SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Is there a "bacterial link" between prostate issues and pregnancy complications? Are both promoted by a messed up microbiome? You know what a hypothesis is, right? Well, in that case the title of the scientific journal "Medical Hypothesis" should tell you that the two studies the "results" of which I am about to present in the following brief write-up are hypothetical. This means, it will require further research efforts to prove that vitamin K is the missing link in prostate health and to confirm that instestinal dysbioses (=messed up gut microbiome) are at the heart of the an ever-increasing number of pregnancy complications. As of now, both assumptions are based on scientific evidence, the "last" 100% convincing evidence, however, is still missing. You can learn more about the gut & your health at the SuppVersity Bugs Dictate What You Crave Sweeteners & Your Gut Foods, Not Ma- cros for the Gut Lactulose For Gut ...

Some butter on top of the broccoli would allow for the assimilation of the absorption of the 101.6μg vitamin K 623IU vitamin A (various). There are a handful of very basic questions in nutrition science, no one appears to have an answer to. One of these questions, which is directly related to the  well-known fact that the vitamins A, D, E & K are "lipid soluble". This means that they are "solved" and thus made absorbable by fats and oils. The general assumption is thus that the vitamins A, i.e. the retinol and carotenoids, all forms of vitamin D, the tocopherols and -trienols (vitamin s E) and the two major forms of vitamin K, i.e. phylloquinone (K1) and menaquinone (K2) will only be absorbed, if you consume them with a sufficient amount of dietary fat. Now, the questions obviously are (a) is this correct and (b) how much is sufficient . Is there a rule of thumb? Well, I guess if there was one, it would be to consume 5-10g of low PUFA fats with every mea...

Image 1: Who would have thought that this piece of goose liver pate contains a natural test-booster? Unfortunately even this SuperFood won't give you your 1g /day. Can you imagine how it must feel to be the shrinking violet in a family of nutritional saviours? Where your brothers C, E, not to mention the rising superstar D, get all the attention and you are treated just like another letter in the vitamin ABC? Well, I guess you don't ... but if vitamins had feelings, menaquinone , also known as Vitamin K2 , certainly would ;-) After all, even many supplement junkies know it only as "that strange co-factor of vitamin D. In part this may even be my fault. After all, I have discarded all the previous studies on its beneficial effects on heart health ( Galeijnse. 2004 ), bone formation ( Yamaguchi. 2001 ) and resorption ( Yamaguchi. 2003 ) and so-on and so-forth, as not "sexy" enough to make it into the SuppVersity news. The results of a recent study, by Asagi Ito...

Image 1: The yellow bone marrrow fat turns out to be more than a filler. In Germany there is a common saying that is predominantly used by the mothers of fat kids: "My son, overweight? No. He just has some really heavy bones." Well, I guess few of these proud mothers will be aware that recent research from the Boston Medical School ( Fulzele. 2011 ) and the University of Toledo suggests that there may be more to the bone-bodyweight connection than even they may have thought. In a comprehensive review of the latest findings on bone metabolism ( Fulzele. 2011 ) Keertik Fulzele and Thomas L. Clemens state that the " contemporary model [which] assigns IGFs [insulin like growth factor] as central regulators of cell profileration, survival, and organism growth " and reduces the influence of insulin to the "level of regulation fuel utilization, storage, and energy expenditure" is too simplistic to to accomm...

Until not too long ago, scientists thought vitamin D was all about bone. Every follower of this blog knows that this is a way too narrow perspective on what turned out to be more of a hormone than a vitamin. A recent study ( Sogabe. 2011 ) on the effects of vitamin K supplementation in mice does now suggest that vitamin D's "cofactors" phylloquinone (PK, vitamin K1) and menaquinone-4 (MK-4, vitamin K2) have been similarly mistaken. Figure 1: Weight of visceral fat pad in g after 85 days of  phylloquinone (PK, vitamin K1) or menaquinone-4 (MK-4, vitamin K2) supplementation ( Sogabe. 2011 ) Japanese scientists, who wanted to investigate the effect of 85 days of vitamin K supplementation (PK: 600 mg/kg; MK-4: 600 mg/kg) on bone development in mice, were surprised to find that vitamin K did not only improve bone mass and structure, but that... the addition of PK or MK-4 significantly decreased the total fat accumulation ( p  < 0.01 and p  < ...