Vitamin K is an essential nutrient that is required as a cofactor for the production of a handful of coagulation cascade proteins.
As a rule, vitamin K deficiency is rare – almost everyone gets more than enough from their own bacteria and from their food.
The intestinal tract of a new born infant is sterile. For this reason, the baby is unable to produce vitamin K until the intestine is colonized with bacteria from the infant’s environment, usually within 24 hrs.
To make up for them, most newborns are given an injection of a tiny amount of vitamin K soon after birth.
Vitamin K deficiency is rarely seen in adults, because most diets contain enough vitamin K for normal physiological functioning. When adults get vitamin K deficiency, it’s generally because they eat very few green vegetables or because they have been taking oral antibiotics for a long time.
The antibiotics kill off the intestine bacteria that make vitamin K. Sometimes vitamin K deficiency is caused by liver disease or a problem digesting fat.
Abnormal blood coagulation is more likely to arise from secondary causes such as malabsorption syndromes or biliary obstruction than from a dietary inadequacy of vitamin K.
Vitamin K deficiency causes bug black and blue marks from very slight bruises or even for no reason, nosebleeds, blood in your urine and intestinal bleeding.
Deficiency of vitamins K in human body
