Did You Know Just That Many Cancers Are Linked To A Vitamin Deficiency?
Vitamin
K
Daily
Value: 80 micrograms
Good
Food Sources: Cauliflower, broccoli and green, leafy vegetables
such as spinach and kale
Unless you were born within the past couple of minutes,
your chances of having a vitamin K deficiency are pretty
slim.
Your
body needs such tiny amounts of this nutrient to help blood
clot when you're injured--this is vitamin K's primary job--that
you most likely get more than enough without making any
effort at all. You can even manufacture your own vitamin
K. About half of the vitamin K your body needs is normally
produced by your own intestinal bacteria.
Babies
are the big exception. They lack the bacteria necessary
to produce vitamin K, and they're usually not up to a diet
of green, leafy vegetables for quite a while. And although
breast milk has a small amount of the nutrient, it's one
of the few instances in which breast milk is simply not
enough. So babies are generally given a shot of vitamin
K at birth.
The
only other folks who need an extra boost of supplemental
vitamin K are those who have a digestive disease such as
cystic fibrosis, says James Sadowski, Ph.D., chief of the
vitamin K laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition
Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.
But
there are some folks who are afraid that they get too much
vitamin K. Many people who are taking anticoagulants, or
blood thinners, to prevent heart attack and stroke actually
cut down on the amounts of green, leafy vegetables they
eat because they're afraid that their lettuce will trigger
the same events that their medications are trying to prevent.
"This
is absolutely wrong," says John W. Suttie, Ph.D., professor
and chair of nutritional sciences at the University of WisconsinMadison.
"Physicians tell a lot of people whom they put on anticoagulants
to limit their vitamin K intakes. I don't know why they
do this, but it's fairly common. It is not good advice."
Dr.
Sadowski agrees. "If someone is on oral anticoagulants
because he has had a heart attack, a stroke or blood clots
in his legs, he should keep his vitamin K consumption at
a fairly constant level every day. But it probably doesn't
matter how much he's getting as long as it's pretty close
to the same thing every day."
The
reason? Every individual's anticoagulant dose is custom-tailored
to his particular needs, says Dr. Suttie. Those needs are
identified through a series of blood tests when the anticoagulants
are started. The amount of anticoagulant then prescribed
is intended to strike a very delicate balance, giving your
body enough vitamin K to clot and heal wounds but not enough
to clot and cause a heart attack.
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Using
Vitamin K Safely
Since
your body can absorb vitamin K only when it's accompanied
by dietary fat, it's best to eat your leafy greens with
a food that contains at least some fat. A dollop of oil-based
salad dressing on a bed of greens or even a serving of lettuce
on a lean burger will make sure your vitamin K is there
when you need it.
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