Cardiovascular health
Calcium is essential for every cell in the body and plays a number of important roles other than just being used in bone. For example, calcium is necessary for skeletal muscle functions and other muscle tissues such as the smooth muscles in arteries. Imagine your pulse and how the arteries expand and contract. Normal metabolic processes utilize and clear excess calcium from the body. Excess calcification of cells lining the arterial vessel walls can play a role in increasing their stiffness and fragility, impeding normal blood flow to and from the heart.
For over half a century, K vitamins were recognized solely as needed for normal blood clotting. However, during the last decades they have been the subject of significant research. At the same time, protein research identified matrix Gla protein (MGP) associated with soft tissue calcifications. Soon it was realized that MGP was dependent upon vitamin K for activation. MGP is the most potent inhibitor of vascular calcification known, and it is actively involved in recycling calcium22.
High Vitamin K2 Intake Significantly promotes Cardiovascular Health!
The Rotterdam Study (2004)23 shows that high dietary intake of vitamin K2 – but not vitamin K1 - has a strong protective effect on cardiovascular health. This population-based study, which took place over a 10 year period, followed 4807 initially healthy men and women >55 years of age from start. Findings from the study indicate that eating foods rich in natural vitamin K2 (at least 32 mcg per day) results in 50% reduction of arterial calcification, 50% reduction of cardiovascular death and 25% reduction of all cause mortality.
These findings was in 2008 supported by another population-based study with 16,000 persons from the Prospect-EPIC cohort population. All the women participating in this project, who were aged 49-70 at the start of the study, were followed up for 8 years and were free of cardiovascular diseases at the baseline. The results from this study show that high intake of natural vitamin K2 – but not vitamin K1 – over a 8 year period protect from cardiovascular events26. The researchers (Gast et.al) found that for every 10mcg vitamin K2 (MK-7, MK-8 and MK-9) consumed, the risk of coronary heart disease was reduced by 9%.
Another study24 which looked at the relation between vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 intake and coronary calcification among 564 post-menopausal women showed decreased calcification associated with vitamin K2 intake (specifically MK-7, MK-8 & MK-9) but not with vitamin K1 intake.25
An interesting double blind placebo-controlled bone health study from New Zealand where 1471 postmenopausal women received 1000 mg calcium daily reported a high frequency of cardiovascular events. Judged from the information given, it seems that the daily intake of vitamin K2 was very low in these women. Inadequate vitamin K2 supplementation seems to be a contributing factor to this cardiovascular problem27.
Unfortunately, the western diet does not contain sufficient vitamin K2 and supplementing with MenaQ7, the natural vitamin K2, is therefore recommended by experts.
Arterial calcification
Calcification was once believed to be an irreversible process and a result of aging. However, it is now known that calcium accumulation is an actively regulated process also involving vitamin K2-dependent MGP. Healthy arterial tissues have shown to contain 20-50 times more vitamin K2 than unhealthy arteries28. The amount of calcium in the arteries is a risk factor for cardiovascular health29. Significant calcification makes one older than what the birth certificate states; while with little or no calcification one can deduct up to 10 years from one's chronological age.30
In short, you are as old as your arteries.