Blood clotting is an essential defense mechanism in the body, and vitamin K plays an important role in this process. Vitamin K activates blood clotting factors and plays an important role in preventing vascular diseases such as hardening of the arteries and calcification of blood vessels. Vitamin K1 and K2 are highly active in different cells, and a balanced intake is essential.
Blood plays an important role in supplying cells with the oxygen and nutrients they need, while also removing waste products from cellular metabolism. The circulation of blood energizes every tissue in the body, and if this process is impaired, it can lead to a number of health problems. If a blood vessel wall is damaged and bleeds, the blood in the damaged area must clot quickly to stop blood loss. This process is called “hemostasis” and is an essential defense mechanism for the body’s survival.
Blood clotting occurs when fibrin, a fibrillar protein, forms a fibrin net that clumps together with platelet plugs that hold platelets together to form a mass called a clot. This clot seals off the damaged area, preventing further blood from flowing out and giving the wound time to heal. Blood clotting also occurs in the blood vessels, where the clot is called a “thrombus”. Normally, clots are quickly removed from the blood vessels so that they don’t interfere with normal blood circulation, but under certain conditions, clots can form in excess and block blood vessels. This can pose a risk of blocking the blood supply, especially to vital organs such as the brain or heart.
When arteriosclerosis occurs, a thickening of the artery lining due to debris buildup, blood clots can easily deposit in the area and reduce blood flow, leading to vascular disease. Arteriosclerosis often develops slowly and has no symptoms at first, but as the blood vessels become narrower and narrower, it can lead to serious health problems. This is why it’s so important to maintain a balance between smooth blood circulation and blood clot formation, and vitamin K plays an important role in this process.
Vitamin K is an essential nutrient that helps the blood to clot. When researchers discovered that chicks fed a fat-free diet were deficient in a substance that dissolves in fat, causing delayed blood clotting, they named the substance vitamin K. Subsequent research has shown that vitamin K is essential for many physiological functions, not just blood clotting.
Blood clotting occurs through a chain reaction that involves a variety of factors made up of proteins. First, several clotting factors are activated, then prothrombin is activated and converted to thrombin, which in turn converts fibrinogen, which is soluble in the blood, to fibrin, which is insoluble. In this process, vitamin K is involved in the activation of blood clotting factors, including prothrombin, when they are synthesized in liver cells. Activation occurs through binding with calcium ions, and these blood proteins must be carboxylated to bind calcium ions. Carboxylation is the conversion of glutamic acid to gamma-carboxyglutamic acid in the amino acids that make up proteins. Target proteins that need to be carboxylated by vitamin K to be activated are called vitamin K-dependent proteins.
Vitamin K is divided into vitamin K1, which is synthesized in plants, and vitamin K2, which is synthesized in animal cells or produced by microbial fermentation. Green vegetables are a good source of vitamin K1, so if you follow the general dietary recommendations, you shouldn”t have any problems with blood clotting. In addition to being essential for the hemostasis process, vitamin K is also closely related to bone health. In fact, studies have shown that vitamin K deficiency can increase the risk of osteoporosis.
Another important function of vitamin K related to vascular health has been discovered, and it has to do with the calcium paradox. As we age, the density of calcium in our bone tissue decreases, making us more prone to osteoporosis, which is why we take calcium supplements to prevent it. However, calcium supplements increase the concentration of calcium in the blood but do not increase bone density. In this case, the excess calcium in the blood cannot be absorbed into the bones and is deposited as calcium salts in the walls of the blood vessels. This is called vascular calcification, and it can contribute to hardening of the arteries and vascular disease.
Vascular calcification is inhibited by a protein called MGP, which is produced by vascular muscle cells and is a vitamin K-dependent protein. Vitamin K deficiency prevents the MGP protein from being activated, leading to calcification of the blood vessels. Therefore, vitamin K is closely related to overall vascular health, not just by helping blood clot.
Vitamin K1 and K2 both induce the activation of vitamin K-dependent proteins, but K1 is primarily active in hepatocytes and K2 in other cells. Therefore, K1 is primarily responsible for the activation of blood clotting factors and K2 is primarily responsible for the activation of proteins synthesized in other cells. As a result, some researchers recommend that the recommended intake of vitamin K should be split between K1 and K2, and that people should increase their intake of animal products such as cheese, butter, and other fermented foods that contain K2.
In addition, recent research has further emphasized the importance of vitamin K. In addition to vascular disease and bone health, there is growing evidence that vitamin K plays an important role in the prevention of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. This suggests that vitamin K is not just a supplemental nutrient, but an essential component of overall human health.
