Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin most well-known for its role in blood clotting. Without adequate vitamin K, your body wouldn't be able to heal properly after an injury. Having diarrhea from a sudden illness or a chronic disorder may affect how well your body absorbs vitamin K. If you notice that you bruise easily or if wounds take awhile to heal, talk with your physician about your vitamin K levels.
Functions of Vitamin K
Vitamin K helps activate an enzyme that allows glutamic acid, an amino acid, to function properly. This process converts gamma-carboxyglutamic acid, allowing calcium to bind to certain proteins, starting the coagulation cascade. The coagulation cascade is a series of steps, each one relying on the previous step, dependent on vitamin K for clot forming.
How Much?
Natural bacteria in your digestive tract make some of the vitamin K you need in the form of menaquinone, also known as K-2. Plants synthesize vitamin K in the form of phylloquinone, or K-1, which is the type found naturally in foods and in many supplements. Women need 90 mcg of vitamin K daily while men require 120 mcg, the Linus Pauling Institute explains. Eating foods rich in vitamin K, including soybean oil, broccoli and leafy greens like spinach, kale and Swiss chard, ensures you get all of the vitamin K you need for the day.
Malabsorption
While vitamin K deficiency is rare because your body can make its own, certain conditions may reduce your vitamin K levels. Vitamin K absorbs into your bloodstream through intestinal walls. If you suffer from diarrhea from poor diet or illness, your body may flush nutrients from your body before they get a chance to absorb. For example, having irritable bowel syndrome may cause you to have episodes of diarrhea every day. This can disrupt the proper absorption of vitamin K, increasing your risk of deficiency. Additionally, having diarrhea may disrupt the normal flora in your gut, disrupting your ability to make vitamin K.
Additional Concerns
Children suffering from acute intractable, or unstoppable, diarrhea may have an increased risk of vitamin K deficiency, according to researchers at the Yüzüncü Yil University in Turkey, published in the "Advances in Therapy" journal in 2006. During the study, child participants with a history of problems with coagulation parameters, or ability to coagulate, were given an injection with 3 mg of vitamin K. After eight to 12 hours, researchers noted that coagulation parameters could be restored in children with intractable diarrhea, resulting in proper blood coagulation and clotting during bleeding.
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