4 Health Benefits of Vitamin K2

It's not only for the health of your blood

4 Health Benefits of Vitamin K2

Health Benefits of Vitamin K2

It's not only for the health of your blood

Most people have never heard of vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 is rare in the Western diet and hasn't received much mainstream attention; however, this powerful nutrient plays an essential role in many aspects of our health. Many scientists believe that Vitamin K2 may be the missing link between diet and several chronic, age-related diseases.

What Is Vitamin K?

Vitamin K was discovered in 1929 as an essential nutrient for blood clotting. The initial discovery was reported in a German scientific journal, where it was called “Koagulations-vitamin,” which is where the "K" comes from.

It was also discovered by the dentist Weston Price, who travelled the world in the early 20th Century studying the relationship between diet and disease in different populations. He found that the non-industrial diets were high in some hitherto un-identified nutrient, which seemed to provide protection against tooth decay and chronic diseases.

Vitamin K1 & K2

There are two main forms of vitamin K:

  • Vitamin K1, which is found in plant foods like leafy greens, and

  • Vitamin K2, which is found in some animal and fermented foods

Vitamin K2 can be further divided into several different subtypes, the most important being MK-4 and MK-7

How Do Vitamins K1 and K2 Work?

Vitamin K activates proteins that play an important role in blood clotting, calcium metabolism and our heart health. One of its most important functions is to regulate calcium deposition. In other words, it promotes the calcification of bones and prevents the calcification of our soft tissues such as blood vessels and kidneys.

Some scientists have suggested that the roles of vitamins K1 and K2 are very different, and many feel that they should be classified as two separate nutrients, this idea is supported by an animal study showing that vitamin K2 (MK-4) reduced blood vessel calcification whereas vitamin K1 did not.

Controlled studies in people also observe that vitamin K2 supplements generally improve bone and heart health, while vitamin K1 shows no significant benefits. However, more human studies are needed before the functional differences between vitamins K1 and K2 can be fully understood.

Heart Disease

Calcium build-up in the arteries around your heart is a huge risk factor for heart disease. Therefore, anything that we can do to reduce this calcium accumulation may help prevent heart disease.

In one study spanning 10 years, people with the highest intake of vitamin K2 were 52% less likely to develop artery calcification and had a 57% lower risk of dying from heart disease.

Another study in 16,057 women found that participants with the highest intake of vitamin K2 had a much lower risk of heart disease - for every 10 micrograms of K2 they consumed per day, the risk of heart disease was reduced by 9%.

It is generally agreed that more long-term controlled trials on vitamin K2 and heart disease are needed.

Bone Health

Vitamin K2 may also help improve bone Health and lower your risk of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis, which translates as “porous bones,” is a common problem in many Western countries. It is prevalent among older women and strongly raises the risk of fractures.

As already mentioned, vitamin K2 plays a central role in the metabolism of calcium; calcium being the most abundant mineral found in our bones and teeth. Vitamin K2 activates the calcium-binding actions of two proteins; the matrix GLA protein and osteocalcin, which help to build and maintain bone cells.

A 3-year study in 244 post-menopausal women found that those taking vitamin K2 supplements had a much slower decrease in age-related bone mineral density.

Japanese Studies

Long-term studies in Japanese women have observed similar benefits, although very high doses were used in these cases. Out of 13 studies, only one failed to show significant improvement.

Seven of these trials, which took fractures into consideration, found that vitamin K2 reduced spinal fractures by 60%, hip fractures by 77% and all non-spinal fractures by 81%.

In line with these findings, vitamin K supplements are officially recommended for preventing and treating osteoporosis in Japan.

Dental Health

Researchers have speculated that vitamin K2 may also affect dental health; however no human studies to date have tested this directly. Based on animal studies and the role vitamin K2 plays in bone metabolism, it’s reasonable to assume that vitamin K2 impacts dental health as well.

One of the main regulating proteins in dental health is osteocalcin, this is the same protein that is critical to bone metabolism and is activated by vitamin K2. Osteocalcin triggers a mechanism that stimulates the growth of new dentin, which is the calcified tissue underneath the enamel of your teeth.

Cancer

Unfortunately, as we all know cancer is a common cause of death worldwide. Even though modern medicine has found many ways to treat it, new cancer cases are still on the rise. Therefore, finding effective prevention strategies is vital.

Two clinical studies suggest that vitamin K2 reduces recurrence of liver cancer and increases survival times. Additionally, an observational study in 11,000 men found that a high vitamin K2 intake was linked to a 63% lower risk of advanced prostate cancer, whereas vitamin K1 had no effect.

That said, it is widely acknowledged that more high-quality studies are needed before any definitive claims can be made.

Sources

Several widely available foods are rich sources of vitamin K1, but vitamin K2 is less common. Your body can partly convert vitamin K1 into K2. This is useful, as the amount of vitamin K1 in a typical diet is ten times that of vitamin K2. However, current evidence indicates that the conversion process is inefficient. And as a result, you may benefit much more from supplementing with vitamin K2

Vitamin K2 is also produced by gut bacteria in your large intestine. Some evidence suggests that broad-spectrum antibiotics can contribute to K2 deficiency.

Vitamin K2 is mainly found in fermented foods, unfortunately most people don't eat these foods nowadays. Rich animal sources include high-fat dairy products from grass-fed cows, egg yolks, as well as liver and other organ meats, which again most people don't eat.

The benefits of supplementing with K2 may be enhanced even further when combined with a vitamin D3 supplement, as these two vitamins have strong synergistic effects.

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