We have known for years that vitamin D is important for health and that the sun is the main source, or that vitamin C may be related to colds (although scientific studies do not agree). But there is still very little popular knowledge about the importance of vitamin K, a nutrient that Pablo García de Frutos, PhD in Pharmacy, Head of the Department of Cell Death and Proliferation of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute (IIBB), has been researching for more than 30 years. – CSIC) and director of the Hemostasis and Immunity Group of this center.
“Vitamin K could hold the secret to healthy aging,” says this researcher. What exactly does this mean? What functions does this vitamin have that now seems to have much more outstanding properties than was known just a few years ago? We asked García de Frutos about all this.
What properties have been historically studied about vitamin K?
Since its discovery it has been defined as an essential micronutrient to keep blood coagulation functioning. That is why its study has always been linked to coagulation. Very soon, in the 1930s, it was discovered that some substances could inhibit vitamin K, and could be used as anticoagulants and poisons for rodents. These inhibitors, which prevent coagulation, cause bleeding or act as anticoagulants. That is why it is always also linked to the treatment of thrombosis.
But in recent years there have been new discoveries about vitamin K. What have been the most notable?
We are discovering that it has other functions, and one is the regulation of calcium, very important for bone function, and also for blood vessels, because with age problems arise with calcification of the vessels, and it must be prevented. This is done by proteins linked to vitamin K. In addition, we have discovered that vitamin K is a regulator of the response to tissue damage, both in acute damage and damage due to aging. We are discovering new features. That’s why I say that vitamin K could hold the secret to healthy aging.
There is also an important role in regulating inflammation… How does vitamin K act in this regard?
What the proteins that we have studied in the last 30 years do is regulate two processes related to inflammation: the inflammatory response itself, and on the other hand, the elimination of dead cells due to tissue damage. These two functions—eliminating dead or senescent cells—and the regulation of inflammation are carried out by two proteins linked to vitamin K, protein S and GAS6, and these are regulators of the immune system and the inflammatory response.
How are these proteins related to vitamin K?
What vitamin K does is a modification in a very specific part of the proteins, it transforms some residues of its components: from the normal residue (glutamic acid), it passes to another specific residue (the gamma-carboxyglutamic acid) and this changes the characteristics of this residue, of this amino acid, and makes it suitable for binding with calcium. This union with calcium completely changes the properties of the proteins. Among other things, this change causes the proteins to function in coagulation, to take calcium to regulate the function of bones and vessels, and also to be able to bind to dead or senescent cells, and eliminate them without there being a inflammatory answer.
What role does all this have in aging?
It has a very important role because they are non-essential processes in the development of a human being or a mammal. You can live without these proteins throughout gestation, but they become relevant for the aging of the living being. They are interesting processes because they are very significant in the responses to the damage that occurs in adult life. They are important, for example, to design drugs, because they are key to the response to pathologies.
Some studies have linked this vitamin to longevity…
A few years ago a study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showing that high levels of vitamin K in the blood were associated with an increase in life expectancy. It is the only vitamin component that has shown that its concentration in plasma correlates with more years of life.
How are we with vitamin K, in general terms? Is there a generalized deficiency like there is with vitamin D?
There are very few shortcomings, which is perhaps why it is not so popular. Most vitamins have been found because there has been a disease associated with a deficiency, while in this case, it was found experimentally by inducing vitamin K deficiency in chickens. Naturally, sufficient precursors of vitamin K are produced between the diet and the microbiota. This does not mean that having adequate levels of vitamin K is not necessary in order to have better health, to have correct defenses and regulatory systems. most productive organs.
Where do we find vitamin K? Especially in green leafy vegetables?
Meats or other foods of animal origin contain vitamin K because the component is found in any tissue that is food, but the proportion is much higher in green leafy vegetables. Cabbages and spinach are very rich in this vitamin and a normal serving of these vegetables provides more than the recommended daily intake of this nutrient. These foods are enough. Also chard and soy derivatives. Broccoli has a lot of vitamin K, and is generally associated – perhaps coincidentally – with greener vegetables.
Can we have an excess of vitamin K?
Excess vitamin K has not been described. The problem may arise in patients who take vitamin K inhibitors as anticoagulants (for example Sintrom). Medications of this type act by competing with vitamin K, and if we have a very high intake of this nutrient we may have a decrease in the effect of this drug. It can therefore have an interaction with medication, and in these people, medication is very important to avoid blood clots. That is why it is recommended that there be no excessive intake of vitamin K.
Many interesting properties and a still very unknown vitamin…
We still have a lot to know about vitamin K and its importance for human health. We are seeing that it is much higher than what we thought three decades ago, when I began to investigate the proteins that depend on this vitamin.
