Essay Example on Nutrition: Essential Nutrients for Optimal Health

In the field of nutrition, it is vital to know how specific nutrients' metabolism and influence in the human body. When the human body has all the necessary minerals and nutrients obtained through nutrition (food), it can perform at the ideal running potential; in any case, if no nutrients are obtained, then supplementation of these minerals and nutrients is necessary. At the point when the human body is not receiving sufficient amounts of essential nutrients, then there is a deficiency; inadequacies in the body bring about medical problems. For example, vitamin K is one of the crucial nutrients that the body needs; (Fusaro et al. 2017) demonstrated an epidemiologic study that suggests that bone and mineral abnormality's osteoporosis, bone fractures, and vascular calcification are from a lack vitamin K consumption. The evolution of science in nutrition is continually changing, which is why studies are conducting the effectiveness of the supplementation in vitamins or minerals to prevent specific associated health problems due to deficiencies. The experiments aim to provide insight if health problems can be treated with the use of non-drug options. (Mulasi & Buchan,2018) pointed out that recent studies have shown that [the process of osteocalcin needs vitamin K for the involvement...] causes bone mineralization and could prevent bone turnover. Hence, if osteoporosis patients consume a daily supplement of Vitamin K, there will be a decrease in incidences of bone fractures.

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The first peer review article is a meta-analysis of several experiments on the effects of consuming vitamin K2 in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. The report analyzed nineteen randomized controlled trials (RCT's) that contained 6,759 participants. (Huang et al., 2013) found the analysis of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis that revealed a significant improvement of vertebral BMD [due to the intake of...] vitamin K2. The writers of the articles are from Osteoporosis International, which is a multi-disciplinary journal that has joint initiatives between the International Osteoporosis Foundation and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA, which plays on the credibility of the authors. To ensure a high quality methodologically, the authors followed the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Intervention and the Cochrane collaboration's tool for assessing the risk of bias. The authors of the article were very strategic in choosing the experiments to analyze with specific inclusions and exclusions to provide an accurate conclusion on their hypothesis; the exclusions included the elimination of any other health problems, which can alter the results. Exclusion excludes other variables that may also affect independent variables in the meta-analysis; ensure those irrelevant variables do not interfere with each other in the experiment. Also, the inclusions of the analysis provided the participants in the nineteen RCT's had similar characteristics, such as the type of vitamin K administration, and healthy postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The authors listed numerous inclusions to ensure the validity of the experiment. If the compositions are unlisted, the results will inevitably be distorted. The findings of the effects of vitamin K2 on BMD in osteoporosis patients agreed with the author's proposed research question; therefore, (Huang et al., 2013) showed that vitamin K2 plays a role in maintaining bone mineral density and reducing the incidence of fractures for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

Another peer-reviewed article examined many experiments related to fracture development based on vitamin K1 and K2 intake. The writers analyzed seven RCT's which studied women with osteoporosis for a two year or more extended period. (Iwamot et al., 2009) goals are to evaluate the effects of vitamin K on the skeletal structure in the seven RCT's. The authors listed specific inclusions in their analysis by choosing studies that had 50 or more participants involved. They did not account for the other extraneous variables that may arise in the experiment, like if the patients were taking any medication, which can interfere with bone density. The study's methodology is inadequate because unrelated variables such as current health status or age can affect the outcome.

What is more, the authors only chose to focus on studies in Japan, where the patients were broadly following similar dietary guidelines. (Petre, 2019) states the traditional Japanese diet is a whole-foods-based diet rich in fish, seafood, and plant-based foods, which are high in vitamin K. The normalcy of the Japanese culture's dietary habits is high in consuming Vitamin K, which may skew the outcome of the research question. However, there is no evidence that the authors analyzed the patient's dietary intake to see if this independent variable was manipulating results. However, the number of vitamin K given to each subject from each experiment differs, which can skew the results. (Iwamoto et al. 2009) state that 45mg of vitamin K is the lowest effective dose, where only four out of seven experiments indicated either an administration of 45mg or a higher dose of vitamin K. In the remaining three randomized controlled trials, the administration vitamin K lower than 45mg presented no fractures, which suggests the supplementation of vitamin K does not limit or prevent fractures in postmenopausal women. Also, the groups who did not show any incidents of fractures had an intake of vitamin K1, which does not present similar results as the consumption of vitamin K2. Hence, (Iwamoto et al., 2009) have shown that the high-dose vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 supplementation improved bone strength in the femoral neck and reduced the incidence of clinical fractures.

The third peer review investigated the effects of consuming vitamin K2 in preventing incidents of new fractures in women who have osteoporosis. The experiment consisted of a study of 241 osteoporotic patients who participated in the survey for 24-months. The 241 patients placed randomly into two groups, one group receiving 45mg of vitamin k2 and one group receiving a placebo pill. They undertook further investigations before selecting 241 patients; the criteria proposed by the authors were that patients had not received any osteoporosis treatment in the last three months. Moreover, the patients received no instruction to follow a physical activity regime or follow a meal plan. The patients were roughly the same age range (66-70 years old). (Shiraki et al. 2010) have shown that the control group suffered from 35 bone fractures.

In contrast, the vitamin K2 treated group suffered from 14 bone fractures, which is significantly lower than the control group. Despite the findings, the article used vitamin K2 capsules in the investigation. Other articles did not mention the specific type of pills used and thus concluded that Gla-Kay is responsible for the beneficial results of daily consumption by osteoporosis patients. Furthermore, the study suffered a drop rate of 51 patients due to sustaining new vertebral fractures or not completing the required information, which poses a threat to the internal validity of the data. The mortality in the experiment resulted in the differences between the two groups that may be unrelated to the treatment effects. (Shiraki et al., 2010); the findings of the study suggest that vitamin K2 effectively prevents the occurrence of new fractures.

In conclusion, the investigation of my research question; if osteoporosis patients consume a daily supplement of Vitamin K, there will be a decrease in incidences of bone fractures, which is still uncertain. The conduction of the randomized controlled trials in the literature prevented bias, which led to the benefits of vitamin K. The first peer review put forward strong arguments and evidence to support their research questions; the authors are credible and provide reputable sources. They presented a well-sounded meta-analysis of the research on the benefits to a daily supplementation of vitamin K. The following source were tested only in Japan and did not take into account differences in the dietary guidelines developed elsewhere. The dietary guidance plays a role in the nutritional standards which Registered Dietitians use to assist patients. Furthermore, the effectiveness of supplementing vitamin K cannot translate to other ethnicities. The efficacy of the third peer review poses a threat because it did not adequately demonstrate the full power of vitamin K's role. The third peer review poses a danger to ethics and experimenter bias (recognition) on the internal effectiveness of professional ethics. The investigation highlighted that the consumption of vitamin K needs further testing to conclude the effects of using vitamin K in osteoporosis patients. The meta-analysis supports the postulation that vitamin K plays an essential role in the improvement and maintenance of vertebral BMD and fracture prevention in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The osteocalcin increment and the undercarboxylated osteocalcin reduction may be related to the mineralization of bone process.

Moreover, vitamin K2 effects for postmenopausal women who lack osteoporosis had not been found. RCTs with high quality are required for confirmation of the vitamin K role in osteoporosis for postmenopausal women. It was also concluded that when the Gla-Kay pill shows results that beneficial, especially in the daily consumption by patients with osteoporosis conditions. With the findings extracted from the research, it is now concluded that vitamin K2 realized effectiveness in the prevention of new fracture occurrences. It was also revealed that postmenopausal women with osteoporosis showed a significant improvement of vertebral BMD when they consumed vitamin K2.

Conclusion

My proposed research question was inspired by my grandma, who suffers from osteoporosis. My grandma is 75 years old, and it is unfortunate to witness the side effects of her medication; frequently spending a significant amount of time in the bed because it hurts to move; she broke her hip two years ago. My goal was to see if there's an alternative to managing women with osteoporosis and preventing bone fracture incidents without the drug side effects. The disease is more prevalent in women of older age, and knowing my grandma suffers from this disease, I've been ensuring I consume a varied and balanced diet. The results of my research were inconclusive, but soon, science will come up with a preventative procedure to reduce the risk of osteoporosis in women.

References

Fusaro, M., Mereu, M. C., Aghi, A., Iervasi, G., & Gallieni, M. (2017). Vitamin K and bone. Clinical cases in mineral and bone metabolism: the official journal of the Italian Society of Osteoporosis, Mineral Metabolism, and Skeletal Diseases, 14(2), 200-206. https://doi.org/10.11138/ccmbm/2017.14.1.200

Huang, Z.-B., Wan, S.-L., Lu, Y.-J., Ning, L., Liu, C., & Fan, S.-W. (2014). Does vitamin K2 play a role in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis for postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Osteoporosis International, 26(3), 1175-1186. doi: 10.1007/s00198-014-2989-6

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-014-2989-6

Iwamoto, J., Sato, Y., Takeda, T., & Matsumoto, H. (2009). High-dose vitamin K supplementation reduces fracture incidence in postmenopausal women: a review of the literature. Nutrition Research, 29(4), 221-228. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2009.03.012 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271531709000578

Petre, A. (2019, September 19). Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ja...