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Dietary linolenic acid is inversely associated with calcified atherosclerotic plaque in the coronary arteries: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study. Djoussé L, Arnett DK, Carr JJ, Eckfeldt JH, Hopkins PN, Province MA, Ellison RC; Investigators of the NHLBI FHS. Circulation. 2005 Jun 7;111(22):2921-6. Epub 2005 May 31. PMID: 15927976 doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.104.489534

The vitamin K2 story, though still preliminary, is becoming increasingly interesting from the perspective of CT heart score reduction. The origin of this concept came from some unexpected observations. One, the observation that osteoporosis (lack of bone calcium that leads to fractures) arises from deficiency of vitamin K2. Two, deficiency of K2 leads to unrestrained calcium deposition in animal models, leading to heart attack in just weeks.

Canonical processing of APP is catalyzed by α-secretase, resulting in the generation of two fragments: a large extracellular fragment secreted APP (sAPP) α (sAPPα) that is released to extracellular medium, as well as an83 amino acid C-terminal fragment α-carboxyterminal fragments (CTF) that remains in the membrane.

A Track Your Plaque member brough the following webcast to our attention: Prospects for Vitamin D Nutrition\nwhich can be found at http://tinyurl.com/f93vl (The above link no longer seems to work, use http://wildhorse.insinc.com/directms13oct2005/ instead) Despite the painfully dull title, the webcast is the best summary of data on the health benefits on vitamin D that I've seen. The presenter is Dr. Reinhold Vieth, who is among the handful of worldwide authorities on vitamin D. In 1999, Dr. Vieth authored the first review to concisely and persuasively argue that vitamin D nutrition was woefully neglected and that its potential for health was enormous.

If you've been following the Track Your Plaque conversation, you know that, contrary to prevailing opinion among many cardiologists, there is an emerging notion that coronary calcification is an active process, a true part of the disease. Vitamin D3 is an important aspect of this question. So is vitamin K2. Not to be confused with K1 that plays a role in blood coagulation, K2 has an important role in calcium metabolism. Thus, vitmain K2 deficiency is related to osteoporosis and to coronary calcification.

Vitamin K2 is emerging as an exciting player in the control and possible regression of coronary atherosclerotic plaque. Only about 10% of dietary vitamin K intake is in the K2 form, the other 90% being the more common K1.

What causes coronary heart disease or coronary atherosclerotic plaque, this thing that we track with heart scans? \n\nWell, here are a few little-publicized facts about heart disease that you are unlikely to hear from your When's-the-next-stent? cardiologist or the What is there besides statins? primary care doctor. \n\n(Since everybody knows that smoking is a modifiable risk for heart disease that can be readily identified, let's focus on the blood tests that reveal heart disease causes.)