A new piece has been added to the puzzle that connects diet, health and longevity. In fact, a few days ago a research has been published in the prestigious journal The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by an American team of the Tufts University, which underlines how vitamin K can contribute to making people live better and longer.
Vitamin K is a vitamin contained in leafy greens, especially collard, spinach and broccoli, but also in some vegetable oils such as soybean oil, canola oil and olive oil. Vitamin K is connected to the health of the blood vessels. In fact, in our body there are particular proteins whose task is to prevent calcium from building up on the walls of the arteries so that they maintain their elasticity. These proteins need vitamin K to function and if it is missing, proteins may not work properly. The researchers therefore tried to understand if a low dose of circulating vitamin K could, in the long run, lead to an increased cardiovascular risk or other health problems. The health and the levels of vitamin K ??of 4000 Americans aged between 54 and 76 followed for a 13-year period were then analyzed. What emerged was that vitamin K had no influence on cardiovascular risk but had an impact on the general health of the body. In fact, in the 13 years studied, those with the lowest vitamin K levels also presented a 20% higher mortality risk. The mechanism remains to be understood, as also the reason why the risk of all the causes of mortality has increased but not the risk for the cardiovascular system. In any case, cabbage, spinach and olive oil should always be included in our diet and this article offers an additional reason!