The K Vitamin
The K vitamin is essential for the blood to clot to repair injuries. Whenever a person has a bleeding wound, it is the K vitamin that is present in the blood that stops the bleeding and enables most minor cuts to heal quickly.
There are three different forms of the K vitamin. The first variant of the K vitamin is vitamin K1, also known as phylloquinone. This is the form of the K vitamin that is found in types of plant foods. Vitamin K found in 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 the intestines. Thirdly, there is vitamin K3 which is also known as menadione and is actually an artificial form of the K vitamin. All three of these types of K vitamin end up in the liver where it is used to create the blood clotting substances.
The best natural sources of the K vitamin are green leafy vegetables, such as 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 so K vitamin supplements are not needed by the majority of people.
Apart from the main function of helping blood to clot, the K vitamin, specifically the Vitamin K1, has an important part to play in the bone building process. This K vitamin is required to retain the calcium in the bones and redistribute it to where it is needed.
Although a K vitamin deficiency is relatively rare there are certain groups of people who may suffer from it. Newborn babies may not have enough of the K vitamin as they have insufficient bacteria in their intestines to produce it. The majority of newborn babies in developed countries are therefore 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. However, an extended course of antibiotics may lead to a K vitamin deficiency due to the fact that the antibiotics kill the intestinal bacteria as well as the ones that they are being taken to cure. Again, a K vitamin supplement may be given if the course of antibiotics has to continue for a long period of time.
More Articles
Good Food Health Vitamin Intake
Related Products
 Nutra-Mune Nourish your defense system with Nutrapathics Nutra-Mune! |
 Kidshield Immune Spray KidShield by Symbiotics has a delicious Tutti Frutti flavor children love. |
 Family Defense Immune Spray Enhances immune activity. This immune balancing action is important for your family! |
 Colostrum Plus Immune Symbiotics Multi-Nutrient Immune Formula provides extra support when your body is under stress. |
More Articles
... also an antioxidant for the body and helps other vitamins and minerals to be absorbed better. Folic acid and iron, for example, need the c vitamin to maximise their usefulness. The more c vitamin that the body has, the better its defence against colds and other common ailments and the c vitamin may not ...
... absorb the b12 vitamin that it needs from food but this still amounts to only half of the total b12 vitamin available. A deficiency in the b12 is extremely rare in most people and is made even less likely because the body can recycle the b12 vitamin that it already has absorbed. A few groups of people ...
... just a few minutes a day will be sufficient and not have any adverse effects from the amount of ultra-violet light received. The most important function of the D vitamin is to help control how much calcium is absorbed from food. The majority of the calcium is used to build strong teeth and bones but it ...
... lamb, bananas, kelp, peanuts * Greatest vitamin B13 sources are root vegetables, liquid whey * Greatest vitamin B15 sources are brewer s yeast, rare steaks, brown rice, sunflower, pumpkin & sesame seeds * Greatest vitamin B17 sources are whole kernels of apricots, apples, cherries, peaches, plums * Greatest ...
Good Food Health Vitamin Intake
... part of their good food health vitamin intake even though they are not strictly vitamins. The majority of people actually refer to nutrients when they use the word vitamin and food manufacturers are aware that a person is looking at minerals and other items when they are considering their good food health ...