K Vitamin
Roles Of K Vitamin In Our Body & How Does It
Help Us
The major role of K vitamin is vital for the blood to clot
to repair injuries. When we have a bleeding wound, it is the
K vitamin in our blood that stops the bleeding and make sure
that most minor cuts heal quickly.
Basically, there are three different forms of the K vitamin.
The first variant of the K vitamin is vitamin K1, which also
known as phylloquinone. This is also the form of the K vitamin
that is found in types of plant foods.. The second form of
the K vitamin is the vitamin K2, or menaquinone. This type
of the K vitamin is formed by friendly bacteria in our intestines.
Thirdly, there is artificial form of vitamin K3, which is
called menadione. All three of these types of K vitamin end
up in the liver where it is used to create the blood clotting
substances.
The K vitamin can be found naturally in our food such as
green leafy vegetables like spinach. However, because the
friendly bacteria in the intestine makes one of the forms
of the K vitamin, it is extremely rare for a person to have
a deficiency of the K vitamin and therefore most of us do
not need to take K vitamin supplements.
Besides its major function of helping blood to clot, the
K vitamin, specifically the Vitamin K1, plays an important
role in the bone building process. This K vitamin is necessary
to retain the calcium in the bones and redistribute it to
where it is needed.
K vitamin deficiency is extremely rare. Newborn babies may
not have enough of the K vitamin since they have little bacteria
in their intestines to produce it. Therefore, most of newborn
babies in developed countries will be given a K vitamin injection
to tide them over until the natural process takes over. That
is the only time that a K vitamin supplement will be taken
by most people throughout their lives.
If you are on an extended course of antibiotics, it may lead
to a K vitamin deficiency as the antibiotics will kill the
intestinal bacteria as well as the ones that they are being
taken to cure. This is also why sometimes a K vitamin supplement
may be given if the course of antibiotics has to continue
for a long period of time.
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