Vitamin K excellent blood-clotting assistant
by KC Jones, feature editor

    Researchers have discovered that there is more to vitamin K than its critical role in blood clotting. It also helps regulate calcium and prevent osteoporosis and heart disease.

   Vitamin K comes from two main sources: our diets and synthesis from intestinal bacteria.

   Dietary vitamin K1 is known as phylloquinone. The richest food sources include green leafy vegetables including spinach, green cabbage, kale, Swiss chard and turnip greens. Other good sources are broccoli, tomatoes, liver, lean meats and dairy products.

   One serving of spinach or two servings of broccoli provide four to five times the RDA of phylloquinone.

   The body conserves vitamin K, and the microbiologic flora of the intestines synthesizes vitamin K2. Vitamin K deficiency in adults can still occur if there is little dietary intake, extensive surgery or long-term antibiotic treatment.

   Antibiotics destroy not only harmful bacteria, but also the beneficial intestinal bacteria needed to create vitamin K. One can eat yogurt or special supplements to help replace the beneficial intestinal bacteria.

   Certain drugs, including anticonvulsants, anticoagulants and megadoses of vitamin A or E can inhibit vitamin K. Salicylates, found in foods such as nuts, fruits, spices and mints, can also block vitamin K.

   Aspirin is a salicylate and by blocking vitamin K can “thin” the blood. It basically keeps blood from coagulating, and too much can cause stomach and intestinal bleeding.

   Anticoagulants block the action of vitamin K. In turn, vitamin K can block the action of anticoagulants. This is why people taking these types of medications have limits on how much vitamin K they get in their diet.

   But, taking large amounts of vitamin K does not cause the blood to over-coagulate because the body is self-regulating and uses the vitamin only where and when it needs it. Although toxicity is rare, doctors find that high vitamin K intake can interfere with anticoagulant medications.

   Like aspirin, garlic, ginger or ginkgo, vitamin K actually prevents blood clots by preventing platelet aggregation that causes blood cells to abnormally clump together.

   Coagulation is a chemical reaction involving calcium and K. According to Rebecca Elstrom, M.D. of Hemato-logy-Oncology at the University of Penn-sylvania Medical Center, normal clotting requires vitamin K factors to reverse clotting as well because it controls the beginning and ending messages for coagulation in the body.

   Because vitamin K is needed by the liver to make blood clotting factors, bleeding and easy bruisability are the first symptoms occurring in vitamin K deficiency. Bleeding may begin as a slow ooze from a surgical wound or heavy menstrual bleeding.

   Deficiencies of vitamin K have also been linked to gastrointestinal bleeding, blood in the urine, nosebleeds, eye hemorrhages, anemia, gum bleeding, prolonged clotting times and hemorrhaging.

   Vitamin K supplementation should be considered before surgery is contemplated.

   Newborns are particularly vulnerable to vitamin K deficiency because the placenta poorly transmits vitamin K, and the baby’s liver hasn’t developed enough to synthesize it. Because breast milk is low in vitamin K, deficient infants are at risk of hemorrhagic disease, a major worldwide cause of infant mortality. Unfortunately, the low vitamin K content in breast milk is not because of deficient consumption and cannot be increased by eating vitamin-K-rich foods.

   Many newborns receive the generic form of vitamin K routinely at birth in hospitals to reduce the incidence of intracranial hemorrhage from birth trauma.

   Because vitamin K is needed to coagulate blood and to maintain proper bone density, it plays a key role in proper development of the fetus. Birth defects linked directly to vitamin K deficiencies include underdevelopment of the nose, mouth and mid face. Pregnant women can be given phytonadione, 2 to 5 mg a day for one week before expected delivery.  

   Certain birth defects have been linked to anticonvulsant drugs, which block vitamin K. These defects include a variety of craniofacial abnormalities, mental retardation, learning disabilities, cardiac abnormalities and growth deficiency. It is recommended that pregnant women taking anticonvulsants receive 20 mg of phytonadione a day for two weeks before delivery.

   Vitamin K also helps the body make a noncollagen protein called osetocalcin, which binds calcium in the bone and helps hold it in place, keeping the bone mineralized. This mineralization helps prevent and even treat osteoporosis. Related deficiency symptoms include connective tissue disorders such as scoliosis, hypermobility, fractures and calcification of soft tissue, especially heart valves.

   Estrogen drugs are given to women to prevent osteoporosis, but have serious side effects. The dairy industry’s approach doesn’t address the underlying cause of bone mass loss. Research shows that vitamin K keeps calcium in the bones and out of the arteries, preventing osteoporosis and even heart attack. Without the required K to regulate calcium, it drifts out of the bone and into arteries and other soft tissue.

   A Japanese study of heart attacks associated with calcification of the aorta found vitamin K and vitamin E reduced the calcium level in the aorta. The study reported that valve damage was drastically reversed by K and E vitamins. They found K to be a stronger antioxidant than E or coenzyme q-10.

   Vitamin K can be used topically to help the skin heal from wounds, including surgical incisions, burns, bruises and stretch marks.

   Studies show that people with Alzheimer’s disease have problems controlling calcium in the brain as well as bones.

   Because many features of common chronic disorders, especially connective tissue disorders, are identical to the symptoms of vitamin K deficiencies, it is possible that vitamin K deficiencies may be an overlooked factor in many disorders currently attributed to other causes.