Discussion of the various vitamin K2 supplements on the market with a comparison of MK-4 from animal sources or MK-7 from bacterial fermentation to ensure the diet contains sufficient amounts of this elusive yet critical nutrient.
Getting enough Vitamin K2 is absolutely essential to vibrant health. Surprisingly, the vast majority of people are seriously deficient.
Even those eating a completely whole food, organic diet, usually fall short when it comes to getting enough of either of the two major forms: MK-7 and MK-4.
Traditional Societies instinctively put great importance on foods high in Vitamin K2.
These sacred foods were consumed in larger quantities by young couples preparing to conceive.
In addition, pregnant and breastfeeding women, growing children, and the elderly received more to preserve health during these critical times of life.
Sufficient Vitamin K2 along with the other critical fat-soluble activators A and D are especially important for pregnant women to consume to ensure healthy babies.
It is important to note that Vitamin K1 from leafy greens is a different nutrient! It is not the same as Vitamin K2 found in the sacred foods of traditional cultures.
The best food sources of Vitamin K2 are grass-fed dairy products, emu oil, gouda, brie cheese, and natto, a very strong-tasting fermented soy product with roots in Japan.
Vitamin K2 from animal sources is MK-4, while K2 produced by bacterial fermentation as found in natto or cheese is MK-7.
Getting Enough Vitamin K2 in the Diet
Unfortunately, even if one consumes plenty of grass-fed dairy, getting enough K2 in the diet is still a challenge. This is due to the worrisome depletion of our soils which will take generations to repair.
Consider that the spring butter of the traditional Alpine living Swiss was an orange color. Grass-fed spring butter today is at best deep yellow.
No doubt, the soil that produced the rapidly growing spring grass that the Alpine cows grazed upon was much higher in nutrients to produce orange butter which the Swiss reverently placed in bowls with wicks to burn in their Churches.
K2 Is Not Recycled by the Body like K1
One factor contributing to widespread Vitamin K2 deficiency is the apparent lack of recycling of this nutrient by the body.
This is in contrast to Vitamin K1 from leafy green vegetables, which can be reused metabolically.
This means that Vitamin K2 stores can be quickly depleted with invisible deficiency occurring in as little as 7 days.
This is concerning especially if you are taking Vitamin D or calcium supplements. Sufficient K2 is necessary to prevent arterial calcification when the intake of these synergistic nutrients is high.
K2 Supplements Bridge the Dietary Gap
While it is always best to strive to get your nutrients from food, the critical nature of Vitamin K2 and the depletion of our soils indicates to me that supplementation is a good idea. Â
I did not feel certain that we could get enough K2 by eating reasonable amounts of whole and even sacred foods from grass-fed sources like Traditional Societies would have obtained by eating a similar diet.
Based on population studies and data obtained from Vitamin K2 doses given in clinical trials, it seems that 45 mcg/day would be the minimal dose needed for any sort of therapeutic effect.
Several hundred mcg/day is a better target as this is what frequent natto eaters in Japan consume.
The good news is that Vitamin K2 has no known toxicity. Thus, adding a daily supplement taken with food to improve absorption has no downside.
MK-7 vs MK-4
If you decide that taking a Vitamin K2 supplement makes sense to you, which should you choose?
If given the choice, I prefer MK-4, the animal form of Vitamin K2 over MK-7, the form of K2 from bacterial fermentation.
I get MK-4 in my diet by cooking frequently with pastured ghee, the clarified form of butter. I also eat plenty and a wide variety of cheeses along with pastured butter and eggs.
MK-4 from Food
When it comes to the animal form of Vitamin K2…MK-4…you really must get it from Real Food. The best sources are grass-fed butter, emu oil, ghee, goose liver, cheese, and pastured egg yolks.
I cannot stress enough that these are critical whole foods in your diet.
You cannot rely on a supplement form of MK-4, known as menatetrenone, because it is synthetic.
This is similar to the widespread issue of synthetic vitamin C supplements. Incidentally, folic acid is synthetic too (you want folate).
Synthetic MK-4
The supplement form of MK-4 is commonly extracted from tobacco, most likely of GMO origin (90% of tobacco crops are genetically modified).
It is not the same MK-4 as found in grass-fed butter oil, eggs, goose liver, gouda cheese, or pastured emu oil.
Supplement manufacturers rely on synthetic MK-4 because it would be prohibitively expensive to obtain this nutrient from whole food sources.
MK-4 in the Blood
Another big downside of synthetic MK-4 is the very short time it remains in the body.
For this reason, dosing every few hours is necessary to maintain therapeutic levels in the blood.
This is a very inconvenient aspect of these supplements that is rarely understood by consumers looking for therapeutic benefits.
Natural MK-7 Supplements
While MK-4 supplements are synthetic, MK-7 supplements produced via fermentation are not.
Thus, when it comes to supplementing with Vitamin K2, MK-7 is the safest and most effective form to take.
For example, this brand of Vitamin K2 is derived from nonGMO natto. My family has relied on it for many years.
If you enjoy the unusual flavor of this Japanese traditional food, I recommend natto fried rice as perhaps the best-tasting dish.
For those who are avoiding even fermented forms of soy, this Vitamin K2 from fermented chickpeas is a good brand to consider.
Blood Levels of MK-7
A huge benefit of supplementing with MK-7 is that it stays in therapeutic doses in the blood much longer than synthetic MK-4.
As a result, a once-a-day supplement of MK-7 is sufficient.
This is a very effective addition to the natural MK-4 from a diet high in grass-fed dairy and other sacred foods.
Summary. You Need BOTH MK-4 and MK-7
Getting enough of the natural, fermented form of Vitamin K2 in the diet via quality MK-7 supplements is a great strategy. To this end, I take this brand of Vitamin K2 derived from nonGMO natto.
However, it is critical to ensure you are also getting plenty of the animal form of Vitamin K2…MK-4…via whole foods.
The best MK-4 sources include cheese, pastured butter (especially ghee or raw butter oil), emu oil, goose liver, and pastured egg yolks.
Cheese from the milk of pastured cows is a particularly special source of Vitamin K2 because both MK-4 and MK-7 are in the same food!
Be sure to read labels and avoid MK-4 supplements as they are synthetic. I’ve seen at least one brand that lists menatetrenone as Vitamin K2 and not specifically MK-4, so buyer beware!
When it comes to the amount of Vitamin K2 you might need every day to maintain strong teeth, bones, and plaque-free arteries, I strongly recommend the book Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox by Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue BSc, ND.
She discusses the daily dosage needed for healthy people versus those who need to reverse arterial calcification, osteoporosis, and other degenerative issues.
References
(1) Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox by Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue BSc, ND
(2) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Dr. Weston A. Price
(3) Menatretnone
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Sarah,
Not so safe for people like me. I have experienced heart arrythmia and dizziness while taking the MK-7 form of K-2. I’ve experimented twice with MK-7 to see if it was just a coincidence. It wasn’t. Each time after taking MK-7 in as little as 100 mcg doses per day resulted in these bad side effects. Now that I’m off MK-7, I feel fine again. You might deduce from this that I have a soy allergy but I have no effects after drinking soy milk (2 glasses per day). Btw, the Rotterdam Study used the MK-4 (from eggs and meat) and MK-8 and Mk-9 (from cheese).
There are MK-7 supplements using fermented chickpeas instead of fermented soy if that helps! I’ve used this one before and its very good: http://amzn.to/2gujdfq
I found this article rich in new detail that I had not come across before. What I myself want to contribute to the conversation is that I myself make Natto. It isn’t at all unpalatable. At first it pongs, true, but as with anything that you have an aversion to at first, but which is good for you, your sense of smell and taste quickly adapt and you find yourself loving what only a few weeks earlier you hated. I now hardly smell anything coming from my natto at all, and what I do smell is fine; the taste is bland but okay, and the texture is now quite normal to me. If you understand that the bacteria which creates it is closely related to the bacteria which creates yoghurt – both being of the family Bacillus – you will perhaps think more kindly of it. Yoghurt also contains vitamin K2, though many times less than natto, and it is possibly for this reason that it – at least the Bulgarian form – is associated with great longevity. I wonder if anyone has ever compared the amount of K2 created by Bacillus Bulgaricus, with the amount created by the Bacillus acidophilus which is the main type of bacteria used to create supermarket yogurt? With regard to the regrettable pallor of today’s Alpine cheeses, I wonder if anyone has considered the water the cattle are drinking? If the water has any chlorine in it, the organic sulphur content which occurs naturally in all water because it comes from the sky not from rocks, will be wholly or partly destroyed, and this might have unpredictable consequences for the nutritional value of the milk that comes from the cows. Back to natto: you do not have to make it with soya beans – any beans will do; although I suspect soaked and steamed soya beans will make the best culture. I experimented by making it with peanuts because I am interested in testing it out in Uganda where there are plenty of peanuts, because of its anti-parasitic qualities. It worked well with peanuts, though the culture was not as vigorous as with soya beans. I did an experiment with tap water versus water filtered through activated charcoal filters. As I suspected, the culture grown on soya beans which had been prepared with tap water was far more vigorous than the other one. Such details are important. Activated charcoal is very anti-bacterial and the effect of my filtered water on the Bacillus natto culture makes me worried about the effect it might be having on my healthy gut bacteria. On another point entirely, vitamin K will – presumably – be especially important for people of blood group 0. I wonder if this is backed up by the science? I just stumbled on research which found no difference in clotting time between group 0 blood and other blood… It throws me into confusion because I always thought my tendency towards bleeding haemorrhoids was attributable to my 0 rh -ve blood; but maybe it’s too big a jump to assume that a lack of blood clotting factors means that your blood doesn’t clot as well?
I take this supplement nearly every day and I would like to have my 3 year old take it, but I am concerned about the dosage. What would you recommend?
If I choose to get my K2 from grassfed raw butter, how much mg should I take it a day? Would 1 or 2 toats a day enough?
This would very much depend on your location and what the cows are eating. It would be very difficult to estimate. This is why a K2 whole foods supplement really is necessary in my opinion. Then there is no guesswork.
This was most helpful for me. I used to take Vit K2 derived from MK-7. Had no problems. Switched brands at one point. the new brand contained K1, K2 (in both MK-4 and MK-7). MK-4 had 1,000 mcg while the MK-7 had 200 mcg. I’ve had bouts of problems with diarrhea. For a while I thought it was food or something related. Then I was able to discern that it seemed related to one of my supplements. Well, my goodness… I take a lot of supplements because I have a severe igA deficiency along with an inflammatory condition. But here is where it became interesting. This “new” (to me) brand supplement line apparently seems to have high doses in their products. One other product for iodine that they sell gave me very strange symptoms. I had a hunch and opened the capsule where I took just a wee bit in a glass of water. My whole body reacted. I can take iodine in other brands with no problem. So now I’m finally beginning to seriously think that this brand is problematic for me and this became clear today. I only took 3 of my supplements today. One was the K formula. An hour or two later my stomach was rumbling like mad and I had diarrhea. Prior to that, i was fine. Fortunately, this article was on the web and I read it and it began to click for me. I think #1) I’m getting too much MK-4; and #2) I’m reacting to the synthetic form of this; and 3) the brand seems to be problematic for me overall for reasons I’m unsure of. they are a very, very reputable brand which confuses me but maybe my system just can’t handle this brand and their power-packed formulas. I could be wrong but I believe this is the problem and I want to thank you so much for posting this and helping me to understand the K vitamin and its derivatives and finally get to the root of this.
Dr. Wiggy, drwiggy.com sells a terrific MK7 without soy but I love taking pastured emu oil from Walkabout.
MK-7 supplements come from an extract of natto, which is a natural plant source. Similarly, MK-4 comes from an extract of tobacco, which is also a natural plant source. So, why would one be classified as “natural” and the other one be classified as “synthetic”?
“Another big downside of MK-4 supplements is that this synthetic form of MK-4 does not remain in therapeutic levels in the blood for very long”
This statement is rendered pointless because there’s no study that proves the Mk-4 from meat, egg yokes, or dairy is in any way different. All the available studies done on MK-4 were done with the menatetrenone extract from tobacco, again the so called “synthetic” supplemental form. it’s molecularly the same, therefore it should be absorbed by the body the same way and treated the same way in vivo.
Also, there’s an argument that can be made that the reason why levels of MK-7 hang around circulating in the blood much longer may be because it’s unable to enter the human cell as easily and readily as MK-4. This would then indicate that MK-4 is actually the more effective therapeutic form.
I don’t know why these articles still cling to the MK-7 band wagon when almost all the research was done with the I believe MK-4 synthetic form.
I generally avoid soy for the negative health effects. What woukd be a good source for mk-7, without soy?
The MK-7 brand in the article is from natto … a very safe form of fermented soy. And, it is in such tiny amounts, it isn’t a problem unless you have a soy allergy. I honestly don’t know of another brand that doesn’t have additives that are undesirable. I would recommend the one mentioned in the article.