Vitamin K2
To me, vitamin K ranks right up there with CoQ10. Because I wouldn’t practice cardiology without CoQ10, that speaks volumes - Dr. Sinatra
image by: Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox
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Vitamin K2: The Most Important Yet Underrated Vitamin for Your Heart and Bones
When it comes to vitamins, we hear a lot about C, our Bs, and D. But rarely do we ever hear anyone hype up the merits of vitamin K along the lines of, Eat your greens Jimmy. They have lots of vitamin K!
The reason that vitamin K hasnt made it onto the health radar is because we assumed we were getting enough of it. However, recent studies show that it may be time to start giving vitamin K some attention.
What is Vitamin K?
In the late 1920s, a Danish scientist set off to investigate cholesterol. He gave chickens food which had been stripped of its cholesterol. Soon, the chickens were bleeding and hemorrhaging. When the cholesterol was added back into…
Resources
The Synergistic Interplay between Vitamins D and K for Bone and Cardiovascular Health: A Narrative Review
Vitamins D and K are both fat-soluble vitamins and play a central role in calcium metabolism. Vitamin D promotes the production of vitamin K-dependent proteins, which require vitamin K for carboxylation in order to function properly.
Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little-Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life
While millions of people take calcium and Vitamin D supplements thinking they’re helping their bones, the truth is, without the addition of Vitamin K2, such a health regimen could prove dangerous. Without Vitamin K2, the body cannot direct calcium to the bones where it’s needed; instead, the calcium resides in soft tissue (like the arteries)—leading to a combination of osteoporosis and atherosclerosis, or the dreaded “calcium paradox.”
Vitamin K2 is More Important in the Fight Against Osteoporosis than Calcium
What’s more, the secret to bone health lies not in increasing your calcium intake as you have always been told, but instead increasing your intake of the critical nutrients necessary to recycle bone calcium and to preserve, protect, and build healthy new bone.
Vitamin K2 The end of osteoporosis?
What gives K2 such magical powers? It’s simple in theory, Whitcomb explains. Vitamin K2 activates several calcium-controlling proteins, helping calcium bond with bone molecules in a process known as chelation. The result is denser, stronger bone tissue.
How Vitamin D and Vitamin K2 Help Osteoporosis
The researchers found that bone mineral density was significantly higher in the groups given vitamin D3 alone and vitamin K2 alone compared to the group that received only calcium. In addition, they found that the group that got the combination of vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 had the highest bone mineral density.
K2: The Vitamin, Not the Mountain
We are just starting to learn about vitamin K2, and I intend to watch developments with great interest. But I subscribe to what Druin Burch called “Medicine’s Beautiful Idea,” the idea that even the most reasonable-sounding theories must be properly tested.
Osteoporosis Is Scurvy of the Bone, Not Calcium Deficiency
It saddens me to see older women diagnosed with “osteopenia” or “osteoporosis” listening to their doctors and taking supplemental calcium and even problematic drugs called bisphosphonates. These are irrational, dogmatic, harmful approaches to the problem of degrading bone as we age.
Proper Calcium Use: Vitamin K2 as a Promoter of Bone and Cardiovascular Health
Vitamin K, particularly as vitamin K2, is nearly nonexistent in junk food, with little being consumed even in a healthy Western diet. Vitamin K deficiency results in inadequate activation of MGP, which greatly impairs the process of calcium removal and increases the risk of calcification of the blood vessels. An increased intake of vitamin K2 could be a means of lowering calcium-associated health risks.
The bare bones of vitamin K2
When you first think of bone health, I’m betting calcium and vitamin D are the top nutrients that come to mind. But there is more to bone health than just calcium and vitamin D. Magnesium, phosphorus and several other nutrients play an important role. Newer research is also pointing to a lesser-known nutrient for bringing benefit to bones, vitamin K2.
The forgotten vitamin: ‘K2 has not even begun to realize its potential’
A breakthrough study and growing awareness over deficiency point to progress, but consumer awareness is still growing in baby steps for ‘the most fascinating of all vitamins’...
Vitamin K and Natto - What's the Connection?
Natto is one of the richest sources of vitamin K2, which is important for bone and heart health. Here's what you need to know about this little-known nutrient and even lesser-known food source.
Vitamin K2 : Health Benefits And Sources
When you eat vitamin K1 in your food, only 5-10% of ingested K1 is absorbed and reaches your blood, but almost 100% of K2 is absorbed into your blood stream where it can be distributed for beneficial use in tissues including bones and arteries. Vitamin K2 also lasts for several days in your bloodstream compared to K1 which mostly disappears in a few hours.
Vitamin K2 and K1 on A Vegan Raw Food Diet
Vitamin K2 (also called menaquinone) on the other hand, is found in few plant foods, none of which you're likely to eat on a healthy raw food diet. There are several fermented soy products known to contain K2 in smaller quantities, but the one with the most significant content is natto, a stinky fermented soybean product popular in Japan but almost nowhere else. I've never tried it, but a friend described it to me as smelling like a mix of ammonia and nauseating Camembert cheese and tasting even more foul.
Vitamin K2 and Osteoporosis
The past decade has witnessed a large body of research outcome focusing on Vitamin K2 metabolism, and it’s benefits for bone health and vascular health, in addition to suppression of chronic inflammatory factors.
Vitamin K2: A Vitamin that Works like a Hormone, Impinging on Gene Expression
Vitamin K2 binds to the intranuclear receptor SXR and results in the activation of a plethora of genes, both directly and indirectly.
Vitamin K2: The Missing Nutrient
It has been commonly believed that the benefits of vitamin K are limited to its role in blood clotting. Another popular misconception is that vitamins K1 and K2 are simply different forms of the same vitamin – with the same physiological functions. New evidence, however, has confirmed that vitamin K2’s role in the body extends far beyond blood clotting to include protecting us from heart disease, ensuring healthy skin, forming strong bones, promoting brain function, supporting growth and development and helping to prevent cancer – to name a few.
Vitamin K: Your Osteoporosis Knight In Shining Armor
Just because doctors turn their back on such an excellent bone health vitamin, it doesn’t mean that you should too.
Vitamin K2: The Most Important Yet Underrated Vitamin for Your Heart and Bones
When it comes to vitamins, we hear a lot about C, our Bs, and D. But rarely do we ever hear anyone hype up the merits of vitamin K along the lines of, “Eat your greens Jimmy. They have lots of vitamin K!”
9 Uses and Benefits
Vitamin K2 is an essential vitamin that many people never hear of until they have their first child and the nurse administers a Vitamin K injection.
Top 25 Vitamin K Foods, Plus the Many Health Benefits
Many people immediately turn to calcium in the form of supplements or milk in order to boost bone density and prevent osteoporosis. But those sources of calcium are NOT the best way to build bone health. In fact, it’s vitamin K2 that helps boost bone density and prevent osteoporosis even more.
VitaminK2.org
VitaminK2.org is the collective work of an international community seeking to explore and understand the emerging role of natural vitamin K2 and human health.
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