Arrade
Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2018
- Messages
- 1,496
15+ years is ridiculous, most studies are evaluated from 1-2 years at a dose of 45mg/day.Compared to 15+ years, I think the time issue is the most relevant thing here. That coupled with lack of control seems limiting in potentially observing true beneficial effects. Past that amount of time, perhaps the conclusion would be initial increases in CAC and then a gradual tapering down. That would start to look like the Rotterdam study, where the ultimate effect was very beneficial for subjects.
Here's a great link for studies using mk4: https://nbihealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/NBI-MK4-Osteo-Research-Updated_APPROVED-1.pdf
In 6 months they showed slowing of bone loss from estrogen deprivation. In 10 weeks they showed 45mg/day mk prevented bone loss from those using Prednisolone.
This study: A longitudinal study of the effect of vitamin K2 on bone mineral density in postmenopausal women a comparative study with vitamin D3 and estrogen-p... - PubMed - NCBI bone density increaed in 12 months for post-menopausal women, and that's without Vitamin D added.
Using 45 mg mk4 you can see statistically significant effects for bones and cholesterol within a year, over and over. So why would CAC values increasing by 14% after a year not be enough information to tell us something?
The Rotterdam study: https://www.cardient.com/reference-library/rotterdam-vitamin-k2-study involves Mk8 and Mk9 from dairy."Main dietary sources of phylloquinone in our study were green leafy vegetables and vegetable oils. Menaquinone was present in meats and eggs (MK-4 only), fish, sauerkraut, cheese, and other dairy produce (MK-5 through MK-10) (19)"
Thus there is no way you can extrapolate that Mk4 is causing the observed reduction in coronary risk, when the diet also includes long-chain menaquinones.
My point is that I believe long chain mk7-10 has a lot more to do with reducing arterial calcification, and there is very little evidence that supplementing mk4 by itself provides this benefit.