11 – Vitamin K | nutrients we’re deficient in

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Episode Transcript

This is the Eat Ancestral podcast number 11. Vitamin K deficiency is an emerging problem. Do you know where to get your Vitamin K? The only acute symptoms of vitamin K deficiency is uncontrolled bleeding or haemorrhage. And this is actually where vitamin K derives its name from K; for Koagulation in German, spelled with a K, not a C, like in English. Now, this is not a very helpful symptom, because if you are bleeding uncontrollably, at that point, it's probably a bit late to start thinking about your Vitamin K status. So that's why we're here today; to get ahead of things. Fortunately for us, there are many chronic diseases that are associated with Vitamin K deficiency, which I will describe as we get along in this episode. But also, we can identify some groups who are most at risk, why that might be the case, and what foods we can eat, or perhaps not eat in order to get adequate vitamin K and prevent a potential deficiency, or at least mitigate our risk. But first, let's learn more about why Vitamin K is so important. And what are some of the consequences of Vitamin K deficiency. So what is so important about vitamin K? Well, it plays a key role in many physiological operations in the neurological system, the musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system, the immune system, and in liver and kidney and pancreatic function, just to name a few things. And furthermore, Vitamin K also supports our mitochondrial function, aids in the cellular generation of ATP (which is energy) and has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as well. So that's a lot of important things that Vitamin K is involved in. And so a lack of vitamin K will decrease our health span and quality of life in multiple ways. So what are some of the specific consequences of a vitamin K deficiency? Well, the first one on my list here is something we've already touched on, in that vitamin K deficiency will impair our blood clotting ability, which leads to uncontrolled bleeding. Definitely not a good thing. Vitamin K deficiency will also impair bone health and may lead to osteoporosis. Vitamin K deficiency will impair our immune function, and it's also implicated in development of cancer. Deficiency in Vitamin K will also impair brain function and is implicated in the development of Alzheimer's. Vitamin K deficiency also contributes to arterial calcification. So the calcification of our arteries which you may have heard of, this is something that leads to cardiovascular disease. And furthermore, Vitamin K deficiency will also impair our liver, kidney and pancreas from functioning optimally, and they're very important organs. To go along with the rest of these consequences. I think this is well worth our time to consider. And effectively what this boils down to is vitamin K deficiency equals compromised health. Seriously compromised health. So remember, a single micronutrient deficiency quickly becomes a significant problem. And the damage is not localised, the damage is felt all throughout the system. So the groups who are most at risk of developing a vitamin K deficiency are firstly, infants. Secondly, vegetarians and vegans. Third, people with compromised gut health. And fourth, people who do not consume fermented foods. So let's talk about these groups one at a time, starting with infants. So how are infants at risk of developing a Vitamin K deficiency? Well, apparently infants are so deficient in Vitamin K that it has become standard medical practice to administer prophylactic (preventative) Vitamin K injections shortly after we're born. Now this is done to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which is a life threatening condition, as we touched on a couple of times. Vitamin K is integral in our blood clotting ability. So it's pretty frightening to think that babies are being born so deficient in vitamin K that they can often die from haemorrhage. And so they are being given prophylactic vitamin K injections to prevent that. So what's the reason for this? Why are these babies so deficient in vitamin K? Well, as we touched on in the previous episode with regards to iron, there's a low placental transfer of vitamin K during pregnancy and then a low transfer of vitamin K in in the mother's breast milk. And this makes sense; as with other nutrient deficiencies, if the mother is deficient in vitamin K or whatever nutrient, then the newborn will be, too. But what's the root cause of this? Why are mothers so deficient in vitamin K? This leads us on to the next section here why and how vegetarians and vegans are at risk of developing a vitamin K deficiency. Plant foods are poorly bioavailable sources of many critical nutrients like iron, B vitamins, vitamin A, etc. And Vitamin K is no different. There are two main types of Vitamin K, Vitamin K1, also also called phylloquinones, which is made by plants and then vitamin K2, which is called menaquinone, and it's made by bacteria. Surprise, surprise, Vitamin K2 is the most valuable type for humans. K1, when it's absorbed is sent straight to the liver, where it's used as a building block to help manufacture clotting factors. Whereas K2 is used throughout the body and is integral to various organ systems and physiological functions. So where do we find vitamin K2? Again, not much of a surprise here; animal meat, fat and raw egg yolks. Vitamin K, remember, is one of the four fat soluble vitamins. So it makes sense. It's in animal fat. Fermented foods, like raw dairy are also a great source of vitamin K2. And funnily enough, the microbes in our gut are manufacturing vitamin K2 for us. And this is very interesting with regards to gut health, as we will touch on in the next section. If your gut health is not optimal, then you might not be producing / manufacturing... or it's not you, it's the microbes... but vitamin K2, will not be produced as much as it potentially could be. Anyway, back to why and how vegetarians and vegans are at risk of developing a vitamin K deficiency. Well, it's not just the the self-proclaimed vegetarians and vegans, this actually implicates many more of us than just that. And this is because over the last 100 years, our modern nutrition guidelines have been shifting further towards recommending a pseudo vegetarian diet, which is practically devoid of the above listed foods and their critical nutrients. So our grain and plant based diets are not doing us a great service here with regards to getting adequate vitamin K along with other nutrients. So anyone in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc, will be particularly affected by this. And at least people from France and Spain and some other countries in the old world have had the sense to never stop eating animal fats, and fermented foods. So let's touch on how people with compromised gut health are at risk of developing vitamin K deficiency. Optimal gut health (function), as you know, is really important for many things like the production and absorption of nutrients. So in other words, if we have a healthy gut, we will absorb more of the nutrients in our food. And if we have a healthy gut, our resident microbes will manufacture vitamin K2, among other nutrients, for us. So in the event of gut dis-ease, dysfunction, or dysbiosis, these capabilities are left compromised. And this is very relevant, I think, because gut issues are much more common than most people realise. We've already touched on our modern diets that are rich in seed oils and grains and lots of plant foods that we call vegetables, drugs, like antibiotics and non steroidal anti inflammatories, like ibuprofen, and then modern chemicals, pesticides, like glyphosate, which which are pervasive in the environment, these are all known to disrupt the gut in a variety of ways. And there is a much longer list that I could point to here that we are all exposed to. So gut status is relevant for all nutrients, not just vitamin K, and you'd do well to consider if you could improve your gut health in some way. So let's talk lastly about how people who do not consume fermented foods are at risk of developing Vitamin K deficiency. As we've seen, plant foods contain the less valuable type of vitamin K; K1. For humans, the more valuable type is K2, which is made by bacteria, not plants. And as we've seen, if we have a healthy, optimally-functioning gut, some of our resident microbes will manufacture some vitamin K two for us, which we hopefully will absorb. The only problem here is that the amount of Vitamin K to produced in our gut by these resident microbes is not sufficient to meet our physiological needs. So that means we need to obtain a certain amount of Vitamin K to from our diet. As we've talked about eating animal fat is one really good way of achieving this. But another way is to eat traditionally prepared foods. And in this case, it means fermented foods are a great source of vitamin K2. So these are things like raw dairy, like yoghurt, kefir, or cheese, fermented meats, like saucisson, fermented pickles. Remember, cucumbers are fruit; much less problematic than vegetables. There are a couple of other plant based sources here we can talk about Natto, which is traditionally eaten in Japan. This is made from soybeans, this is very high in vitamin K2 and sauerkraut, which is made from cabbage. This is another plant source of vitamin K2. However, it's not the plants Remember, it's the microbes who are producing the K2, and I think these sources are less preferable for other issues, fibre, digestive enzyme inhibitors, nutrient absorption inhibitors, and many other plant defence chemicals that disrupt our gut health. So my preference is to stick with the animal foods, things like raw dairy, and then fermented meats. And as we touched on earlier, animal fat in general, contain good quantities of vitamin K2. And we don't really have any reason to eat fermented soybeans, or sauerkraut unless we really want to, which I would caution against, especially in high amounts. Anyway, let's move along and do a quick recap, almost done here for the day. So vitamin K deficiency is an emerging problem. The groups who are most at risk of deficiency include infants, vegetarians and vegans. And as we talked about this implicates most people who have been following the dietary guidelines over the past 100 years. And we're basically all eating a pseudo vegetarian diet at this point, unless you're making a point not to. People with compromised gut health are also at risk of developing a vitamin K deficiency. And then people who do not consume fermented foods are also at risk. Remember, Vitamin K2 made by bacteria, is more valuable to human physiology than K1, which is made by plants. Interestingly, something I didn't touch on earlier, I'm sorry, but the recommended daily intake of vitamin K2 is not known, because it has never been assessed. And the differences between K1 and K2 have never been considered in official nutrition guidelines. So just think about that for a second. That's why they're not so useful. Vitamin K2 is found in animal foods, meat, fat, and egg yolks. And fermented foods, like raw dairy are also an excellent source of vitamin K2. So there you have it, that is my breakdown here on vitamin K2, as part of this mini series on nutrients that we are deficient in. I hope you found some value out of that. And if you have, then please share with someone you know. And any feedback, suggestions queries, get in touch. You can check the show notes for all of those details and some references if you're interested in reading some of these papers that I've got this information from. Anyway, that's it for me today. My name is Ben, this has been the Eat Ancestral podcast and we have been talking about Vitamin K and other nutrients that we are deficient in. Take care, I'll talk with you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai