Symptoms of vitamin K deficiency

Vitamin K, a fat-soluble vitamin, is a necessary cofactor for the activation of coagulation factors II, VII, IX, X, and protein C and S.

Three forms of vitamin K are known: vitamin K1 (phylloquinone), vitamin K2 (menaquinones), and vitamin K3 (menadione).

Because vitamin K is available from various sources, vitamin K deficiency is a rare condition in adult humans. Vitamin K deficiency occurs in the neonatal period, in Hereditary Combined Vitamin K-dependent Clotting Factors Deficiency (VKCFD), inadequate uptake from diet or because of a chronic disorder, or it can be drug-related.

The major symptom of vitamin K deficiency is that blood clot very slow, so it will bleed for a long time even from minor injuries.

The bleeding may also be apparent if someone: gets small blood clots underneath their nails and bleeds in mucous membranes that line areas inside the body.

Vitamin K deficiency causes bug black and blue marks from very slight bruises or even for no reason, nosebleeds, blood in the urine and intestinal bleeding.
Symptoms of vitamin K deficiency

Fruit rich Vitamin K

Vitamin K deficiency

Vitamin K, a fat-soluble vitamin, is a necessary cofactor for the activation of coagulation factors II, VII, IX, X, and protein C and S.

The significant symptom of vitamin K deficiency in humans and in animals is the loss of the ability of the blood to clot which is, of course, a dangerous condition that can result in death whenever bleeding from cuts occurs.

It is believed that humans ordinarily receive adequate amounts of vitamin K in the diet. As a rule, vitamin K deficiency is rare – almost everyone gets more than enough from their own bacteria and from their food. According to the National Academy of Science Food and Nutrition Board, the dietary requirements are based on the intake of healthy adults, and the adequate intake is 120 and 90 ug/day for men and women, respectively

Sometime newborn babies don’t have enough vitamin K because they don’t yet have any bacteria to make it in their intestine. To make up for them, most newborns are given an injection of a tiny amount of vitamin K soon after birth.

When adults get vitamin K deficiency, it’s generally because they eat very few green vegetables or because they have been taking oral antibiotics for a long time.

The antibiotics kill off the intestine bacteria that make vitamin K. Sometimes vitamin K deficiency is caused by liver disease or a problem digesting fat.

Vitamin K deficiency can contribute to significant bleeding, poor bone development, osteoporosis, and increased cardiovascular disease.
Vitamin K deficiency

Food sources of vitamin K

Vitamin K is a nutrient that the body needs to stay healthy. It’s important for blood clotting and healthy bones and also has other functions in the body.

Eating a variety of foods that contain vitamin K is the best way to get the amount human need. Cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, and liver are good source of vitamin K, although moderate amounts are found in many other vegetables, as well as in cereals. Vitamin K is found in multivitamin/multimineral supplements. Vitamin K is also available in supplements of vitamin K alone or of vitamin K with a few other nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and/or vitamin D.

There are two forms of vitamin K: vitamin K1 and vitamin K2.
*Vitamin K1 is mostly found in plants and is human main dietary source of vitamin K.
*Vitamin K2 is found in fermented foods and in some meats and cheeses. It is also made by human body from the vitamin K1 in the food they eat.
Food sources of vitamin K

Properties of vitamin K

Compounds with vitamin K activity are substitute 1,4-naphthoquinones and therefore have the general chemical properties expected of all quinines.

Vitamin K compounds other than modified menadiones are soluble in lipids, ether and other non-polar organic solvents.

Vitamin K is essential for the synthesis of prothrombin a compound involved in the clotting of blood. Vitamin K is mostly needed to help to stop bleeding, but it has some other jobs as well.

The most important is the crucial role vitamin K, plays building bones. Vitamin K is needed to help hold onto the calcium in bones and make sure it’s getting to the right place.

Phylloquinones or vitamin K1 compounds are produced by plants. Vitamin K1 is synthesized commercially for use in infant formula, medical foods, and pharmaceutical, VitaminK1 is used in olestra-containing products.

Vitamin K1 is primarily absorbed in the jejunum and ileum; only small amounts are absorbed in the colon, Form the lymphatic system, vitamin K is transported to the circulatory system and in chylomicro9nsm to the liver from which it is distributed to target tissues.
Properties of vitamin

Vitamin K: Function and Effects of Deficiency

Vitamin K is known as the antihemorrhagic vitamin because it promotes blood coagulation. In 1929, Dam observed that newly hatched chicks develop a fatal hemorrhagic disease when raised on a ration adequate in all known vitamins and dietary essentials.

The factor missing from diet was present in the unsaponifiable nonsterol fraction of hog liver and of alfalfa. In 1935, the same investigator showed that the antihemorrhagic factor was associated with decrease in the prothrombin concentration in the blood.

Subsequent research led to the isolation and identification of vitamin K in 1939. There are at least two naturally occurring substances, vitamin K1 and K2, capable of preventing hemorrhagic diathesis due to lowered prothrombin levels. Vitamin K1 was isolated from alfalfa and K2 was isolated from fish meal.

Many related compounds also have vitamin K activity. A synthetic compound, 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone, is more potent than natural vitamin K. Menadione, the principle form of the vitamin used for clinical purposes, is used as the reference standard for measurement of vitamin K activity.

Vitamin K is fat soluble and relatively stable to heat, oxygen and moisture, but is destroyed by sunlight and alkalies. There is little or no destruction of the vitamin during food processing.

The exact biochemical function of vitamin K is not known. However, a well established symptom of vitamin K deficiency is defective blood coagulation: more specifically, vitamin K is required to maintain normal plasma levels of prothrombin and three other clotting factors (V11, 1X, and X). A reduction of any of these four factors, presumably all proteins, may be used to measure the action of vitamin K.

The finding also indicates that vitamin K also participates in oxidative phosphorylation and in mitochondrial electron transport.

Absorption of vitamin is dependent upon the presence of bile salts in the upper intestinal tract. After absorption, it is transported to the liver where it catalyzes the synthesis of prothrombin (factor 11).

Consequently, any disease or injury that obstructs the flow of bile, or damages the liver in such a manner that synthesis of prothrombin is inhibited, will cause a reduction in prothrombin. Since the blood-clotting process depends on the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin by the action of thrombin, the active form of prothrombin, decrease prothrombin formation will increase clotting time.
Vitamin K: Function and Effects of Deficiency

Forms of Vitamin K

Vitamin K actually comes in three different forms:
First, there’s vitamin K1, or phylloquinone. Phylloquinone is ubiquitously distributed in plants, green leafy, vegetables oils, and algae and is the main source of vitamin K in the human body. This group of lipophilic vitamins, mostly required for blood coagulation, also plays important roles in bone metabolism, calcification and vascular health.

Next, there’s Vitamin K2, also called menaquinone. This the form friendly bacteria in the intestines make. Vitamin K2 helps the body turn on biological switches that activate three critical preteens: osteocalcin, calcitonin, and matrix G1a. Osteocalcin, calcitonin, and matrix G1a are calcium-binding proteins that are essential in guiding into the bone.

The September 2003 International Journal of Oncology revealed that treating lung cancer patients with vitamin K2 slowed the growth of cancer cells. Among food sources of vitamin K2 are green vegetables, parsley, cilantro, watercress, culinary herbs and green drinks”.

The last form would be called vitamin K3. This is the artificial form, also called menadione. All vitamin K ends up in liver, where it’s used to make some of the substance that make blood clot.
Forms of Vitamin K

The importance of vitamin K

In 1929, Henrik Dam of Denmark discovered vitamin K. Vitamin K is a fat soluble vitamin has been implicated in both cardiovascular and bone health.

Vitamin K is needed for the production of prothrombin which is necessary for blood clotting. The blood clotting process involves the participation of a number of vitamin K dependent plasma proteins. They include factors II (prothrombin), XII (pro-convertin), IX (Christmas factor) and X (Stewart factor) and proteins C, S, Z and M.

It is also essential for bone formation and repair; it is necessary for the synthesis of osteocalcin, the protein in bone tissue on which calcium crystallizes. Consequently, it may help prevent osteoporosis.

The importance of the availability of sufficient vitamin K for the rate of carboxylation became evident when it was shown that osteocalcin circulating in the blood of normal volunteers only reach full carboxylation when vitamin K supplements were given.

Vitamin k plays important role in the intestine and aids in converting glucose into glycogen for storage in the liver, promoting healthy liver function.

It may increase resistance to infection in children and help prevent cancers that target the inner linings of the organs. It aids in promoting longevity.
The importance of vitamin K

Causes of vitamin K deficiency

Human intake of vitamin K comes from two main sources - diets and synthesis from intestinal bacteria. A primary deficiency of vitamin K is rare, but a secondary deficiency may occur in two circumstances.

First when fat absorption falters and second some drugs disrupt vitamin K’s synthesis. Vitamin K deficiencies can be caused by a variety of factors. These include:

*Not consuming enough of vitamin K from one's diet can contribute to a deficiency. Dietary vitamin K is highest in leafy green vegetables such as lettuce, kale, broccoli and collard greens.

*A diet with high intakes of salicylates can block vitamin K. Salicylates are found in foods such as nuts, fruits, spices and mints. Blocking vitamin K can "thin" the blood - it basically keeps blood from coagulating. 

*Prolonged use of some antibiotics decreases the intestinal flora that produce vitamin K, depleting vitamin K store. Antibiotics destroy not only harmful digestive tract bacteria, but also the beneficial intestinal bacteria that is needed to create vitamin K. Sulfonamides and broad-spectrum antibiotic drugs can virtually sterilize the lumen of the intestine, thus removing an important source do vitamin K for most animals.

Certain antibiotics such as cephalosporins that contain an N-methyl thiotetrazol ring, interfere directly with vitamin K activity.

*Candida (systemic yeast) infections have been linked to vitamin K deficiencies. An overgrowth of candida albicans or other kinds of yeast can crowd out the helpful bacteria in the digestive tract that make vitamin K.

*Lipid malabsorption. Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, biliary stasis, liver disease, cystic fibrosis, celiac disease and Ascaris infection can interfere, with the enteric absorption of vitamin K.

*Ingestion of high-dose aspirin, high dose vitamin E, warfarin or other anticoagulants is a common cause of vitamin K deficiency, either from decreased absorption or vitamin antagonism.
Causes of vitamin K deficiency

What are the functions of Vitamin K in human body?

The term ‘vitamin K’ is a generic term used for all compounds possessing cofactor activity for γ-glutamylcarboxylase.

Two forms of vitamin K exist in nature: vitamin K1 and vitamin K2. Vitamin K1 or phylloquinone, is found in plant foods. Vitamin K2, or menaquinone, is synthesized by intestinal bacteria.

Vitamin K is fat soluble. Vitamin K plays a crucial role in hemostasis. It is necessary for the synthesis of prothrombin (factors II) and several other hepatic clotting factors.

All these factors and proteins plus calcium are key links in the chain of events producing a blood clot. 

Although the role of vitamin K in the coagulation process is the most well known, vitamin K has additional metabolic functions including bone mineralization, vascular calcification and cell growth.

Vitamin K also was found participates with vitamin D in synthesizing the bone protein, which helps to regulate serum calcium levels.

Leafy vegetables, cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, fruit and liver are especially good sources of vitamin K, although moderate amounts are found in many other vegetables, as well, as in cereals.

A deficiency of vitamin K causes hypoprothrombinemia and a tendency to bleed excessively. Newborn hemorrhagic disease is the classic example of vitamin K deficiency.

It is believed that humans ordinarily receive adequate amounts of vitamin K in the diet.
What are the functions of Vitamin K in human body?