Let’s talk about how it works in your body, clearing up some common ideas and showing you the truth based on the latest research. Vitamin K1 plays a key role in blood clotting, like a conductor making sure your body forms clots just right. It’s essential for making clotting proteins that stop bleeding, but at the same time, it also helps make natural anti-clotting proteins that prevent too much clotting.
And here’s a super important point to clear up: Vitamin K1 is not a blood thinner. In fact, it helps with clotting. During the pandemic, there were rumors that it could thin the blood, but experts quickly clarified: this nutrient helps the clotting process, it doesn’t stop it. So, Vitamin K1 doesn’t dissolve existing clots, but its job is to make sure your clotting system works perfectly—not too little, which risks bleeding, and not too much, which risks clots. It’s the key to a perfect balance.
But Vitamin K does much more than just clotting. It gives an amazing extra boost to the health of your veins and arteries. How? Vitamin K2 activates proteins like MGP (Matrix GLA Protein), which act like a cleaner for your arteries, stopping calcium from building up on the walls of your blood vessels. By preventing this calcium from settling where it shouldn’t, it helps keep your vessels flexible and clear.
With more flexible and clean arteries, the chance of getting atherosclerosis, where fat and calcium plaques harden the arteries, goes way down. People who eat a lot of Vitamin K tend to have a more protected heart. While the information is very promising, science is still researching to understand everything this vitamin can do. But current evidence already points to it being vital for your heart health.
The good news is that getting Vitamin K through your diet is easy and tasty. It’s naturally found in many foods, especially dark green vegetables. Here are some of the best sources: The top of the list is dominated by champions like broccoli, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, arugula, and Brussels sprouts—all full of Vitamin K1.
