Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting and bones. If there is a deficiency, it can be dangerous. An overview with all information.
If you injure yourself, blood comes out of the wound. When this clots, a scab forms that stops bleeding and helps wounds heal. vitamin K is with this one process essential. And this is not the only function the vitamin has: A deficiency can have a wide variety of consequences. This article provides an overview of vitamin K deficiency: its causes, occurrence, symptoms and treatment.
What is vitamin K?
Like vitamins A, E and D, vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin. It plays a special role in blood clotting as it supports the clotting of proteins. It is also involved in strengthening bones and, according to researchers, could also protect blood vessels. However, vitamin K is a collective term that includes different substances: On the one hand, there is vitamin K1, which must be ingested through food. Green vegetables such as broccoli, peas and kale are particularly high in K1.
In addition to K1, there is also K2 – where this according to the Society for Applied Vitamin Research (GVF) is also a collective term for a group of compounds that are mainly found in dairy products but also in other foods. Intestinal bacteria in the large intestine also produce vitamin K2, but this amount cannot cover the total vitamin K requirement. Vitamin K is hardly stored, but it is found in the liver and other tissues, including the brain, heart, bones and pancreas.
Requirements: How much vitamin K do I need?
How much vitamin K the body needs every day depends on age and, after a certain age, also on gender. The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) lists 15 to 50 micrograms as the daily reference value for children, depending on their age. For adolescents and adults, the DGE recommends 70 micrograms for men and 60 micrograms for women. From the age of 50, the values increase. You can find a detailed tabular overview of the reference values on the DGE website.
Newborns: Babies need a lot of vitamin K
Vitamin K is particularly important immediately after birth and in the first few months afterwards. “Babies can only store small amounts of the vitamin and breast milk contains little of it,” explains pediatrician Monika Niehaus in a statement from the Professional Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ). The consequence of the vitamin K deficiency is an increased tendency to bleed, which begins after just a few days. “Newborns have a particularly high risk of cerebral hemorrhage, which can then lead to permanent mental damage or even death,” says Niehaus.
That is why the DGE gives its own reference values for babies:
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- From birth to four months of age, babies need four microgram vitamin K
- Between four and months until the end of the first year of life, babies reach ten microgram vitamin K
Babies are given vitamin K as drops in their mouth immediately after birth. During the U2 examination (between the third and tenth day of life) and the U3 (in the fourth to fifth week of life), the children are also supplied with the vitamin. If the children are no longer breastfed, but eat mixed foods – for example baby food with spinach or other vegetables – they are naturally sufficiently supplied with vitamin K.
Risk: How common is vitamin K deficiency?
In most countries, estimated average intakes of vitamin K meet recommended levels, according to the GVF. According to that medical encyclopedia MSD manuals Vitamin K deficiency is most common in infants, especially those who are breastfed. Children who have a disease that interferes with fat absorption or who have liver disease are also at increased risk of deficiency symptoms. The encyclopedia also writes: “The risk is also increased if the mother has taken antiepileptic drugs (such as phenytoin), anticoagulants (to inhibit blood clotting) or certain antibiotics.”
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Vitamin K deficiency rarely occurs in healthy adults, as they usually get enough vitamin K through food and bacteria in the intestine also produce the vitamin.
Vitamin K: what are the causes of a deficiency?
Vitamin K deficiency can occur in adults for a variety of reasons:
- Diet low in vitamin K
- Very low-fat diet, since fat-soluble vitamin K is best taken with some fat
- Diseases that impede the absorption of fat and thus the absorption of vitamin Decrease K (e.g. cystic fibrosis)
- Certain medications (such as antiepileptics and some antibiotics)
However, these cases are quite rare. That Institute for Nutritional Medicine at the Technical University of Munich describes a diet low in vitamin K as “difficult to achieve in practice”.
Vitamin K deficiency: typical symptoms
Vitamin K can be deficient. And like everyone other forms of vitamin deficiency carries great dangers. Mentioned as symptoms and consequences MSD manuals:
- formation of bruises,
- nosebleeds
- long bleeding from a wound
- Stomach or intestinal bleeding
- rare: bloody vomiting
- rare: blood in the urine or stool (possibly black stool)
- In newborns: cerebral haemorrhage
- weak bones
Diagnosis: how is vitamin K deficiency detected?
If, as mentioned above, unusual bleeding occurs in people – especially those with risk potential – or injuries bleed for an unusually long time, there is a suspicion of a vitamin K deficiency. Then you should go to the doctor. The diagnosis gets loud MSD manuals confirmed by blood clotting tests. Sometimes the level of vitamin K in the blood is measured. “Knowing how much vitamin K people are consuming helps doctors interpret blood test results,” it says.
What to do? Prevention of vitamin K deficiency
If a vitamin K deficiency occurs in adults, the affected person is given the missing vitamin K orally after the diagnosis. There are drops of oils enriched with vitamin K for this purpose. The vitamin can also be injected directly under the skin. In most cases, however, a balanced diet with sufficient green vegetables such as cabbage will help.
If a drug is the cause, its dose is adjusted or additional vitamin K is administered. As with the lack of Vitamin D, vitamin C, Vitamin B12 or Vitamin B6 Most symptoms usually subside quickly once the vitamin deficiency has been rectified. However, there is also a risk of vitamin K Overdose from additional vitamin supplements.