Vitamin K

Sources

• Dark green leafy vegetables - spinach, broccoli, kale, lettuce
• Other vegetables - carrot, pumpkin
• Animal meat - poultry and swine
• Fermented foods - natto
• Nuts - pine nuts, cashews
• Egg

Deficiency:

Generally, only found in women with fat malabsorption issues and some newborns as Vitamin K is poorly transferred across the placenta and is only found in low amounts in breast milk.

Uses:

• Needed for blood clotting
• Essential for bone, cartilage and muscle health
• Improves dental health, by carrying extra calcium and minerals into your teeth, this is the same way it strengthens bones.
• Prevents coronary heart disease but reducing calcification of the arteries. It also reduces the formation of varicose veins as increased calcification causes blood to pool in areas. And it plays a role in reducing your stroke.
• Prevents and treats kidney disease by reducing calcification of the tubules and reducing the formation of kidney stones. Supplementing Vitamin D without Vitamin K increases your risk of kidney stones, its best to use these 2 in combination.
• May promote youthful skin by activating the Matrix -GLA and preventing calcification of elastin, which is needed to prevent saggy and wrinkles.
• It is being researched for its role in increasing insulin sensitivity and decreasing Type 2 diabetes.

Medication interactions:

• Vitamin K antagonist medications, work to reduce blood clotting by reducing the action of Vitamin K. Do not supplement with these medications. Warfarin is an example of a Vitamin K antagonist
• Cholesterol-lowering medication such as Colestipol reduce all fat-soluble nutrients including Vitamin K and supplementation should be taken away from this medication.
• Fat absorbing medications like Xenical, reduce all fat-soluble nutrients and supplementation is needed.

Fun Fact:

There are 13 forms of K2 (MK1, MK2, MK3etc) but only three have been researched. I think this is exciting as there are still so many potential natural therapeutic substances out there that could restore health. This is where we should be spending our research dollars, not on drugs.