Vitamin K May Help Prevent Fractures

A high daily dose of a vitamin K supplement did not protect against age-related bone mineral density decline, Canadian researchers said.

However, it may help with preventing fractures or cancers, study leader Angela Cheung said.

In a randomized controlled trial, Cheung and colleagues at the University of Toronto had 440 postmenopausal women with osteopenia — bone mineral density lower than normal — to receive either 5 mg of vitamin K or a placebo daily for two years. Two hundred and sixty-one of these women continued their treatment for two more years to gather information about the long-term effects of vitamin K supplementation.

Over the four-year period, fewer women in the vitamin K group had fractures — nine versus 20 women in the placebo group — and fewer women had cancer — three versus 12. Vitamin K supplementation was well tolerated over the four-year period and adverse health effects were similar in the two treatment groups, the researchers said.

They researchers emphasize that the study was not powered to examine fractures or cancers and the numbers were small, therefore the findings must be interpreted with caution.

The findings are published in the journal PLoS Medicine.