Cascade
Cascade
The volcanic mountain range of the Pacific Northwest. Ancient, enduring, and defined by a resilience that comes from being formed under conditions most things could not survive.
Vitamin K2. From your gut, not a supplement.
The ancient bacterium that resolves the calcium paradox.
Rich and creamy. A clean, mild flavor. Our everyday classic.
Richer, with a deeper and more complex flavor. For those who want more from every jar.
Our richest and thickest. Cold-strained for maximum culture concentration.
Produced in a home kitchen under the Wyoming Food Freedom Act - not inspected by the state or a local health department. For informed consumers only.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
The bacterium that survived 25 million years in amber.
Bacillus subtilis has been recovered viable from 25-million-year-old Dominican amber. Its spores have survived the vacuum and radiation of open space. It is found in soil on every continent, has been continuously consumed in fermented foods for over a millennium, and is one of the most genetically characterized organisms in all of microbiology — a model organism used to understand fundamental bacterial processes for over a century.
Its resilience is structural. B. subtilis forms endospores — a dormant biological state surrounded by a multi-layered protein coat that can survive extreme heat, acid, desiccation, UV radiation, and chemical environments that would destroy virtually any other organism. When conditions improve, the spore germinates and the organism resumes full metabolic activity. This is not a dormancy of weakness. It is a strategy of patience — surviving conditions that eliminate competition, then establishing where others cannot.
In the Japanese fermented soybean food natto — made by fermenting cooked soybeans with B. subtilis var. natto — the organism produces the richest natural concentration of Vitamin K2 in the MK-7 form of any known food source. Natto has been a daily staple in parts of Japan for over 1,000 years, and the regions with the highest natto consumption show some of the lowest rates of hip fracture and cardiovascular calcification in the world. Cascade's B. subtilis continues this tradition in a form accessible to people who have no particular affection for fermented soybeans.
"Vitamin K2 is not vitamin K1 with a different number. They are structurally distinct, metabolized differently, activate different proteins, and have different biological effects. Confusing the two — as food labeling often does — obscures one of the most significant and least discussed nutritional gaps in Western medicine."
The deficiency that produces no symptoms until it is too late to reverse.
Vitamin K2 deficiency is one of the most widespread and least diagnosed nutritional deficiencies in Western populations. Unlike K1 deficiency, which produces bleeding disorders that are clinically obvious, K2 deficiency produces no acute symptoms. Its effects are cumulative — accelerating bone density loss and arterial calcification over decades before they become clinically apparent.
Western diets are low in K2 from two directions: low in fermented foods (where B. subtilis and other K2-producing bacteria historically provided dietary K2), and low in the animal products that contain preformed K2 (grass-fed dairy, organ meats, egg yolks from pastured birds). The foods that historically provided K2 — traditional fermented vegetables, aged hard cheeses, natto — have been largely replaced by foods that contain none. The result is that most Western adults are chronically deficient in a nutrient they likely have never had tested and may not know exists.
Found in leafy greens. Primarily activates clotting factors in the liver. Rapidly cleared. Does not accumulate in extrahepatic tissue. Not effective at activating osteocalcin or MGP.
Found in some animal products. Shorter side chain than MK-7. Cleared quickly. Does not sustain K2 activity between doses. Requires frequent dosing to maintain extrahepatic activity.
Produced by B. subtilis through the menaquinone biosynthesis pathway. Long side chain allows accumulation in extrahepatic tissue. Sustained plasma levels. Most effective form for activating osteocalcin in bone and MGP in arteries. Produced by Cascade.
Traditional fermented foods containing K2-producing bacteria — natto, certain aged cheeses, fermented vegetables — have been replaced in Western diets by processed foods containing none. The gut bacteria that produce K2 endogenously are present at insufficient levels in most Western adults to compensate for the dietary shortfall.
Grass-fed dairy and pastured eggs contain meaningful K2 from the animals' own K2-producing gut bacteria. Grain-fed animals — which dominate commercial production — contain minimal K2. The historical dietary K2 from animal products has largely disappeared from Western food supplies without being replaced by fermented food sources.
B. subtilis populations in the gut contribute to endogenous K2 production. Antibiotic courses disrupt these populations. Combined with already-low dietary K2 intake, antibiotic use represents a period of near-zero K2 availability that may take months to partially recover from — and never fully recovers without deliberate replenishment.
Many adults take calcium supplements for bone health. Without adequate K2, supplemental calcium cannot be efficiently directed to bone (osteocalcin is not activated) and may deposit in arterial walls instead (MGP is not activated). Multiple studies have associated calcium supplementation without K2 with increased cardiovascular risk. K2 is the routing mechanism for calcium — and most people taking calcium have never considered whether they have enough of it.
How B. subtilis resolves the calcium paradox.
The calcium paradox: calcium is essential for bone strength, yet calcium supplementation without adequate K2 is associated with arterial calcification. K2 is the protein activator that routes calcium to bone and away from arteries. B. subtilis is the organism that produces it.
B. subtilis produces Vitamin K2 in the MK-7 form through the menaquinone biosynthesis pathway — a multi-step enzymatic process that builds the long isoprenoid side chain characteristic of MK-7. The 7-unit side chain is what gives MK-7 its extended plasma half-life of approximately 72 hours, compared to 1 to 2 hours for K1 and MK-4. This extended half-life allows MK-7 to accumulate in extrahepatic tissue — bone, arterial walls, kidney — where it activates the proteins that K1 and MK-4 cannot reach before being cleared.
Osteocalcin is a protein produced by osteoblasts (bone-building cells) that binds calcium ions and deposits them into the hydroxyapatite crystal matrix of bone — the process that gives bone its mineralized strength. The binding requires that osteocalcin be carboxylated — a modification that requires Vitamin K2 as the essential cofactor. Without K2, osteocalcin remains undercarboxylated (ucOC), cannot bind calcium effectively, and bone mineralization is impaired even when dietary calcium intake is adequate. K2 is not a calcium supplement. It is the mechanism that makes calcium useful for bone.
Matrix Gla Protein (MGP) is the body's most potent inhibitor of arterial and soft tissue calcification. It is produced by vascular smooth muscle cells specifically to prevent calcium from depositing in arterial walls — a process that stiffens arteries and is a primary mechanism of cardiovascular disease. MGP also requires K2 for activation. Without K2, MGP remains inactive (ucMGP), and calcium can deposit freely in arterial tissue. The Rotterdam Study documented the clinical consequence: low dietary MK intake was significantly associated with coronary artery calcification and coronary heart disease mortality. Activating MGP is K2's arterial protective function; it operates independently of and in parallel to its bone-building function.
Beyond K2 production, B. subtilis produces antimicrobial lipopeptides — iturin A and surfactin — that disrupt the cell membranes of competing pathogenic bacteria and fungi through a detergent-like mechanism. These compounds create a competitive disadvantage for common gut pathogens without broadly disrupting surrounding beneficial bacteria, whose membrane composition differs. B. subtilis's gut defense is additive to its K2 production — the organism is simultaneously a K2 factory and a microbial guardian.
B. subtilis cell wall components — particularly its peptidoglycan and lipoteichoic acid — activate macrophages and dendritic cells through pattern recognition receptors (NOD and TLR signaling). This innate immune stimulation primes the immune system's first-line defense without producing the chronic inflammatory signaling that pathogenic organisms generate. B. subtilis activates without inflaming — a characteristic consistent with an organism that has co-existed with the human immune system through evolutionary time.
Published research. Read it yourself.
The Rotterdam Study is one of the most cited cardiovascular nutrition studies in history. Four studies establishing the K2 evidence base and B. subtilis's role in producing it.
Read the detail
The Rotterdam Study followed 4,807 men and women over 10 years, measuring dietary Vitamin K intake — both K1 from vegetables and K2 as menaquinone from fermented foods and dairy — against incidence of coronary heart disease, coronary heart disease mortality, and aortic calcification measured radiographically. This was a prospective cohort study: participants were tracked before disease onset.
Higher dietary menaquinone (K2) intake was significantly inversely associated with coronary heart disease mortality, all-cause mortality, and aortic calcification. No statistically significant protective association was found for Vitamin K1, despite K1 being far more abundant in the diet. The researchers concluded that K2 — specifically from fermented food sources — was the active protective form, consistent with K2's role in activating MGP to prevent arterial calcification. The study established that K2 and K1 are not interchangeable, and that the absence of K2 in Western diets has measurable cardiovascular consequences.
Read the detail
A pharmacokinetic comparison of MK-4 and MK-7 — two forms of Vitamin K2 — in human subjects, measuring plasma half-life, peak concentration, area under the curve, and tissue distribution following single oral dosing. The study was designed to determine which form of K2 provides more sustained plasma levels and better ability to activate extrahepatic proteins (osteocalcin in bone, MGP in arteries).
MK-7 had a dramatically longer plasma half-life than MK-4 — approximately 72 hours versus 1 to 2 hours — and superior accumulation in extrahepatic tissue including bone. At physiological dietary doses, MK-7 produced sustained carboxylation of both osteocalcin and MGP throughout the day, while MK-4 at equivalent doses did not maintain adequate plasma levels between doses to sustain extrahepatic protein carboxylation. This pharmacokinetic study established why MK-7 — the form produced by B. subtilis — is the K2 form with the strongest evidence for bone and cardiovascular protection.
Read the detail
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 244 healthy postmenopausal women followed for three years. Participants received either MK-7 supplementation or placebo daily. Primary outcomes were bone mineral density and bone strength index measured by DXA and high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT. Carboxylated and undercarboxylated osteocalcin were measured as biochemical markers of K2 status.
MK-7 supplementation significantly decreased the age-related decline in bone mineral content and bone mineral density at the lumbar spine, and significantly improved bone strength index compared to placebo over the three-year period. Carboxylated osteocalcin levels increased significantly in the MK-7 group, confirming that the supplementation was activating the osteocalcin pathway as predicted by the mechanism. The study provided the longest and most rigorous RCT evidence for MK-7's bone-protective effects in humans.
Read the detail
A comprehensive review by one of the leading researchers on Vitamin K biology, synthesizing the evidence for K2's role in osteocalcin activation, Matrix Gla Protein activation, and the broader family of vitamin K-dependent proteins expressed in extrahepatic tissue. The review covers the mechanistic basis for K2's bone and cardiovascular effects, explains why K1 and K2 differ so substantially in their extrahepatic effects, and addresses the K2 deficiency landscape in Western populations.
The review established that at least 17 vitamin K-dependent proteins have been identified in human extrahepatic tissue, that most Western adults are functionally deficient in K2 for extrahepatic protein activation (even when K1 intake is adequate), and that the dietary shortfall of MK-7 from fermented food sources is the primary driver of this deficiency. The review also articulated the calcium paradox mechanism in its most complete form: calcium supplementation without K2 may increase cardiovascular risk by directing calcium to arteries rather than bone. Vermeer's work forms the theoretical and mechanistic foundation for the Rotterdam Study's clinical findings.
Note: PubMed links use search queries rather than direct DOIs. Identify the correct paper by author, journal, and year. Vital Yogurts is not affiliated with any research institutions cited.
Honest about what to expect.
Cascade's most important effects produce no felt experience. Osteocalcin carboxylation and MGP activation are silent processes — working against bone density loss and arterial calcification in the background of daily life. This is the culture you use precisely because you cannot feel it working.
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Bone and arterial effects — measurable over months and years
The Knapen et al. trial ran three years. The Rotterdam Study followed people for ten. These are the timescales on which K2's bone and cardiovascular protective effects operate. People tracking bone density scans or arterial calcification scores over years of consistent Cascade use may see differences in these markers relative to age-matched peers. These are not felt experiences. They are among the most clinically important outcomes a daily probiotic can contribute to.
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A more stable gut environment
B. subtilis's iturin and surfactin production, combined with its spore-forming resilience, creates competitive pressure against gut pathogens that most other cultures cannot sustain. People who use Cascade consistently often describe a gut that is less affected by the dietary variation and ambient microbial exposures that previously caused disruption. This is B. subtilis's competitive exclusion mechanism operating in the background of the more dramatic K2 story.
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A note on calcium supplements
If you currently take calcium supplements for bone health, consistent Cascade use ensures that the K2 needed to direct that calcium to bone — via carboxylated osteocalcin — and away from arteries — via activated MGP — is available at adequate levels. This does not make calcium supplements unnecessary. It makes them work as intended. We flag this because many people take calcium without knowing that K2 is the cofactor that determines where that calcium actually goes.
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The culture worth keeping indefinitely
The benefits of Cascade are not about a 30-day intervention or a seasonal boost. They are about maintaining adequate MK-7 production and competitive gut defense consistently, over years, during the period when bone density and arterial health are quietly being determined. There is no natural end point to this use case. If you are over 40 and you do not regularly consume natto or traditional aged fermented cheese, the case for Cascade as a permanent daily habit is as strong as it is for any culture in the line.
Our Live Fermented Milks are genuinely potent. When you introduce a large number of live beneficial cultures into a microbiome that has grown quieter over time, your body notices. Some people feel temporary bloating or mild discomfort in the first hour or two after their first few servings. This is your body adjusting. It passes. Start with two to four ounces and pay attention to how you feel before adding more. The daily ritual builds over weeks, not hours.
Cultures that complement Cascade.
Cascade handles the K2 and competitive defense. Acadia adds the oxytocin pathway bone-protective effect. Glacier's B. coagulans adds the recovery-focused anti-inflammatory mechanism.
L. reuteri's oxytocin pathway also has documented bone-protective effects through osteoblast stimulation — a complementary mechanism to Cascade's K2-mediated bone mineralization.
Glacier B. coagulans / B. subtilisB. coagulans in Glacier adds the post-exercise recovery mechanism alongside B. subtilis. For people who train consistently, Glacier and Cascade together provide the full B. subtilis picture plus direct recovery support.
Shenandoah Bifidobacterium infantisButyrate production supports colonocyte health; IL-10 reduces systemic inflammation. Gut barrier integrity from Shenandoah reduces the LPS load that drives the inflammatory bone loss Cascade's K2 counteracts.