These babies grew up to
have small or absent sinuses, narrow dental arches, and severe malocclusion.
Warfarin works by inhibiting vitamin K recycling, thus interfering with normal blood clotting.
But vitamin K's job isn't just coagulation...
Vitamin K activates proteins for proper craniofacial development.
For example, vitamin K turns
on Matrix GLA Protein (MGP), which prevents calcification of the nasal septum.
However, with a warfarin-induced deficiency of vitamin K, MGP isn't activated, the septum gets calcified, and the growth of
the maxilla is stunted.
Interestingly, MGP has a high preference to be activated by vitamin K2 MK-4, a version found exclusively in animal foods.
WE KNOW severe vitamin K deficiency impairs craniofacial development, nasal breathing, and occlusion.
What WE DON'T KNOW (yet) is that most people, including mothers, fetuses, and children have at least a subtle / subclinical deficiency of K2 contributing to the high prevalence of malocclusion today.
Perinatal nutrition should emphasize animal foods (pastured beef, organs, butter, eggs) high in the fat-soluble bioavailable vitamins needed for proper growth and development.
Worth noting:
- Newborns are typically vitamin K deficient.
- The transport of vitamin K across the placental barrier is highly selective for Vitamin K2 MK-4.
- Vitamin K2 MK-7 (found in fermented food like natto) is undetectable in umbilical
cord blood, even when supplemented.
There appears to be no vegan way around this besides bioidentical synthetic MK-4 supplementation.