The vitamin Johns Hopkins researchers say slows artery calcium buildup

When it comes to heart risk, we’ve been trained by Big Pharma to think solely about cholesterol.

But cholesterol is only one piece of the heart-risk puzzle. Even when LDL gets all the attention, it doesn’t show you whether calcium-laden plaque is quietly building inside your arteries.

That’s not to say that cholesterol isn’t important, but that other factors may play a much larger role in guarding or damaging our hearts than most of us realize.

One of the most important of these is calcification of the coronary arteries, also known as CAC, which can also be measured via CT scan.

This calcification is a slow, dangerous process that hardens and narrows your arteries over time, skyrocketing your risk of heart attack.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to put the brakes on this process and help keep your blood vessels and heart healthy.

And one of the easiest, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins, is to leverage an often-overlooked nutrient…

MK-7 (from vitamin K2) slowed artery calcification

The study, published in JAMA Cardiology, tested the ability of menaquinone-7 (MK-7), a form of vitamin K2, to slow CAC progression compared with a placebo.

Researchers recruited adults with symptomatic coronary artery disease and mild-to-moderate coronary artery calcium scores. Participants were then assigned to take either 360 micrograms of MK-7 daily or a placebo for two years.

And the results were promising enough to get cardiology researchers’ attention…

In the placebo group, coronary artery calcium scores rose from a median of 145 to 214 Agatston units over two years.

However, in the vitamin K2 group, scores only rose from 135 to 184.

That means arterial calcium still increased in both groups — but it increased much more slowly in those taking MK-7.

Researchers also found similar results when they looked at calcium mass, another measure of arterial calcification.

That matters because arterial calcification should not be written off as “normal aging” of your blood vessels. Instead, it reflects long-term plaque buildup and stiffening of the arteries — exactly the kind of process that sets the stage for heart disease.

The K2 secret that makes it heart healthy

So why would vitamin K2 make a difference?

It comes down to how the body controls where calcium goes and MK-7’s role.

Most of us think of calcium as something that belongs in bones and teeth. And it does. But calcium can become dangerous when it starts settling into soft tissues, especially the walls of your arteries.

That’s why your body has a built-in system to help keep calcium in the right places.

Part of that system depends on special proteins that act almost like traffic cops for calcium. They help direct calcium into bones, where it supports strength, and help keep it out of arteries, where it can contribute to hardening and plaque buildup.

One of the most important of these proteins is matrix Gla protein (MGP). You can think of MGP as one of the body’s natural anti-calcification defenses.

But there’s a catch…

MGP has to be activated before it can do its job. And MK-7 from K2 is the nutrient that helps activate it.

So when vitamin K2 activity is low, MGP may not work as well. That could leave calcium with fewer checks and balances, making it easier for it to settle in the artery wall, where it can cause harm.

That’s what makes this study so interesting. It suggests that supporting vitamin K2 status — especially with MK-7, the form of the vitamin used in the trial — may help slow one of the visible signs of artery aging.

Vitamin K2 and MK-7 in your diet

All your life, you’ve probably been steered toward vitamin K from leafy green vegetables. And that’s good advice — those foods are rich in vitamin K1, which supports healthy blood clotting and overall health.

But vitamin K2 is different. It is the family of compounds called menaquinones, which includes MK-7, the form used by Johns Hopkins researchers in this artery calcium study.

Vitamin K2 is found in eggs, goose and chicken livers, hard and soft cheeses and fermented foods. But the MK-7 form of K2 is found mainly in:

• Sauerkraut, miso and tempeh;
• Aged cheeses, like Gouda, Edam and Jarlsberg;
• And natto, a traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans, the richest known food source of MK-7.

Finally, not everyone should run out and start high-dose vitamin K…

If you take warfarin or another vitamin K antagonist blood thinner, talk to your doctor before taking vitamin K2 supplements or making major changes to your vitamin K intake. Sudden increases or decreases in vitamin K can interfere with how these medications work.

For many of us though, when it comes to keeping calcium where it belongs — and out of places it doesn’t — vitamin K2 may turn out to be one of the most important nutrients for healthier aging arteries.

Sources:

Two Years of Menaquinone-7 Supplementation and Coronary Artery Calcification: A Randomized Clinical Trial — JAMA Cardiology

Trial: Vitamin K Supplement Curbs Coronary Atherosclerosis — MedPage Today

VitaK-CAC: Menaquinone-7 Attenuates CAC in CAD — American College of Cardiology

Vitamin K Supplementation May Reduce Coronary Calcification: VitaK-CAC — TCTMD

Vitamin K Fact Sheet — NIH Office of Dietary Supplements