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Does Vitamin K Reduce Insulin Resistance?

People with type 2 diabetes often have insulin resistance many years before they show signs of diabetes. Sometimes the person with insulin resistance also has cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and an ever-expanding waistline. The combination of all the abnormal processes is called metabolic syndrome. Some of the latest research noted below indicates that vitamin K might help slow insulin resistance in a specific group of people.

  1. Function

    • The blood carries glucose but the cells don't use it unless insulin binds it to the receptor cells. Insulin resistance begins when the process requires more insulin to get the cells to accept the glucose. Diabetes occurs when the pancreas no longer produces enough insulin for the increased demand.

    Vitamin K

    • Vitamin K helps protect the heart and assists in the process of blood clotting, but it also might play an important role in reducing insulin resistance. Food sources of vitamin K include turnip greens, spinach, collards and kale.

    Benefits

    • In a study published in the November 2008 issue of Diabetes Care by Yoshida, Jacques, Meigs, Saltzman, Shea, Gundberg, Dawson-Hughes, Dallal and Booth, the research team added vitamin K to the diet of people between the ages of 60 and 80 and found a significant improvement in the men's insulin tolerance.

    History

    • Originally, most of the researchers on the project began their research on the effects of vitamin K and bone density. They found that it also helped insulin resistance. These researchers then combined efforts to focus a study on the effects of vitamin K on insulin resistance.

    Theories/Speculation

    • Sarah Booth, one of the researchers who participated in the combined effort and a senior author of several studies, including "Effect of Vitamin K Supplementation on Bone Loss in Elderly Men and Women," published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 93, 2008 noted that women showed no change in their insulin resistance when they took vitamin K. She hypothesized that one possible reason for the women having less improvement than the men was the amount of body fat of the women used in the study. Her belief was that the vitamin K is stored in the fat tissue and the cells couldn't access it for processing glucose

    Prevention/Solution

    • The authors of the study showing a correlation between vitamin K and the potential to decrease insulin resistance suggested that there is a need for further studies with a wider selection of participants. The study was small and included only Caucasians. The group could not state whether the same results would occur with other ethnic groups.

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