Study Links Vitamin K Deficiency to Decreased Joint Health

by | May 10, 2013 | 2013, Arthritis, Joint Health, Vitamin K

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. 109 out of 1180 patients studied were deficient in Vitamin k and had a 56% increased risk of knee osteoarthritis compared to those not deficient in Vitamin K. They also had a 139% risk of cartilage tears.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting 27 million American adults (1), including more than one-half of adults over the age of 65 (2) and costs our healthcare system more than $86 billion each year (3). The propensity for osteoarthritis to affect the knee-joint makes knee osteoarthritis the leading cause of lower extremity disability among older adults in the U.S. (4)

Unfortunately, few prescription medication options for osteoarthritis exist that do not come with side effects and no treatments exist to prevent or stop the progression of osteoarthritis. Now a new study (5) suggests that vitamin K deficiency may play a role in maintaining joint health.

In the study, 1,180 patients aged 54 to 72 (450 men, 730 women) participating in The Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (6) had MRI scans of both knees taken before the study began and 30 months later. The MRI scans were read by a musculoskeletal radiologist and a rheumatologist and classified according to the Osteoarthritis Research Society International guidelines (7). The researchers then analyzed blood samples provided by the patients at the time of the two MRI scans. The researchers classified vitamin K deficiency as having blood levels below 0.5 nanoMolar (8).

Of the 1,180 patients in the study, 109 patients were considered deficient in vitamin K. The researchers observed that those considered vitamin K-deficient had a 56% increased risk of having knee osteoarthritis compared to those who were not deficient (p = 0.02). When looking at knee cartilage, those deficient in vitamin K had a 139% increased risk of having cartilage tears (p = 0.04), significantly increasing the risk of having knee osteoarthritis.

When suggesting how vitamin K helps maintain joint health, the researchers point to vitamin K’s role in maintaining bone and cartilage proteins that help maintain bone health (9,10). The researchers concluded that “vitamin K deficiency was associated with increased risk of developing radiographic knee osteoarthritis and MRI-based cartilage lesions” and that “further study of vitamin K is warranted given its therapeutic/prophylactic potential for osteoarthritis.”

Source: Misra, Devyani, et al. “Vitamin K deficiency is associated with incident knee osteoarthritis.” The American journal of medicine 126.3 (2013): 243-248.

© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted May 10, 2013.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

References:

  1. Lawrence RC, Felson DT, Helmick CG, et al.; National Arthritis Data Workgroup. Estimates of the prevalence of arthritis and other rheumatic conditions in the United States. Part II. Arthritis Rheum. 2008;58:26-35.
  2. D.T. Felson, An update on the pathogenesis and epidemiology of osteoarthritis, Radiol Clin North Am 42 (2004), pp. 1–9.
  3. Statistics obtained from the Arthritis Foundation Website.
  4. Guccione A, Felson D, Anderson J, et al. The effects of specific medical conditions on the functional limitations of elders in the Framingham Study. Am J Public Health. 1994;84:351-358.
  5. Misra D. Vitamin K deficiency is associated with incident knee osteoarthritis. Am J Med 2013 Mar;126(3):243-8. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2012.10.011.
  6. Englund M, Guermazi A, Roemer F, et al. Meniscal tear in knees without surgery and the development of radiographic osteoarthritis among middle-aged and elderly persons: the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study. Arthritis Rheum. 2009;60:831-839.
  7. Kellgren J, Lawrence J. Radiological assessment of osteo-arthrosis. Ann Rheum Dis. 1957;16:494-502.
  8. Sadowski J.  Phylloquinone in plasma from elderly and young adults: factors influencing its concentration. Am J Clin Nutr. 1989;50:100-108.
  9. Luo G.  Spontaneous calcification of arteries and cartilage in mice lacking matrix GLA protein. Nature. 1997;386: 78-81.
  10. Price P.  Excessive mineralization with growth plate closure in rats on chronic warfarin treatment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982;79:7734-7738.