Live longer, save your bones, save your heart with vitamin K2!

This is my first blog of 2017. In fact I haven’t blogged in a long while. But today I have something I want to share with you: it's a new discovery that could change your health for the better and not in a small way.

Do you supplement calcium and vitamin D and still have weak bones? Did you know that in an attempt to obviate your risk for osteopenia/osteoporosis by taking calcium and vitamin D, you may also be increasing your risk for atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)? Sounds crazy right? The fact is there is a significant connection between bone health and heart health. Taking vitamin D and calcium supplements actually increases the risk of heart attack and stroke because extra calcium builds up in arteries causing them to harden. Why? You may be consuming and absorbing plenty of calcium from food or supplements but the problem is it’s just not getting to where you need it! And, it might be landing in the last place you want it: in your arteries!

This is where vitamin K₂  comes in. The K family of vitamins activates enzymes that modify certain proteins to all them to bind to calcium. Vitamin K₁-dependent proteins are involved in blood clotting. Vitamin K₂ -dependent proteins move calcium into bones and out of soft tissues like arteries, veins and skin. This is their job: to direct the calcium traffic! It's critical that this routing takes place.

So why is this happening and why vitamin K₂ deficiency so widespread? It has to do with the way we used to eat versus the way we eat today. First, let’s look at where vitamin K₂ comes from with a look at how humans derive nutrients from the food they eat.

Our habit of eating animals allows humans to benefit indirectly from sun’s energy and the soils minerals. These elements are captured by photosynthetic plants, then consumed and metabolized by creatures that are capable of doing so efficiently. Animals transform the nutrients in these plants into forms that are more bio-available to humans. Since the nutrient content of meat, eggs and dairy products is a direct result of the composition of the animals’ diet. Once upon a time, cows grazed in the pasture.

Enter factory farming (animals kept indoors) and the switch-over from pasture grass to grain-feed. By adding vitamins A and D to the feed meant cattle, poultry and swine could survive without sunlight – a source of vitamin D – and without green grass, a source of nutrients from which animals can derive vitamin A. However we and the animals suffer for it.

When we removed pasture, we inadvertently removed vitamin K₂ from the diet!

This is not to say that calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin A are not good for us. Of course they are essential to our health. But as we have now learned, we need the presence of vitamin K₂ to make these other nutrients do their work in the body, once consumed.

So where do we get vitamin K₂ ? Back to the sunshine factor: the connection between chlorophyll and K₂ leads to a unique characteristic of true grass-fed foods: that is, a distinct sunny yellow or orange tinge. When selecting K₂ -rich foods, in general, the more yellow or orange the fat, the higher the K₂ content. Butter oil, ghee, natto and goose fat are the best food sources of K₂; meat, milk and eggs contain smaller amounts. Kefir and cheese contain moderate amounts. If you choose to take it in supplement form, be sure to look for M-7 K₂ .

There are many other health benefits to taking in enough vitamin K₂ . Any way you look at it, the value of this little-known vitamin cannot be understated ! I encourage you to do further research into this powerful vitamin and start getting your levels up, either in food or supplement form. It could save your life!