“This launch with Primus recognizes that calcium alone is not enough,” Anderson told NutraIngredients-USA. “So recognizing if the body has inadequate vitamin K and K2 status, the body is not able to metabolize and use calcium in optimal manner. We know based on evidence that the body needs K2 to metabolize calcium, so this is a proactive and responsible approach to delivering calcium.”
NattoPharma’s MenaQ7 Crystals were incorporated Fosteum Plus, the first medical food product to incorporate vitamin K2. The product aids in clinical dietary management of the metabolic processes associated with osteopenia and osteoporosis, with MenaQ7 vitamin K2 for improved bone results and cardiac safety. Because the MenaQ7 crystals are high in purity, the product has great potential for bone health, reinforced by a recent, three-year study demonstrating K2's preservation of bone constitution and strength in menopausal women.
“We’re providing vitamin K2 as MK-7 in the MenaQ7 Crystals product free of other compounds that may compete with MK-7 for uptake, and free of impurities, for example,” Anderson said.
He added that though costs are coming down and evidence of K2’s benefits is mounting, K2 currently is most prevalent in richly formulated bone-building supplements in the natural products channel and mom-and-pop health food stores, with minimal penetration in the mass market.
“Fosteum Plus is a very serious product defined as having specific benefits,” he said. “Medical foods are in a very different category from the mainstream. We still see a significantly inadequate amount of K2 in the mass market. But we would expect to see in a short amount of time there will be product launches for bone health; and shortly thereafter, some mass market cardio products.”
Study reinforces K2’s cardiovascular benefit
Recent research further validated K2’s cardiovascular benefits when administrated in concert with vitamin D. The results, presented in Istanbul in May and published in abstract form by the Oxford University Press in Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, demonstrated the cardiovascular effects of oral administration of vitamin K2 (in this case, MenaQ7) plus vitamin D or vitamin D alone on patients with chronic renal disease.
The six-month study showed that progression of the coronary artery calcification index and common carotid intima media thickness (two markers of calcium deposits in arteries detected with computerized tomography) showed slower progression of calcification in the K2-plus-D group than the D-alone group of patients.
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first clinical evaluation showing that progression of arterial calcification can be prevented with supplemental vitamin K2,” said Hogne Vik, CEO of NattoPharma, Norway, in a release accompanying the study results.
“It’s not just the bone-building benefits; K2 has significant cardiovascular benefits as well,” Anderson said. “Calcium deposits are not just going into the arteries—they’re in all soft tissues."