Vitamin K2 - Strong Bones, Healthy Heart

Vitamin K2 – Healthy Heart and Stronger Bones (with Video)

Vitamin K – A Short History

Vitamin K is well known as an essential ingredient to help your blood clot. In fact, without it you could die of a nosebleed because your blood simply wouldn’t coagulate. When they discovered it, they named it K for two reasons:

  1. It was the next letter in the alphabet not yet used
  2. It was the first letter in “Koagulate” which is how it’s spelled in Scandinavia

It’s common knowledge that vitamin K helps blood clot and this form is called vitamin K1. Lost in the shadow of vitamin K1 the coagulator, however, is vitamin K2. It’s really only recently that we’ve discovered how important (and how different) vitamin K2 really is.

Vitamin K2 For a Healthy Heart

Vitamin K2 - Strong Bones, Healthy Heart
Vitamin K2 – Strong Bones, Healthy Heart

Much has been made of calcium toxicity recently. The common wisdom is that if you have too much calcium, it will harden your arteries and lead to things like high blood pressure, kidney stones and even possibly a stroke! While supplements should be done in moderation, it would appear that it’s more complex than that. Some studies have shown that excess calcium doesn’t really change the concentration of calcium in the plaque that forms in your arteries, which is around 20%. This arterial plaque is essentially indistinguishable from bone! You definitely don’t want bone in your arteries.

However, there is hope! Vitamin K2 has been found to activate a protein called matrix GLA, which acts like a broom on your arteries. Not only does it regulate the free-floating calcium in your bloodstream, but it brushes away the calcified arteries that you have built up! In other words, it can serve to stop and reverse the narrowing of your arteries.

Vitamin K2 Helps You Have Stronger Bones

Vitamin K2 gives calcium legs

Most people know that calcium is essential for strong bones. That’s why we are told to drink milk. However, without Vitamin K2, calcium just takes the path of least resistance and embeds itself in your soft tissue. In order to get calcium to adhere to your bones, you need Vitamin K2 to active a protein called osteocalcin. Osteocalcin then carries the calcium into your bones where they can build stronger and healthier bones. Without sufficient Vitamin K2, the bone-building cells called osteoblasts can malfunction and create bone in your arteries. It’s an elegant dance between Vitamin K2, Vitamin D3 and various minerals that enables this process. Vitamin K2 is an essential part. You could say that Vitamin K2 gives calcium legs.

Dr. Weston Price’s Amazing Research from the 1930s

Vitamin K2 pioneer, Dr. Westin Price
Vitamin K2 pioneer, Dr. Westin Price

There is a large body of neglected research by a Canadian dentist named Dr. Weston Price who, back in the 1930s, discovered a link between diet and healthy teeth. He traveled the world with his wife in search for people still on a traditional diet because he had heard that there were people with fantastic teeth. These people didn’t rely on teeth brushing for dental hygiene. Dr Price visited Lötschental in Switzerland, Native Americans, Polynesians,Pygmies, and Aborigines, among many others. The research materials include some 15,000 photographs, 4,000 slides, and many filmstrips. He found that their diets all had something in common. He didn’t know what the agent was, so he called this agent “Activator X.”

In 2007 scientists finally identified this “Activator X” as Vitamin K2. This research was perfectly timed at the birth of photography and couldn’t be repeated today, as there aren’t really any cultures that haven’t switched to a modern diet. Nonetheless, the research, complete with 100s of photographs, is compelling evidence that Vitamin K2 is essential for bone health. In a few examples, a firstborn child had beautiful straight teeth, while the 2nd child (born after a change to a modern diet deficient in Vitamin K) had crowded crooked teeth and a narrower face.

Dr. Price stopped filling patients’ teeth, and started changing their diet!

Vitamin K2 can fix cavities?

Back in Dr. Price’s clinic, he found that changing his patients diet to one that was rich in Vitamin K2 (Activator X) reversed cavities! He stopped filling teeth and started changing their diet. He discovered that the body can fix cavities if given the chance! Now that’s some good news for anyone who hates the dentist!

How do we get Vitamin K?

Leafy Greens are rich in vitamin K1
Leafy Greens are rich in Vitamin K1

It is well known that leafy greens like kale, brussel sprouts, spinach and parsley are rich in vitamin K. However, these foods are rich in Vitamin K1. Although our liver converts Vitamin K1 to Vitamin K2, a best case scenario is about 6%. Realistically, most of us don’t eat enough Vitamin K1-rich foods and our body won’t do the conversion without excess. Remember, without Vitamin K1, your blood can’t clot, so your body sets that as a priority. The kind of Vitamin K2 that gets made by our liver is menaquinone-4 (MK-4) Vitamin K2. menaquinone-4 (MK-4) Vitamin K2 doesn’t last long in the body and is less usable. This isn’t usually a problem if your diet is rich in these foods, but the reality is, our modern diet isn’t.

Natto, rich in Vitamin K2
Natto, rich in Vitamin K2

Foods rich in Vitamin K2 are mostly animal-based. Fish eggs, certain shellfish, and grass-fed cows’ buttermilk. Possibly the richest food, however, in Vitamin K2 is a Japanese food called Natto, which is basically fermented soy beans. Natto contains menaquinone-7 (MK-7) Vitamin K2 and it’s well known for its health benefits in Japan. It also is one of those foods that you either love or hate. It is sticky and slimy and has the consistency of spiderwebs and glue. Personally, I love the stuff, but I can definitely understand the mixed opinions on it.

Vitamin K2 and Vitamin D3

Recently, Vitamin D, especially D3 has received a lot of attention as important for our immune system and bones. You can check out our video The Sunshine Vitamin: Do you really need Vitamin D?. The great news is that Vitamin K2 and Vitamin D3 work synergistically with each other. In fact, increasing one creates a demand for the other. So, if you are going to supplement your diet with Vitamin K2, you might want to find one that is sourced from Natto and is combined with Vitamin D3. Most people aren’t deficient in Vitamin K1, so unless your health care practitioner specifically says get Vitamin K1, you’ll want to get Vitamin K2. Here’s a product that has menaquinone-7 (MK-7) K2 sourced from natto and Vitamin D3.

If you want avoid calcium toxicity, build stronger bones and sweep your arteries clean, make sure there’s enough Vitamin K2 in your body!

If you want an in depth read on Vitamin K2, we recommend these two books. We referred to them extensively when doing this video and writing this article.

Easy read, focused on Vitamin K2.
Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox by Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue*

More technical, but focuses on all aspects of healthy bones, especially in women.
Your Bones: How You Can Prevent Osteoporosis and Have Strong Bones for Life – Naturally*

With VitaLove,

The Dummies

* Full disclosure: We get a small kickback if you buy the book on Amazon through this link.

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