Cardiovascular Disease Death Before Age 65 in 168 Countries Correlated Statistically with Biometrics, Socioeconomic Status, Tobacco, Gender, Exercise, Macronutrients, and Vitamin K.

Background: Nutrition researchers recently recognized that deficiency of vitamin K2 (menaquinone: MK-4-MK-13) is widespread and contributes to cardiovascular disease (CVD). The deficiency of vitamin K2 or vitamin K inhibition with warfarin leads to calcium deposition in the arterial blood vessels.

Methods: Using publicly available sources, we collected food commodity availability data and derived nutrient profiles including vitamin K2 for people from 168 countries.

Deep venous thrombosis: The valve cusp hypoxia thesis and its incompatibility with modern orthodoxy.

The valve cusp hypoxia thesis (VCHT) of the aetiology of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) was adumbrated in this journal in 1977 and fully articulated in 2008, the original hypothesis having been strongly corroborated by experiments published in 1981 and 1984. It presents a unitary account of the pathogenesis of venous thrombosis and embolism that is rooted in the pathophysiological tradition of Hunter, Virchow, Lister, Welch and Aschoff, a tradition traceable back to Harvey. In this paper we summarise the thesis in its mature form, consider its compatibility with recent advances in the DVT field, and ask why it has not yet been assimilated into the mainstream literature, which during the past half century has been dominated by a haematology-orientated 'consensus model'.

Hysterical paralysis and premature burial: a medieval Persian case, fear and fascination in the West, and modern practice.

Premature burial (taphophobia) is an ancient fear, but it became especially common in 18th and 19th century Europe and may have a modern-day counterpart. Examination of a well-documented case from medieval Persia reveals the importance of funeral practices in the risk of actual premature burial and sheds light on the question of why taphophobia became so prevalent in Europe during the early industrial revolution period. The medieval Persian case was attributed to hysterical paralysis (conversion).