Cardiologist says, I have "a plaque."

Vitamin K2 Protects Against Coronary Heart Disease

Cumulative Incidence of Hepatocellular  Carcinoma Diagnosed in Women Treated with Vitamin K2

This chart shows the dramatic risk reductions in the incidence of primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) in high-risk women treated with vitamin K2 compared with a control group.

Normal deposition of calcium occurs in two organs: bone and teeth. Abnormal deposition of calcium in the body occurs in three places: the inner lining of the arteries (the intima) where athero-sclerotic plaque accrues; the muscle layer of arteries (“medial calcification"); and heart valves. Vitamin K2 appears to be the form of vitamin K that contributes to controlling all of these phenomena.

However, calcium has historically been viewed as a passive marker, certainly not an active participant in heart disease. Some maintained that calcium was nothing more than a remnant of prior “rupture," a scar from dangerous inflammatory activity of soft plaque. They even argued that calcium was, in fact, a reflection of increased plaque stability, as the “hard" material was not itself prone to rupture. Thus, they believed that calcium played no active role in contributing to atherosclerotic plaque.

Those arguments have now been dashed by new observations. A definitive connection between vitamin K2 levels and heart disease, in terms of a large-scale, well-controlled clinical trial, was first described in 2004 in the Rotterdam Heart Study—a Dutch trial that tracked 4,800 participants for seven years.1 The study revealed that participants who ingested the greatest quantities of vitamin K2 in their diet experienced a 57% reduction in death from heart disease than people who ingested the least. The same relationship did not hold for vitamin K1. Unfortunately, in this study MK-4 and MK-7 intake and levels were not separately analyzed but were grouped together, along with other MK categories such as MK-8 and MK-9.

Higher intakes of vitamin K2 also corresponded to less calcium deposition in the aorta (an indirect measure of atherosclerosis), whereas participants who ingested less K2 were more likely to show moderate or severe calcification. The lowest risk of heart attack and aortic calcification was seen in participants who included more than 32.7 mcg a day of vitamin K2 in their diet.1

The size and quality of the Rotterdam Heart Study gave credibility to the powerful association between vitamin K2 dietary intake and heart disease and suggests that vitamin K2 may confer cardiovascular benefits by inhibiting arterial calcification.

Physicians and scientists are now intensely interested in monitoring and halting the accumulation of coronary calcium, since they know that it comprises a significant portion of atherosclerotic plaque volume.

It appears therefore that the accumulation of calcium signals actively growing atherosclerotic plaque and that vitamin K deficiency may set the stage for this pathogenic process.