Is it important to consume an equal amount of Vitamin D and Vitamin K?

Sufficient intake of micronutrients is as important as macronutrients. Micronutrients are essential to keep our internal system running efficiently.

Vitamin D and Vitamin K are two such essential micronutrients for your health. Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body while the major role of Vitamin K is to stop clotting and bleeding. But the thing that not many know is that when it comes to calcium metabolism, Vitamin D and Vitamin K work as a team. Due to their active role and coalition in maintaining the calcium levels in the body, it is believed that the presence of a high amount of vitamin D in the body and low in vitamin K can be harmful. We tried to dig deep into the topic to find the truth behind this claim.

Both Vitamin D and Vitamin K are fat-soluble nutrients. The Sun is the biggest source of Vitamin D, but some food items also contain some amount of Vitamin D like okra, spinach, soybeans and fish like Sardines and Salmon. Vitamin D helps the body to absorb calcium and phosphate from our diet. When our skin is exposed to sunlight, it makes Vitamin D by breaking the cholesterol stored in the cell, which provides energy for the synthesis of Vitamin D.

Vitamin K is found in abundance in green leafy vegetables and their absorption into the bloodstream increases when consumed with fat. It plays an important role in maintaining bone strength and helping our heart and brain to function properly. Common sources of Vitamin K are kale, spinach, turnip greens, green leafy lettuce. Some fatty, animal-based foods like egg yolk, liver and cheese also contain this nutrient.

Apart from helping in the absorption of calcium, Vitamin D is also responsible for maintaining adequate calcium levels in the blood. For this, Vitamin D either starts absorbing more calcium from the food you eat or drawing calcium from the bones, which generally happens when your calcium intake is quite low.

However, the level of calcium in the body is not regulated by Vitamin D. Here is where Vitamin K comes to play its role. Vitamin K activates a protein called osteocalcin. This protein is responsible for the accumulation of calcium in your bones and teeth. Besides, Vitamin K also prevents the accumulation of calcium in soft tissues by activating another protein called matrix GLA.

It is quite clear that Vitamin D and Vitamin K both function together and the absence of any of them can be harmful to health. Low levels of vitamin K in the body can lead to blood vessel calcification and cardiovascular problems. But yet a lot more research is needed in this direction to clearly state whether the difference in the amount of the two nutrients can lead to health-related complications or not. As per Dr Seema Khanna, a consultant nutritionist, "a moderate fluctuation in the amount of Vitamin D and Vitamin K is not harmful to health. But one must try to get the daily recommended amount of the nutrients to stay healthy."

RDA for vitamin D is 600 international units (IU) per day for young adults and 800 IU per day for adults older than 70. While the average daily vitamin K intake is 122 mcg for women and 138 mcg for men.