about $2 per month. But the taste takes a little getting used to. Since it’s a soy product and most soy is genetically modified, you’ll probably want to select organic.
Or do what I do and take a K2 supplement made with MK7. Since it’s fat-soluble, be sure to take it with a healthy fat for absorption.
Don’t wait till everyone’s talking about it…
Recent discoveries show that K2’s benefits span nearly every phase in cancer’s deadly progression.
If you have a family history of cancer – or heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, or dementia – you may want to take vitamin K2 as a preventive.
Caution: Vitamin K2 can interfere with blood thinners, so discuss K2 with your doctor (preferably an alternative one) if you’re taking these medications. Ditto if you’ve had a stroke, cardiac arrest, or are prone to blood clotting. If you’re pregnant or nursing, stay below the RDA for K2 (65 mcg).
For now, it’s abundantly clear that vitamin K2 is an important nutrient for human health – even though most medical authorities still consider it a poor stepchild of other vitamins.
It took two decades for conventional doctors to embrace the evidence for vitamin D3. I wouldn’t wait decades until K2 is the talk of the town. Get started on it now.
Best regards,
Lee Euler,
Publisher
