Vitamin K

What is Vitamin K?

Vitamin K exists in two forms ( K1 and K2) which are both essential for your health. Vitamin K1 is a key ingredient in the coagulation of blood or blood clotting. In other words, without K1 you can potentially loss a lot of blood from simply a nosebleed. Vitamin K2 is even more important because it helps you have both strong bones and a healthy heart. The foods rich in vitamin K are actually rich in vitamin K1, like broccoli, spinach, kale and parsley. Only about 6% food products we consume are rich in vitamin K2. In particular, Dr. Price found the main source of Vitamin K2 is grass-fed cows buttermilk. the best source however is a Japanese food Natto contains the best kind of vitamin K2 you can get but is stinky, slimy and not delicious at all. Despite not liking it many people in Japan still eat it every day with their rice because of health benefits of vitamin K2.

Vitamin K2 - Strong Bones

To fully appreciate Vitamin K2 we need to look at the role of calcium in our bone and bloodstream. Calcium is important for making up a lot of your bones which are consist of dynamic living tissue. At any given time ten percent of your bones are under construction taking calcium in sending it out.

How K2 affects calcium flow

While 99% of the calcium is in your bones, where is the other 1%? This one percent is primarily in your bloodstream because calcium is really important for regulating your heartbeat and combating inflammation in your body.
The uncontrolled excess of calcium in bloodstream can do damage by embedding itself in the soft tissue. So, how does calcium get back and forth and what prevents it to cause damage? The answer is Vitamin K2 which plays a key role in this process. It activates a protein called osteocalcin which helps the calcium get into our hard bone instead of staying in our arteries.

Vitamin K2 - Healthy Teeth

In the 1930s research done by Dr. Price, a dentist, who believed the dental decay is an unnatural process in the human body. He was of opinion was that our body should be able to fix the teeth by itself. So, he travelled around the world in search for the solution.

Vitamin K2 and activator X

Dr. Price observed some Aboriginal cultures where they had a healthy teeth and relatively disease-free lives. Through his research Dr. Price came to conclusion that there was something (he called it the activator X) which was common in all their diets. Back home he identified foods that are rich in the activator X. Subsequently, he started treating his patients by changing their diet. It worked well but the activator X itself was not understood until 2007 when researchers finally concluded that it was vitamin K2.

Vitamin K2 - Healthy Arteries

Your heart one of the most important organs in your body. Pumping blood your arteries it it keeps you alive. In this process, Vitamin K2 activates another protein called matrix GLA which sweeps the calcium out of the arteries. In other words Vitamin K2 helps to send calcium to wherever it is needed throughout the body. If not for Vitamin K2 your arteries can get fully calcified that leads to strokes, kidney stones and all kinds of health complications.