The sight of blood in your urine, or hematuria, can be frightening -- and it should prompt an immediate call to your doctor. In some cases, however, the cause may be something as simple as a vitamin deficiency. Vitamin K gets its name from the German word "koagulation," which translates into "coagulation" in English. This essential nutrient is needed to form blood clots. Without it, disturbing symptoms, such as hematuria, can result.
Vitamin K
There are two forms of vitamin K: Phylloquinone is vitamin K-1, which is found in the foods you eat, such as green leafy vegetables. Menaquinone is vitamin K-2, a type of vitamin K that is manufactured by bacteria that live in your intestinal tract. These bacteria don't make enough vitamin K to fully meet your nutritional needs. Fortunately, vitamin K is readily available in the typical Western diet and deficiencies due to insufficient dietary intake are rare.
Vitamin K and Clotting
There's only one known biological role that vitamin K fulfills, according to the Linus Pauling Institute, and that's transforming glutamic acid into gamma-carboxyglutamic acid, a transformation that enables seven vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors to bind calcium and become active in coagulation. The formation of a blood clot involves a sequence of chemical reactions. This sequence, called the coagulation cascade, must occur in a certain order, without skipping any of the individual events governed by the various clotting factors. Without adequate vitamin K, the proper sequence cannot occur and blood clots cannot properly set.
Symptoms of Vitamin K Deficiency
The inability to properly form blood clots can result in internal bleeding, as evidenced by the presence of blood in your urine. Other symptoms that can occur when vitamin K levels lag include nosebleeds, bloody feces, heavy menstrual bleeding and bleeding gums.
Causes of Vitamin K Deficiency
Adults rarely experience vitamin K deficiency because this nutrient is not used up by the biological processes that utilize it, but is recycled for reuse. The presence of vitamin K-producing intestinal bacteria also helps ward off vitamin K deficiency. Infants are more vulnerable to this deficiency than older children and adults as normal flora haven't yet colonized their intestinal systems, only small amounts of vitamin K cross the placenta and breast milk is low in vitamin K. Vitamin K deficiency can be fatal in infants, due to the occurrence of brain hemorrhaging brought on by the birth process.
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