Taking Vitamin D3 and K2 Every Day: Benefits and Timing

If you take vitamin D3 and K2 every day, K2 reaches your blood within hours and builds over the first weeks. Vitamin D climbs more slowly and levels off after about six weeks. All the while, D3 is helping you absorb calcium and K2 is switching on the protein that holds it in bone. A blood test shows you the change.

What Happens When You Take Vitamin D3 and K2 Every Day?

The two nutrients keep different time. K2 is the quick one.

The K2 in our capsule is menaquinone-7, usually written MK-7. In a study in healthy volunteers, MK-7 peaked in the blood about four hours after a dose. It also leaves slowly, so with daily use it builds up and holds a steadier level than vitamin K1 does.

Vitamin D is slower. Your liver turns D3 into 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the form a blood test measures. The National Academies report on vitamin D says that on a steady daily amount, the rise in that number tends to level off by about week six.

So the timeline runs in three parts. Hours for K2 to show up. Weeks for it to build. About six weeks for vitamin D to find its new level.

What Are Vitamins D3 and K2 Good For?

Calcium, mostly. Vitamin D helps your gut take calcium in from food, a role the National Academies call well established. Vitamin K works at a later step. Some proteins only switch on after vitamin K has activated them, and one of them is osteocalcin, a protein made in bone that can hold on to bone mineral once it is active.

I call K2 the traffic controller for D3. One brings calcium in. The other switches on the protein that keeps it in bone. That is why Holistico Whole Food Vitamin D never ships D3 without K2.

How Do You Know It Is Working?

You measure it. Nutrients do quiet work, in the gut and in bone, and a capsule a day is a habit for the long run. Vitamin D happens to be one of the easiest nutrients to track.

Test before you start. Test again once your level has settled, from about week six on. The gap between the two numbers is your answer, and your practitioner can read it with you.

Our rule is test, don't guess. Alongside a standard vitamin D blood test, the nutrient test we offer looks at 55 markers inside your white blood cells, with vitamin D, vitamin A, K2, calcium and magnesium among them.

What Is in the Capsule You Take Every Day?

A daily capsule adds up to 365 a year, so what rides along with the D3 matters. A typical D3 and K2 supplement is the two vitamins on their own. We start with one nutrient from a whole food and add the foods that carry its partners. Each Holistico capsule holds:

125 mcg (5,000 IU) of vitamin D3 from wild-harvested lichen, which makes D3 from sunlight the same way your skin does.
50 mcg of vitamin K2 as MK-7, fermented from non-GMO chickpeas.
150 mg of beef liver powder, a food that naturally contains retinol, the form of vitamin A found in animal foods.
50 mg of red marine algae, which keeps magnesium and more than 70 trace minerals in the skeleton it grew from seawater.
69.5 mg of coconut oil powder, a food source of fat.

Each partner has a reason. Vitamin D is fat-soluble and is absorbed with the fat in a meal. Your body has to convert vitamin D before it can use it, and a 2018 review reported that every enzyme doing that work appears to need magnesium. And in food, vitamin D keeps company with vitamin A: fish is on the National Academies' lists for both, and liver leads their list of common sources of preformed vitamin A.

Just as much thought went into what we left out. Across a year of daily capsules you will swallow no magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, gums or carrageenan from us. Every batch is tested for potency and identity, then third-party tested for heavy metals and microbial safety.

We suggest one capsule a day with food. The capsule contains beef liver and coconut (a tree nut), so it is not vegetarian. See the full label for Whole Food Vitamin D.

How Much Vitamin D3 Does a Body Use in a Day?

A few thousand IU, by one careful estimate. In a winter study of 67 healthy men in Omaha, researchers gave daily vitamin D3 for about 20 weeks at several amounts, 125 mcg among them. They estimated the men were using 3,000 to 5,000 IU a day, and that most of it came out of stores laid down by summer sun.

When the sun has not filled those stores, food and supplements have to supply more. That is the thinking behind the 5,000 IU in our capsule. It was one study, in men, in one city, and your own number depends on your sun, your skin and your plate. Test, don't guess.

Questions People Ask About Taking Vitamin D3 and K2 Every Day

Can I take vitamin D3 and K2 every day?

Yes. Daily is how we suggest taking Holistico Whole Food Vitamin D: one capsule with a meal. A steady daily amount suits both vitamins. K2 as MK-7 holds an even level in the blood with daily use, and vitamin D settles at its new level by about week six. If you are pregnant, nursing or on medication, ask your practitioner first.

How long does it take for vitamin D3 and K2 to work?

K2 as MK-7 shows up in the blood within about four hours and builds over the first weeks of daily use. Vitamin D takes longer. The National Academies report says the rise in blood vitamin D tends to level off by about week six. A blood test before you start and another after week six shows you the difference.

Should I take D3 and K2 at the same time?

Yes. They work on the same mineral, they are both fat-soluble, and one meal can carry both. We put them in a single capsule for that reason. Holistico Whole Food Vitamin D has 125 mcg of D3 and 50 mcg of K2 together, and we suggest taking it with food.

Is it better to take D3 and K2 at night or morning?

Take it with the meal you are least likely to skip. Both vitamins are fat-soluble, and the National Academies report says vitamin D is absorbed most efficiently with foods that contain fat. So the plate matters more than the clock. Eggs at breakfast or salmon at dinner both do the job.

What to avoid when taking vitamin D3 and K2?

Three things. Skip the empty stomach, because both vitamins are absorbed with fat. Avoid doubling up by accident: vitamin D is also in many multivitamins and calcium products, so add up every label you take. And if you take a blood-thinning medicine, get your prescriber's go-ahead before adding vitamin K, which is involved in normal blood clotting.

Who should not take vitamin D3 with K2?

We suggest talking to your healthcare practitioner first if you are pregnant, nursing or taking any medication. Anyone on a blood-thinning medicine needs their prescriber's say before adding vitamin K. Our capsule also contains beef liver and coconut, so it is not for vegetarians or for anyone with a tree nut allergy.

Do you need K2 if you take vitamin D3?

We would not take D3 without it, and Holistico does not sell D3 without it. Vitamin D raises the amount of calcium you absorb. K2 switches on osteocalcin, the bone protein that holds on to it. Food has some K2, and a European Food Safety Authority review puts natto far ahead of cheese, eggs and meat. Few of us eat natto daily.

Is there a combo vitamin with both D3 and K2?

Yes. Holistico Whole Food Vitamin D is one. Each capsule has 125 mcg (5,000 IU) of D3 from lichen and 50 mcg of K2 as MK-7, with beef liver, red algae and coconut oil as the partner foods. If you take calcium too, our bundle pairs it with our eggshell and algae calcium.

Can you take vitamin A, D3 and K2 together?

Yes, and food often serves them that way. All three are fat-soluble. Fish is on the National Academies' lists for both vitamin D and preformed vitamin A, and egg yolk carries vitamin D alongside some K2. We add beef liver to our D3 and K2 capsule because liver naturally contains retinol, the form of vitamin A found in animal foods.

Important Safety Notes

This article is general education. It is not medical advice, and it does not replace a conversation with your own practitioner.
If you are pregnant, nursing or taking any medication, talk to your healthcare practitioner before you start.
Vitamin K is involved in normal blood clotting. Anyone on a blood-thinning medicine needs their prescriber's go-ahead before adding it.
Holistico Whole Food Vitamin D contains beef liver powder and coconut (a tree nut allergen).
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The Bottom Line

If you take vitamin D3 and K2 every day, K2 shows up in your blood within hours and builds over weeks, while vitamin D rises for about six weeks and then holds. D3 helps you absorb calcium, and K2 switches on the protein that keeps it in bone. You can watch it happen on a blood test. Because it is a daily habit, choose a capsule made the way food is: Holistico Whole Food Vitamin D pairs lichen D3 and K2 with beef liver, red algae and coconut oil.

Next, read why vitamin D3 and K2 belong in one capsule, or why our D3 comes from lichen and not lanolin.

References

Institute of Medicine (2011). Overview of Vitamin D. In: Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D, chapter 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Institute of Medicine (2001). Vitamin K. In: Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc, chapter 5. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Institute of Medicine (2001). Vitamin A. In: Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc, chapter 4. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Schurgers, L. J., Teunissen, K. J., Hamulyák, K., Knapen, M. H., Vik, H., & Vermeer, C. (2007). Vitamin K-containing dietary supplements: comparison of synthetic vitamin K1 and natto-derived menaquinone-7. Blood, 109(8), 3279-3283.
Heaney, R. P., Davies, K. M., Chen, T. C., Holick, M. F., & Barger-Lux, M. J. (2003). Human serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol response to extended oral dosing with cholecalciferol. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 77(1), 204-210.
Uwitonze, A. M., & Razzaque, M. S. (2018). Role of magnesium in vitamin D activation and function. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 118(3), 181-189.
EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (2017). Dietary reference values for vitamin K. EFSA Journal, 15(5), e04780.