In this short educational video Dr. A explains why vitamin D and vitamin K (especially K2) are often combined in supplements. He begins by describing fat‑soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), noting their ability to accumulate in body tissues and the potential for toxicity if over‑supplemented. He then outlines the three chemical forms of vitamin K—K1 (phylloquinone, plant‑derived), K2 (menaquinone, found in cheese and fermented foods), and the synthetic K3 drug used mainly in research—emphasizing that most dietary supplements use K2. The core of the presentation focuses on the physiological partnership between vitamin D and K2: vitamin D promotes calcium absorption and deposition, but without sufficient K2 the calcium can be misdirected into soft tissues (tendons, ligaments) leading to calcific disorders. K2 activates proteins that guide calcium to bone and prevent soft‑tissue calcification, thereby balancing and enhancing vitamin D’s bone‑building effects. Dr. A also notes that adequate D/K status supports faster healing after trauma, surgery, or chronic illness, and that many clinicians now prescribe combined D‑K2 supplements for maintenance dosing. He cautions that individuals on anticoagulant medications (which interfere with vitamin K) must consult healthcare providers before supplementing, due to potential clotting effects. The video concludes with a call to like, subscribe, and share.
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Hi, it's Dr. A. Got a great question about vitamin D and vitamin K, and I thought this would be a great one to do a short video on. So these are both fat-soluble vitamins. So vitamin A, D, E, and K are your fat-soluble vitamins. That means that they go in through whatever means you get them nutritionally or by supplements. They are literally stabilized as fatty structures, and instead of leaving you with, like, a water-soluble, like a B vitamin or something would every day, they can build up in your tissues. So the upside of that is that once you have enough, you may not need a lot of intake. Downside is if you get very low, you may need to build up the stores again, and it might take a while. So fat-soluble nutrients, first off, do have a potential for toxicity if you just keep, say, giving someone extra and they don't need it. Now, some people do, but that's, again, the reason we monitor them and all of that. But what about vitamin D and vitamin K? Most people are familiar with vitamin D because it's, you know, the last 15 years it's been in the news a lot around, you know, improving immune function, and we know about it for bone health and all these other things. And then vitamin K, people aren't quite as familiar with because it's not used as much. Now, if you are on certain types of anticoagulant medications, especially those that block vitamin K, you'll know— usually be very well trained around vitamin K and what foods have it and all of that, because you have to carefully balance your intake of vitamin K and the drugs. But if you're not on a drug like that, you may not have you know, given a lot of thought. Well, vitamin K comes in a lot of potential forms. A lot of the dark green leafy vegetables, a lot of vegetables have vitamin K, and again, if you're trying to keep a steady level going in, you're coached on how much to use and all. But also, there's types of vitamin K That can come in through cheese, and there's some other products as well. You can look all that up, but the bottom line is, why would vitamin D and K be talked about together? And one of the questions— I got similar questions, but one of them was, I'm starting to see supplements that say vitamin D and K2, so what's that? Why do I need it? Well, Here's the first thing. Vitamin K has 2 pretty natural forms and a 3rd synthetic form that's a drug, and they're named K1, K2, and K3. Now, K1 is phylloquinone, which usually comes from plants. K2 is menaquinone, which comes, as I was saying, from cheese and some other sources like that. And they have different levels of activity. Now, K3 is a topic for another day. It's a drug that is made on the base of vitamin K. It's very unique. It's been used in cancer and a few other types of research, but K3 is usually not supplemented. It might be given for other reasons. So most of the time they're using a vitamin K2 form, and there's, there's a lot of K2 forms. So you have to look into that. But what I wanted to get to was the core question of why do they go together? Do they do anything special? Like, are we just putting them together in a supplement so I have less pills to take, or is there a biological reason for that? Well, there's a very good biological reason, and it goes back to a lot of your human physiology and why you need vitamins and all that. But most nutrients in your body have some way of interacting with other nutrients. Now, one of the things, and I'll keep it just to one example because we do want this to be a short video, one of the things that vitamin D we know does is what? It's supposed to help you with, you know, bone building and keeping your bone metabolism level and, you know, opposing osteoporosis, osteopenia, things like that. You know, strong bones, right? They told you in grade school vitamin D helps you have strong bones and all that. Well, That's true, but it's much more complex than that. But here's an important thing. If vitamin D is generally helping— well, now vitamin D does immune thing, it does a whole bunch of other stuff. If we just look at bones for a moment or connective tissue, if vitamin D is helping calcium influx into the tissue, we want to keep calcium in our bones, right? We want Heard that. Many other minerals too, but vitamin D helps calcium, you know, go into the bone and metabolize appropriately. What keeps the vitamin D and the receptors that vitamin D activates from putting the calcium into your ligaments and tendons, your connective tissue, which can happen, okay? You can get calcific tendonitis or tendinosis. You can get all sorts of things that go on. And you get calcium deposits not in your bone. Why would that happen? Well, it's an imbalance. So vitamin D receptors are there, they're helping calcium go to the tissues, but it's a bit non-discriminatory, so it could go to soft tissue, could go to the bone. Vitamin K comes along, and through some different enzymatic processes that vitamin K does, that have nothing to do with clotting. Vitamin K makes sure that the calcium goes right past the soft tissue and just to the bone and doesn't deposit in soft tissue. So if you have low vitamin K status and high vitamin D status, you're very likely to get calcium in places that you don't want it, and it's not going to be very efficient for your bones either. So while there are many other things that vitamin K does, including, you know, interacting in the clotting cascade and other things, at the level of your bone and connective tissue, it helps to balance out vitamin D's activity and optimize vitamin D's function. And there's a lot of really, you know, technical biochemical jargon about how it does that, but that's the bottom line. So long term, if And this, again, anything you take, drug, supplement, whatever, you need to talk to your doctor about because I'm just telling you why things work, not what to do. But long-term, many people, a lot of physicians now will give vitamin D and K2 together in one pill, you know, so it's a little easier to take on a maintenance dose. So once your vitamin D levels are where they want, they'll have you do a maintenance dose. And the reason for the It's a tiny dose of K2 that's usually in those supplements, is to help keep this balance up where vitamin K and D are synergistic with each other. And I have literally seen that with people where they really worked hard to get their vitamin D levels up, and maybe they weren't getting enough vitamin K in their diet, etc., and they did start to get some calcium deposition in the soft tissues where you're not supposed to have it. The other thing about vitamin D and K is if you are recovering from anything, but especially recovering from a trauma or surgery of any kind, doesn't have to be orthopedic, not just your bones, but surgeries of any kind and chronic illness, etc., there's a lot of research that shows that, number one, your vitamin levels go down when you're under trauma and, you know, chronic or acute things and surgeries, but that your level of healing is actually faster and more appropriate if you have appropriate levels of vitamin D and K going into you. So to answer the number one question, which was why would a supplement have vitamin D and K2 in it, that's because they work together biologically in your body in a number of places, and together they work better than they do separately. Now, obviously, as with any other thing, because vitamin forms can affect your clotting. And if you're on medications or you have other issues there, you really need to work with somebody who knows how to dose these things. But that's why they're given together. Well, thank you very much for the question. And like, share, subscribe, notifications, all that good stuff. Really appreciate everything. Appreciate the comments and questions. And I will see you all in another video.
