Vitamin K deficiency and its effect on bone health

Vitamins are compounds that the body needs to function and grow properly. If our body lacks Vitamins, then the body will not function properly and will develop certain disorders. One can find vitamins in veggies, fruits, dairy and meat, and also, one can find vitamins in vitamin supplements.

Importance of Vitamin K

This vitamin has a leading role in helping the body produce a bone protein called osteocalcin. Vitamin K is also enabling calcium in the body to get into bones and make them stronger. Furthermore, this vitamin plays an important role in stopping calcification of arteries, and it helps control blood sugar levels in the body. Average male person needs 80mg of Vitamin K per day, and average female person needs 65mg of this vitamin per day. It is important for infants to get small amounts of this vitamin. Daily dose for an infant is 5mg.

Sources of Vitamin KVitamin K can be found in spinach, broccoli, cabbage, soybean, cow milk, kale and cupflower. Furthermore, this Vitamin can be found in intestinal bacteria. These bacteria normally colonize the large intestine, and they are an active form of vitamin K. Up until recently, it was thought that up to 50% of the human vitamin K requirement might be encountered by bacterialsynthesis. However, it has been proven that bacterial synthesis provides much less vitamin L than previously thought.

What is Vitamin K deficiency?

When a person fails to ingest and absorb the adequate amounts of Vitamin K from the intestines, a consequence is a Vitamin K deficiency. Vitamin K deficiency happens too once a person has been taking antibiotics, which leads to a destruction of the Vitamin K producing bacteria in the body. Especially, babies are at danger for this kind of Vitamin K deficiency since their body and gastrointestinal track does not have sufficient amounts of this kind of bacteria.Vitamin K deficiency can also cause osteoporosis. In basic terms, Vitamin K enables our body in binding calcium to the bones and therefore improves complete bone health, prevents osteoporosis and increases bone density. Vitamin K is essential in postmenopausal females, who are at the uppermost risk of osteoporosis. Vitamin K and its supplements increase bone health and decrease the risk of bone breakages, especially hip breakages.

The requirement for Vitamins cannot be denied. Needless to say, every vitamin is essential in its own way, nonetheless it would be fair to say that bones are the foundation of your body, and therefore Vitamin K is very important.