Taking vitamin K2 supplements reduces the frequency, intensity and duration of nighttime leg cramps in older people.
- In adults with nighttime muscle cramps, about 20% experience distress and insomnia that leads them to seek medical attention.
- By taking capsules containing vitamin K2 daily for eight weeks, participants in one study experienced a reduction in the average weekly frequency of nocturnal muscle cramps.
- The volunteers also showed a reduction in the intensity and duration of leg cramps thanks to vitamin K2 supplementation, which they tolerated well.
Vitamin K is necessary for normal blood clotting. The latter is also important for the health of bones and other tissues, according to MSD Manual. In a new study, scientists from the Third People’s Hospital in Chengdu (China) wanted to determine whether it can be beneficial for muscle cramps that strike in the middle of the night without warning, because at present, “There is no treatment whose safety and effectiveness have been demonstrated.” These involuntary and painful muscular contractions are present in approximately 50 to 60% of adults during their life. About 20% of them experience significant distress and insomnia that leads them to seek medical attention.
Vitamin K2 capsules or placebos every day for 8 weeks
As part of their work, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicineresearchers conducted an intervention between September 2022 and December 2023. They recruited 199 people over the age of 65, who experienced at least two documented episodes of nighttime cramps during a two-week screening period. After a physical examination and analysis of the participants’ medical history, they were divided into two groups.
For eight weeks, 103 volunteers received daily capsules containing vitamin K2, more precisely doses of 180 μg, and 96 adults received a placebo every day.. “The products were custom-made to have identical packaging and for the capsules to have identical appearance and excipients that share a similar taste and weight,” said the team, which then compared the number of nighttime cramps per week between the two groups. “Secondary outcomes included muscle cramp duration measured in minutes and muscle cramp severity assessed using an analog scale ranging from 1 to 10.”
Night cramps: a reduction in frequency, intensity and duration thanks to supplementation
According to the authors, the average number of nocturnal cramps per week was comparable in the two groups, with 2.60 cramps in the vitamin K2 group and 2.71 in the placebo group. However, over the course of the eight-week intervention, people who took the vitamin K2 capsules experienced a reduction in average weekly cramp frequency to 0.96. For adults who received the placebo, the average weekly frequency of cramps remained at 3.63. The difference of 2.67 fewer cramps per week between the groups is statistically significant, and the trend is visible from the first week.
Another observation: patients in the vitamin K2 group also presented a greater reduction in the severity of nocturnal cramps, with an average reduction of 2.55 points compared to 1.24 points in the placebo group. For them, the duration of cramps also decreased by an average of 0.90 minutes, compared to 0.32 minutes in the placebo group. “No adverse events related to the use of vitamin K2 have been identified,” can we read in the research. According to the team, additional studies are still needed to confirm the effectiveness of vitamin K2 and study its impact on the quality of life and sleep of adults suffering from frequent nocturnal cramps.
