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    Vitamin K or a Wheelchair: Your Choice
    Vitamin K or a Wheelchair: Your Choice
    Vitamin K or a Wheelchair: Your Choice
    Ebook174 pages2 hours

    Vitamin K or a Wheelchair: Your Choice

    By Doug Fenwick

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    About this ebook

    The elderly author had increasing mobility issues, was using crutches more frequently and heading for a wheelchair, when he decided to have the bones in his arthritic right ankle fused. He believed that a club foot would be more useful than a wheelchair around the house. The mandatory check of leg circulation prior to the operation revealed enexpected extensive atherosclerosis and occlusions of the arteries of both legs from the abdominal aorta to the feet.
    While waiting to see the vascular surgeon again, he decided to find out as much as he could about osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis by examining the research literature in Google Scholar and PubMed. He was surprised to find not only a mass of literature on these two conditions but evidence that they could be interconnected and not only that, but that vitamin K deficiency may have a role in their development.
    This book describes his journey of research into the functions of vitamin K, the sources from which we get our daily supplies and the doses we need to stay healthy. A decision was made to try vitamin K supplements as a conservative measure temporarilly before undergoing ankle surgery. Within a few weeks, the first signs of improvement appeared and have continued to the time of writing this. Repeat ultrasounds of the leg arteries after 14 months revealed a remarkable reversible of stenosis in arteries that were less than 50% stenosed. No other pharmaceutical drug has been shown to come close to that. The literature suggested that two types of vitamin K needed to be taken and that the dose needed to be higher than the official recommendations.
    The author is now going for walks daily, mainly of two kilometres or less, but occasionally up to five kilometres with a view to not wearing out what must be some new cartilage. Arthritis in the left wrist has disappeared, anginas have ceased, kidney function has improved and the subject is much healthier all around. He can push a loaded wheelbarrow again and climb ladders.
    Research has continued and pertinent literature has been provided for readers throughout the book into many other conditions that surprisingly might be caused by vitamin K deficiency. They include Atherosclerosis, Osteoarthritis, Leg function in oldies, Reproductive biology, Heart conditions, Bone health, Chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, Nervous system health (including dementia), Cataracts, Inflammation biomarkers, Blood cholesterol, Regeneration of blood vessels and skin, All-cause mortality and Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy. Hyperlinks are available to put you in touch with the research that may interest you and which you can purchase independently for more in-depth study.
    Several researchers have claimed that western diets do not contain sufficient vitamin K for a healthy lifestyle and the author has formed the opinion from all of this information that supplements should be taken daily from a very young age. After reading a mass of literature that has been conducted over the last 40 years, he believes that vitamin K is probably one of our most widely-needed vitamins. He is surprised that almost all of this information has failed to get into the mainstream of medical practice.
    This book is a 'must read' for everyone.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDoug Fenwick
    Release dateJul 28, 2018
    ISBN9780648294009
    Vitamin K or a Wheelchair: Your Choice
    Author

    Doug Fenwick

    Dr Doug Fenwick was born in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourns in 1931. He has BVsc, MVSc, MANZCVSc and PhD qualifications in the field of veterinary science as well as a Diploma in Freelance Journalism. Since graduating as a veterinarian, he spent 18 months as a governmental veterinary officer and 25 years in country practice before spending 16 years at the University of Queensland. This book describes the 25 years as a country veterinarian. He’s had more than 40 scientific papers published, and has been guest speaker at innumerable functions, not only in the field of veterinary science, but in Drug and Alcohol Education and in Conservation.

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      Vitamin K or a Wheelchair - Doug Fenwick

      INTRODUCTION

      I am aware that a single case history does not make a story, but I'm also aware that a single case history supported by a mass of evidence DOES make a single case history more plausible.

      This is a personal story of how vitamin K not only kept me out of a wheelchair, but how it improved my overall health.

      My decision to self-medicate with vitamin K was based on research into hundreds of scientific experiments and studies that others have conducted over the last 40 years and whose results have curiously failed to make it into the current mainstream of medical practice.

      I would like to share my story with you because I believe that many people could benefit from the information.

      I have been able to put together a dissertation suggesting that atherosclerosis, which is a disease of arteries due to the formation of a mishmash of calcified rubbish under the inner lining layer of artery cells, is a sign of insufficient vitamin K intake or supply. The swellings caused by this mishmash of rubbish tend to occlude the flow of blood through the arteries, thus depriving their end organs and tissues of sufficient blood to function properly.

      I would like to digress a little to give you a basic idea of atherosclerosis and the main role of vitamin K. Certainly, we all know that it enables blood to clot. It also plays a role in doing the opposite in preventing unnecessary blood clotting by activating three proteins known as Proteins C, S and Z; it is in fact a blood-clotting regulator. As you read through this dissertation, you will also realise that it has a crucial role in the prevention of osteoporosis, and in brain tissue development and maintenance.

      But its most important role is in the maintenance of the health of blood vessels, and arteries in particular. This site (Blood Vessels | The Franklin Institute (fi.edu)) claims that the average child has something like 60,000 miles of blood vessels if the capillaries, veins and arteries were laid out end to end. The figures sound extraordinary, but let’s just imagine that there was only one mile of arteries and imagine the amount of work needed to keep that mile of artery healthy. There are two main proteins (Protein C and Protein S) responsible for doing just that (keeping arteries healthy) and both need vitamin K to become active.

      They play a very important role in preventing atherosclerosis.

      I’ll try to give you a mental picture of atherosclerosis, using this angiogram of my own heart in 2005, when I was 74. While walking one evening I suddenly got a mild crushing sensation in the chest, as if a giant hand was squeezing it. It passed off in seconds, but then returned when I reached home after walking up a moderate hill before the pain passed off again. It returned and woke me at 2.00 AM that night. A phone call to the hospital emergency Ward resulted in advice to take some indigestion medicine and see my general practitioner next day. I wasn’t too concerned myself, so I did that. Within a week or so, after tests, I was in the operating room.

      ARTERY WITH ATHEROSCLEROSIS

      The top picture shows the progress of a dye through my right descending coronary artery. The blue circle outlines what appears to be a missing section of the artery. There is no missing section. In fact a very thin stream of blood is going through. The wall of the artery is swollen with gunk referred to as atheromas. I have an image at the start of Chapter 6 showing a diagram of this obstruction. The brilliant surgeons were able to thread a ballooon up to the obstruction by way of the artery in my groin to open up the stenosis, then insert a tube called a stent. This allowed the blood to flow through, as you can see in the second photo.

      But in retrospect, not one of the cardiologists who were present, commented on the lumpy-bumpy nature of my arteries. You can see all the different shapes and shades of the lumps. The artery walls should be smooth and evenly shaded. Those arteries of mine were extremely unhealthy. I did not realise it at the time, but this process must have been fairly advanced in my aorta and legs at least, as well as to some extent all over my body.

      And you will see from the research I’ve cited in this dissertation that this process of atheromatisation has been found in the arteries of infants, teenagers, and in a progressively accumulating degree in many of us as we age. I’m lucky that my brain does not appear to have been noticeably affected.

      About 9 years after the stent was inserted I was beginning to get mild angina attacks again every time I began to exercise, but it would pass off after stopping for 20 or 30 seconds and I would continue with moderate exercise.

      Since taking vitamin K, I can push myself to the limits at the gym and run out of puff, but I get no more angina attacks.

      Chapter 3 shows some of my leg ultrasound tracings before and after vitamin K.

      When I talk about atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis or atheromatosis, just picture in your mind that you may have lumpy, bumpy arteries slowing down, and sometimes stopping the blood flow to a multitude of organs almost anywhere in your body.

      If an articulating joint's blood supply is compromised by atherosclerosis, osteoarthritis results (as in my right ankle); if a heart artery is affected, angina or a heart attack ensues; if a brain, dementia or a slow stroke; if a kidney, chronic kidney disease; if a lumbar artery, chronic lower back pain -- and so on.

      The research has been done and the evidence is here. Read it for yourself. You simply either ctrl-click on the links that I have provided, or else you can copy and paste the links into Google Scholar or PubMed. You are able to check the evidence.

      I have itemised my own case history in detail, because it may present some clinical signs that are not listed in the textbooks.

      I have included copies of my leg artery ultrasounds to demonstrate the improvement after supplementation with vitamin K. I believe that the 100% reversal of atherosclerosis in arteries that were only 50% occluded, is possibly the first recorded response of such magnitude in medical history.

      It is remotely possible that my functional (not structural) reversal of osteoarthritis in my right ankle is also a first. I appreciate that cases of spontaneous remission have been recorded in the literature on this site -- Bland (1983; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0002934383905247 -- so my functional reversal is not totally unique. The only difference is that in my case, the odds need to be assessed against the functional reversal commencing within three weeks of commencement of vitamin K supplementation.

      You could probably regard this perspective on vitamin K and geriatric diseases as that of someone looking at an old scene with a fresh set of eyes. Including my own immediate problems, I have identified research suggesting that deficiency could also be involved with other conditions.

      CHAPTER 1. MY GENERAL STATE OF HEALTH AND MOBILITY BEFORE VITAMIN K

      When I was 81, my general mobility and physical condition had deteriorated to the point where I could hobble about 300 metres with the aid of crutches. I was becoming progressively more incapacitated. My right ankle was seizing up like a rusty hinge and developing a bony outgrowth on the inner side.

      I was unable to walk around a local two-kilometre block anymore. For 12 months, the best I could do was to ride an exercise bike for 10 or 15 minutes a day at a very low torque. On most mornings, mild angina attacks would cause me to stop for 30 seconds or so before continuing.

      I had been medically diagnosed with many complaints during my life that included asthma (since my teens), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at about 70, multiple arthroses of the spine and osteoarthritis of the knees with bilateral knee replacements at 72, high blood pressure (hypertension) at about the same time, angina and a severe narrowing of a heart artery (a stent was placed in one artery at 74), cardiac arrhythmia (a pacemaker was installed at 74), pre-diabetes type 2, anaemia, failing kidney function on annual blood profiles, and the most incapacitating - diabetic neuropathy affecting both feet and ankles.

      My body was progressively failing on my journey to the inevitable.

      But the diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy of the feet was questionable. Peripheral artery disease was erroneously ruled out by a GP and a cardiologist because they were able to detect a dorsal pedal arterial pulse by manual palpation, which was standard medical protocol at that time. My ankle bones were tending to become loose, instead of tightly bound to one another so that I developed very flat feet. This condition is known as Charcot's Foot. Both medical graduates sounded so confident about their diagnoses of diabetic neuropathy that I accepted them even though my fasting blood glucose concentrations had seldom been above 9 millimoles per litre.

      I was mobile enough to use the motor mower if I operated the mower with one hand and used a crutch for balance with the other. If I took the weight off my feet for a seated-rest every few minutes, I could finish the mowing. It was not a large area of grass. When I was more mobile, I could complete the task in ten or fifteen minutes.

      My private thought was that I would have to be in a wheelchair with an oxygen bottle within twelve months.

      In addition to the arthritis of the right ankle, my left foot had been carrying an injury since 1989 when I was about 58. I was wearing jogging footwear and jumped down from a three feet high rise at the side of a bush track, but I managed to land on the short stump of a broken seedling that protruded about one inch out of the ground. It appeared to damage a tendon under my instep. Because I was able to hobble the next five miles back to our accommodation, I did not bother to have it checked medically.

      In later years when I was about 75, a couple of years after having bilateral knee replacements, I fell awkwardly while paddling with the small grandchildren in a fast-flowing river, about twelve inches deep, but with a bottom of slippery rounded rocks of about four to six inches diameter. My left ankle went one way but the rest of my body and straightened leg went another, with the result that I tore the inside part of my left calf muscle (medial head of the gastrocnemius) as well as every other medial tendon and ligament down to, and involving, the ankle. It

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