Vitamin K and brain function

[miquelangeles]

Has any of you noticed mental benefits from vitamin K?

I've been taking K1 (~ 400 mcg/day) combined with K2 MK-7 (~200-300 mcg per day) and I feel that my memory, focus and concentration have improved. I've taken MK-4 in the past (although not consistently and didn't pay much attention to any mental effects) but I didn't feel the same benefits from it.

I did a quick search on the forum but I couldn't find any threads discussing vitamin K and brain function.

Just an old thread from 2013 by a member @Lucy where Ray said that vitamin K can help with "mental clarity" among other things. This is the thread.

Also in a separate thread @encerent reported "mental clarity in a dose dependent manner".

If you do a search on Google Scholar for "vitamin k, brain function, cognitive function" there are quite a lot of studies. Vitamin K is highly involved in brain physiology, especially in the synthesis of sphingolipids.

 

[fr@]

Has any of you noticed mental benefits from vitamin K?

I've been taking K1 (~ 400 mcg/day) combined with K2 MK-7 (~200-300 mcg per day) and I feel that my memory, focus and concentration have improved. I've taken MK-4 in the past (although not consistently and didn't pay much attention to any mental effects) but I didn't feel the same benefits from it.

I did a quick search on the forum but I couldn't find any threads discussing vitamin K and brain function.

Just an old thread from 2013 by a member @Lucy where Ray said that vitamin K can help with "mental clarity" among other things. This is the thread.

Also in a separate thread @encerent reported "mental clarity in a dose dependent manner".

If you do a search on Google Scholar for "vitamin k, brain function, cognitive function" there are quite a lot of studies. Vitamin K is highly involved in brain physiology, especially in the synthesis of sphingolipids.

I'm actually avoiding K1 supplementation (to save a bit of money) due to what they say that MK-7 can do all what the Vitamin-K 'family' can do.
I've heard it from Chris Masterjohn, but I still take it with MK-4 which he also said (since the studies aren't really clear yet), like an "almost" 1:1 ratio.
There's also a post from @Pina about "Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) induces vascular endothelial dysfunction", so I'm still not so sure about supplementing it yet.

As far mental benefits from supplementing Vitamin-K, I haven't experience it yet -- except erections.
I've been upping my K2 (MK-4 + MK-7) lately though, since I'm not getting arrythmias anymore from taking it; but I'm still far away from the 300mcg per day.

I suppose K1 is more about its clotting factor, like making your blood more gooey (if I got it right); so how much Aspirin do you take per day?

 

[miquelangeles]

I'm actually avoiding K1 supplementation (to save a bit of money) due to what they say that MK-7 can do all what the Vitamin-K 'family' can do.
I've heard it from Chris Masterjohn, but I still take it with MK-4 which he also said (since the studies aren't really clear yet), like an "almost" 1:1 ratio.
There's also a post from @Pina about "Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) induces vascular endothelial dysfunction", so I'm still not so sure about supplementing it yet.

As far mental benefits from supplementing Vitamin-K, I haven't experience it yet -- except erections.
I've been upping my K2 (MK-4 + MK-7) lately though, since I'm not getting arrythmias anymore from taking it; but I'm still far away from the 300mcg per day.

I suppose K1 is more about its clotting factor, like making your blood more gooey (if I got it right); so how much Aspirin do you take per day?

Few years ago I also used to get palpitations from a single dose of 100mcg MK-7, but not any more.
Not sure why I don't get them any more, maybe because I am in better health now, or maybe this time I was actually deficient, or maybe older batches used to contain impurities (there are usually 1 or 2 producers worldwide where most supplement brands purchase it from); maybe it wasn't pure MK-7 and it contained other menaquinones such as MK-6, MK-8, MK-9.... MK-13 from their fermentation processes, with different physiological impact. Another hypothesis I've seen is that it stimulates the growth of Helicobacter Pylori, if one has it.

I don't think that K1 study is relevant. It was in vitro and they used the equivalent of 20 milligrams intravenous K1 for an adult.
Vitamin K1 is non toxic when taken orally, even in large amounts.
One cup of cooked leafy greens contains 1 milligram of K1 (kale, spinach, collard greens). One cup of cooked broccoli 200 mcg.
I'm not taking any aspirin regularly, maybe twice a month a single dose of 500mg.

Vitamin K status in human tissues: tissue-specific accumulation of phylloquinone and menaquinone-4 | British Journal of Nutrition | Cambridge Core

Vitamin K status in human tissues: tissue-specific accumulation of phylloquinone and menaquinone-4 - Volume 75 Issue 1

www.cambridge.org

We measured the vitamin K status in postmortem human tissues (brain, heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas) to see if there is a tissue-specific distribution pattern. Phylloquinone (K1,) was recovered in all tissues with relatively high levels in liver, heart and pancreas (medians, 10·6 (4·8), 9·3 (4·2), 28·4 (12·8) pmol(ng)/g wet weight tissue); low levels (< 2 pmol/g) were found in brain, kidney and lung. Menaquinone-4 (MK-4) was recovered from most of the tissues; its levels exceeded the K1 levels in brain and kidney (median, 2·8 ng/g) and equalled K1 in pancreas. Liver, heart and lung were low in MK–4. The higher menaquinones, MK-6–11, were recovered in the liver samples (n 6), traces of MK-6–9 were found in some of the heart and pancreas samples. The results show that in man there are tissue-specific, vitamin-K distribution patterns comparable to those in the rat. Furthermore, the accumulation of vitamin K in heart, brain and pancreas suggests a hitherto unrecognized physiological function of this vitamin.

 

[fr@]

Thanks for the detailed response, now I have another thing to ponder about (supplementing K1).

I've also seen this response from BearWithMe (Do You Need Vitamin K1 If You Get Plenty Of K2?):

"Can't find the post right now, but some forum user claimed that his health issues won't resolved after a long time of taking K2, and resolved after starting K1 supplementation."

But at the same time, isn't it that K1 gets to be converted to K2 anyway?

Just to add, since I've been recently increasing my K2 supplementation...
The other day, I've decided to take 1 drop of diluted MK-4 under the tongue.
Which I haven't been doing for a long time now, since I've only been using MK-4 topically.
And a few minutes later I got fatigued 'so bad' that I just have to lay in bed (note that it lasted for the entire day).
Then the next day, the familiar increased rate of hair loss happened again.
So I'll give K1 a shot while continuing MK-7 orally and MK-4 topically (or maybe I'll just skip MK-4).