Vitamin K deficiency and its symptoms

Vitamin K is a group of fat-soluble vitamins that helps in blood clotting and calcium absorption, affecting bone and heart health. As a result, the absence of it has an impact on the affected body parts and internal functioning.

Keep reading to learn more about vitamin K deficiency, including symptoms, causes, and treatment options.

Vitamin K deficiency

• Vitamin K deficiency is a disorder in which both adults and babies have symptoms such as excessive bleeding, easy bruising, and so on. This is due to a deficiency of protein in the body that aids in coagulation (or, in layman’s terms, blood clotting).
• Vitamin K is the most important factor in the production of prothrombin, which is responsible for blood clotting. The coagulation process cannot begin immediately if a person is deficient in vitamin K. As a result, they have a lot of bleeding.
• Due to the prevalence of vitamin K in typical dietary sources such as green leafy vegetables, cereals, and oils, vitamin K deficiency is unusual in adults.
• Infants, on the other hand, are at a higher risk of vitamin K deficiency, which can be produced by a variety of circumstances including liver disease, malnutrition, and a side effect of taking certain prescription drugs. There are some signs and symptoms of a vitamin K deficiency.

Symptoms of Vitamin K deficiency

These are divided into further categories:

Vitamin K Deficiency Symptoms in Adults

Vitamin K insufficiency can cause the following symptoms:

• A lot of bleeding
• Gum and tooth bleeding
• Easily bruises
• Menstruation is heavy and uncomfortable.

Vitamin K Deficiency Symptoms in Infants

Symptoms of vitamin K insufficiency in babies include:

• Bruising on the face or the head
• Vaccination sites cause bleeding around the belly button, nose, and mouth.
• Circumcision-related bleeding in the penis
• Paleness, particularly around the mouth
• Vomiting or urinating with bleeding
• Bowel movement with blood
• Skin and eyes that seem to be yellowish 

Diseases Caused by Deficiency of Vitamin K

Let’s start with vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding to begin our list of vitamin K deficiency disorders (VKDB). It is a disorder in which the body is unable to stop bleeding due to a lack of vitamin K in the blood, which aids in the formation of clots.

Aside from that-

• Osteoporosis is caused by a lack of vitamin K.
• This nutritional deficiency can lead to poor bone formation.
• Vitamin K deficiency can lead to an increase in cardiovascular disease.

Effects of Vitamin K Deficiency in Long Run

• Adults who have had a long-term vitamin K deficiency should get treatment as soon as possible. Long-term ignorance might result in a lot of blood. Vitamin K deficiency, on the other hand, is usually curable.
• Intracranial haemorrhage in babies, on the other hand, can cause brain damage or even death if it lasts too long or is left untreated.

Treatment of Vitamin K Deficiency

Treatments for vitamin K deficiency are divided into two categories: short-term and long-term. Let’s take a quick look at it.

Short-term Treatment

As the name suggests, this type of treatment lasts only a few weeks and can be effectively treated with either oral supplements or injections.

Long-term Treatment

• Those with underlying chronic diseases require long-term treatment, which means they must take vitamin K supplements for the rest of their lives.
• However, after 2 to 5 days of supplement use, the body usually begins to demonstrate the treatment’s benefits.
• Now that people are aware of everything there is to know about vitamin K insufficiency, including symptoms, causes, and treatment options, they may create a meal plan to avoid suffering from such deficiencies. 

Importance of Vitamin K

• Vitamin K is vital because it aids the liver in the production of proteins that aid in blood clotting. 
• Vitamin K is produced by regular bacteria in the gut, so most adults have plenty. It’s also found in the fat of a lot of the foods we eat. Since vitamin K is kept in the liver, you don’t require much of it daily.

Preventing Vitamin K Deficiency

• The majority of people consume enough vitamin K in their diet. Dark green leafy foods like spinach, parsley, broccoli, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and salad greens are the finest sources.
• Avocados, kiwifruit, vegetable oils, yoghurt, fermented foods and beverages, and various cheeses are also good sources.

Conclusion

It’s appropriate to wonder how far our understanding of nutritional principles and vitamin K metabolism has progressed a decade after the US Food and Nutrition Board (1) addressed vitamin K requirements.

There had been no stable isotope studies of vitamin K at the time, and our understanding of bioavailability was limited. Since then, stable isotope techniques have been used to analyse the bioavailability of phyllo Quinone in its free state and, more crucially, when incorporated into a plant matrix in several studies.

Adults who have had a long-term vitamin K deficiency should get treatment as soon as possible. Long-term ignorance might result in a lot of blood. Vitamin K deficiency, on the other hand, is usually curable.