Dear Healthy Friend,

It's a vitamin we've written about many times. One that continues to amaze with all it can do. From boosting brain health, to fighting tooth decay, to alleviating morning sickness, this overachiever just won't quit. And now there's yet another benefit to add to the long list: Fighting off cancer of all kinds.

The superstar in question? Vitamin K. And Christine O'Brien reveals the finer details...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S. We all know that high cholesterol is a big problem, and anyone with high cholesterol makes sure that they reduce it as much as possible... but is there such a thing as cholesterol that is too low? And is there something you can do about it? Dr Wright tells us the answers....

Superstar vitamin could also fight cancer
Christine O'Brien
Contributor, Nutrition & Healing

It's been linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer before, but a groundbreaking new study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is the first to explore the relationship between vitamin K and cancer in general.

It found that people with higher intakes of vitamin K, specifically vitamin K2, from food may be less likely to die of cancer.

For the study, 24,340 people between the ages of 35 and 64 reported their dietary intake through a detailed questionnaire. Over the next decade, 1,755 of the participants were diagnosed with cancer (colon, breast, prostate, or lung) and 458 died.

Researchers found that the 25% of study participants who had the highest intakes of vitamin K2 were 28% less likely to have died from any one of those cancers than the people in the 25% lowest intake group. Other factors were considered, so K seems to be the major player here.

The strongest link was between K2 and lung cancer or prostate cancer. And the researchers said that vitamin K itself could offer protection against cancer - in the lab, it's been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth and promote cancer-cell suicide.

Like I said in the beginning of this letter, there's a long list of reasons to get plenty of vitamin K in your diet. K1 is abundant in deep green vegetables, K2 is in meats and cheeses, and taking probiotics will help because good-for-you intestinal bacteria play a part in producing vitamin K in your own body. So keep supplementing with vitamin K and it could make a drastic difference in your life and reduce your risk of cancer...

Can cholesterol be too low?

Q: Ever since my doctor told me I have high cholesterol, I've been working on lowering my levels with diet and exercise - I just don't want to go on a statin drug! I guess I've been doing too well with it, because my doctor just told me my cholesterol might actually be too low now! So what do I do?

Dr Wright: As with blood pressure, much more attention is given to the dangers of high cholesterol than those associated with low cholesterol. But low serum levels of cholesterol can increase your risk of cancer, stroke and depression.

I generally start to pay particular attention to cholesterol levels if they're 140 mg/dl or below, and then advise patients to take the few effective measures known to raise serum cholesterol, starting with manganese.

Although I have not found it effective in raising serum cholesterol to the normal range in every patient who tries it, in my experience, manganese is at least partially effective in more than 50% of cases.

My usual recommendation is to take 50mg of manganese citrate once or twice daily. When your cholesterol levels are back up within a normal range, reduce the dosage to 10 to 15mg once daily.