Vitamin K pill a day ‘can keep strokes at bay’

Study hopes for health breakthrough

IT is recommended for better bone health and to help get rid of dark circles under your eyes.

But researchers believe taking a daily vitamin K pill could also keep you safe from having a heart attack or stroke.

The vitamin – found in leafy greens such as spinach and broccoli, as well as blueberries – has been shown to play an important part in regulating calcium within the body – keeping it within the bones and out of blood vessels.

Calcium within blood vessels is bad news because it can make them stiff, increasing blood pressure and straining the heart.

Now scientists at the universities of Dundee and Glasgow are to carry out a study on vitamin K’s effects on people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), since the condition increases the level of calcium in the blood vessels and greatly increases sufferers’ danger of stroke and heart attack.

The project could see it eventually being recommended as a cheap and easy preventative treatment.

Dr Miles Witham, lead researcher on the trial funded by the British Heart Foundation at Dundee University, said: ‘If successful, this trial could open up a whole new avenue of ways to reduce heart attacks and strokes, not only in people with chronic kidney disease but also in others affected by calcium build-up in their blood vessels.’

Previous research has suggested that a daily dose of vitamin K can prevent hardening of the arteries, also known as atherosclerosis, along with calcification, which can block the blood supply to the heart. A small study last year found that older women who were given blueberry powder supplements including the vitamin saw their blood pressure fall slightly after only eight weeks.

CKD affects more than a third of people over the age of 65 – a part of the population that is growing in Scotland.

In their study the Scotland-based researchers will give either 400mcg of vitamin K or a placebo to 166 people with CKD once a day for a year and measure the stiffness of their blood vessels.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Chronic kidney disease is common in people over 60, and as it progresses their risk of cardiovascular event increases several-fold.

‘New treatments to slow the progression of the disease and its cardiovascular complications are therefore badly needed.

‘This BHF-funded trial will test whether a simple treatment – vitamin K supplementation – can reduce the development of arterial stiffness, an early sign of cardiovascular risk.

‘If successful, it will pave the way for a large-scale trial to find out whether vitamin K supplementation reduces cardiovascular events in CKD patients and therefore should become part of routine treatment.’

The study, funded with a £290,000 grant from the charity, could then be used to see if vitamin K would benefit the wider population.

As it is cheap, safe and naturally occurring in the diet, the vitamin could provide a drug-free solution to improve blood vessel and heart health, without using blood pressure medication.

Among its other properties, the vitamin is crucial for blood clotting – without it, the smallest cut could result in major blood loss.

‘New treatments are badly needed’