D3 + K2 Synergy

What Is D3 + K2 Synergy?

A softgel carrying cholecalciferol with both branches of vitamin K: phytonadione, the K1 green leaves make, and menaquinone-4, the K2 form animal tissue carries. The two are matched microgram for microgram, at 1,000 mcg of each per serving.

How It Works in the Body

Vitamin D3 is converted twice before it does anything, in the liver and then the kidney. The finished form tells intestinal cells to build the proteins that carry calcium out of food and into the blood.

Vitamin K's job is narrower. It is the cofactor an enzyme needs to add a carboxyl group to particular glutamate residues, giving those proteins a two-pronged grip on calcium. K1 and MK-4 both serve that enzyme, and MK-4 is the vitamer tissues build for themselves.

What It Supports

• Calcium absorption: The finished form of vitamin D switches on the intestinal proteins that move calcium into the blood.
• Bone: Vitamin K carboxylates osteocalcin, the calcium-binding protein bone cells make, so it supports bone health.
• Calcium outside the skeleton: Matrix Gla protein, made in artery walls, depends on the same vitamin K step.
• Normal immune function: Immune cells carry vitamin D receptors and make the finished form locally, so vitamin D plays a role in normal immune function.
• Both vitamers: K1 is the plant form, MK-4 the animal-tissue one, and both are here in equal weight.

Who It May Suit

People who want a large amount of vitamin K beside a moderate amount of D3, often because sunlight or a multivitamin already supplies some. The softgel shell is bovine gelatin, so this one is not a vegetarian choice.

Good To Know

Both vitamins are fat-soluble, and here they sit in medium-chain triglycerides. Talk with your provider before use if you take warfarin or a similar anticoagulant, since those medicines work by interrupting vitamin K recycling and a change in intake changes how they behave. Ask as well if you are pregnant or take digoxin.