Vitamin K: Why You're Deficient & What To Do About It

In fact, I'm not just talking about vitamin K, but about vitamin K₂.

"Vitamin K₂? Really?"

I get where you're coming from...

You might know about vitamin C, and vitamin D₃ if you're really into health.

But vitamin K₂?

Absolutely.

That latter vitamin is very important...

In fact, I'm assuming that this vitamin will be considered just as important as the other ones over time. When important Vitamin K₂ studies came out fifteen years ago, almost no-one knew about this substance.

Times are changing slowly.

As of today, still very few people know about vitamin K₂'s importance as well.

My goal is to change that.

In this article, you'll learn about vitamin K₂'s benefits, and how to optimally consume it through your food. I'll also tell you about vitamin K₂ deficiency, and possible supplements.

If you have problems with your bones, teeth, or if you have heart disease or diabetes, this blog post is especially recommended to you.

Vitamin K₂ is found in eggs, (organ) meats, cheese, butter, and fermented soybeans. Vitamin K₁ is plant-based and does not have vitamin K₂'s health benefits.

 

 

Vitamin K2: Deficiency, Amazing Benefits, Foods, Supplements - Everything You Need To Know 

You probably know that you need vitamin D and magnesium for optimal health. 

What you might not know that vitamin K₂ is equally essential for your health.

Let's first look at vitamin K₂'s history.

In the 1930s and 40s, the now-famous dentist Weston A. Price assumed that there was a health-promoting substance contained in milk, butter eggs, and organ meats.^[1] 

Price could not identify that substance as vitamin K₂ though.

Price called that substance "activator X" instead.

Why?

He did not specifically know which specific substance in milk, butter, eggs, and organ meats caused these health benefits.

Price thus remained in the dark what activator X really was. 

What he did know, is that activator X helps prevent heart disease, protects against tooth decay, aids in reproductive function, and increases cognitive functioning. 

Price argued that many traditional cultures had diets that were very high in activator X. According to him, the Western diet had become a poor source of activator X back then.

Keep in mind that Price made this conclusion about the Western diet in the 1930s and 1940s. Imagine what he would conclude today. 

Price learned about activator X by studying the health and dietary habits of traditional cultures. One culture he observed were the Maasai in Africa:

Price concluded that traditional cultures - such as the Maasai - did not have any heart disease or tooth decay.

In the West, tooth decay was already rampant - heart disease started to emerge too. 

Activator X remained a mystery during Price lifetime, and many decades afterward.

Price never identified activator X as vitamin K₂ - which were later found to be the same substance.

Remarkably, methods were already developed to detect vitamin K₂ during the 1970's.^{[3; 4; 6; 7; 43]} Back then, vitamin K₂ was falsely assumed to have the same properties as vitamin K₁. For that reason, scientists did not really have a closer look at vitamin K₂.

It was falsely believed that vitamin K₂ had few consequences for your health - as vitamin K₁ did.

In the 1990s, things changed. The health consequences of vitamin K₂ were discovered, and separated from vitamin K₁.^{[44; 45]}

In 2007, it was finally demonstrated that vitamin K₂ and activator X are the same compounds.^[2]

Why does that matter for you? 

Vitamin K₂ will allow you to reap some of the health benefits that these traditional cultures experienced.

In this article, I'll first tell you about my background with vitamin K₂. I'll subsequently give you the best vitamin K₂ food and supplements. Lastly, you'll learn how to avoid deficiencies in this vitamin.

As it turns out, if your goal is optimal health, not all vitamin K₂ food sources and supplements are created equal.

This article concludes that getting vitamin K₂ through either foods or supplements is absolutely necessary if your goal is optimal health.

For your convenience, I've included a summary at the beginning of this article.

If you just want to understand the vitamin K₂ basics, read the summary section. If you want to understand all the details, read this entire article.

Note: this blog post - like my previous blog posts - contains some nerd sections. These nerd sections contain more advanced explanations. You can skip these nerd sections if you just want to understand the basics about vitamin K.

Let's start learning about this fascinating vitamin...

Update:  

Chris Masterjohn, who originally posited that vitamin K₂ equals Price's Activator X, now argues they are not the same substance. Nevertheless, due to vitamin K2's already proven effects in high-quality studies in the last few decades, I presume that both substances may actually be beneficial. The true nature of "activator X" has thus yet to be discovered. Click here for more information.

 

Table Of Contents

• Summary
• My Story With High-Quality Vitamin K
• Vitamin K1 and K2: Types And Differences
• Vitamin K Food Sources
• Deficient? Supplementing Vitamin K₂.
• The Case Against Relying Exclusively On Supplements.
• Conclusion
• Other Questions

Summary

Not all vitamin K is of equal value. There are two main types of vitamin K:

1. Vitamin K₁, mainly found in green vegetables
2. Vitamin K₂, found in butter, eggs, (organ) meat, cheese, and Japanese fermented soybeans (natto).

It's pretty easy to consume sufficient amounts of vitamin K₁ through your diet. Vitamin K₁ does not have all the benefits of vitamin K₂ though.

If your goal is optimal health, you need to include vitamin K₂ sources in your diet.

The best vitamin K₂ sources come from cows, geese, ducks, chickens, that are pasture-raised or 100% grass-fed. If these animals are mainly fed grains or corn, their vitamin K₂ content is low -  which also holds true for any foods that originate from them (cheese; milk; eggs).

So, eating loads of eggs from caged chickens, or grain-fed meats will not get your vitamin K₂ needs met.

What to do?

Change your dietary habits. If you don't want to change your diet - or can't (yet) - then supplement. 

You'll want to be wary, however, of just supplementing with vitamin K₂.

The A; D; E; and K vitamins mutually reinforce each others' actions (if you take normal dosages). 

if you supplement with vitamin K₂, that usually means that you should supplement with vitamin A and E as well.

What about vitamin D?

If possible, you should get vitamin D from sunlight. Regarding supplements, you can get high-quality versions here:

1. Vitamin A
2. Vitamin E
3. Vitamin K₂

I know you're wondering:

Why take vitamin K₂ in the first place?

Contrary to vitamin K₁ - which mainly helps with coagulation - vitamin K₂ gives you a host of benefits. Vitamin K₂'s benefits extend to helping you avoid heart disease, stopping and reversing tooth decay, increasing your bone health, aiding your cognition, and increasing your hormonal function.

Vitamin K₂ has enormous overall health benefits.

That's why it's very sad that the importance of vitamin K₂ is really underappreciated in our society. Most people are deficient in vitamin K₂ - even apparently healthy people.

While more research is needed, I do think that it's essential to get enough vitamin K₂ in your diet. And if you do not get enough vitamin K₂ in your diet, you need to supplement.

You can view the most important vitamin K facts here:

And yes, you can share that infographic (I know reason 10 is missing!)

And of course:

Continue reading the full vitamin K story...

 

My Story With High-Quality Vitamin K2.

I've gotten lucky.

For many years, I had been consuming tons of vitamin K through my food by accident. I didn't really get into studying vitamin K until I was already occupied with health for 10 years.

Why did I consume lots of this specific vitamin by accident?

I have been lifting weights since 17 years of age. I'm 31 right now. During that period, I've always included food sources that turned out to be great vitamin K sources.

Why?

I trained a lot. I had been eating tons of food to gain muscle.

What (crazy) things did I do?

• Consume 6-8 liters of semi-skim milk each day, when I was 17-19
• Drink raw eggs. At least 10-12 raw eggs in one sitting, sometimes moving up to 20.
• Occasionally eat liver. 

As it turns out, there were all great vitamin K sources.

(before you ask: why did I drink the raw eggs? Because drinking them was very time efficient - you could ingest tons of protein within just a few minutes.)

Yes, I know that sounds weird to most people.

As I grew older, I started to eat more and more vegetables that were deemed very high in vitamin K. Kale and spinach are examples of such vegetables. 

At the same time, I consumed a ton of eggs, fish, and (organ) meat.

Should I have had very high vitamin K levels right? I thought so...

But when I finally tried a high-quality vitamin K supplement, I got additional benefits.

Was that result not supposed to happen?

I should not have gotten any benefits at all. My vitamin K levels should have already been very high. 

What exact benefits did I experience?

• over the scope of a year, my facial and jaw structure changed
• after application, vitamin K gives me deep feelings of relaxation.
• some beginning tooth decay improved and actually reversed.

Do I have any hard proof of vitamin K having this effect?

Maybe...

Some people swear my facial and jaw structure have changed. Compare these two photographs, for example.

The first is from 2015 - two years before I took a vitamin K₂ supplement:

The second picture is from 2018:

Judge for yourself...

Keep in mind that I'm not the only one who reported these results. Many vitamin K₂ users report changes to their facial structure over time.

These results left me at a dead end. Should you supplement with vitamin K or not? And under what circumstances should you supplement?

I decided to dig into the research. I left no stone unturned. 

Stay with me to find out what happened.

Let's first look at the different types of Vitamin K. 

 

Vitamin K₁ And K₂: Types And Differences

Vitamin K₁ was already discovered during the 1930's.^[42] The vitamin was correctly identified as playing a major role in blood clotting.^{[38; 39; 40; 41]}

The specific functions of Vitamin K₂ only became known during the 1990's. Vitamin K₂ signifies thus somewhat of an unexplored terrain in science.

What are the differences between vitamin K₁ and vitamin K_2?

Vitamin K₁, firstly, is mainly found in green vegetable plants. Take a look at the top-10 list of foods high in vitamin K₁:^[52]

1. Kale
2. Collard greens
3. Spinach
4. Parsley
5. Lambsquarters
6. Turnip greens
7. Beets
8. Garden cress
9. Mustard greens
10. Brussels sprouts

All these foods are measured per cup.

Pick your favorite
vitamin K₁ food.

 

Your body converts vitamin K₁ into vitamin K₂. Contrary to other animals, however, humans do not convert K₁ into K₂ very efficiently. More on that conversion later.

Let's take a look at vitamin K₂ first.

Large quantities of vitamin K₂ are only found in animal foods.

How do animals create the vitamin K₂ you consume?

When eating grass, these animals convert K₁ into K₂:

One of nature's best 
K₁ to K₂ conversion "machines"...

 

Other animals - such as chickens - may accumulate vitamin K₂ through the worms and insects they consume.

That vitamin K₂ is subsequently stored in the animal's body.

You consume that vitamin K₂, by eating these animals, or the products that come from them (eggs; milk; cheese).

Let's look at why you can't you rely on vitamin K_1.

Only some vitamin K₁ can be converted into K₂ by your human gut.^{[55; 111-112]}

You cannot fully rely on that conversion. First of all, it's not yet known how well human beings convert vitamin K₁ to K₂. And secondly, human beings who rely on the conversion of vitamin K₁ into vitamin K₂ end up with a vitamin K₂ deficiency.

But there's another reason to consume vitamin K₂.

Vitamin K₁ and vitamin K₂ have totally different effects in your body.

You can compare the different effects of vitamin K₁ and K₂ to the very different effects that vitamin D₂ and D₃ have. Vitamin D₂ is a plant version, which does not have the same health benefits of vitamin D₃.^{[54; 55; 69]}

Why does this matter for you?

Vitamin K₂ has many, many benefits for your health.

Vitamin K2 improves bone health, helps prevent heart disease, keeps your joints healthy, promotes preventing diabetes and Alzheimer, and enhances your hormonal and organ function.

 

(Detailed explanation: 

Here's a more elaborate display of vitamin K₂'s benefits.

Vitamin K₂:

• Makes sure you store calcium in the right places.^{[8; 9; 12]} Without sufficient vitamin K₂ in your body, the calcium you ingest is more prone to end up in your arteries instead of bones. Vitamin D₃ is not sufficient to store calcium in the right place by itself.^{[11; 61]} You thus need vitamin K₂ as well.
• Counters and even reverses dental problems.^{[94; 95; 96]} Most people in modern society believe that brushing and flossing are the only strategies that will keep teeth healthy. That's wrong.^[1] A diet that is high in certain vitamins (A+D+E+K) and the right minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus), can prevent and reverse tooth decay.^[97]
• Prevents bone loss.^{[18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 56; 115]}  If you have osteoporosis, or if you are at risk for fractures, then vitamin K is your savior. It's not yet known on how well vitamin K₂ helps to build bones in healthy people.
• Helps prevent osteoarthritis.^{[50; 94]} Vitamin K₂ might prevent osteoarthritis because it promotes calcium deposits in the right places. Vitamin K₂ even seems beneficial for rheumatoid arthritis.^{[63; 64]}
• Lowers risk of heart disease.^{[10; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35; 49; 117; 118; 119; 120; 121]} Remember: vitamin K₂ makes sure calcium is deposited in your bones, and not your arteries. Remarkably, there's also an a relationship between teeth problems and heart disease. Why? Vitamin K₂ might be the common denominator.^[47-48] Fewer teeth problems mean fewer heart problems, and vitamin K₂ targets both.
• Increases how well your cells respond to insulin in your body.^{[12; 51; 91; 92; 93; 115]} That insulin response is often called "insulin sensitivity". Improving insulin sensitivity helps prevent diabetes, but will also help your athletic performance. Insulin sensitivity basically means that carbohydrates that you consume from food are more prone to be stored in your muscles and liver, instead of being stored as fat tissue.
• Vitamin K₂ may lower your chances of getting Alzheimer.^{[86; 87]} Vitamin K₂ ensures that your brain uses carbohydrates (sugars) correctly. This should give you a clue why Alzheimer's disease is sometimes called "diabetes type 3".
• May improve hormonal function.^{[13; 14; 15; 16]} Vitamin K₂ shows promising results in increasing testosterone and decreasing estrogen levels. As an athlete, you generally want higher testosterone levels and lower estrogen levels - both increase performance. On its own, vitamin K may also increases exercise capacity.^{[88; 113]} 
• Aids in slowing down aging.^{[83; 84; 85]} Vitamin K₂ may be anti-inflammatory. Inflammation lies at the basis of many modern diseases, such as heart disease. Vitamin K₂ may also slow down damage to your DNA. DNA damage underlies the aging process as well.
• Optimizes kidney function and liver health^{[36; 58]} Kidney diseases, for example, is associated with calcium deposits in your blood vessels--which vitamin K counteracts.
• May reduce cancer risk.^{[65; 68; 89; 90]}
• Can improve brain function.^{[104; 105; 106; 107]}

 

As you can conclude yourself, vitamin K₂ is very important for your health.

So, let's find out how you can get adequate vitamin K₂ from your food.

 

Vitamin K Food Sources

You might be asking: "don't I get enough vitamin K through the foods I consume?"

It depends...

Stay with me to find out why.

Remember that greens were the best vitamin K₁ sources and that the human body does not convert vitamin K₁ into K₂ very well. You should not rely on that conversion, because you cannot be certain whether you get enough vitamin K₂ that your body can use.

You should thus consume vitamin K₂ through your diet.

This is where things go bad for most people.

Let's consider what foods have almost non-existent levels of vitamin K₂:

• sugar
• beans
• legumes
• grains
• fruits
• vegetable oils
• rice
• vegetables
• corn

In short, all the foods that many people commonly consume.

So, what's the solution?

Consume foods that are higher in vitamin K₂.

But before I give you a list of vitamin K2 foods, let's first look at different types of vitamin K₂.

Vitamin K₂ is divided into the MK4 to MK11 types.^{[61; 62; 70; 71]}

So there's vitamin K₂ MK4, vitamin K₂ MK5, vitamin K₂ MK6, etcetera. 

Don't be frightened. The story is simpler than it seems.

It's important to remember that vitamin K₂ MK4 is the most essential type. Your body converts all other types of vitamin K₂ into vitamin K₂ MK4.

Let's thus consider vitamin K₂ MK4 food sources first. 

The most common sources of MK4 - per 100g product - are*:

1. Goose liver pâté 369 mcg
2. Ghee or butter oil 30 mcg
3. Egg yolks 22,5 mcg
4. Goose leg 15 mcg
5. Butter 15 mcg
6. Chicken liver 12,5 mcg
7. Various meats 7,5 - 10 mcg 
   (luncheon, salami, chicken breast, ground beef)
8. Calf liver 6 mcg
9. Bacon 5.5 mcg
10. Whipping cream 5 mcg

(* Some numbers are averaged, when two food sources were almost the same).

You get the idea: vitamin K₂ MK4 is found only in traditional animal foods.

It's important to notice that this vitamin is missing in fish and shellfish.

Next, there are the food sources that contain mainly MK5 - MK11.^{[61; 62; 72]}

MK5-11 are fermented forms of vitamin K₂. In the following list, I've added the foods' MK5 - MK11 levels with each other:

1. Natto 1034 mcg
2. Hard cheese 70 mcg
3. Soft cheese 55 mcg
4. Curd cheese 25 mcg
5. Cheddar cheese 10 mcg
6. Sauerkraut 5 mcg
7. Buttermilk 2,5 mcg
8. Fish like plaice and eel 2,2 mcg
9. Cod liver oil 1,8 mcg
10. Chocolate 1,5 mcg

Observe that natto and cheese are by far the best K2 MK5-11 choices. Natto is a Japanese fermented soybean dish (warning: the taste!)^[82]

(For a more extensive list of vitamin K₂ foods - of both MK4 and other types - click here).

I do, however, consider the MK5 - MK11 types of vitamin K₂ inferior. I mainly advise getting vitamin K2 from MK4 sources.

Let's now consider how much vitamin K2 you should consume.

That's where the bad news begins.

The daily requirement of vitamin K₂ might be as high as 100 mcg, with an optimal dosage of 200 mcg.^{[37; 126]}

"That's impossible" is probably your reaction.

I'll be honest.

This outcome surprised me as well when I was doing all the vitamin K₂ research.

Why?

Well, you would have to eat 40 eggs - equalling a kilo of egg yolks - to get your K₂ requirements met. Alternatively, you would need to consume almost a pound of cheese per day. Or get in some natto every day...

Even more surprising is that this dose needs to be increased to 360 mcg when you're taking vitamin K₂ for heart health.

Yes...

I asked myself: "how and why did we end up this way?" - "why is it so hard to consume enough vitamin K₂?

The answer is simple.

Since about 100 years ago, our animals are no longer grazing on pasture.

Take cows for example. Most cows are currently fed grains and corn, which they've never ever consumed during their entire evolution:

100 years ago, however, cows lived like this:

Why did this transition happen?

Food became industrialized. Petroleum and the mass production of corn and grains made modern feedlots possible.^{[61; 74]} Those feedlots ensure that cows no longer graze on pasture. And you already know that pasture is necessary for the conversion of vitamin K₁ into K₂.

Now you should begin to see why vitamin K₂ MK4 is deficient from our modern diet.

To restate the argument:

1. Mainly green plants contain a lot of vitamin K₁
2. Animals grazing on these green plants can convert vitamin K₁ into vitamin K₂.

But: most of today's animals are no longer grazing on pasture.

Animal foods thus end up with low vitamin K₂ levels.

You see, the more hours cows spend grazing on grass, the more vitamin K₂ they create.^[75] The same is true for vitamins A and E, and other nutrients. 

But how do you know if animals are high in vitamin K₂? How to look for animal fats that are high in vitamin K₂?

High vitamin K₂ animal fats are much more yellow than their grain and corn fed counterparts:

For cows, full 100% grass-fed beef will give you the best results.

Horses, or bison, should be raised 100% on grass too if you consume these animals. In a similar sense, pastured chicken, geese, ducks, and pigs are nutritionally superior to their feedlot counterparts.

Additionally, look for orange egg yolks. Compare these two yolks, for example:

The yolk on the right is probably higher in vitamin A and K₂.

These visual tests are not 100% accurate, however. Chickens are sometimes fed specific foods to darken the color of the yolk.

The best way to know for sure whether your food has really seen pasture is to ask your butcher - or better: buy your vitamin K₂ rich food locally.

If you buy 100% grass-fed meats from your local farmer, you can be pretty sure that the food really is high in vitamin K₂.

You might be asking now: "can I get too much vitamin K₂ as well?"

Probably not.

Extremely high doses of vitamin K₂ have been tested without any side-effects. To achieve those dosages through food consumption, you would have to eat 300 kilograms (~660 pounds) of goose leg every single day. Or, you would have to consume 10.000 egg yolks in a day.

And even at these food intakes, there's no overdose. Vitamin K₂ is very, very safe.

Next, let's look at the opposite of an overdose: deficiency.

Vitamin K2 Deficiency? Supplementing With Vitamin K2

You now know that vitamin K₂ is important for your health.

What you probably did not know is that many people are actually deficient in vitamin K₂. 

Even worse: common government recommendations for vitamin K₂ are too low.^[37] Vitamin K₂ deficiencies are also under-diagnosed. 

In addition, if you have a condition, your vitamin K₂ needs are much higher.

100 mcg of vitamin K₂ is not enough if you have diabetes or heart disease. 500mcg is a better dosage, in those instances. 

The combination of these facts ensures that many people are low in vitamin K₂ in today's society. People who are considered "healthy" might thus be low on vitamin K₂ as well. Vitamin K₂ deficiency is thus pandemic, in the same way that vitamin D₃ deficiencies are.

Let's be clear...

I'm not fear-mongering here. In fact, I hate fear-mongering.

What I do believe in, on the contrary, is accepting facts--instead of ignoring problems that are developing. If I act like there's no problem with vitamin K₂ levels that people have, they will get hurt.

So, I tell the truth.

The truth is that most people need more vitamin K₂.

To get their daily vitamin K_2. needs met, many people thus have to change their diets or supplement.

You might need to change things too...

We've treated foods. Let's now consider supplements.

What's important in choosing vitamin K₂ supplements?

• Always take a vitamin K₂ MK4 supplement. Vitamin K₂ MK4 is the form that is traditionally consumed by humans. If your supplement contains other vitamin K₂ forms - such as MK7 for example - that's a good bonus
• Vitamin K₂ MK4 is absorbed quicker than other vitamin K₂ forms.^{[124; 125]} To me, a quick absorption implies a quick utilization by the body. As an example, sugar - which is very precious (and rare) in nature - is very quickly absorbed by the body as well.
• Vitamin K₁ supplements should be avoided. You can easily get vitamin K₁ through your diet. If you eat some green vegetables, you're set. On many days, I eat 2 pounds of organic spinach or kale - which is more than enough to get my vitamin K₁ needs met.
• Do not combine high supplement doses of vitamin K₂ and vitamin E.^[60] In high doses, these vitamins may lower each others' absorption levels. If you decide to dose your vitamin E and K₂ very high, do your research first.
• Exclude vegetable oils from your diet - such as soybean, canola, sunflower, or rapeseed - as these foods contain a synthetic unnatural form of vitamin K.^{[77; 78; 79; 80]} That synthetic form of vitamin K is often found in margarine. Margarine is made up of vegetable oils and is terrible for your health - so eliminate this food from your diet. 
• If you take blood thinners, double check with your doctor before starting on a vitamin K supplementation regimen.

Why do you need to deal with a K₂ deficiency proactively?

Sometimes you'll only find out about a vitamin K₂ deficiency once it's too late.^{[66; 67]} Heart attacks are an example. You might not experience any symptoms before a heart attack. That's why heart attacks are often called a "silent killer". And yet, vitamin K₂ can help prevent this pathology.^[67]

But there's an even bigger problem.

You won't even notice that you're vitamin K₂ deficient.

Dental problems, heart disease, or breaking a bone, are signs that you're vitamin K₂ deficient. Without such obvious instances, however, there are no immediate signs for vitamin K₂ deficiency.

So, what's the solution?

Test...

The best test for vitamin K₂ deficiency is currently your diet:

Do you consume copious amounts of butter, eggs, (organ) meat, cheese, all coming from grass-fed or pastured food sources?

No?

Then you're probably vitamin K₂ deficient.

Fortunately, accurate vitamin K₂ lab tests are being developed as we speak.

It's not simple to develop a vitamin K₂ lab test, because the vitamin is not circulated through your bloodstream as vitamin D is.

Just taking in a lot of vitamin K₂ is not enough to achieve optimal health though.

In addition to taking in vitamin K₂, you'll also need enough vitamin A and D to properly absorb vitamin K₂.

You should never supplement with just vitamin K₂, without also knowing what your general vitamin A and D intakes are.

For example, taking very high doses of vitamin D3 (which I do not recommend) will increase your body's demand for vitamin A.

Alternatively, vitamin K₂ is useless without your body having the right vitamin A and D levels. And surprise, surprise: sub-optimal vitamin A and D levels are also widespread, even in developed nations.^{[98; 99; 100; 101]}

In the end, there's no simple solution to improving the vitamin K₂ levels in your body.

Supplementing is complicated. Eating the foods that you were made to eat as a species, is less complicated.

For your convenience, I've still included the following links to high-quality vitamin A, vitamin E, and vitamin K supplements.

Note that vitamin K₂ is expensive, but one bottle can last you for several years. Keep the bottle out of (sun)light.

Take:

• one vitamin A pill, every 2 days
• one full-spectrum vitamin E pill every day
• two drops of vitamin K every day - split over separate doses

All are best taken with meals.

But the best solution: change your breakfast and other meals:

Or your lunch and dinner...

Remember: in nature, foods that are high in vitamin K₂, are also high in vitamin A, and higher in vitamin E.

Nature is always already balanced. It's harder to go wrong with nature's solutions.

 

The Case Against Exclusively Relying On Supplements

After reading this article, many of you might think: "I'll just take some supplements anyway, and continue eating the food I'm eating."

In this section, I'll argue why that strategy is not optimal.

There's a big presupposition that underlies the strategy to out-supplement nutritional deficiencies. 

That presupposition is that you're really ingesting all the nutrients you need through supplementation.

If you look historically, however, supplementation often does not lead to the best outcomes...

What are some examples?

In 2005, supplementing with high doses of vitamin E turned out to increased rather than decreased your overall risk of dying.^[114]

That's dying independent of cause...

In hindsight, the risk of death might have increased because of supplementing with just one form of vitamin E, instead of a full-spectrum.

Another example is that right now, we're also finding that our 10 year-long craze with supplementing vitamin D is short-sighted.

Instead of needing just vitamin D, you also need vitamin K₂, magnesium, and many other nutrients to get the protective results you want.

What's my point?

By just relying on vitamin K₂ supplements, you will be missing out on many important nutrients.

What nutrients? The nutrients in butter, (organ) meat, cheese, eggs, and fermented foods.

Rule: don't try to out-supplement a bad diet.

 

Conclusion: Vitamin K₂ For The Win!

Vitamin K₂ is a very, very important nutrient. 

If you're not eating a diet that contains a lot of butter, cheese, eggs, and (organ) meats, you're probably vitamin K₂ deficient.

The vitamin K₂ foods you consume have to come from grass-fed or pasture-raised animal sources.

What to do about that vitamin K₂ deficiency? The best solution is to change your diet. The second-best solution is to supplement it.

If possible, opt for vitamin K₂ MK4. The MK4 vitamin K₂ type is the ancestral type that we have been consuming before the agricultural revolution.

Accurate vitamin K₂ lab tests are hard to find.

Moreover, vitamin K₂ supplements are not that expensive on a yearly basis.

If you're spending hundreds of dollars on dental care each year, a $40 yearly vitamin K2 supplement will be a godsend.

Vitamin K₂ can thus lower your overall health care costs.

Oh, by the way, you might be wondering about the question that I posed in the introduction:

Why did I experience additional benefits of vitamin K₂, when I started supplementing? The reason is simple. Most of my life, I had not been eating pastured sources of milk, eggs, and meat. Even I consumed large quantities of these foods, I was thus still vitamin K₂ deficient.

That problem is solved now...

One last thing: beware of websites that promote vitamin K₁. 

I'm not going to give you names, but many websites promote vegetables or vitamin K₁ supplements, while not promoting vitamin K₂ specifically.

That's a big mistake.

I hope you now know that vitamin K₁ consumption does not have the benefits of vitamin K₂.

 

 

Remaining Questions:

 

"How do I make sure my vitamin K2 supplement does not lower my vitamin A, D, or E levels?" 

Great question!

Make sure your supplementation regimen is balanced. How?

First of all, determine if you need to supplement in the first place. If you eat copious amounts of butter, (organ) meats, eggs, and cheese - coming from grass-fed or pastured animals - then there is little reason to supplement.

If, however, you do not consume these foods, then make sure always to combine vitamin A, E, and K supplements.

Which brings us to our second point. Which supplements should you take? 

The following links display high-quality vitamin A, vitamin E, and vitamin K supplements.

Note that vitamin K is expensive, but one bottle can last you for several years. Keep the bottle out of (sun)light.

Take:

1. one vitamin A pill, every 2 days
2. one full-spectrum vitamin E pill every day
3. two drops of vitamin K every day - split over separate doses

All should be taken with meals.

I do not think that you should supplement with vitamin D, if possible. Read my article that explains why here.

If possible, do not take vitamin A, E, or K by themselves. The vitamins' functions mutually reinforce each others' actions.

(Nerd section: Do not supplement with plant sources of vitamin A, such as beta-carotene, or just one type of vitamin A, such as alpha-tocopherol. These supplements are unbalanced. Your vitamin A should be in the retinol form.^{[102; 103]} Your vitamin E should combine alpha-tocopherol, beta-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, and delta-tocopherol. If possible, the vitamin E supplement should be high in gamma-tocopherol - which is exactly why I recommend the vitamin E product listed above).

 

"When do I have increased vitamin K needs?"

There are several instances when you will have increased vitamin K needs. 

First of all, if you have Alzheimers, osteoporosis, heart disease, or tooth problems, then you have increased vitamin K₂ needs. Additionally, gut problems - such as a gastric bypass or celiac disease - increase your vitamin K₂ needs as well. Kidney problems are the same.

Some medicines, such as statins, increase your vitamin K₂ demands.

Lastly, if you're of older age, or if you're breastfeeding, you're also in need of more vitamin K₂. The same is true for young people: your needs will be higher as well (young people should look at the next question).

As the article explains, vitamin K₁ will not help these problems--vitamin K₁'s main role is anticoagulation. You need vitamin K₂.

 

"What are my vitamin K needs if I'm a kid or adolescent?"

Many sources report that vitamin K needs are less in adolescents. I believe, however, that vitamin K₂ needs are much higher if you're young, or a teenager.^[124]

Why?

Because you're building your skeleton at that age. There's proof as well. Dental problems, for example - which are highly related to vitamin K₂ consumption - and peak around the teenage years.^[110] 

Once you're 25 or 35, you'll generally have fewer dental problems, and your vitamin K₂ needs drop off as well.

 

"Where is vitamin K stored?"

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin. Fat-soluble means it's stored in your body-fat. 

Contrary to vitamin D, vitamin K cannot yet accurately be measured in your blood. Additionally, vitamin K is found in your heart, liver, and brain, among others.^{[108; 109]}

 

"Are there instances where taking vitamin K₂ is dangerous?"

Yes.

If you take blood thinners (anticoagulants). These medicines have the opposite effect of vitamin K₁.

Consult your doctor before starting in a vitamin K₂ regimen.

In all other instances, there have been no reported overdoses of vitamin K₂. Vitamin K₂ is safe at extremely high dosages, and there's no known toxicity.

 

Items Mentioned:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K

 

Found This Interesting? Then You Might Like:

• Rethinking Magnesium: Why You're Deficient And Need To Supplement
• Why Vitamin D Supplements Won't Cut It & Sunlight Exposure Fixes The Problem 
• 11 Reasons To Avoid Yakult And Other Probiotic Drinks
• PUFA's: The Worst Thing For Your Health That You Eat Everyday
• Learn About The Most Effective Supplements For Your Health

 

This is a post by Bart Wolbers. Bart finished degrees in Physical Therapy (B), Philosophy (BA and MA), Philosophy of Science and Technology (MS - Cum Laude), and Clinical Health Science (MS), and is currently a health consultant at Alexfergus.com.  

 

 

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