Vitamin K2

This marker assesses the genetic capacity of your microbiome to synthesize Vitamin K2 (Menaquinones). Unlike vitamin K1 (which you get from plants), K2 is primarily produced by your gut bacteria and through the fermentation of certain foods. This vitamin ensures that calcium is fixed in your bones and teeth, preventing it from dangerously accumulating in your arteries, joints, and kidneys.

Vitamin K is not a single molecule, but a family that is divided into two groups with completely distinct functions:

• Vitamin K1 (Phylloquinone): Found in green leafy vegetables (spinach, broccoli). Your liver uses it almost exclusively to coagulate blood and prevent you from bleeding to death from a wound.
• Vitamin K2 (Menaquinones, MK-n): Its main function is to manage calcium. The modern Western diet is chronically deficient in K2 (present in significant amounts only in Japanese natto, very aged raw milk cheeses, and pasture-raised egg yolks).

Due to this scarcity in the modern diet, your body relies heavily on your intestinal "factory." Certain bacteria in your colon possess the genetic machinery to synthesize long-chain menaquinones (such as MK-7, MK-8, and MK-9) directly in your gut, from where they are absorbed and distributed through the bloodstream to your tissues.

A low bacterial production of Vitamin K2 has slow but serious systemic consequences, associated with premature tissue aging:

• Bone Health (Osteoporosis): For calcium to be fixed in your bones, you need a protein called Osteocalcin. Without bacterial Vitamin K2, osteocalcin remains inactive ("deactivated") and cannot build new bone, even if you consume a lot of calcium.
• Cardiovascular Protection: Vitamin K2 activates the most potent inhibitor of arterial calcification known to science: Matrix Gla Protein (MGP). K2-producing bacteria literally keep your arteries clean and flexible, preventing calcium from forming atheromatous plaques that cause heart attacks and thrombosis.
• Insulin Sensitivity: Recent studies have shown that osteocalcin, once activated by K2, acts as a hormone that travels to the pancreas to improve insulin secretion, protecting against Type 2 Diabetes and improving glucose metabolism.

The evaluation of vitamin K2 biosynthesis is performed by Shotgun metagenomic sequencing, quantifying the genetic potential of isoprenoid synthesis pathways.

Our bioinformatics algorithm tracks and quantifies the abundance of the genes that make up the men operon (such as menA, menB, menC, etc.), which integrate the menaquinol biosynthesis superpathway. Taxonomically, unlike B vitamins, the main producers of K2 in the human gut are not bifidobacteria or lactobacilli (which lack these genes). The main producers are species from the phyla Bacteroidetes (e.g., genera Bacteroides and Prevotella) and certain species within Firmicutes and Verrucomicrobia (such as Akkermansia muciniphila and Eubacterium lentum).

A high level indicates that your microbiome has the capacity to efficiently supply your systemic K2 needs, protecting your bone density and endothelial health. Low levels, especially if there is a history of osteopenia, osteoporosis, or arterial calcification, may require intervention. The strategy demands mandatory direct supplementation. If you consume Vitamin D3 supplements, they should always be accompanied by K2 (in its MK-7 form, which is the most bioavailable). At a dietary level, the intake of traditional fermented foods containing K2 of bacterial origin (natto, unpasteurized sauerkraut, aged cheeses like Gouda) should be encouraged.