Vitamin K-2 deficiencies are arguably one of the leading nutrient deficiencies in the developed world.

All because our diet has shifted away from “real food” in favor of more processed foods.

This is even true for people who eat organic and are self-professed clean eaters.

Vitamin K-2 is only present in foods that don’t find a place in Western diets. Foods like brie, gouda, natto, pasture-raised egg yolks, goose liver etc.

And the food-based sources people do incorporate into their diet are typically on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to total amounts of K-2.

All that to be said, supplementing with vitamin K-2 is a great idea.

But here’s where I’m going to shock you.

Well, shock may be an overstatement.

Pleasantly surprise you might be a better way to describe it.

While vitamin K-2 has clear benefits for keeping the bones and heart healthy. And while research indicates vitamin K-2 can play a role in keeping blood sugar levels within the healthy range.

New research supports you using vitamin K-2 to help protect your brain. And doctors who already believe K-2 is a “miracle nutrient” are excited to learn more.

If you want to see how you can protect your memory and keep your brain healthy so you can think with clarity and make decisions in the blink of an eye, read on.

Any Idea What Makes This Vitamin One Of the Most Important For Brain Health?

One of the interesting aspects of biology is how improvements on the health of one system in the body correlate with boosted performance of other, related systems.

Which is why if you know much about vitamin K-2, you may have an inkling about what specifically makes vitamin K-2 great for the brain.

The health of your brain depends entirely on how much oxygen your blood can introduce into brain tissue.

Your brain requires a constant flow of oxygen to carry out every task it’s involved in. From the automatic actions controlling the most basic bodily functions (like breathing, sending out nerve impulses, digestion, etc) to conscious processes like talking, reading, running and more, none of this happens without oxygen,

Unfortunately, without sufficient amounts of vitamin K-2 in the diet, oxygen flow to the brain could be inhibited.

When too much calcium is in the blood (which is generally the result of a K-2 deficiency) it causes your arteries to age. And aged arteries don’t perform the job of transporting oxygen nearly as well as youthful and pliable “young arteries”.

When you take vitamin K-2 it stimulates something known as Matrix Gla Protein (MGP). MGP is the compound that physically removes calcium from your blood and puts it in bones and teeth.

That’s important to know, because excess calcium is what ages your arteries and restricts oxygen flow to the brain.

By taking K-2 and activating MGP your body isn’t just keeping your bones and teeth healthy, it’s helping to guarantee your brain is fed a constant supply of life-giving oxygen.

Here’s what the authors of the study said about vitamin K-2 and how it affected brain health.

“Vitamin K2 as MK-7 is the only compound to date shown to impact arterial calcification through its activation of MGP, which is why it is garnering attention from the medical community as a potential therapy.”

Here’s Another Way Vitamin K-2 Helps Improve Brain Health

Not only could vitamin K-2 help ensure your brain has a steady supply of oxygen, it may help your brain use dietary fat to fuel its intense-energy demands.

While research in humans isn’t available, animal studies indicate that vitamin K-2 could help you break down a kind of lipid (fat) called sphingolipid. Sphingolipid plays a role in neural function and as the researchers noted, a vitamin K-2 deficiency that hindered sphingolipid synthesis leads to decreased levels of brain sulfatides which are needed for healthy brain function.

The scientists administered K-2 to the rats via diet. There were three groups of rats, each with varying amounts of K-2. The first group of rats only got 80 microg per kg of K-2. The next group of rats received 500 microg per kg of K-2 and the final group got 2000 microg per kg of K-2.

The researchers then mapped out 9 different parts of the brain to study, and kept logs on changes in sulfatide levels.

At the end of the study they noted that rats who took the highest amount of K-2 had the most significant improvements in how much K-2 was in the brain.

As the brain levels of K-2 increased, the concentrations of sulfatides also increased.

Which is a big deal as sulfatides are needed for “cell proliferation, differentiation and survival,” which are all essential for brain health.

To understand why this study is so compelling, there’s a glut of research indicating that people with the least healthy brains and who struggle with memory and cognition have sulfatide levels that are up to 93% lower than normal brains.

Simply adding K-2 into your diet helps your brain maintain its normal function.

            Not all Vitamin K-2 is Created Equal        

While there are multiple forms of vitamin K-2, when it comes to supplements, our form of vitamin K-2 MK-7 is recommended over other forms of MK-7 because it’s the purest form available. At 98% pure, our vitamin K-2 is light years ahead of competitors in terms of purity and potency.

You can get our K-2 here.