All About Vitamin K

Vitamin K is absolutely essential to the body. This vitamin is fat-soluble and is useful for several different things. It’s needed to create strong bones, help the blood clot, and battle heart disease. It’s tied to vitamin D, and neither works that well without the other. However, did you know that vitamin K comes in a few different forms, and that there’s one type you actually need to avoid?

What to Eat

Many foods contain vitamin K, but spinach is the main thing to eat. It’s full of vitamin A and vitamin K, plus it has a good amount of protein in it, too. It can help make your heart stronger, improve your memory, and even help unborn babies develop better. Just a cup of it a day is all you need.

Uses of Vitamin K

Vitamin K is necessary for blood clotting. It helps to make the blood clot better and more quickly, which means cuts and scrapes stop bleeding faster. It’s also needed to help build up strong bones. It works alongside vitamin D in this regard. Without vitamin K, the vitamin D in your body can’t work as well as it normally would, and vice versa. This means being deficient in one or the other of these two vitamins can cause major issues since the body basically loses out on two essential components.

Vitamin K is also helpful in preventing heart disease and in promoting brain health. It can even possibly help reduce the effects of dementia. It has been shown to help battle lung cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer, tooth decay, a number of infectious diseases, and leukemia.

Deficiency

Unfortunately, vitamin K is sometimes called the forgotten vitamin because people don’t realize just how necessary it is. Because of that, almost everyone is actually vitamin K deficient to some extent. While many get enough of this vitamin to make their blood clot as it should, they don’t get enough to really battle the various diseases and other health issues that vitamin K helps protect against.

Types of Vitamin K

There are three different types of vitamin K. The first type of vitamin K, simply called K1, is found in plants. If you’re looking for phylloquinone, as it’s scientifically known, just eat some green vegetables. Vitamin K1 is used by the liver, and it’s the type of vitamin K that helps the blood clot as it should. You can get some K1 simply by eating your green vegetables.

Then there’s vitamin K2. This second type of vitamin K is classified as a menaquinone. It’s actually created in the body—the bacteria found in the walls of the gastrointestinal tract create K2 on a regular basis. The vitamin is absorbed directly by the walls of the blood vessel, your bones, and other tissues. Vitamin K2 isn’t absorbed by the liver like K1 is.

Finally, there’s a vitamin K3, but it’s not found in nature at all. It’s called menadione, and it’s a synthetic type of vitamin K. While there have been no harmful side effects in adults, infants who were given K3 showed signs of toxicity, so most people steer clear of this synthetic type of vitamin K.

You may also want to start taking a supplement that contains graviola. Research has shown that a graviola supplement may be able to provide you with a number of benefits.

You can buy the best organic graviola products here.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any diseases.