Coagulopathy is a term that refers to bleeding or clotting disorders. Your body relies on your blood to clot when you get a cut or other injury. Clotting helps to keep you from losing excess blood. Blood clots, however, also can pose a danger when they occur in your lungs, brain and heart. Therefore a careful balance must be maintained, including with regard to the consumption of vitamin K-containing foods. Because vitamin K is often called the "clotting" vitamin, knowing how it affects coagulopathy can help you make decisions for your health.
Significance
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means your body stores the vitamin in your liver and fatty tissues. This means you do not need as much vitamin K in your daily diet because your body does not release the vitamins as it does water-soluble ones. You typically get enough vitamin K from food sources such as spinach, turnip greens, collard greens, fortified cereals, cauliflower and fish. Vitamin K is required to activate proteins known as clotting factors in your blood. These proteins are part of the assembly-line process to creating a blood clot.
Blood-thinning Medications
If you have coagulopathy that causes you to experience blood clots, your physician may prescribe the anti-clotting medication known as warfarin. This medication acts as an antagonist to vitamin K, which means it impairs the body's use of vitamin K in creating blood clots. While this medication helps to prevent blood clotting, taking vitamin K supplements or consuming foods high in vitamin K such as broccoli, green beans, canola oil, lettuce or spinach can interfere with its ability to work properly, according to the National Alliance for Thrombosis and Thrombophilia. If you are taking this medication for coagulopathy, your physician will recommend restricting your vitamin K intake.
Vitamin K Deficiency
Taking or consuming extra vitamin K can be an advantage if you have a coagulopathy that causes you to experience easy bleeding. If you have been on long-term antibiotics or do not have enough vitamin K in your diet, your physician may recommend taking vitamin K to reduce your risk for bruising and bleeding.
Recommended Intake
Because vitamin K can affect the way your blood clots, talk to your physician before taking vitamin K supplements. The adequate intake for males and females ages 14 to 18 is 75 micrograms per day while the intake recommendation for males and females age 19 and older is 90 micrograms per day, according to MedlinePlus. One cup of kale is 547 micrograms while 1 cup of broccoli has 220 micrograms, meaning getting enough vitamin K can typically be accomplished through eating a serving of leafy green vegetables three to four times per week.
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