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Deficiency Diseases and Good Nutrition
Vitamin K (Koagulationsvitamin)
C31H46O2
Vitamin K is essential for proper blood clotting. There are many essential proteins and enzymes needed for coagulation (blood forming clots). Four of these proteins need vitamin K to be formed. Without these proteins your blood could not clot and you could not heal broken vessels. If you had no vitamin K, you could not scab, and would continue bleeding.

Vitamin K is produced in your intestinal tract, but it does not produce enough to keep you healthy. You also need to eat some vitamin K. It is impossible to figure out the vitamin K content in foods exactly, so K is usually left off the food composition tables. Below are estimates of vitamin K content in foods.



Foods High in Vitamin K

Food    mcg of K/100 g of food
Kale            729 
Turnip greens   650
Spinach         415
Broccoli        175
Lettuce         129
Cabbage         125
Beef liver       92
Watercress       80
Asparagus        57
Bacon            46
Green beans      40
Cheese           35
Butter           30
Pork liver       25
Whole wheat      17
Ham              15
Strawberry       10
Peach             8
Human milk     0.2 mcg

It is estimated that your body makes about half of the vitamin K needed. You need about 1 mcg/kg of body weight. You should get about half of this from foods. Vitamin K is fat soluble, so you don't have to eat it every day; your body stores it. The average mixed diet contains 300-500 mcg/day, which is far above what you actually need.

Vitamin K deficiencies are rare, but they do happen. Sometimes your body has a hard time absorbing lipids, and because K is fat soluble, the body cannot absorb it either. Antibiotics or mineral oil (laxative) can damage the intestinal flora which synthesize the vitamin. Newborn infants do not have the intestinal bacteria to produce vitamin K, and human milk is low in it. If the baby does not have adequate stores, they can get a deficiency. Make sure you get enough vitamin K when you are pregnant. Anticoagulant drugs stop coagulation of blood by affecting clotting factors that are dependent on vitamin K. Taking a lot of aspirin can also interfere with blood clotting because of the way it affects platelet aggregation.

Vitamin K toxicity does not happen that often and is not well understood. Too much K in the form of supplements causes anemia in rats and kernicterus in infants. More studies are needed to better understand this toxicity.

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Revised: 14 Sep 99