Hi – I love that your husband is taking preventative action!

The topic of cardiovascular health is a BIG topic with many many root causes, so let me start off with an explanation about calcification specifically, and then I’ll share additional videos you can watch in the B Better library about calcium balance.

Preventing Arterial Plaque

In the body, many vitamins serve as cofactors for enzymes and therefore play major roles in speeding up or increasing key biochemical processes. Vitamin K is one of those important cofactors. It’s found in:
• grass-fed butter
• cheeses
• fatty red meats (e.g. ribeye steak)
• liver
• egg yolks
• natto (fermented soy that has a strong odor and flavor)

…many of the foods that people tend to avoid due to nutritional myths!

Bacteria in the human gut can produce Vitamin K forms, but this appears to be not in sufficient quantity to prevent calcification in a Vitamin K-deficient diet. While it appears that animals can easily convert Vitamin K1 into Vitamin K2, this has not been well demonstrated in humans (one of few human studies).  And our modern epidemics of osteoporosis and heart disease may be evidence of this combined K1-to-K2 impairment and our overall poor intake of foods high in Vitamin K1. Unlike other fat-soluble vitamins, the body does not store Vitamin K, so it must be taken in regularly.
Vitamin K is also responsible for “carboxylating” (a simple biochemical adjustment) which activates a class of proteins in the body called Gla proteins. These proteins play a variety of functions such as blood clotting and managing calcium in the body.

While vitamin K1 is preferentially used by the liver which is where clotting proteins are made, the rest of the body prefers the K2 form to keep bones, arteries, kidneys, brain, etc. healthy. Insufficient Vitamin K2 can dramatically increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, specifically via calcification of arteries, especially the aorta.

In blood vessels, Vitamin K2 is necessary to carboxylate MGP, a protein which strongly inhibits vascular calcification.  But only Vitamin K2, not Vitamin K1!

And Vitamin D also plays a synergistic role in this activation.  In the famous Rotterdam study, sufficient Vitamin K2 intake was shown to prevent both cardiovascular disease and aortic calcification more than 50% of the time! And sudden death from heart attack is even much more highly correlated with calcification of the aorta than with cholesterol.

Hopefully in time, conventional labwork will measure uncarboxylated MGP, given that it has already – repeatedly – been shown to be highly correlated with the level of arterial calcification and Vitamin K nutritional status.
I typically recommend to my clients a combination of MK-7 and MK-4 forms of Vitamin K2 in supplement (e.g. Pure Encapsulations’ Synergy K or Jarrow’s K Right which also have vitamin D). If you want to dive deeper, this article by Chris Masterjohn is very well done. Vitamin K2 is powerful! But of course many other key factors must be considered in cardiovascular concerns as well.
In the Mineral Balance course, I have a section on calcium balance where I discuss these cofactors since an imbalance can cause soft tissue calcification. I recommend you watch the entire section to have a better understanding of all the hormonal players & cofactors involved in regulating calcium to make sure it gets into the bones instead of soft tissues like the heart.

Start here with Risk Factors for Calcium Imbalance. Then watch the other 3 videos in that section as well. It will provide additional markers to consider testing as well like 25(OH) Vit D, and 1,25(OH) Vit D, HsCRP (for inflammation), thyroid, parathyroid, RBC magnesium, etc.

And keep in mind that at the end of the day, cardiovascular health involves the heart, vessels, and blood. The heart is rich in mitochondria so mitochondrial health is important (watch this video). The integrity of blood vessels can be damaged from oxidative damage (high blood sugar, inflammation, toxins/heavy metals) so reducing these and antioxidants are important, and blood is about 92% water so hydration is foundational. As you can see, supporting the basic foundations of health will positively impact cardiovascular health (in a nut shell!).

Hope this is helpful.

Hi  – we collect our eggs from Organegg weekly and they’ve still been supplying us. Try reaching out to this number: 050-650-8484

Otherwise, I also trust Greenheart Organic Farms but they’re often out of stock (as true organic farming should).

 I’m glad it was helpful. Supplementing with Vitamin C isn’t much a concern since it’s water soluble so your body will excrete what it doesn’t need.

Remember the food options and iron skillet that I discussed in the video. They can all be helpful measures as well.

Something new that I’ve started learning about are cell salts. Ferrum Phosphoricum is a homeopathic cell salt that supposedly helps with iron absorption. I’ve personally used it for a month, and it made a difference. Something to consider as well…

have you seen the video on correcting iron deficiency in the Mineral Balance course? I discuss the different types, and I actually share the Thorne Ferrasorb and Bysglicinate forms. The main difference is that Ferrasorb has a higher dosage of iron and includes cofactors like vitamin C for better absorption. If you don’t need vitamin C and other B vitamins, that’s when the iron bysglycinate becomes an option.

The Sideral seems to be a patented formula of “sucrosomial” iron. I’m not familiar with its effectiveness but it does claim to be gentle, non-constipating and easy to absorb. It does seem to have traces of dairy however, so this might not be a good option for those avoiding dairy.

 I’ve had a client suck on a B12 lozenge daily for a few months, (Seeking Health brand) which helped ease her burning mouth. One of the possible causes as Daniel had mentioned for burning mouth/tongue is exactly that but please do investigate the other possible causes mentioned above and let us know if you need further guidance on how to do that/which tests to get.

 – heavy metals are ubiquitous. They’re in everything. It’s similar to the recent report about cocoa (even high quality organic chocolate) having high cadmium and lead levels.

My response is the same. Focus on having good detoxification and drainage pathways and our body is very well capable of detoxifying metals.

Now with regards to the use of sole, again, frequency matters. I don’t use it daily – only when I’ve lost a lot of electrolytes through sweat or through heightened periods of stress. It’s very nourishing to our adrenals. And I know that my drainage pathways are working well so I don’t fuss about it.

Someone else who might be blocked however and with a known heavy metal burden might need to be a little more concerned about their intake.

Hope that makes sense.

 so glad to hear you’re mentally at ease with your decision and moving forward with Dr. Sean. Overwhelm stops us all in our tracks so hopefully things will begin to improve for you soon.

Hi – there can be many different types of white marks on the nails (technically called Leukonychia) and many different causes, so I’m going to share this article by Stanford Medicine which characterizes the hand and nails and possible causes for each pattern. Do any of those images look like your daughter’s nails?

If it’s simply white dots and no lines, this could be from nail damage (trauma to the nail, nail picking, nail biting, nail polish, etc), possible fungal infections, and/or nutritional deficiencies like calcium, zinc and a low protein diet.

Does any of this resonate with you?

 the company making Matula tea recommends taking it on empty stomach; 30 mins before meals or 2 hours after a meal.

Hi  – welcome to B Better! We’re glad you’ve reached out for help. Daniel provided a great summary of possible root causes and solutions to ease a burning mouth.

You might also want to consider swishing your mouth with the pH balancing mouth rinse that Dr. Roze provided us in the resources. 

Do you have any clarifying or additional questions we can help you with?

 wow – big changes coming up for you!! Which state are you moving to? We have many members based in the US so  hopefully you can connect with them. We’d love to have your mom here with us too, and I agree, finding her a naturopath or functional MD is a good idea. Will she be moving with you?

In the meantime, I’m not sure if you saw the protocol I sent earlier but there’s this device in the US that helps reduce BP naturally using the power of guided deep breathing.

I’m so sorry to hear about the misdiagnosis that lead to further complications but I’m glad to hear she’s now stable thankfully. Hope her doctor is allowing her to add back in some salt into her diet? As I had mentioned in an earlier message, a low sodium diet in itself will over time contribute to blood pressure issues as it requires a very fine balance between sodium, chloride and potassium.

I explain this dynamic in more detail in this video here (start at 2 min 42 sec) in the Adrenal Balance course if you’d like to better understand how it works.

 how’s your mom doing?

Wohoo! My publisher said it will be available end of May so crossing fingers they delivery on their promise.

blood sugar and constipation. Start there!

Would your mom watch the Blood Sugar Regulation course? This is foundational and so much will improve if she can start by improving her diet, which I share in that course. If she doesn’t have the attention span, then perhaps you can share the following short videos with her:
• What is the best diet?
• Carb hacks to reduce glucose spikes
• Dietary Guidelines & Sample Daily Meal Plan

And she needs to prioritize the constipation – even if it’s with rapid relief solutions like Bowel Mover by Cellcore, manual “I-Love-U” massages, and topical castor oil packs for example.

As Daniel mentioned, swelling happens when there is lymph congestion and electrolyte imbalances. The congestion will be made worse if she can’t excrete the toxins due to constipation.

So prioritize that for her, get her moving daily (walking – start slow and build up gradually daily), and work on her diet. So much will begin to improve – diabetes is harsh on all blood vessels and it causes a lot of oxidative stress/damage.

She’s lucky to have you looking out for her.