Health Benefits of Vitamin K - Food and Health

Health Benefits of Vitamin K

Vitamin K which is an essential fat soluble vitamin first discovered in the first half of the 20th century it has a well-known role in helping your body form blood clots which led it to be called antihemorrhagic factor and interestingly enough the name K or the letter K comes from the german or danish word for coagulation which starts with the k' and it may also be referred to a set of structurally similar molecules that are active in our bodies such as phil aqua now and fatahna di own and menaquinone zong I can't say them metabolically speaking vitamin K is a I said fatso vitamin so it requires functioning pancreas and biliary tree to adequately absorb through your gut is bound to proteins when you ingest it and so the pancreas has proteins that help strip that off and then I get sins or absorbed into your gut cells attached to lipoproteins like chylomicrons and then shipped off to various destinations it's action so its primary action or is it's a central component of the coagulation cascade which is part of the process that your body uses to stop bleeding in form blood clots and this is normal and healthy part of how your body manages that and it doesn't necessary for too deep vein thrombosis or strokes or anything like that it's also a cofactor for some proteins used in bone formation and like certain glycoproteins and it does share some relationship with management of bone mineral density but that's not really well understood at this point and its ability to prevent diseases of bone minerals disease such as osteoporosis osteoarthritis etc via supplementation is not well documented in the literature at this point it does have some other potential benefits it does appear to be neuroprotective or may be neuroprotective against Alzheimer's might reduce coronary artery calcification although its impact on cardiovascular events and mortality is not well documented does appear to potentially or may improve bone mineral density reduce the risk of fractures and oddly enough it and individuals who have had hepatocellular carcinoma which is a type of liver cancer have had that surgically removed it might reduce the risk of recurrence in those individuals toxicity is exceptionally rare the upper limit of vitamin K is not really well known clinical signs of symptoms of vitamin K deficiency include easy Bruce ability mucosal bleeding which is bleeding anywhere in your GI tract splinter hemorrhages which are clots under your nails and blood in the stool and urine essentially what you develop is a dietary induced dietary derived bleeding disorder and they're rare that the deficiency is rare and is usually associated with diseases of the GI tract that cause malabsorption such as cystic fibrosis or problems with your gall bladder or something like that and it does also have some association with bone mineral density diseases like osteoporosis hip fractures and increased risk of cardiovascular disease people who are deficient have those and interestingly enough it is also a common problem in newborns and they all receive a shot of vitamin or a dose of vitamin K shortly after delivery and it's not replaced they're at risk of developing vitamin K deficiency of the newborn which is essentially that same bleeding disorder I just described a second ago the reason for the deficiency is the liver enzymes I just aren't up to task right when the baby comes out and they don't use vitamin K very well sources are dark green or leafy vegetables and that's why most people on kuben are supposed to be very attentive to their vegetable intake and salads and stuff like that and it is also produced by a gut by by intestinal gut bacteria to a certain extent the recommended daily allowance and women is 90 micrograms and in men 120 and that's roughly based upon a 0.75 to 1 micrograms per kilogram of body weight and supplementation however is not generally necessary as most people obtain enough from dietary sources unless they have problems with their GI tract as I kind of mentioned before so I conclusion there's only a few things you really need to know about vitamin K it's an essential fat soluble protein its primary function the bodies to stop bleeding the coagulation cascade does appear to have some other benefits though especially with diseases of diseases of bone mineral density and cardiovascular disease deficiency does result in increased risk of bleeding but is not an issue in most people and the primary dietary sources are dark green and/or leafy green vegetables...