Every single of human want to have healthy and strong body. We can do many useful things for our self, our family and society when we have healthy body. Human body needs vitamin so their body’s organs can perform better. There are some kind of vitamins that are already well-known by people such as A, B, C, E. Here we are going to discuss a little about Vitamin K. Yes, of course not many of us know about Vitamin K.
When we mention the word Vitamin K we will be led to one word which is ‘Coagulation’. It is the other name of Vitamin K. Coagulation itself is a blood clotting process. Like other fat-soluble vitamins, Vitamin K is one of them. Human body does need Vitamin K to complete the body needs of vitamin. Although it is so rare, there are cases of lack of Vitamin K in this world and even overdose. People with lack of Vitamin K will have serious problem with blood circulation. It can make the clotting process works poorly, which can cause a wound healing process become so hard. As we many know human body can cure itself naturally. When the body does not have enough amount of Vitamin K, the body cannot produce its cure naturally. Even to a very small wound and of course it can cause a fatal injured that may lead to death. People who are overdose of vitamin K will have health disorder.
Human body only needs a small amount of Vitamin K, which is around 75 – 120 mcg for adult. When we take too much of Vitamin K, it can become a dangerous toxic for the body which can lead to stroke and other blood circulation diseases.
People who suffer the lack of Vitamin K will easily get bruises and marks in their skin whenever they have even a single minor accident or injury.
Types of Vitamin K
Vitamin K is split into three kinds, which are K1, K2, and K3. Let’s check what vitamin K1, K2, K3 is and their function for human body and health.
Vitamin K1
The group of Vitamin K1 is the vitamin that we can find in all kind of green vegetables and some vegetables with different color. This type of vitamin K is very natural and can be absorbed by human body and it is non-toxic. The absorption by the body will be better if it is taken along with other foods with good fat such as salmon and low fat meat.
The function:
- Can be absorbed directly by lever and can help the blood clotting process that can make our body keep healthy.
- Slow down the regeneration of cancer, especially lung cancer, as what have been found in the research and written in “International Journal of Oncology” in September 2003.
Vitamin K2
The type of vitamin can be found from the process in the body. The bacteria in the body have the biggest role in this type. Vitamin K2 works through blood vessel, bone, and all kind of tissue in the body except lever.
The function:
- Help to lower the risk of heart diseases and protect the heart to keep it healthy.
- Lower the risk for the artery to be stiffed so it can prevent heart attack.
- It can help the absorption of calcium in the body.
- Protect the bone solidity with the absorption of calcium to prevent osteoporosis.
- Protect nerve system that can help to lower and prevent Alzheimer.
Vitamin K3
This one is synthetic. This type is not recommended because it can be toxic and bring out side effects. It must be used only by doctor recommendation.
The Benefit of Vitamin K for Body
We can find Vitamin K in our daily consumable food and beverage such as green vegetable, soy bean, broccoli, asparagus, milk, and lever. You can get the deeper explanation about them later in this article.
Human body has Vitamin K production in its colon that comes from good bacteria inside the body. However the natural Vitamin K that has been produced by the body is not sufficient so human still have to find other sources which are from foods.
To be able to understand and know more about Vitamin K, we need to look up its uses and benefits for human body. That will be elaborate as below.
- Vitamin K helps to keep the bones healthy and stronger.
A sufficient amount of Vitamin K can strengthen bones and make them more solid. Mineral along with Vitamin K create solid and strong bones. Vitamin K has big role as it helps osteocalcin (a hormone in body) to absorb mineral that is very important for the bones.
- Vitamin K helps to prevent diabetes.
By consuming and having enough Vitamin K in the body, is capable to prevent and press the possibility for insulin to be resistant. The normal insulin hormone production can turn glucose in the body into energy. So the human body organ can have enough supply of energy. We can prevent diabetes by maintaining and controlling our foods that contain Vitamin K in it.
- Vitamin K prevent abnormal bleeding (Hemorrhagic)
Hemorrhagic is one of the terms where the blood cannot stop. This is because the blood clotting doesn’t work well especially for babies. The babies need to get Vitamin K from outside since theirs haven’t produces many Vitamin K. This can be done by breastfeeding the babies. To have Vitamin K containing in the breast milk, the mother should have sufficient amount of vitamin K so that she can breast feed the baby and help the baby body to be able to coagulate and clot the blood.
- Reducing the possibilities of cancer.
Cancer is one of the most killing diseases that we all know every year many people died because of cancer and there are many of us that still fight for a living. Vitamin K inside the body can prevent cancer. It helps to lower the risk of cancer by reducing the cancer growth in lever and lung. Consuming foods with Vitamin K in it can be another choice to fight for the great number of death by cancer.
- Vitamin K as a bone support
It is well stated that Vitamin K can support bones. The nutrient in Vitamin K is good for bone health. It has repeatedly shown that people who doesn’t consume or lack of Vitamin K has a greater risk of fracture. Vitamin K has also been reported to be helpful for women who experience menopause and bone loss. It can help prevent future fractures. Both Vitamin K1 and K2 are shown to be bone protections by research. Vitamin K has an important antioxidant as well.
Vitamin K in Foods
Those above are some reasons why Vitamin K become an essential vitamin for human body, except others vitamins. We can get the Vitamin K from our daily foods and vegetables. Vitamin K itself is separated into two types when it comes to food. The first one is Vitamin K1 and the other is Vitamin K2. Vitamin K1 can be found in green vegetables and any other vegetables while Vitamin K2 can be found in meat, cheese, egg and good bacteria.
Here are some foods that can be your option to fulfill the needs of Vitamin K. It can be put in your diet menus as well.
- Spinach
Spinach is one kind of vegetables that has so many nutritious in the world and is it consumed by a lot of people. This green vegetable contains pretty much Vitamin K in it. A bowl of boiled spinach serve around 888,48 mcg this vitamin.
- Dried Herbals
Besides used as a natural medicine, dried herbals have many nutritious as well like Vitamin K. Dried basil, coriander, oregano and parsley are good choices that can increase your Vitamin K in the body.
- Fish Oil
Almost all kind of fish oil are the good sources of Vitamin K and it contains an essential Omega 3. Fish meat is excellent choice when you are on a diet. You can get nutritious and omega 3 more than fat.
- Plum
Plum also has Vitamin K in it. One plum can give you 248 g of Vitamin K.
- Other Vegetables
Vegetables like collard, broccoli, radish, cauliflower, and mustard are Vitamin K sources. A cup of boiled radish serve about 529,34 mcg Vitamin K. To get the better result of boiling vegetables, it must not boil over 5 minutes because it will take away the nutritious in the vegetables.
- Cucumber
If cucumber is one of the foods you often take, now for you to know you can get many benefits from this vegetable fruit. Cucumber contains high value of Vitamin K and can be a good choice when you want to add the supply of Vitamin K in your body. Beside that cucumber also have high level of water that is good for health.
- Onion Leaf
Chop onion leaf is often put on other food to add the taste of the food. It has strong smell that can raise people’s appetite. There is Vitamin K in the onion leaf. 100 onion leaf or a bowl of chop onion leaf can give you about 207mg of Vitamin K.
- Asparagus
Asparagus is the source of Vitamin K as well. 100 gram of steamed asparagus can give you 144mg of this vitamin. Asparagus is one kind of food that can be easily cooked or even eaten raw. It has high protein level and contains inflammation compound that can control glucose in the blood for diabetes patients.
We will give you the chart of foods with Vitamin K and the number of serving size.
How much vitamin K should you take?
| Group | Adequate Intake |
| Children 0-6 months | 2 micrograms/day |
| Children 7-12 months | 2.5 micrograms/day |
| Children 1-3 | 30 micrograms/day |
| Children 4-8 | 55 micrograms/day |
| Children 9-13 | 60 micrograms/day |
| Girls 14-18 | 75 micrograms/day |
| Women 19 and up | 90 micrograms/day |
| Women, pregnant or breastfeeding
(19-50) Women, pregnant or breastfeeding (less than 19) |
90 micrograms/day
75 micrograms/day |
| Boys 14-18 | 75 micrograms/day |
| Men 19 and up | 120 micrograms/day |
Those are the recommended doses of Vitamin K base on age. However there is no maximum safe dose for the consumption of Vitamin K.
Vitamin K deficiency
People with lack of Vitamin K in their body will have some symptoms such as:
- Undeveloped fetus
Having a baby is one of every couples dream. When a woman stated to be pregnant, she needs to fulfill the needs of Vitamin for her body. Vitamin K is one of them. Deficiency of Vitamin K for a pregnant woman is very dangerous for both the mother and the baby. Because it can make the fetus to not developed and have some unwanted problem for the baby. For the mother, it can cause internal bleeding which is difficult to stop.
- Blood can hardly clot
As what this article has stated in the beginning of the article, a person with vitamin K deficiency will have difficulty whenever they get injured. The wound cannot easily heal and the blood hard to stop naturally. It needs medical helps by giving vitamin K injection to the patient.
- Problem in colon
Lack of vitamin K can lead to health problems. One of them is in colon. Diseases like cystic fibrosis, malabsorption, and some other colon related problems. To prevent this, we need to take vegetables in our menus. Vegetables like asparagus, fish oil, and cucumber are some of the vitamin K resources.
- Hemorrhage
Hemorrhage is the situation where blood can’t be clotted. It can lead to anemia. The most common case of bleeding is in nose and gum. Not only that, people with vitamin K deficiency problem sometimes can have blood in their urine. It happens when the amount is very little under the suggested normal number.
- Cancer
In general almost all kinds of vitamin can slow down cancer cells. Vitamin K is of them. There was a case where a patient who didn’t get enough supply of vitamin K inside the body, get the cancer back even when he/she was stated to survive from cancer. That’s why patient should still take vitamin K even though they are already heal from the cancer.
The Overdose of Vitamin K
The factor of Vitamin K overdose is because of the synthetic vitamin K (K3). It can occur when we consume too many vitamin K supplements. The first reason of the overdose is that the supplement being recommended is not being optimized correctly. The second is that we regularly consume the foods that contain Vitamin K that can make the body have too much of Vitamin K and cause overdose.
The symptom of overdose
We have to pay attention whether or not we are overdose of Vitamin K. The symptoms are anemia, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and skin rash. Therefore we should not over consume synthetic vitamin K or its supplement. The natural food we must avoid to take every day is green tea. Because the amount of Vitamin E is 712 mcg/100 g or equal to 300-500 SI Vitamin K which can make overdose when it is consumed daily.
1. Hemolytic anemia
Overdose of Vitamin K can cause hemolytic anemia. What is hemolytic? Hemolytic is the state where erythrocyte membrane is broken and the hemoglobin freely gets around and it will lead to anemia. There are two causes of hemolytic anemia, which are intrinsic and extrinsic. Actually there are many possibility cause of hemolytic anemia. From medicines, Vitamin K poisoned infection pregnancy until autoimmune.
2. Jaundice
Jaundice is caused by the changes of skin tone, eye ball (white side), salivary gland, and also escalation of billirubin in human body. Commonly it occurs to new born baby. Vitamin K overdose is the triggers. For adult the disease occurs to alcoholic. Drinking alcohol too much can cause inflammation and abnormal lever function. This disease needs to be controlled by doctor. Whether baby patient or adult patient. Patient needs to minimize the use of Vitamin K so that the disease can be treated well.
3. Damage to the brain
Since Vitamin K is fat-soluble, it is kept in the lever. Abnormal lever function leads to jaundice. At the normal level, 40% of vitamin K that have been absorbed will be released through bile and 20% through urine. But the Vitamin K3 in the lever reaches 90%. It can create toxic in the lever that will spread through blood vein. When the toxic gets to brain, it can make the brain to be damaged.
The eye damaged that caused by jaundice is the sign of brain damaged. Because eyes damaged has close relation to brain damaged.
By getting vitamin from the available resources, human body can be healthy and strong. However we still have to look after the advantage and the disadvantage of them. We should avoid the word “too” and “less”. I do believe everything is created with their portion in life. I hope this article can add our knowledge about human body and the vitamin.