Vitamin K is crucial for lung function and may prevent/treat COPD
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Vitamin K is one of the least-studied vitamins, though that has been changing lately, largely due to the studies showing vitamin K is crucial for bone and cardiovascular health, leading to its approval in Asian countries as a pharma drug for treating osteoporosis. In addition, recent studies in Western countries have led to the FDA considering approving vitamin K as treatment for liver cancer as well as several other malignancies (especially hematological ones). Despite all those studies, the role of vitamin K in pulmonary health is virtually completely unexplored, probably due to the fact that the scientific establishment does not expect that a coagulation and bone controlling vitamin has anything to do with lung function. The study below demonstrates that vitamin K is indeed very important for lung health and low dietary levels can drive conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), while raising dietary levels may wards off such diseases and maybe even treat them. One need only look at the vitamin K molecule to realize that is is a quinone, and as such is crucial for redox balance, OXPHOS, and systemic energy production. In addition, vitamin K has known anti-estrogenic effects and estrogen has a known causative and promoting role in pulmonary conditions such as COPD.
https://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2023/06/29/23120541.00208-2023
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2023/08/10/vitamin-K-lungs-health/2591691672872/
“…It may not get the publicity of some better-known vitamins like D, but vitamin K — found in leafy green vegetables — may boost lung health. A new, large study — published Thursday in ERJ Open Research — suggests that people who have low levels of this vitamin also have less healthy lungs. They are more likely to report having asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and wheezing. “Our results suggest that vitamin K could play a part in keeping our lungs healthy,” said researcher Dr. Torkil Jespersen of Copenhagen University Hospital and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.”
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I think that adopting just another Peaty routine to my nutritional lifestyle has helped me. This routine is in eating well cooked leafy greens. The vitamin K, as well as calcium and magnesium, has helped me. I had been eating leafy greens for quite some time now, and when I had bronchitis, I put myself in a year long downward cycle that involved heart failure. From being at the ICU, I thought my recovery would be difficult, if not impossible.
But I am now back to having healthy lungs and a healthy heart, like I was before. It speaks to having a lifestyle that prepares one to bounce back from a heart failure easily. Having all the nutrients we need met, and by eating whole foods, is the simplest way to be resilient. Vitamin K is just one nutrient though. We need them all, and I for one, like to keep things simple. And for me, the simplest lifestyle is to have all our nutritional needs met by food, clean air, and sunshine.
I used to rely on supplementation when I lived in the US, but before I came back to the Philippines, I vowed to stop all supplementation and make food my medicine.
Except for vitamin E and C and some B vitamins, I have no deficiency to worry about and my body has been more resilient.
Vitamin K from leafy greens is adequate. I don't have a reason to want K2 supplementation. But if I ever go back to live in the US, I may have to rely on more supplementation given that I don't trust the food ecosystem there to be able to supply nutrients adequately. It is very much a wasteland of industrial food.
