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After last weeks article on Vitamin K, I decided to try some. The reason for trying it was that I am taking Vitamin D and having some very noticeable benefits (improved sleep…always a weak-spot for me), and apparently I need to be mindful of balancing large amounts of Vitamin D with Vitamin K.
Well, I got the MK7 version of K2 and took about 270 mcg. Guess what happened? I got a heart arrhythmia. You could accuse me of jumping to the conclusion that it was the K2, but it’s too large a coincidence to ignore. I’ve come to learn this is not entirely uncommon with MK7. Anyway, it was scary as hell. I thought I was going to die. Thinking about what @lounie had to say about MK7. This happened this past Friday. I left work and went home and rested. Was fine after an hour or two.
My understanding is that this doesn’t happen with the VK2 MK4. Anybody else have a bad reaction?
I’ve never supplemented with K2, so I can’t say anything in that regard. Wouldn’t you be better off just making sure you’re getting enough in your diet? Cheese (I think gouda has the most) and butter are great sources (as long as it’s from grass-fed cows), so are egg yolks. I eat a lot of butter, so I figure I’m probably fine.
Thomas, I think this article is for you! http://180degreehealth.com/2013/07/wheaties-effect
Keep in mind that you also need to balance D and K with vitamin A. This is why people take the cod liver oil/butter oil blend. It combines all in a natural food source. I agree with Renae, there are good real food sources. You could even try natto if you really want to try MK7.
It doesn’t sound like you took that high an amount, but a reaction to any substance is always possible, or maybe there was some sort of contamination that had nothing to do with the actual K2.
Wow, fucked up. Well, you can always try again. If you get another heart arrhythmia you know for sure ;).
I only supplement with mk-4, and I think that has had a good effect on me. At least I didn’t get a bad reaction from it. I’m also not convinced that mk-7 is better than mk-4. Thats why I use mk-4.
I’m also not so sure about the cod liver oil/butter oil blend. It is prohibitively expensive, butter oil doesn’t contain that much K as far I as know (and I looked into it), and cod liver oil doesn’t really have a good ratio of A to D (again, going from my understanding), it works better as a natural vitamin A supplement.
And Thomas, why are you supplementing D in the summer? Do you not get enough sun exposure or do you somehow feel you need to supplement regardless?
PS. love your blog and hoping to read part 3 of madame ming :D
Amy – I love that you linked the Wheaties Effect post! In regards to the FCLO/Butter oil blend, I recently heard that the form of vitamin D in it is D2, which actually depletes our D levels. This makes sense to me because I took that nasty stuff for awhile and my vitamin D levels decreased.
Wow, I did not realize that, Renae. I take it more for the Vit. A anyway, but I hope it’s not depleting my vit. D. I’ll keep an eye on it, I guess. I just take a very small amount (2 capsules, ad not even every day). I go back and forth on whether to take it, but my skin looks great when I do, and I recently had a cavity start to form so I figured the benefits would outweigh the costs.
Ah, you’re much smarter than me and bought the capsules! Yeah, I wouldn’t worry too much about it, but just thought I’d let people know.
My skin also looks better when I take it, but that hasn’t been enough to make me continue gagging it down. I might try again though because I’m also having some issues with my teeth.The Real Amy, you really insult me by thinking that I suffer from the Wheaties Effect. Seriously, is there a more contrarian person on here?! I don’t jump on every vitamin bandwagon. On the other hand, I am not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater. As you know I have been very critical of supplements and the Alternative Health protocols, but that doesn’t mean EVERY supplement or every suggestion coming from Alternative Health practioners is useless or noxious. There are times to intervene with something beyond diet. Like I’ve said, higher doses of Vitamin D have been helping me. That was my reasoning behind taking the Vitamin K.
I am not even sure that I agree with “The Wheaties Effect” as it’s being coined. To imitate someone who has been successful is reasonable, albeit not guaranteed to work, provided that you understand what it is that makes them successful and pursue that. It would be perfectly apt for somebody suffering from Coldmember’s problems to try eating lots of gelatin. It would be The Wheaties Effect to study Dutch and expect to get better just because Coldmember is Dutch and got better. One is causation, the other is association. Not to be confused, although sometimes it can be a less than banal undertaking to distinguish the two when you don’t yet know the causative factors of a given state.
Yes, I might think it was contamination, except on further research I found that a number of people have had the same effect (palpitations and arrthymias) using a variety of different MK7 products.
Let me be clear. The good effects that I have got have come from high dosage of Vitamin D. A lot of sun MIGHT do the trick (because I have noticed benefits from lots of sun), but that’s not in the cards for me right now.
My decision to take Vitamin K2 was more calculated than that. I explained why I was doing so in my original post.
@Franz, no I don’t get enough sun, and I regret that! I work indoors and have a lot of other activities that keep me indoors unfortunately. In a perfect world that wouldn’t be the case. It is apparently the MK7 variety of Vitamin K that causes these problems, not MK4.I’ve taken a “mixed” form of K2 before that had both MK4 and MK7. I don’t know if it gave me arrhythmia, but I did notice an uncomfortable restless feeling from it. I haven’t noticed that feeling from taking just the MK4 form, or from K2 rich foods such as butter oil.
You mentioned vitamin D for sleep- how much and what kind do you take? (hopefully I’m not hijacking this thread). Good sleep is a weak spot for me as well.@derek I am taking Source Naturals Liquid Vitamin D3. Now I just sort of chose that at random and have no reason to believe it is superior or inferior to another brand. The liquid does make it easier to adjust dosage.
Thanks for the feedback on K2. I have some MK4 and am going to try it starting today.
Ha I have a kind of funny update on my post above. I was taking some cod liver oil to try and heal a cavity I saw forming (I thought) in one of my back molars. I finally went to the dentist because it didn’t seem to be changing, and it turns out it’s a spot of an old (white) filling where there is a rare situation of some decay occurring within the filling itself (apparently this can happen if there is an air bubble and something gets in). So I was trying to grow back enamel where only filling existed. CLO fail. I could have taken it in by the cupful with no success (thankfully I did not try this). Good news is, no real cavities!
Thomas,
I know this thread is ancient, but just wanted to let you know that dozens of peeps experienced the same palpitation issues over on ‘inspire.com’ a year or two back, at least when they were taking the MK7 (and I think MK1?) versions — but like you, found that they had no problems with the MK4 version.
I’d post a link, but they need your email and a password before reading anything on their site.
I just took 100 mcg of Now Foods MK-7 this morning with my Swanson Double Strength Cod Liver Oil and I feel really good…no palpitations or any other kind of strangeness. I do notice that I have way more energy though. Since the MK-7 lasts for 3.5 days, I will only be taking it once to twice a week to be on the safe side.
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