21/08/07 - Health section

Special K, the pharmaceutical Holy Grail
by LUCY ELKINS

What if there were a drug that not only reduced the risk of heart disease, but also protected
against osteoporosis, reversed the effects of hardened arteries, fought off cancer, and reduced
the risk of Alzheimer's?
It sounds like a pharmaceutical Holy Grail - but, in fact, this wonder pill already exists.
However, it's no medical drug but a vitamin, the little-known vitamin K.
Until recently, it was thought that vitamin K's only use was in helping blood to clot, so
preventing us from bleeding to death whenever we cut ourselves.
While crucial to our wellbeing, the vitamin was never given quite the heroic status of, for
example, antioxidants, substances which counteract the harm caused to cells by exposure to
oxygen.
However, it's now emerging that vitamin K has a number of significant roles.