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Vitamin K and clotting
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Vitamin K is fat-soluble, meaning it dissolves in fat, and the body needs it for one very specific job: making the proteins that let blood clot.
What it does is odd and elegant. It adds carboxyl groups to those clotting factors, groups that attach at spots called glutamate residues. That step is called carboxylation, and it is a hook welded onto the factor so it can grab calcium. Without that hook, the factor does not catch calcium and the chain of reactions does not move forward.
Several of those factors have names of their own and depend on vitamin K: prothrombin and factors VII, IX and X. When vitamin K is missing, clotting is impaired and bleeding problems show up.
It reaches you by two different routes. K1 is made by plants and is found mostly in leafy greens. K2 is produced by the bacteria that live in your gut.
In brief
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin essential for synthesizing the clotting proteins.
It adds carboxyl groups to glutamate residues on those factors, and that carboxylation lets them bind calcium and sustain the cascade.
A hook welded onto the part so it can grab calcium.
Prothrombin and factors VII, IX and X depend on it; a deficiency impairs clotting and causes bleeding problems.
K1 comes from plants, mostly leafy greens; K2 comes from gut bacteria.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingVitamin K, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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