Vitamin K Helps To Protect A Fatty Liver

Did you know vitamin K has positive effects on your metabolism? People who don’t get enough vitamin K are more susceptible to insulin resistance, and that is the leading risk factor for developing a fatty liver. If you already have a fatty liver, being vitamin K deficient worsens the severity.

Healing my fatty liver

Your body requires adequate vitamin K in order to help your blood to clot but it has far more benefits than that. Vitamin K2 helps to strengthen bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis. It also helps to keep your arteries healthy, reducing atherosclerosis.

New research has shown that vitamin K helps to regulate glucose metabolism by converting to a substance called carboxylated osteocalcin in your body. This molecule helps to improve insulin sensitivity. The better your insulin sensitivity, the better able you are to control your blood sugar level.

Good insulin sensitivity also means your blood insulin level will not get too high. That's highly desirable because high insulin promotes fat accumulation on your body and inhibits fat burning.

Vitamin K2 insufficiency is very common because very few foods are a good source of this precious nutrient. If you are trying to lose weight or overcome fatty liver, a vitamin K2 supplement may be beneficial for you.

People with a fatty liver have excessive levels of inflammation inside their liver. This causes damage to liver cells and elevated liver enzymes on a blood test. The more inflammation that is present, the faster liver health deteriorates. Vitamin K reduces inflammation by blocking a signaling molecule called NF-κB, which fuels the release of damaging cytokines including IL-6 and TNF-α. This is important because higher inflammation triggers more advanced stages of liver disease, such as cirrhosis and cancer. By dampening down inflammation, vitamin K helps protect your liver from progressing to life threatening liver disease.

Vitamin K helps reduce oxidative stress and prevents death of liver cells triggered by toxins and free radicals that build up in the liver. Vitamin K interferes with this destructive process, acting like a protective shield for liver cells.

Very few foods are a good source of vitamin K

The western diet typically provides very little vitamin K2. Small amounts are found in liver, egg yolks, pasture raised butter, some cheese (particularly Brie and Gouda), as well as natto. Vitamin K1 is present in green leafy vegetables and certain gut bacteria convert it into K2. The problem is a lot of people don’t have enough of those good gut bugs. A number of factors can be responsible, such as antibiotic use, bowel disease (eg. Celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease) and high sugar diets. Taking a vitamin K supplement that combines K1 and both forms of K2 is the best way to ensure you are receiving optimal levels.

Other strategies to reverse a fatty liver

Fatty liver can almost always be completely reversed. It’s important not to leave it too late, before cirrhosis or liver cancer develop. I have written an extensive How To plan in my book Fatty Liver: You Can Reverse It. I have also formulated a liver tonic called Livatone Plus that has helped thousands of people reverse liver damage and restore liver health.