Can Lack Of Vitamins Lead To Bleeding Tendencies?

Your capacity to form a blood clot after an injury encompasses a complex cascade of events involving several proteins, known as the coagulation factors, and specialized blood cell fragments called platelets. Production of the coagulation factors requires vitamin K from your diet; a severe deficiency may lead to easy bruising, bleeding tendencies or both. Vitamin C deficiency may also cause easy bruising and bleeding tendencies due to leaky blood vessels.

Vitamin K-dependent Enzymes

The cascade of events that leads to blood clot formation involves 13 proteins that react with one another sequentially. Production of four of the coagulation factors involves vitamin K-dependent enzymes, which process precursor proteins into their final form. Vitamin K deficiency can lead to low blood levels of these coagulation factors, which hampers your ability to form blood clots. A bleeding tendency caused by a vitamin K deficiency may manifest as easy bruising, which represents bleeding into or beneath your skin. The time needed to stop bleeding after a minor cut or scrape may be prolonged, although this does not usually occur unless your vitamin K level is markedly low.

Food Sources of Vitamin K

Liver and dark green, leafy vegetables contain high concentrations of vitamin K. Good vegetable sources of vitamin K include spinach, leaf lettuce, collards, greens, kale, spring onions, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, watercress, Swiss chard and fresh parsley. Mayonnaise and vegetable oils, including canola, olive and soybean oil, also contain significant amounts of vitamin K. The recommended daily intake for vitamin K is 90 mcg for women and 120 mcg for men.

Scurvy

Production of collagen is one of the many processes aided by vitamin C, or ascorbic acid. Collagen is a structural protein, providing a physical framework for your tissues and organs. Your skin, bones, joints and blood vessels are among the many tissues that contain large amounts of collagen. Vitamin C deficiency, or scurvy, interferes with collagen production, eventually leading to weakness of your blood vessel walls. Minor bumps may damage the weakened blood vessels in your skin, causing easy bruising, a hallmark sign of scurvy. Your gums may also swell and bleed easily. Other symptoms of vitamin C deficiency include bone and muscle pain, poor wound healing, loose teeth and lack of energy.

Food Sources of Vitamin C

Several fruits and vegetables contain high concentrations of vitamin C, including oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, kiwi fruit, lemons, tangerines, tomatoes, mangoes, sweet peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sweet potatoes and greens. The recommended daily intake for vitamin C is 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men.