Your body needs vitamins to be healthy and to function at its best. While your body can get the vitamin K it needs from what the bacteria in your intestines produce, you need to get the vitamin B5 that you need from the food you consume, the University of Maryland Medical Center reports. Vitamin K is a fat soluble vitamin and is stored in the fatty tissues of your body. On the other hand, vitamin B5, also called pantothenic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin, which means that your body cannot store it since your body eliminates what it does not use. This means that you need to make sure you get sufficient levels of vitamin B5 every day.
Benefits
While both vitamins are associated with blood in some way, they relate to blood very differently. Vitamin K plays an important role in helping blood coagulate properly, the University of Maryland Medical Center reports. In fact, this vitamin got to be called vitamin k because of its German name, Koagulationsvitamin. Vitamin K also contributes to the health of your bones. On the other hand, pantothenic acid is critical not only to the manufacture of red blood cellls but also to the production of the sex and stress-related hormones that your adrenal glands produce. Pantothenic acid helps your body use other vitamins, maintain a healthy digestive track and synthesize cholesterol and pantethine, a derivative of pantothenic acid.
Dosages
Infants from zero to six months of age need 2 micrograms of vitamin K per day and those of seven to 12 months need 2.5 micrograms a day, MedlinePlus reports. Children from one to three years old need 30 micrograms of vitamin K a day, while those from four to eight years old need 55 micrograms and children from nine to 13 years old need 60. At age 14 to 18, this requirement rises to 75 micrograms a day and from 19 years old and onwards rises to 90 micrograms. For panthotenic acid, infants from zero to six months of age need 1.7 milligrams per day and those of seven to 12 months need 1.8 milligrams a day, MedlinePlus reports. Children from one to three years old need 2 milligrams a day, while those from four to eight years old need 3 milligrams and children from nine to 13 years old need 4. At age 14 to 18, this requirement rises to 5 milligrams a day. Pregnant women need 6 milligrams of panthotenic acid a day while nursing mothers need 7 milligrams.
Availability
You can get vitamin K from beef liver, green tea, turnip greens, broccoli, kale, spinach, cabbage, asparagus and dark green lettuce, the University of Maryland Medical Center reports. A substance in plants called chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color and provides vitamin K. Note that freezing foods may destroy vitamin K but heating vitamin K does not affect it. Among best sources for panthotenic acid are brewer's yeast, corn, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, tomatoes, avocado, legumes, lentils and egg yolks.
Precautions
Taking too much vitamin K can cause allergy-like responses such as rash and itching, the University of Maryland Medical Center reports. While there have been no reports of toxicity from taking too much panthotenic acid, high doses of this vitamin has been known to cause liver damage in rats. Being deficient in vitamin K makes you prone to bruising and bleeding easily and may increase the risk of hip fractures in women. While becoming deficient in panthotenic acid is very unlikely, those who are deficient suffer abdominal distress, burning sensation in the heels, and had problems sleeping.
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