Polish biochemist Casimir Funk first theorized that your diet can influence your health due to the presence of what he called "vital amines" in the foods you eat. Funk learned that a lack of vitamin B1 resulted in a disorder called beriberi, and the science of vitamins was born. Edward Doisy and Henrik Dam discovered vitamin K in 1943, and were awarded the Nobel Prize for their efforts. Their work has allowed scientists to better understand the symptoms that can occur when you don't get enough vitamin K.
Function of Vitamin K
Vitamin K was named for the German word "koagulation," and that pretty much sums up what we currently know about the biological role of this nutrient. The Linus Pauling Institute states that vitamin K helps in the transformation of glutamic acid to gammacarboxyglutamic acid. This transformation allows substances called clotting factors to bind calcium and enables them to participate in the "coagulation cascade," a sequence of chemical reactions that enables the formation of blood clots.
Symptoms of K Deficiency
If you have a vitamin K deficiency, the symptoms will reflect an inability to form blood clots efficiently. Wounds may take longer to stop bleeding. Nosebleeds, bruising and bleeding gums are common symptoms of K deficiency.
Causes of Vitamin K Deficiency
Vitamin K deficiencies are quite rare in adults as sources of vitamin K are readily available in most diets. Your intestines also house bacteria that produce small amounts of the nutrient. Breastfed infants are more prone to vitamin K deficiency due to relatively low concentrations of the nutrient in human breast milk. Deficiencies can also occur when you have any gastrointestinal disorder that hinders your ability to absorb fats. Vitamin K is a fat-soluble nutrient, and may not be readily accessed by those with fat malabsorption conditions.
Infants and K Deficiency
Lack of sufficient vitamin K causes infant deaths around the world, according to the Merck Manuals Online Medical Library. Infants with low vitamin K levels are particularly vulnerable to bleeding within the skull, which can be a result of birth trauma. Newborns may have vitamin K deficiency due to poor transmission of fat and vitamin K through the placenta, the lack of intestinal bacteria that produce vitamin K and the low content of vitamin K in breast milk.
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