Ad
related to: why newborns need vitamin k for absorption of calcium
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Vitamin K is a family of structurally similar, fat-soluble vitamers found in foods and marketed as dietary supplements. [1] The human body requires vitamin K for post-synthesis modification of certain proteins that are required for blood coagulation ("K" from Danish koagulation, for "coagulation") or for controlling binding of calcium in bones and other tissues. [2]
Newborn infants have low stores of vitamin K, and human breast milk has low concentrations of the vitamin. This combination can lead to vitamin K deficiency and later onset bleeding. Vitamin K deficiency leads to the risk of blood coagulation problems due to impaired production of clotting factors II, VII, IX, X, protein C and protein S by the ...
[2] [3] Vitamin K injections are administered to newborns as a preventative measure to reduce the risk of hemorrhagic disease of the newborn (HDN). [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The coagulation pathway helps the body stop active bleeds by using vitamin K dependent clotting factors (factors II, VII, IX, and X) which are synthesized by the liver.
"Vitamin K may help with reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease by promoting calcium into the bone versus the heart muscle," Routhenstein says. 3. Cognitive health
Babies receive a shot of vitamin K after birth to prevent life-threatening bleeding. But more parents are refusing the injection. The trend is alarming doctors.
The plasma total calcium concentration is in the range of 2.2–2.6 mmol/L (9–10.5 mg/dL), and the normal ionized calcium is 1.3–1.5 mmol/L (4.5–5.6 mg/dL). [4] The amount of total calcium in the blood varies with the level of plasma albumin, the most abundant protein in plasma, and therefore the main carrier of protein-bound calcium in the blood.
Vitamin K 1-deficiency may occur by disturbed intestinal uptake (such as would occur in a bile duct obstruction), by therapeutic or accidental intake of a vitamin K 1-antagonist such as warfarin, or, very rarely, by nutritional vitamin K 1 deficiency. As a result, Gla-residues are inadequately formed and the Gla-proteins are insufficiently active.
Newborn infants are a special case. Plasma vitamin K is low at birth, even if the mother is supplemented during pregnancy, because the vitamin is not transported across the placenta. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) due to physiologically low vitamin K plasma concentrations is a serious risk for premature and term newborn and young infants.