Which Essential Vitamins Help In Blood Clotting
Among all the vitamins, vitamin K is known to play a vital role when it comes to the aspect of blood clotting. However, unlike several other vitamins, this one is not usually administered as a dietary supplement.
Vitamin K is fat-soluble. Basically, this vitamin is divided into sub-categories, mainly two kinds. These include vitamin K1 and vitamin K2. Phylloquinone, also known as vitamin K1, is obtained from plants and majorly green leafy vegetables such as kale and spinach.
On the other hand, vitamin K2 or menaquinone works in a similar manner as vitamin K1 and is created naturally in the intestinal tract. Among food sources, it can be obtained largely from eggs, meat and cheese.
What Is Vitamin K2 And What Role Does It Have In Health
Vitamin K is well-known for its role in blood clotting, but the less well-known vitamin K2 may have important roles in bone health or even heart disease.
When people think about vitamin K, they might think about the shot infants get in their foot right after birth because their bodies cant make the vitamin yet. Some might know that the vitamin is important for clotting, especially if they have ever known someone on blood thinning medications like warfarin.
Beyond that, it seems like even nutrition professionals rarely talk about vitamin K, but this may be changing as we learn more about vitamin K2.
Blood Thinners And Alcohol
Alcohol may interact with blood thinners by either decreasing or increasing the anticoagulation effects of the drugs. For example, people who drink while taking warfarin may be at risk of excessive bleeding because alcohol can enhance drugs anticoagulation effects.
Alternately, chronic drinkers may metabolize warfarin more quickly, causing them to need a higher dose for the same therapeutic effect. Either way, warfarin and alcohol are a dangerous mix.
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What Is Vitamin K2 And What Does It Do
Only in recent decades have scientists found that vitamin K1 and K2 have different functions. They both have roles as on switches for functions in our body, but have different targets.
In the liver, vitamin K1 activates proteins that help with blood coagulation. For example, think about when you get a cut in your skin. Your skin will typically bleed for a short time, but soon stops. This is due to your body turning on processes that coagulate the blood at the wound, which slows or stops the flow. Without vitamin K1 activating these proteins, our blood would be unable to clot. Vitamin K1 may also have a role in bone health, similar to that of vitamin K2 described below.
Vitamin K2 helps turn on processes outside of the liver, like in our bones or our blood vessels. In blood vessels, it activates a protein called Matrix Gla-protein which removes calcium from the lining of blood vessels. This is important for heart health, as calcification of blood vessels is a risk factor for heart disease. In bones, it activates osteocalcin, a bone-forming protein. It is an important nutrient for bone health because it helps our bones draw calcium from our blood vessels and turn it into bone tissue.
How Much Vitamin K2 Do We Need And Do We Get Enough Of It
There is no formal recommendation for vitamin K2 intake, since the body of research about this nutrient is still growing. The Rotterdam study in 2005 showed that the average intake for vitamin K2 was 28.5 micrograms per day, and it seems to be those who consume more might be healthier. The same study showed those consuming > 32.7 micrograms per day had lower measures of cardiovascular disease risk factors than those consuming < 21.6 micrograms per day.
Clinical trials testing health benefits of vitamin K2 can use doses ranging from 50 to 300 micrograms per day. Without a formal recommendation or a universal method of testing whether someone is deficient, though, it remains to be seen how big of a worry vitamin K2 is.
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Know Which Vitamin Helps In Blood Clotting
Coagulation, or blood clotting, is an integral process in the body. If you have landed on this page searching which vitamin helps in blood clotting, you will get your answer right away! It is vitamin K!
It can also be considered a top vitamin for blood circulation in the legs. Continue reading to know about how this vitamin helps in blood clotting and all related facts!
What Does Vitamin K1 And K2 Do
Vitamin K1 is primarily found in leafy green vegetables, while K2 is most abundant in fermented foods and some animal products. Vitamin K likely plays an important role in blood clotting and promoting good heart and bone health.
Simply so, what are the benefits of taking vitamin k2?
Health Benefits of Vitamin K2
- Heart Disease. In blood vessels, three vitamin K-dependent proteins, matrix Gla protein , Gas6, and protein S, help prevent calcification and inflammation. (
- Bone Health.
Likewise, how much vitamin k1 and k2 should I take?
| Group | |
|---|---|
| Women, pregnant or breastfeeding | 90 micrograms/day |
| Women, pregnant or breastfeeding | 75 micrograms/day |
| 75 micrograms/day |
Just so, can the human body convert k1 to k2?
Several widely available foods are rich sources of vitamin K1, but vitamin K2 less common. Your body can partly convert vitamin K1 to K2. This is useful, as the amount of vitamin K1 in a typical diet is ten times that of vitamin K2. However, current evidence indicates that the conversion process is inefficient.
Is Too Much Vitamin k2 bad for you?
Kidney disease: Too much vitamin K can be harmful if you are receiving dialysis treatments due to kidney disease. In fact, high doses of vitamin K can make clotting problems worse in these people.
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Vitamin K: Far More Than Just Blood Clotting
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that is known for a variety of functions. Although still commonly referred to as the blood clotting vitamin, researchers are learning more about its role in a wide array of physiological processes, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vitamin K is essential for healthy bones, the cardiovascular system and liver, as well as for the kidneys, pancreas, brain, and nervous system. It also has anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties.
While the body makes some vitamin K in the digestive system, it obtains most of its requirements from either the diet or supplements. Dietary sources of vitamin K include green leafy vegetables, turnips, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, fruits such as blueberries, kiwis and grapes, egg yolk, dairy and other animal products, as well as fermented foods such as hard cheeses, sauerkraut, and the Japanese foods miso and natto.
There are two different types of vitamin K present in these foods. Leafy greens, fruit and vegetables contain the subtype vitamin K1, also known as phylloquinone, whereas vitamin K2, known as menaquinone, is mostly found in fermented foods where bacteria are part of its production process. Dairy foods, organ meats, and other animal products are also good sources of K2.
How Much Vitamin Should One Take
The quantity of vitamin K, which an individual must take, depends on sex and age. As an approximation, generally, adults require 1 microgram of vitamin K per day per kilogram of body weight.
This means an individual weighing 65 kg would be requiring 65 micrograms of vitamin K on a daily basis. The adequate daily intake of this vitamin is listed below as per the respective age groups of the individuals:
|
Infants with ages between 0 to 6 months |
2 mcg |
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Vitamin K2 And Blood Clotting Is It Safe For Those On Blood Thinners
The effects of vitamin K2 from diet or supplements on blood clotting and whether this nutrient is contraindicated for those on blood-thinning medications.
Vitamin K2 is perhaps the most critical and yet misunderstood nutritional deficiencies in the western diet.
Dr. Weston A. Price was the first to discover the magic of K2 in the early 1900s. He described it as the secret or X-factor supporting the high resistance to aging and the nearly complete absence of cardiovascular disease and other degenerative ailments in Traditional Cultures.
What Does Vitamin A Serum Do
How Do Vitamin A Serums Work? What does it actually do for your skin? Vitamin A serum benefits your skin by thickening and stimulating the dermis where your collagen, elastin and blood vessels are. This thicker and healthier skin reduces wrinkles and increases blood flow to the surface of the skin.
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How Much Vitamin K Does One Need
Image: Shutterstock
Since the body is not able to produce a sufficient amount of vitamin K, a certain amount must be taken through the diet. Adults need approximately 1 microgram of vitamin K a day for each kilogram of their body weight. The amount of vitamin K you need also depends on your age and sex. Average daily recommended amounts of this vitamin which helps in blood clotting are listed below.
Tip:Your daily requirement of vitamin K depends on your age, gender, and weight.
Can You Take Medicine And Vitamins Together
Consequently, combining dietary supplements and medications could have dangerous and even life-threatening effects. For example, drugs for HIV/AIDS, heart disease, depression, treatments for organ transplants, and birth control pills are less effective when taken with St. Johns Wort, an herbal supplement.
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What You Need To Know:
- Warfarin is a type of medicine called a blood thinner. It makes your blood clot more slowly. This can help prevent dangerous problems, such as a stroke . Vitamin K helps your blood to clot . Warfarin works by making it harder for your body to use vitamin K to clot blood. Changes in the amount of vitamin K that you normally eat can affect how warfarin works.
- Your healthcare provider can tell how well warfarin is working from a blood test that you will have regularly. This test is called an international normalized ratio . It shows how quickly your blood clots. To keep your INR at a healthy level, you need to manage how much vitamin K you eat.
What Does Vit K Do To Warfarin
It is possible to change how warfarin works with the help of vitamins K and C. The value of the INR is lowered by the presence of Vitamins K and K. The less time it takes for your blood to clot, the more you will be able to eat. Warfarin isnt working well enough to prevent a blood clot if it has a lowINR.
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Vitamin K And Heart Health
In addition to blood clotting and bone health, vitamin K also seems to play an important role in preventing heart disease.
Vitamin K activates a protein that helps prevent calcium from depositing in your arteries. These calcium deposits contribute to the development of plaque, so its not surprising that they are a strong predictor of heart disease (
21 ).
Nevertheless, further studies are needed to prove that supplementing with vitamin K actually causes these improvements in heart health. Additionally, more research is needed to determine if K2 is truly better for heart health than K1.
Summary: Vitamin K1 and K2 are important for blood clotting, bone health and possibly heart health. Further research is needed to clarify if K2 is better than K1 at performing any of these functions.
Other Natural Ways To Help Thin Blood
Besides foods that thin blood, there are other things you can do to keep your blood thin naturally. Here are some good tips:
- Sunshine. Sunshine has been found to maximize circulation and to keep the blood thin. It is believed to be helpful because sunshine gives us vitamin D when we expose the skin to the sun.
- Exercise. People who exercise too much run the risk of having vitamin K levels that are too low. It has been found in elite women athletes that they have vitamin K deficiencies. So exercise regularly but not too much.
- Avoid foods that thicken the blood. There are some foods that cause the blood to thicken. These include kale, spinach, collard greens, parsley, cauliflower, asparagus, leeks, and celery. You shouldnt eat these foods if you want to have thin blood.
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Changing Diet May Work Better Than Changing Drug Doses
Results of one clinical study suggest that regulating dietary intake of vitamin K could help patients achieve better control without changing drug doses. Participants in the study were broken into two groups:
- Conventional anticoagulant drug therapy by itself
- Drug therapy with modulation of vitamin K levels in the diet
Most patients used warfarin, but 15% used the drug phenprocoumon.
Trained nurses evaluated patients’ diets and instructed them how to adjust their intake of specific vitamin K-rich foods. Patients were reassessed for INR status at regular intervals over 90 days, and their diet was adjusted as necessary. The group using the drugs only was also evaluated for INR and instructed to decrease or increase oral medication as necessary.
In the short-term there did not appear to be any differences between the 2 groups. However, within 90 days 74% of patients working with their dietary vitamin K intake were able to reach their targeted INR range, compared to only 58% of drug-only therapy patients.
In addition, 11% of the conventionally treated group had incidents of minor bleeding, while the combined diet-drug group had none. One patient in the diet group did have to receive intravenous vitamin K. This was because of asymptomatic elevated INR .
Vitamin K In Popular Foods
Below, find more details on the amount of vitamin K present in different foods, including leafy greens, vegetables and other foods as provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
When it comes to blood thinners, the more you know the better you can manage your diet. Be sure to talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.
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Should I Keep Taking Prenatal Vitamins During Miscarriage
It’s also recommended to take prenatal vitamins, or at least folic acid, three months before conception. Most miscarriages happen during the first trimester of pregnancy. Miscarriages are difficult to go through, but it’s important to not give up. Many women who have miscarriages are able to have a baby in the future.
One: Diet And Lifestyle
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The Emerging Role Of Vitamin K2
Manouchehr Saljoughian, PharmD, PhDAlta Bates Summit Medical Center,Berkeley, California
US Pharm
Vitamin K refers to a group of fat-soluble vitamins with similar chemical structures that are needed for blood coagulation. Research over the last few decades has shown a new and emerging role for this vitamin in treating osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. Other new and exciting applications for this vitamin have been found in treating Alzheimers disease, skin aging, and a variety of cancers. This vitamin was discovered in the 1920s and was called K for koagulation due to its role in blood coagulation.1 Unfortunately, many people are not aware of the health benefits of vitamin K. The K vitamins have been underrated and misunderstood until very recently by both the scientific community and the general public.
Although the effect of magnesium and vitamin D3 on calcium metabolism was previously known, the importance of vitamin K in regulating the healthy function of calcium has only recently been recognized.2 Vitamin K has now been found to have a role in putting calcium in the right places in the body, such as in the bones and blood, and preventing pathologic calcification of the vessels and soft tissues.2
Science: How Vitamin K Makes Blood Clot
Vitamin K, the substance responsible for triggering the so-called blood-clottingcascade, may work by becoming an incredibly strong base, a team of chemistsin the US has found.
Paul Dowd, Seung Wook Ham and Steven Geib of the University of Pittsburghhave established that vitamin K is essential for modifying a protein sothat it contains a double acid called gamma-carboxyglutamic acid, or Glafor short. This initiates blood clotting by binding to calcium atoms onthe surfaces of blood platelets, and sticking these cells together withblood-clotting enzymes.
The Gla unit must be made from the glutamic acid portion of a protein,but this is a difficult chemical feat. A second acid group must be attachedto the carbon atom next to the compounds acid group. Before this can happen,one of the two hydrogen atoms attached to this carbon atom must be removed.
Splitting a hydrogen from a CH2 group of this type requiresthe kind of super-base that chemists can usually generate only in thelaboratory, and in the absence of water. Even the most caustic solutionof sodium hydroxide would not do.
Vitamin K can complete this apparently impossible feat via a processwhich Dowd calls base strength amplification. He and his colleagues findthat by picking up a molecule of oxygen, it can become a base a millionmillion times stronger than sodium hydroxide .
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