Prevent Arterioclerosis With Vitamin K

Arteriosclerosis is the number one disease of civilization: It indirectly causes almost a quarter of all deaths in Germany via heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary embolism.It is not a typical disease of old age: the first deposits in the blood vessels can be found as early as twenty years of age. But you can prevent calcification: with vitamin K.

More Vitamin K, Fewer Heart Attacks

In addition to its important role in blood clotting, vitamin K is also involved in a number of other processes in the body. Above all, there seems to be a connection with the risk of atherosclerosis, as the Rotterdam study shows.

The more vitamin K the subjects took in with their usual diet, the fewer arteriosclerosis, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases they had. For the long-term study, the medical data of the approximately 4800 participants was collected for almost ten years. Amazingly, those with high vitamin K intakes actually had a slightly lower risk of dying from any cause at all.

Another experiment, at the University of Maastricht, showed that rats that had previously been artificially induced atherosclerosis had only half as much calcium deposits in their veins after six weeks on a diet extremely rich in vitamin K. They were given twenty times the normal amount of the vitamin. Vitamin K in high doses can therefore not only prevent deposits, but even dissolve existing calcifications.

K Like Cress: The Herbal Vitamin

Vitamin K is mainly found in green vegetables: in spinach, kale, watercress, purslane, chives and beans, to name just a few. 

Vitamin K is heat stable, so it remains in cooked food. The liver also has a supply for about 14 days. Therefore, deficiency symptoms hardly ever occur. Overdose problems are also not known. And the research results show that the rule a lot helps a lot may apply to this vitamin for once.