Blogging with Lee

Are You Getting Your Vitamin K2?

Lately I've been spending a lot of time on iHealthTube.com, a website that we have sponsored since its inception. In just a short time, the folks at iHealthTube have built a vast library of video interviews with top experts in health and wellness from around the world. I've even had the pleasure of appearing in some of videos on iHealthTube myself, along with friends and colleagues from academia and the supplement industry. It's easy to spend a couple of hours on this site and not even notice how much time has passed.

Last night I was watching the iHealthTube videos with Dr. Leon Schurgers from the University of Maastricht. Dr. Schurgers is one of the primary researchers who discovered the importance of Vitamin K2 for cardiovascular and bone health. Since his groundbreaking work was published a few years ago, millions now recognize the importance of this previously overlooked nutrient.

The iHealthTube team caught up with Dr. Schurgers last May in Portland, OR, where he was speaking about Vitamin K2 at a conference held by the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. They managed to put together 18 videos ranging in length from two to five minutes, each detailing a different aspect of Vitamin K2's role in human wellness. Truly fascinating stuff.

I believe the discoveries Dr. Schurgers and his colleagues have made constitute some of the most important findings in human nutrition to emerge in the last decade. If you're not familiar with Vitamin K2, do yourself a favor and watch these videos. It's a rare occasion that we get to learn this kind of information direct from the experts who are making the important discoveries and I'm glad iHealthTube is there to bring us these opportunities. Check out the video below, then click through to iHealthTube to learn more.

The Dangers of Not Getting Enough Vitamin K2

Something in the Water

I once had a business associate who did not particularly care for our hometown of Fargo. "There must be something in the water," he'd say gruffly when expressing his lack of appreciation for our hardworking citizens. Well, he was right: there is something in our water, traces of three pharmaceutical drugs to be precise. But who is he to talk? In the Washington, DC area where he lives, researchers found six drugs in the drinking water. And if you think that's bad, stay away from Philadelphia. Researchers there found traces of 56 pharmaceuticals in local water samples!

You've probably already seen the reports. MSNBC and CNN ran the story in heavy rotation last week. Every major newspaper placed the news prominently: according to a new nationwide survey, 46 million of us are exposed to pharmaceuticals in our drinking water every day.

It's certainly alarming and it's enough to compel anyone to avoid the tap in favor of bottled water; but that's not the solution. First, there's the environmental impact to consider (not to mention the biological impact of BPA and other components of plastic). Remember the push earlier this year to ban bottled water in order to reduce our carbon footprint? But there's another reason bottled water doesn't solve the drug-contamination issue: we don't know that it's any cleaner. Manufacturers aren't required to and thus do not test for pharmaceutical residues and the technology necessary to filter them out is cost-prohibitive on such a large scale. If you're drinking water sourced at the tap and not a natural spring (Dasani, Aquafina), there's no more guarantee of purity than if you filled the bottle from your kitchen sink.

So our water supply is tainted with drugs. Most bottled water is as well. How then do we obtain pure water? Personally, I use a reverse osmosis (RO) system in my home. RO is generally considered to be the best way to remove impurities, including pharmaceutical residues; but it has to be the right kind of RO system.

Typical RO systems pass water through a semipermeable membrane that filters out larger, heavier molecules. For effective removal of smaller impurities including residual pharmaceuticals, a second step is necessary. This involves passing the water through a secondary activated carbon filter, which traps the smaller molecules that make it through the RO filter. If you're going to use an RO system, make sure it includes a secondary carbon filter.

For a few hundred dollars you can protect your family with an RO system, but is that enough? If this issue concerns you--and experts agree it should--get involved. Many communities have a Clean Water Action group you can join, or you can join at the national level and start your own local committee. This grassroots organization has done a lot to protect our nation's waters since the early 70s. Also, contact your local agencies in charge of water, ask questions and let them know you're concerned. And finally, tell your representatives in local, state and national government that this issue is too important to be ignored. We now know there definitely is something in the water, and it's time we took action to address this growing threat to public health.