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I have shared these in other discussions focused on vitamin K and osteoporosis and would like to share them here as they may be helpful:
"Vitamin K and Osteoporosis"
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7760385/
Here are a few key conclusions:
"Several points of experimental evidence seem to outline that vitamin K play an important role for bone health. More evidence is needed about the effects of vitamin K supplementation at physiological and pharmacological doses and what the required dose of vitamin K is to ensure bone and vascular health."
A more recent study "indicated that vitamin K yielded improvements in lumbar spine BMD, but did not have a statistically significant effect on femoral neck BMD, total hip BMD, ultra distal radius BMD, or femoral Ward’s triangle BMD based on pooled analysis."
"Effects of vitamin K supplementation on bone mineral density at different sites and bone metabolism in the middle-aged and elderly population"
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11631259/
You may also find this article helpful as well as there is a section dedicated to which supplements can help:
"Osteoporosis treatment: Medications can help"
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoporosis/in-depth/osteoporosis-treatment/art-20046869
Replies to "I have shared these in other discussions focused on vitamin K and osteoporosis and would like..."
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@JustinMcClanahan Thanks for the links Justin! The second article is helpful at highlighting the challenges of figuring this all out.
The dosage ranges in the studies in your second link ranged from 9.4 mcg (MiCroGrams) to 45 mg (MilliGrams) a difference of 4787 times or 478,700%.
The durations ranged from 2 weeks to 4 years. Also some of the included studies used K1 instead of K2. The meta-study then did do subgroups analysis, but they never appear to have a subgroup with the full Japanese prescription protocol of 45mg/day of MK4 in 3 doses.
Here is a list of research studies assembled by Dr. John Neustadt that include only MK4 and only higher doses, mostly 45mg, but some lower. I do not like having to refer to links from commercial sites, but the available general research papers are very hard to sort out. These all appear to show benefits of MK4 in higher doses.
https://nbihealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Osteoporosis-Grow-Stronger-Bones_v201123.pdf
I am still figuring out exactly what I am going to do about Vitamin K2, esp MK4. But the potential lowering of fracture risk vs cost & risk of taking more MK4 is pointing me towards larger (5 to 45mg) of this supplement.