Well, mothers have all heard of it. Babies are given an injection of Vitamin K at birth to ensure blood coagulation, so it is something mums worry about before labour and then hardly notice once hours of exhausting pain have been lived through. But the rest of the population? I am willing to bet there is a significant proportion who didn't even know there is a Vitamin K. It is the unknown vitamin, the outsider, that doesn't fit the mould and anyway what happened to Vitamins F, G, H, I and J?
But a new analysis of data carried out by Joyce McCann and Bruce Ames at the Oakland Research Institute, now suggests that we haven't given Vitamin K the respect it deserves, and that optimal levels of the unknown vitamin can help fight against age-related diseases like osteoporosis, hardening of the arteries and others.
The two scientists looked at data from hundreds of articles spanning the last four decades and concluded that the results suggest we need more Vitamin K than the recommended level for optimum health. The current level is set based on the amount of Vitamin K we need to ensure our blood coagulates properly ? a vital role vitamin K plays in the body. But McCann and Ames suggest that vitamin K has the capacity to do more than that, but will always do it's critical work first i.e. elements like artery health or bone strength will be ignored in preference of short term survival.
This supports a theory first developed in 2006 by Dr Ames called the Triage Theory. In essence (and based on experiments on mice) this uses what we know about evolution as its basis. Our bodies will always choose short term survival over long term health. Therefore, Dr Ames, hypothesised that limited vitamin intake can lead to long-term health problems. The vitamins will always be used for the immediate needs of the body. Over a period of time, this can have significant effects on the "non-critical" bodily functions.
Looking at Vitamin K specifically, the experiment with mice showed that 5 vitamin K dependent proteins were critical. These were the proteins that dealt with blood coagulation and the mice did not survive without them. There were a further 5 vitamin K dependent proteins that the mice did survive without, but there were signs of these mice developing weaker bones and hardening of the arteries. This suggests that a diet with a limited amount of vitamin K will support your health in the immediate future, but potentially ignore your health in the longer term.
Experts agree that more research is needed before anyone can say for definite that recommended levels of Vitamin K should increase, but it is a very compelling argument so far. There are 2 elements to vitamin K. Vitamin K1 we get from green, leafy vegetables like lettuce, broccoli and spinach and makes up about 90 percent of our intake. Vitamin K2 is in animal meat and fermented foods like some cheeses.
Amazingly many multivitamins don't have any Vitamin K in them, but from these findings, perhaps it's worth finding one that does.
Keywords: vitamin, supplement, health, nutrition, arteries, heart, blood
