Menaquinones, also called vitamin K2, play an essential role in the body, particularly in blood clotting as well as heart and bone health.
- Vitamin K brings together several elements including vitamin K1 and K2.
- Vitamin K2 contributes to good bone health.
- It also helps with blood clotting and protects against heart disease.
Vitamin K brings together several elements, the main ones being phylloquinone (vitamin K1) and menaquinones (vitamin K2). If the first is found in dark green leafy vegetables such as cabbage and spinach, the second is present in animal products such as liver, egg yolk as well as beef and poultry or even fermented foods.
Vitamin K2 has an advantage: it is absorbed by the body more slowly than vitamin K1. “The idea is that vitamin K2 has the potential to have more influence on your body because it’s a longer chain, so your body is slower to absorb and digest it”says dietician Julia Zumpano, dietitian on the Cleveland Clinic website. But what are the benefits of this nutrient?
Vitamin K2 participates in blood clotting
Vitamins K are involved in blood clotting. They help to “keep your blood neither too thick nor too thin”, specifies the American hospital center. However, he specifies: “At this point, researchers have yet to determine whether vitamin K1 or vitamin K2 are equally responsible for coagulation or whether one is more effective than the other in blood clotting.”
Vitamin K2 helps build strong bones
While calcium is an important component of bone health, menaquinones play an essential role in the bone metabolism.
“Having low vitamin K levels is associated with a higher risk of bone fractures”says Julia Zumpano. “We’ve always focused on calcium for bone health. But in reality, vitamin D, vitamin K, and calcium all work together.”
This is because vitamin K2 helps activate a protein, called osteocalcin, which binds to calcium to build bone. “Some preliminary studies show that vitamin K2 supplements can reduce fractures and improve bone quality in people with osteoporosis.”says the Cleveland Clinic
Vitamin K2 is good for the heart
Vitamin K is not only involved in blood clotting and bone strength, it also helps keep the heart healthy. “Vitamin K has been shown to help activate a protein that helps prevent calcium from depositing in your arteries”explains the dietitian. “Calcium deposits contribute to the development of plaque, so vitamin K does a lot of good for your heart health.”
And vitamin K2 would be more effective than vitamin K1 in eliminating calcium which leads to hardening of tissues, organs and blood vessels.
A 2004 study showed that people who get at least 32 micrograms a day of vitamin K2 through their diet were 50% less likely to die from heart disease linked to calcification of the arteries. Of the work of 2009 also revealed that women with a diet rich in vitamin K2 had a lower risk of heart attacks or strokes.
