Sounds crazy, but one of the most important minerals for good health can also destroy your health.
Calcium, essential for strong teeth and bones, can also put you at risk serious heart disease when your body can’t use it properly. Unfortunately, it’s hard to detect a calcium problem in the early stages.
That’s why it’s important to manage your calcium before it gets out of control… and protect both your heart and your bones at the same time.
And the only way to do that is with nature’s own calcium manager, vitamin K2-7.
Quick Answer: Vitamin K2-7 acts as your body's calcium manager. It activates proteins that direct calcium into your bones, where it strengthens them, and helps keep calcium out of your blood vessels, where it can stiffen them. When K2-7 is low, calcium can leave the bones (reducing bone density) and collect in the arteries instead. That is why this nutrient is tied to both bone strength and cardiovascular health. It is hard to get enough K2-7 from food alone, since it appears mainly in certain fermented foods, organ meats, and full-fat grass-fed dairy, so many people use a high-quality supplement to reach effective daily levels.
How Can Calcium Both Help and Harm Your Health?
Calcium is essential, but your body has to put it in the right place. When calcium is not directed into your bones, it can leave bones weaker while building up in your blood vessels, which is why managing calcium matters so much.
Calcium Can Go Either Way
You need calcium to survive, but this essential mineral can also threaten your health.
Here’s how it works: Your body needs just the right amount of calcium in your bloodstream. If you get too little calcium, your body pulls what it needs from its internal storage – your bones.
Seems like there’s an easy fix for that: Make sure to get enough calcium from food and supplements. But that’s only part of the solution. Your body also has to be able to process all that calcium the right way – to strengthen your bones.
When it can’t do that, your bones won’t get enough calcium, and you’ll start to lose bone density. That’s the first step on the path toward osteoporosis. What’s worse, the calcium that doesn’t get to your bones can collect in your blood vessels… exactly where you don’t want it. When too much calcium builds up in your blood vessels, it can block the blood flow to your heart.
That’s why people with weak bones are also more likely to suffer from heart disease.
Luckily, there’s a very easy way to make sure this doesn’t happen. A simple nutrient, vitamin K2-7, directs calcium into your bones and helps it stick there, and keeps excess calcium out of your bloodstream.
What Does Vitamin K2-7 Do With Calcium?
Vitamin K2-7 helps control where calcium goes. It activates calcium-regulating proteins that send calcium into your bones to strengthen them and help keep it out of your blood vessels.
Vitamin K2-7: Calcium Controller
Here’s a little fun fact about Vitamin K2-7: It helps to control the way your body uses calcium.
Let’s break this down. When you get enough K2-7, your body will use the calcium you take in to build and strengthen your bones… and keep calcium out of your blood vessels so they don’t stiffen up (also called calcifying). It doesn't take much K2-7 to get the job done, but you do need to supply enough of it in the right form.
Vitamin K2-7 activates special calcium-regulating and bone-strengthening proteins:
- Matrix Gla keeps calcium out of your blood vessels (Integr Med (Encinitas))
- Osteocalcin directs calcium into your bone and locks it in place
- Gas6 helps special cells called osteoclasts clear old, dead bone cells to make space for fresh, healthy bone tissue
- Protein S helps regulate bone turnover, meaning the replacement of old bone cells with new bone cells
By activating these proteins (a process known as carboxylation), vitamin K2-7 makes sure calcium stays in your bones where it belongs… and out of your blood vessels, where it doesn’t.
How Does Vitamin K2-7 Support Bone Density?
Vitamin K2-7 plays a pivotal role in healthy bone formation, and low levels are among the biggest risk factors for low bone density. Adding K2-7 through food or supplements has been associated with stronger, denser bones in clinical research.
K2-7 Keeps Bones Dense and Strong
Around 44 million Americans suffer from osteoporosis or low bone density (osteopenia). And low levels of vitamin K2-7 count among the biggest risk factors.
That’s not surprising, as vitamin K2-7 plays a pivotal role in healthy bone formation.
But adding vitamin K2-7 to your diet through foods or supplements can help increase your bone density and strengthen your bones.
A meta-analysis of 19 clinical trials – a total of 6,759 patients – found that vitamin K2-7 improved spinal bone density and helped reduce fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
Another clinical trial found that supplementing vitamin K2-7 preserved bone density and prevented bone loss in older women with osteopenia (low bone density).
And a review of seven clinical trials that looked at fractures found that supplementing with vitamin K2-7:
- Reduced spinal fractures by 60%
- Reduced non-spinal (everywhere else) fractures by 81%
- Reduced hip fractures by 77%
Best of all, it doesn’t take much vitamin K2-7 to do the job. Just 320 micrograms per day can protect your bones… and your heart.
How Is Vitamin K2-7 Connected to Heart Health?
By helping keep calcium out of your arteries, vitamin K2-7 supports flexible, healthy blood vessels. Research links higher K2-7 intake with reduced arterial stiffness and better cardiovascular outcomes.
Vitamin K2-7 Protects Against Severe Heart Disease
There are hundreds of studies that show how important vitamin K2-7 is for preventing heart disease, and it all starts with keeping calcium out of your blood vessels.
One clinical trial involving kidney transplant patients (who often have dangerously low levels of vitamin K2-7) showed remarkable results. After supplementing with vitamin K2-7 every day for eight weeks, the patients had a 55.1% decrease in uncarboxylated (inactive) matrix Gla protein and a 14.1% decrease in arterial stiffness.
A huge study that lasted 12 years and followed 39,629 subjects had similarly amazing results.
Researchers found that supplementing with vitamin K2-7 reduced the risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD). PAD harms the blood vessels in your arms and legs, increasing the risk of stroke and heart attack. And K2-7 worked even more effectively in the patients who had high blood pressure.
What’s more, supplementing with vitamin K2-7 can reduce the chance of calcified blood vessels by 52%… and decrease the risk of dying from heart disease by 57%.
In fact, for every 10 micrograms of K2-7 that you take, you can lower your risk of heart disease by 9%! That means by taking a clinically-proven dosage of 320 micrograms of vitamin K2-7 every day could reduce the threat of heart disease by 288%.
Why Does Vitamin K2-7 Support Both Bones and Heart?
The same job, directing calcium where it belongs, benefits two systems at once: it keeps calcium in your bones and out of your blood vessels. That dual role is why K2-7 is often called a "super nutrient."
Vitamin K2-7 Pulls Double Duty Protecting Your Bones and Heart
It’s no wonder health professionals consider vitamin K2-7 a “super nutrient.” After all, K2-7 is the key to both bone and heart health – it ties these two crucial systems together.
The trouble is, it’s nearly impossible to get enough vitamin K2-7 from food alone. This fat-soluble vitamin (meaning it needs to be digested with some fat in order to work) is only found in certain fermented foods, organ meats, and full-fat dairy products from grass-fed cows.
And most multi-vitamins don’t contain vitamin K-27 at all (though some contain vitamin K1, which isn’t the same).
The best way to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin K2-7 is with a high-quality supplement.
| Getting vitamin K2-7 | From food alone | From a high-quality supplement |
|---|---|---|
| Where it is found | Only certain fermented foods, organ meats, and full-fat grass-fed dairy | Concentrated in a single daily dose |
| Reaching an effective daily amount | Difficult for most diets | Formulated to deliver the studied 320 mcg dose |
| Found in most multivitamins | Often not present (some contain only K1) | Made specifically for K2-7 |
Frequently Asked Questions About Vitamin K2-7
What does vitamin K2-7 do?
Vitamin K2-7 helps direct calcium into your bones and helps keep it out of your blood vessels by activating calcium-regulating proteins. This is why it is associated with both bone strength and cardiovascular health.
How is K2-7 different from vitamin K1?
K1 and K2-7 are not the same. Many multivitamins contain K1 but little or no K2-7, even though K2-7 is the form most associated with directing calcium in the body.
Can I get enough vitamin K2-7 from food?
It is difficult. K2-7 is found mainly in certain fermented foods, organ meats, and full-fat dairy from grass-fed cows, which are not staples in most diets. Many people use a supplement to reach an effective daily amount.
How much vitamin K2-7 is considered an effective daily dose?
The clinically studied dose discussed in the research above is 320 micrograms per day. K2-7 is fat-soluble, so it is best taken with some dietary fat.
Why is K2-7 sometimes paired with vitamin D?
The two fat-soluble vitamins are often discussed together because they work in a complementary way to support how the body uses calcium for bone and cardiovascular health.
Just Thrive Vitamin K2-7 contains all-natural, pharmaceutical grade vitamin K2-7 along with three crucial co-factors that boost its effectiveness.
Just Thrive Vitamin K2-7 is the only product available on the retail market that contains the clinically-studied effective dose of 320 mcg per day.
Give your heart and bones the support they need to stay health and strong with Just Thrive Vitamin K2-7.
