I just recently read a book that blew my mind, “Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox” by Kate Rheaume-Bleue, ND. It’s a super nerdy book that takes a deep dive into why vitamin K2 is so very essential to our health, why most of us are deficient in it, and what to do about that.
But the most striking epiphany in the book for me was the realization that not only do vitamins and minerals have dynamic relationships to each other, they also have dynamic relationships in our bodies that fluctuate with the seasons. This is more obviously true with any nutrients that have a close relationship with vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin).
Vitamins A and K and calcium are the nutrients that work in tandem with D most closely, and therefore also cycle with our bodies as they go through the seasons – with bone density loss occurring in the winter alongside calcification of our vascular tree.
I love this idea that nutrition isn’t just something consumed, it is much much more than that: nutrition is the delicate interconnectedness that we have to the sun, the earth, and the elements. The ultimate form of nourishment is to actually be attuned to these cycles and elements.
What does this seasonal fluctuation of calcium look like? Kate Rheaume-Bleue explains it best:
There is a fascinating interplay between fat-soluble vitamins, calcium metabolism and the seasons, which conveys the interconnectedness of osteoperosis and atherosclerosis. Both arterial calcification and bone density vary according to an annual cycle. Arterial plaque builds up in the wintertime and diminishes slightly in the summer.
Bones do the opposite. Bone mineral density loss occurs almost exclusively during the winter, with virutally no loss in the summer. Unfortunately, the lost bone mineral content isn’t usually regained in summer, but bone density at least remains constant at that time.On an annual basis then, calcium is lost from the skeleton at the same time it is accumulating in arteries. Supplementing with calcium and vitamin D prevents winter bone loss, but popping calcium pills during prime plaque-building season is risky. (Source: The Calcium Paradox)
Calcium will build up in different tissues in the body at different times of the year not only because of fluctuations in available D and sunlight, but because of what those fluctuations mean for the availability of K2.
See, K2 can’t do it’s amazing work of getting calcium into the bones and teeth without D and A, and vice-versa. This kindred clan of fat-solubles likes to stick close to do their magic, and dysfunction can manifest in our bodies when they’re separated from each other.
K2 is largely deficient from American’s diet, since our usual source of K2 (grassfed meat) is now grain-fed and devoid of K2. Bummer for us, especially since we haven’t realized this until recently (and we tend to think vitamin D is the be-all-end-all).
Since we evolved to get vitamin D from our own skin’s conversion of sunlight, it’s very valuable to realize that interrupting that cycle of the seasons and our normal fluctuation of vitamin D levels through vitamin D supplementation during the darker months can have unanticipated effects, especially if that’s done when you’re deficient in K2. (An interesting aside: historically, people in many cultures used to get supplemental vitamin D in winter from blood sausage, since D is carried in the blood. But, they weren’t deficient in K2 when they supplemented with it).
On the other hand, vitamin K2 spares vitamin D, so instead of supplementing a ton with D in the winter months (which by the way I would argue is not wise if you are already high in tissue calcium), having sufficient K2 might actually be more beneficial.
K2, the New Kid on the Block
Most of us haven’t heard much about K2 because our awareness of the properties of K2 have only been recently discovered in the past 13 years. Historically, vitamin K was identified initially as K1, which is available in leafy greens and helps with blood clotting. K2, on the other hand (and there are a few different forms of K2), doesn’t work with clotting at all.
K2, instead:
- Tells calcium where to go in the body
- Acts as an antioxidant in the brain (the brain has the 3rd highest concentration of K2 in the body)
- Contributes to the production of myelin for nerve conductivity
- Supports insulin production (the second-highest concentration of K2 is in the pancreas)
- Remineralizes teeth enamel (highest concentration of K2 is in the saliva)
- Activates gamma-carboxylated MGP, the most potent inhibitor of vascular calcification
- Prevents cancer
- Reduces wrinkles (caused by high tissue calcium)
- Prevents arthritis
- Positively effects estrogen metabolism, while reducing estrogen dominance
- Modulates bile-acid synthesis
- Facilitates “inter-organ communication“
Even cooler, K2 does not act like a prehormone like D does, so it has no known toxic effects.
As if this weren’t enough reason to cherish K2, there’s more: it plays a role in controlling gene expression.
While we tend to think of our genes as the destiny we inherited from our parents, it’s actually how they are expressed — meaning, what our cells do with the information carried by those genes — that determines our health. [K2 as] MK-4 turns on some genes and turns others off. . . .In a wide variety of cells, it turns on the genes that keep cells healthy and turns off the genes that make cells become cancerous. (Source)
So K2 is my hottest nutritional crush right now – even though I’m usually very devoted and loyal to my beloved minerals.
How Vitamins A, D, and K2 Work Together
Vitamins A, D and K all work together to get calcium to the right places. Vitamins A and D are like the pedestal upon which K2 rests. Vitamins A and D without K2 are like a pedestal propping up calcium but not knowing where to hoist it.
On the other hand, when A, D, and K are all in place, K2 is optimally poised to do its work to bring calcium to the bones and teeth.
See the Vero Brothers below? D is on the left, A has his head in D’s crotch as a rather obscure but critical vitamin, and that’s K2 in all his glory at the top – except in most of us, unless you’re a cheese addict like myself (and eat the cheeses high in K2 like Jarlsberg), you’d mostly just see brothers D and A hoisting up a midget version of brother K.
Vitamin K2’s collaborator, vitamin D, is much more well-known and revered. However, Vitamin D can cause a lot of problems in people – especially migraineurs high in calcium, and especially in the absence of K2. This is because:
. . .insufficient vitamin D escalates the effects of vitamin K2 deficiency, and a relative excess of vitamin D does the same. Vitamin A minimizes our need for k2 while working with K2 to rid the body of calcium liberated from our arteries. (Source: The Calcium Paradox)
When calcium doesn’t get into the bones and teeth, and instead ends up in the arteries, things get really bizarre. Listen to this:
Artery wall calcification due to artherosclerosis frequently contains fully formed bone tissue, including marrow. Osteoblast-and-osteoclast like cells within the artery go haywire [in the absence of k2] and actually form tissue that, under a microscope, is indistinguishable from bone. Arterial calcification is really a process of ossification – bone building. (Source: The Calcium Paradox)
WOW.
Biopsies of people with cardiovascular plaque and calcification have shown that those with higher plaques had lower K2 levels lining the arteries than those who had less plaque (source: Vitamin K2, the Missing Nutrient for Bone and Heart Health.)
And this K2 deficiency would be even more exacerbated in the wintertime.
K2 Deficiency & Migraine
Knowing how important K2 is, you can imagine that all sorts of health issues ensue when K2 is deficient and calcium ends up in the wrong places (ie, in our blood vessels and soft-tissues).
Since migraine is a cardiovascular disease, and migraineurs have higher incidences of atherosclerosis, it behooves us to make a concerted effort at not having our vascular tree calcified (especially since heart attacks are known as a “silent killer”, ie, 90% of them occur without any knowledge the person had heart disease).
As an example of how K2 deficiency can cause headaches, a small study showed that calcification can be implicated in neck pain, stiffness, and headache due to calcification of tendons. All patients “showed calcific deposition inferior to the anterior arch of the atlas, and prevertebral effusion extending from C1 to C4”. (source)
If tendons can get calcified going into the atlas and occiput of the head, we can only imagine the impingement that might ensue if some of that calcium buildup occurred in or near any of the small foramina through which the cranial nerves pass bilaterally in the head.
I’m guessing that a little more calcification on one side could lead to more nerve pain radiating into the head, especially if that calcification also affected nearby arteries, which of course it will as everything is so close together in that critical area where the cervical spine meets the skull.
And finally, we can consider the role that cranial asymmetry may play in these nerve impingements. If your mother was deficient in K2 while you were in utero, this may very well have contributed to a crooked midline due to disrupted bone formation caused by a K2 deficiency. With my scoliosis and deviated septum, I think this congenital midline malformation may have contributed to my susceptibility to migraine. Asymmetry leads to cranial nerves being more impinged on sides of the head where bones are more compressed.
So it’s critical that migraineurs especially start to make a concerted effort to get K2 back into their diets, since most people in “developed” societies have been deficient in K2 ever since our primary source of k2 – meat from 100% grassfed animals – disappeared with the advent of grain-fed industrial meat-production. K2 can also be found in cheeses to varying degrees, with Jarlsberg being the highest in K2 as MK-4. For vegans, natto is the best form of k2 as Mk-7, but the body will then have to convert that to K2 as MK-4, which is the optimal form the body prefers. Grass-fed animal products are the only direct sources of Mk-4.
Vitamin K2 is acquired from diet AND bacterial fermentation in the gut. However, with most migraineurs having a disrupted gut microbiome, that K2 synthesis in the gut may be less than optimal.
If vitamin K2 can prevent my vascular tree from forming into a brittle boneyard of coral branches, I want me some of that. I want the flexibility and pliability that that K2 offers me to get all that yummy oxygen in my blood cells to my brain (btw, I’ll need sufficient copper to get iron to bring that oxygen into the blood cells too).
No matter what the cause, and no matter whether your calcium levels are high or low, I think that vitamin K (especially K2 as MK4 or MK7) is an extremely valuable addition to a nutritional balancing plan for most migraineurs. Migraineurs with low calcium who want to boost their calcium levels with a supplement or with vitamin D should especially be sure to take K2 alongside these supplements.
Why Bone Health is So Important
By now, I’m assuming that I’ve gotten the attention of those of who you who are post-menopausal, as it’s very important for women’s health that calcium stays in the bones as they age. And yes, K2 does work to positively effect estrogen metabolism, which is valuable for bone density. Estrogen also plays a role in migraine headache.
Being peri-menopausal myself, I’m also super keen to be proactive in this area, especially since I’m naturally very low in calcium, which occurs in those of us a little higher-strung who have low stomach acid, preventing absorption of calcium from food. (And both women AND men will of course also benefit from healthy bones, since K2-dependent osteocalcin is required to make testosterone, which both sexes need).
Bone as a Neuroendocrine Organ – and Implications for COVID-19 Infection
Now, given that we’re in COVID pandemic times, I want to take this core concept of seasonal fluctuation in bone density and apply it to our awareness of susceptibility to infections during the winter time. Getting calcium in the bones is so critically important, not just for those who are post-menopausal, but because our bones are actually a major neuroendocrine organ.
While we know there are may factors that go into viral susceptibility in winter time, I think that the seasonal fluctuation of calcium in our bodies, with less bone density in the winter alongside more artherosclerotic plaque, has huge implications for why we’re less resilient in the colder months – and is totally overlooked as a factor worthy of our consideration.
Our bones are where our immune system originates. Our t-cells and the antibodies made from our b-cells are produced in stem cells in our bones.
As you might know, I’m not a fan of the newfangled shots. Your body already has a system in place for great immunity, if that system is supported. I prefer K2, D, and A over nanolipid particles any day. There is so much about our bodies that works brilliantly – when given the materials to do so, and which, in the absence of those building blocks, can’t function optimally.
All the frenzy over the importance of taking vitamin D to avoid complications of COVID-19 disease could be causing some harm, because excess vitamin D taken without K2 depletes the body of K2. This is obviously a problem if K2 is what’s needed to build the bone that generates our innate immune response.
Could it be that the benefits of D that most people surviving COVID are experiencing are coming from the way that D then makes K2 available to them? I believe so (assuming that person has sufficient K2 in their system). Theses researchers agree:
A profound increase in extrahepatic inactive MGP was observed in individuals with COVID-19, which is indicative of an [K2] MK-7 deficiency in these patients. In addition, a subset of pulmonary macrophages that release MMPs tends to be elevated during severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, leading to elastic fibre degradation (Dofferhoff et al., 2020). Consequently, accelerated elastic fibre degradation and insufficient active MGP in COVID-19 patients suggest an interrelationship between MK-7 deficiency and COVID-19. Therefore, COVID-19 may theoretically be linked to MK-7 deficiency, which can be presumed to worsen the health outcome associated with the disease. (Source)
And, since the fat-soluble vitamins work together, it’s also worth appreciating their collective positive effect on the immune system:
For instance, vitamin A regulates dendritic cells, white blood cells that are vital for capturing invaders and priming the immune system to fight back. Vitamin D enhances innate immunity, inhibits proliferation of cells, and encourages differentiation. Vitamin E is important for T cells to perform their immune functions, and helps prevent upper respiratory infections. Vitamin K is important for phagocytosis (when macrophages “eat” intruders) as well as regulating proliferation and apoptosis (programmed cell death) of neurons. (Source)
I think it’s good news that there are simple, straightforward ways to take good care of our bones and thereby our precious immune systems. Could it be that we can be safer than we’ve been programmed to feel during this pandemic, if only we could reach back and remember and revive the bedrock of our true health: nutrition from grass-fed healthy animals and ancestral eating.
Let’s work with Mother Nature more and feel healthier and safer with her support.
