Vitamin K is one of the fat soluble vitamins, and here I'm going to discuss the primary Vitamin K deficiency symptoms. Vitamin K deficiency has been considered extremely rare and is pretty much unheard of except in newborns, that is why newborns are sometimes given Vitamin K shots at birth.
The recommended daily allowance is 120 micrograms per day for men and 90 for women. Bacteria in the intestine produce so much Vitamin K that it is unlikely that you would ever suffer a deficiency severe enough to prevent the main function of Vitamin K (blood clotting).
However, recent evidence has been linking Vitamin K to functions other than blood clotting, where the most important ones are bone health and arterial calcification. As you probably know, bone and heart health are among the things that are most likely to go wrong as we get older.
Vitamin K enables certain proteins to bind calcium, and calcium is something that tends to leak out of bones at an older age, and get deposited in the arteries. Many experts have come to the belief that an actual Vitamin K deficiency may be contributing greatly to those diseases.
Therefore, Vitamin K deficiency symptoms include other serious illnesses that are actually becoming commonplace today. It is a fact that Vitamin K in the diet is much less than it was when human beings were evolving, since grass-fed animal products are by far the best source. Today our animals are grain fed, and contain much less Vitamin K than their grass-fed counterparts.
Vitamin K deficiency has also been implicated in cancer patients, especially those with cancers of the liver or prostate. Research has shown that Vitamin K supplementation decreased recurrence rates of cancer in those patients, increasing their chances of long-term survival significantly.
You are much less likely to experience any of the Vitamin K deficiency symptoms if you eat a lot of vegetables that contain the plant form (K1) or a lot of animal products that contain the animal form (K2). Therefore it is probably a good idea for your health to make sure that you get Vitamin K through the diet, although if you choose to get it through plants you should make sure to eat some fat along with them in order to increase absorption.
If you want to be absolutely sure to prevent Vitamin K deficiency symptoms, then you may want to try supplementation. Vitamin K drops are very effective, and usually last for a long time. A milligram per day should be enough.
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