What Is Vitamin K Used For?
Vitamin K does not receive popular attention like the A through E vitamins do, perhaps because deficiencies are very rare. It is found in a wide variety of foods and also is produced naturally within the human body. Nevertheless, vitamin K is vitally important for health in regard to blood and bones.
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Function
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Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting (coagulation). Clotting is vital for stopping bleeding from exterior wounds and interior bleeding. The most common form of internal bleeding, the bruise, can become a serious problem when there are deficiencies in the coagulation process, such as in the genetic disorder hemophilia.
Vitamin K also is important for bone formation and repair, and it assists in converting glucose from carbohydrates to glycogen in the intestines, so the glycogen can be stored in the liver, muscle and other tissues for later use.
Features
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Vitamin K is produced by bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract and is also found in many foods, particularly leafy green vegetables. Spinach, kale, cabbage, turnip greens and broccoli are great sources. Vitamin K also occurs in cauliflower, soybeans, oats, milk, yogurt and cheddar cheese.
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Significance
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The most common administering of vitamin K as an individual supplement is to newborns. Because breast milk has low levels of vitamin K, all infants born in hospitals receive supplements to prevent deficiencies that sometimes occur. Midwives attending home births also offer vitamin K as a supplement, although parents have the right to refuse it.
Considerations
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Since antibiotics kill the friendly intestinal bacteria, people taking these drugs have a greater need for vitamin K. Bacteria return after the antibiotic regimen is finished, being replenished by the food people consume.
Types
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Doctors prescribe vitamin K for overdoses of the drug warfarin, a blood-thinning pharmaceutical people take when they have atrial fibrillation (heartbeat irregularity), venous thrombosis (blood clots in veins), or pulmonary embolism (blood clots in lungs). It is also a successful antidote for rat poison, which works as an anticoagulant to cause internal bleeding of rodents. In fact, rat poison manufacturers have long used warfarin in their products because of its blood-thinning properties.
Vitamin K is a common prescription in veterinary medicine due to pets getting into rat poison. Depending on the situation's severity, a veterinarian might provide an injection of vitamin K and several weeks of supplements.
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