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.