(23-05-13) A high menaquinone intake reduces the incidence of coronary heart disease

G.C.M. Gast a,b,*, N.M. de Roos a, I. Sluijs a,b, M.L. Bots a, J.W.J. Beulens a,
J.M. Geleijnse b, J.C. Witteman c, D.E. Grobbee a,
P.H.M. Peeters a, Y.T. van der Schouw a
a Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands
b Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
c Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Received 27 June 2008; received in revised form 14 October 2008; accepted 21 October 2008

Abstract Background and Aim: Vitamin K dependent proteins have been demonstrated to
inhibit vascular calcification. Data on the effect of vitamin K intake on coronary heart disease
(CHD) risk, however, are scarce.
To examine the relationship between dietary vitamins K1 and K2 intake, and its subtypes, and
the incidence of CHD.
Methods and Results: We used data from the ProspecteEPIC cohort consisting of 16,057
women, enrolled between 1993 and 1997 and aged 49e70 years, who were free of cardiovascular
diseases at baseline. Intake of vitamin K and other nutrients was estimated with a food
frequency questionnaire. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyse
the data.
After a mean _ SD follow-up of 8.1 _ 1.6 years, we identified 480 incident cases of CHD. Mean
vitamin K1 intake was 211.7 _ 100.3 mg/d and vitamin K2 intake was 29.1 _ 12.8 mg/d. After
adjustment for traditional risk factors and dietary factors, we observed an inverse association
between vitamin K2 and risk of CHD with a Hazard Ratio (HR) of 0.91 [95% CI 0.85e1.00] per
10 mg/d vitamin K2 intake. This association was mainly due to vitamin K2 subtypes MK-7, MK-8
and MK-9. Vitamin K1 intake was not significantly related to CHD.
Conclusions: A high intake of menoquinones, especially MK-7, MK-8 and MK-9, could protect
against CHD. However, more research is necessary to define optimal intake levels of vitamin K
intake for the prevention of CHD.

Sources: Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases (2008) xx, 1e 7
ª 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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