2.11k Vitamin K and Omega-3 Fatty Acid

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Continues Chapter on Vitamins
2.11k: Vitamin K, Final Comment and Omega-3 Fatty Acid

                                                 Update 05 December 2021

Vitamin K is the pro blood-clotting vitamin. Without it we would bleed and never stop. Vitamin K is found in green leaf vegetables like kale, spinach and turnip (all raw; cooking destroys vitamin K). Butter and cow liver are also a source. Kiwi fruit should is particularly rich in K. Vitamin K deficiency in healthy adult not taking medication is rare because daily requirement is in the usual food. (Ten grams of spinach has the daily requirement.) And the bacteria that normally inhabit your colon make vitamin K from foods and it is absorbed into blood so even when not eating food with preformed vitamin K, it is still being supplied thanks to the bacteria.

   Sign of vitamin K Deficiency is unexplained bleeding anyplace and needs blood test check (INR value) for vitamin K deficiency.

Newborn is at risk for the deficiency because vitamin K does not pass easily through placenta into blood of fetus, and newborn liver cannot store it well. It is usual practice in U.S.A. to give newborn in hospital an injection of long-acting vitamin K.

   Malabsorption after GI surgery, inflammation (regional ileitis, pancreatitis), other disease of colon (cystic fibrosis), or chronic diarrhea can cause vitamin K deficiency, as well as prolonged course of oral antibiotic. 

Test for vitamin K deficiency is the “international normalization ratio”, or INR higher than 1 unit.   Persons with liver disease should have monthly blood sample for the INR, and, if it is above 1.5, the need for vitamin K should be suspected.

Most vitamin K deficiency today is from taking the anti Vitamin K pill, Coumadin (Warfarin) to slow blood's clotting, in cases of coronary artery heart disease or with deep vein thromboses in the leg in order to prevent internal blood clot and a piece of the clot traveling to the lung (pulmonary embolism). Coumadin overdose can cause brain or GI hemorrhage and is tracked by regular INR testing and is treated with vitamin K by injections until the INR is normal. If you are taking Coumadin for a good reason to lower the clotting of your blood, then avoid a fruit like Kiwi or a veggie like uncooked spinach because these may add up to neutralize the effect of the Coumadin.

I have just experimented with using Coumadin as 1 mgm pill. With my normal liver function the INR began to rise at a 3 mgm daily dose. The usual dose to get an INR 2 to 3, which is adequate against pulmonary emboli, is 5 to 6 mg a day.  But, of course, check with your physician.

           Omega-3 Fatty Acid 

in natural fish oils are a set of highly unsaturated fatty acids derived from the EFA linoleic acid and sold as food supplement. Presently O-3 FA is being intensely studied because a number of nutritional experiments suggest it is a preventive of several degenerative brain diseases the foremost of which is Alzheimer’s.

I observed a person taking a 1200-mg pill a day and his blood test showed the HDL-cholesterol 90 mg%, almost twice the usual good for healthy longevity. I guess it was an effect of the Omega-3-fatty acid. From Sept 2011 I took the 1200 mg daily dose for 2 months and it did not much affect my HDL-Cholesterol, which is normally c. 50 mg%. So I stopped it because it seemed too expensive for its effect. It remains an experimental nutrient but does not seem to be harmful.

       Kiwifruit has much omega-3 fatty acid.

  END CHAPTER. To read on now, click 2.12a The Minerals: Introduction and Calcium