The Most Important Vitamin You Probably Never Heard Of

Most people have never heard of vitamin K.

We need vitamin K for Vitamin D to work effectively. Vitamin D affects bones, teeth, the immune system, hormones and much more, and whenever D is working with calcium, it needs K to work.

K2 aids D place calcium in the many places it needs to go. Therefore, if you take the D without K2, you’ll create a demand for more K2 and create or worsen a K2 deficiency. And this powerful nutrient plays an essential role in many aspects of your health. Without K2, we lose control of where calcium precipitates out of the blood.

Therefore, without the D/K2 combo, calcium won’t get delivered into bones, muscles, and nerves. If calcium instead ends up in joints, it can cause arthritis and bone spurs; in the arteries, it can contribute to plaque and hardening of the arteries; or in organs or tissues, it can form stones and other calcium deposits.

Vitamin K2 may be the missing link between diet and several chronic diseases.

There is another one  – Vitamin K1.

K1, or phylloquinone, comes from plants. It is the main dietary vitamin K. K2, or menaquinone, occurs in some animal-based and fermented foods.

When we eat K1, bacteria in the large intestine convert it to its storage form, vitamin K2. It is absorbed in the small intestine and stored in fatty tissue and the liver.

Without vitamin K, the body cannot produce prothrombin, a clotting factor necessary for blood clotting and bone metabolism.

Here are sample food sources of vitamin K:

• 10 stems of parsley (effirin – Yoruba) contains 90 micrograms (mcg)
• A half-cup serving of frozen and boiled collard greens contains 530 mcg
• One cup of raw spinach contains 145 mcg
• 1 tablespoon of soybean oil contains 25 mcg
• A half-cup serving of grapes contains 11 mcg
• A hard-boiled egg contains 4 mcg