K2 is a vitamin for your bones, blood vessels and brain

C, A, B-complex… We all know these vitamins and we also make sure we get enough of them. However, few people have heard of vitamin K2, which is important for bone and blood vessel health and can also reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes.

Those of you who have heard of vitamin K may recall that it has something to do with blood clotting. Of course, we are talking about vitamin K1, which is indispensable for the body precisely because of its participation in the process of blood clotting, but on the other hand, you can hardly find a person who suffers from its deficiency. It is found in a wide range of foods of plant origin, and the body also builds up a rich supply of it in fat tissue.

However, this is not the case for vitamin K2. On the contrary, its deficiency is very common nowadays, according to experts’ estimates up to 70% of the population suffers from it. The consequence is, for example, a higher incidence of osteoporosis, impaired tooth growth in children, an increasing incidence of tooth decay, but also a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Butter back in the spotlight

Few foods have been subjected to such a level of scorn in recent decades as butter. Dietitians have almost made it a poison that should be eliminated from the diet altogether and replaced by vegetable oils. But butter is one of the richest sources of vitamin K2 ever, which is a good reason for its rehabilitation. Other foods high in this substance include dairy products (rather the fattier ones), meat and eggs. The only plant source of K2 is the Japanese food natto, which, however, is difficult for most people in our part of the world to consume because of its intense odour.

So we should put butter, fatty cheeses and eggs back into our diets. I’m sure we should, but there is one BUT. Animals make vitamin K2 in their bodies from vitamin K1, which they get mainly from green plants. But the average cow hardly sees any real grass in her life, because she eats mostly industrialized feed. And this is doubly true for chickens. Their products, which we normally buy in the shops, therefore contain very little of this vitamin, which is the main reason why people so often lack it.

It is therefore intended to increase the consumption of animal products, but only if they are quality farm products, such as meat and milk from free-range animals and eggs from free-range hens. Another option is to take vitamin K2 via supplements.

Now let’s take a closer look at why we actually need vitamin K2.

We want calcium in our bones, not in our blood vessels

Osteoporosis is a big scare especially for postmenopausal women. It is caused by a lack of calcium in the bones, which causes them to become more brittle. Therefore, doctors advise at-risk women to supplement calcium along with vitamin D3 for better absorption. But the problem is that osteoporosis does not necessarily mean that there is a calcium deficiency in the body. On the contrary, there may be more than enough, but in places where we don’t want it.

One such place is the blood vessels. According to research, the presence of calcium deposits in the arteries is a greater risk than high cholesterol levels for myocardial infarction and stroke. They make blood vessels fragile, so they burst more easily, and they are not very flexible, which leads to a rise in blood pressure. Calcium deposits also form in the veins. The consequence of this is again reduced elasticity, which causes them to bulge due to gravity – the essence of varicose veins. Deposits in the deep venous system can even cause life-threatening embolism.

However, calcium can also be deposited in the elastic fibres of our skin. These lose elasticity like blood vessels, which is not a health hazard, but it does affect our appearance – calcified collagen fibres are less able to resist gravity, which results in looser facial contours and more wrinkles.

A healthy heart and a wrinkle-free face

And how does vitamin K2 relate to all this? Quite fundamentally. It helps to ensure that calcium disappears from the places where we don’t want it and instead starts to be deposited in the bones and teeth. It activates several important proteins that control the movement of this mineral in the body. The first is osteocalcin, which is responsible for depositing calcium in the bones and teeth, and the second is MGP (matrix gla protein), which in turn moves calcium out of the blood vessels and out of the skin.

However, if vitamin K2 is deficient, the activity of the cells that restore bone structure (called osteoblasts) decreases, calcium is not incorporated into the bones in sufficient quantities and instead is stored in soft tissues, where we definitely do not want it. According to a recent Dutch study, people with sufficiently high levels of vitamin K2 have a 51% lower chance of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who are deficient! Thus, a single vitamin determines the health of two important systems – skeletal and cardiovascular.

A weapon against cancer and diabetes

However, the list of positive effects of vitamin K2 is far from over. Research in 2010, for example, showed that people with sufficient levels had a 30% lower risk of getting cancer and a similar percentage lower chance of dying from cancer.

Three years earlier, scientists had found that osteocalcin, a protein activated by vitamin K2, could increase insulin production by the pancreas and tissue sensitivity to the hormone. Improvements in insulin production occurred in the subjects just one week after they started taking vitamin K2.

Another serious disease in which vitamin K2 deficiency may play an important role is Alzheimer’s disease. This vitamin prevents the accumulation of free radicals in brain tissue, where they could cause DNA damage to brain cells, and also regulates their sensitivity to insulin. According to some theories, it may even influence the activity of certain genes involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (we are talking about so-called epigenetic action, where genes are “switched off” or “switched on” through chemical reactions). The gene in question is the defective ApoE4 gene, which negatively affects the brain’s vascular system. People who inherit one copy of Apoe4 have a 3 times higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and those who inherit two copies have an even 12 times higher risk, according to research.

Vitamin K2 has also been shown to play an important role in the prevention of dental caries, rheumatoid arthritis, and even in the treatment of infertility. For a single vitamin, that’s a hefty helping of positive effects, which is reason enough to try to get enough of it.

How much do we need?

Vitamin K2 is available as a dietary supplement in two forms – as menatetrenone (MK4) and menaquinone (MK7).

The first named is not very popular, because to achieve the effect, a relatively high dose is needed, 20-50 mg per day. The recommended daily dose of menaquinone is up to 500 times lower – around 75 µg.