Japan NattoKinase Association What is Vitamin K2

Vitamin K activates the factors both to encourage and to inhibit blood coagulation. ((Vitamin K activates both blood coagulation promoting factors and blood coagulation inhibiting factors.)) This is an essential nutrient for healthy blood coagulation and this will not make the blood coagulation easier even if taken a lot. Moreover the recent researches show that Vitamin K has very important functions such as activating osteocalcin, which is an ossific protein, and matrix Gla protein, which is a protein that prevents heart disease through inhibiting the calcium deposition on arteries; therefore it can be said that this is an absolutely necessary nutrient in order to have a healthy life. There are two main types of Vitamin K. – one type is Vitamin K1 which is contained in vegetables and seaweeds and the other is produced by bacteria. There is only one kind of Vitamin K1 whereas Vitamin K2 has various kinds with different lengths of side chains and they are called menaquinone. The type of Vitamin K2 contained in natto is menaquinone-7 (MK-7) and natto contains Vitamin K2 the most around the world. In addition it has been revealed that Vitamin K2 (MK-7) contained in natto is most nutritious amongst all the vitamins by the recent research.

Ⅰ※.	Encourages healthy blood coagulation by firstly taken in the liver.
Ⅱ※.	After that, inhibits the calcium deposition on blood vessel, which is one of the causes of arteriousclerosis, by activating matrix Gla protein, moving through the blood.
Ⅲ※.	Finally encourages bone formation by activating osteocalcin in bone marrow.

It is known that the level of Vitamin K in the blood of involutional osteoporosis patients is lower than healthy people.

It has been found out that the amount of natto consumption and femoral neck fracture are negatively-correlated and that the fracture rate is lower where natto is consumed more. However, no correlation is found between the amount of processed soybean food and the fracture rate.

TIME (Sep., 2005)
It has been found out that only the calcification of aortic valve can be indicative for the disease progression of serious silent aortic aneurysm, and the following factors cannot be an indication: Age, gender, existence or non-existence of heart and blood vessel disease, hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia.

From the Magazine | Health
The Newest Risk Factor
By ALICE PARK
Posted Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005

• There is a tendency that more arterial diseases occur by taking calcium supplement (1g)
  - The result of human administration test for five years -

The research with approximately 5,000 people conducted in Holland for a decade has found out that the incidence rate and the death rate of heart disease decreased by half in the group given more Vitamin K (MK-7) (average 45μg/ day) compared to the group given less Vitamin K (average 18μg/ day).

It was confirmed that the amount of MK-7 in the blood increased when 420μg of Vitamin K2 was taken at once however MK-4 was not detected in the blood. MK-4 can get possibly broken before it gets absorbed by intestinal canal and reaches liver either because MK-4 absorption is low or because it is very frail.