Vitamin K2 Meets Omega-3s in Blend for Heart Health

Just in time for an official rollout at Natural Products Expo West (Anaheim, CA), NattoPharma ASA (Hovik, Norway) and Hofseth BioCare (HBC; Alesund, Norway) have announced a new combination of their ingredients “to create a highly differentiable offering for heart health products,” according to a press release. NattoPharma’s MenaQ7 Vitamin K2 and HBC’s OmeGo EFA from Salmon Oil are the two components in the new blend designed to support cardiovascular health.

HBC’s half of the equation, OmeGo Salmon Oil, an omega-3 ingredient, has performed well in clinical trials at lowering a new marker of cardiovascular health, oxLDL beta-2 glycoprotein (GP), according to Matt Mixter, managing director, U.S., HBC. Mixter claims oxLDL GP is a better indicator of cardiac event risk than cholesterol or triglycerides.

The other ingredient, MenaQ7 Pure, is a synthetic vitamin K2 as menaquione-7 (MK-7), which NattoPharma claims “is the most bioavailable K2 available.”

“Mena Q7 Vitamin K2 as MK-7 has been clinically shown to increase arterial flexibility by promoting the most potent inhibitor of arterial calcification: the activation of matrix gla protein (MGP),” says Hogne Vik, CEO, NattoPharma.

The two companies believe this pairing of MenaQ7 and OmeGo will allow for even greater cardiovascular health benefits, in addition to increased “manufacturing ease.”

“Omega-3 has been established as a cardiovascular health ingredient, as it has earned a qualified health claim in the U.S. for the reduction in risk of coronary heart disease,” says Vik. “By balancing calcium metabolism, vitamin K2 offers a potential synergistic role with omega-3 that could result in unsurpassed cardiovascular formulas that also deliver bone health benefits.”

The new blend will be officially launched on March 5 at Expo West.

Michael Crane
Associate Editor
Nutritional Outlook magazine
michael.crane@ubm.com

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