Vitamin K2 MK-7 200mcg

Description

Vitamin K2 MK-7 at 200 micrograms a capsule, supplied as the all trans isomer, with the isomer ratio printed on the lot certificate. Menaquinone-7 is one of several K2 forms and the cis isomer of it is biologically inactive, so a vitamin k2 mk-7 product that does not state its isomer ratio is leaving out the figure that decides what the 200 micrograms are worth.

On the panel

Why the isomer ratio is the number that matters

Fermentation derived vitamin k2 mk-7 is naturally all trans. Some synthetic routes produce a mixture that includes the cis isomer, which has no vitamin activity, so a bottle quoting 200 micrograms of total MK-7 may contain appreciably less of the active form.

Very few labels state the ratio at all. Ours publishes it per lot, which is the only way the figure can be checked from outside a factory, and it is the same principle as naming the trans isomer on a resveratrol bottle.

MK-7 against MK-4, in pharmacokinetics

Both are vitamin K2 and they are not interchangeable on a label. Published pharmacokinetic studies measure a half life of roughly two to three days for MK-7 and one to two hours for MK-4, which is why MK-4 products are dosed in milligrams several times a day while vitamin k2 mk-7 is dosed in micrograms once.

That is a measurement rather than a claim. It does mean a microgram figure on an MK-7 label and a milligram figure on an MK-4 label describe different dosing schedules, not different potencies of the same thing.

What the trials administered

Studies have mostly used 180 to 360 micrograms a day of MK-7 over one to three years, measuring the carboxylation status of osteocalcin and matrix Gla protein, bone mineral density by densitometry and arterial stiffness by pulse wave velocity. Those are the doses given and the instruments read in the published work, and this paragraph is a description of that literature rather than a claim about this bottle.

Why vitamin k2 mk-7 is dosed in micrograms

Because the long half life means a single daily microgram dose maintains blood concentrations where MK-4 needs milligram amounts several times a day to do the same. That is a pharmacokinetic consequence rather than a potency difference.

It also means a vitamin k2 mk-7 bottle at 200 micrograms lasts a long time and costs little per day, which is worth noticing when a milligram figure on a different bottle looks more impressive.

Natto, and where the material comes from

MK-7 is produced commercially by fermenting soybeans with Bacillus subtilis, the same process behind natto, which is the richest dietary source of it. Fermentation derived vitamin k2 mk-7 is naturally all trans, which is why the production route and the isomer figure belong on the same certificate.

K1 and K2 are both vitamin K

Phylloquinone, K1, comes from green leaves and dominates dietary intake. Menaquinones, K2, come from fermented foods and bacterial synthesis. The adequate intake figure of 90 to 120 micrograms was set on K1, so there is no separate official reference for K2, which the NIH vitamin K fact sheet explains in full.

The warfarin note, which comes first

Vitamin K antagonists work precisely by interfering with vitamin K dependent clotting factors, so a supplement of it changes the intake that a dose was titrated against. Anyone taking warfarin or a similar medicine should raise this with whoever manages the prescription before the first capsule.

Testing

Every lot is assayed for MK-7 content and isomer ratio by an independent laboratory, with heavy metals and microbials screened alongside. Under strength lots are withdrawn and the failing certificate stays on the public page. The D3 pairing and the rest of the fat soluble vitamins are on the vitamins page, with the calcium options and their elemental figures on the minerals page.