tothestars
08-09-2008, 09:30 AM
Upon request I now post the info i found:
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Vitamin K is found in several forms: Vitamin K-1 (Phylloquinone), the form occurring naturally in plants; Vitamin K-2 (Menaquinone), the form produced by intestinal bacteria and also derived from putrefied fish meal; synthetic vitamin K (Menadione).
Vitamin K is integrally involved in the clotting mechanism of blood. A deficiency of vitamin K results in decreased blood levels of prothrombin and clotting factors IV, IX, and X, with subsequent hemorrhagic tendencies.
Humans are unable to synthesize vitamin K. It must either be acquired from dietary sources, or as metabolic by-products of intestinal bacteria. Still, the vitamin is so widely distributed in nature that nutritional deficiencies do not occur under normal circumstances.
Vitamin K is heat-stable and water soluble; therefore no inactivation or leeching of the vitamin into the water occurs during cooking. It is destroyed by strong acids or alkalis. Gamma-irradiation of foods to increase storage life inactivates vitamin K.
Method of Action
Vitamin K requires bile to be absorbed from the small intestine. It is carried through the bloodstream to the liver by lipoproteins.
Vitamin K controls the clotting mechanism of the blood because its action is directed at the precursor of prothrombin. Prothrombin is activated to form thrombin, an enzyme which, in turn, converts fibrinogen to fibrin, the insoluble protein that solidifies the blood clot.
To become active, the glutamate residue on the inactive prothrombin precursor must acquire a carboxyl group to form a carboxylglutamate residue. This carboxylation requires the cofactor vitamin K. The carboxylglutamate group can, in turn, bind a calcium ion to form the enzyme thrombin. In the absence of vitamin K, no prothrombin is formed, resulting in a condition called hypoprothrombonemia. A deficiency in circulating prothrombin decreases the amount of thrombin available for coagulation and increases the body's tendency to hemorrhage following a blow or injury.
Vitamin K occurs in the liver as inactive vitamin K epioxide. A reductase (reducing enzyme) is required to change it back to its active state. There is speculation that coumarin works indirectly by inhibiting the reductase and, consequently, the vitamin K conversion, rather than by acting directly on thrombin or fibrin.
Properties and Uses
Vitamin K supplements are administered by intravenous or intramuscular injections and, on occasion, can be given orally.
The long-term use of antibiotics destroys normal intestinal bacteria, in turn decreasing the synthesis and availability of vitamin K. Supplements of the vitamin should be prescribed to prevent hemorrhaging.
A decreased level of serum prothrombin occurs consequent to anticoagulant therapy for thrombosis. To avert potential life-threatening hemorrhaging, controlled dosages of vitamin K are prescribed, with phylloquinone, the vitamin K of plant origin, the preferred form.
Hemorrhagic disease due to vitamin K deficiency can occur during the first few weeks of life. Infants are therefore routinely injected at birth with one to two milligrams of natural vitamin K per kilogram body weight as a means of prevention. Menadione, synthetic vitamin K, is not used because it is fairly toxic to newborns, resulting in hemolytic anemia, increased serum bilirubin levels, and jaundice (in large dosages).
Hemorrhagic disease of the newborn is readily treated when it does occur. Natural vitamin K is administered intramuscularly or by stomach tube at a dosage of one to two milligrams per kilogram body weight. Recovery occurs within 48 hours of treatment.
An inability to absorb fats and fat-soluble vitamins can result in bile deficiencies, cystic fibrosis, diarrhea, ulcerative colitis, or jaundice. Vitamin K supplements of one to two milligrams per kilogram body weight can be administered in water miscible and readily absorbed forms.
Consequences of Deficiency
Symptoms associated with a vitamin K deficiency include: prolonged blood clotting time, increased bleeding and hemorrhaging, decreased active prothrombin in the blood, and hemorrhagic episodes in newborns.
Because vitamin K is common in many foods and is also synthesized by intestinal bacteria, deficiency in humans is unlikely to occur under normal conditions.
Several health conditions and therapeutic regimens can create a vitamin K deficiency and produce overt symptoms of avitaminosis. And condition which interferes with intestinal absorption of fats, such as gallbladder disorders, ulcerative colitis, cystic fibrosis, diarrhea, or obstructive jaundice, will result in a decreased absorption of vitamin K.
A long-term use of antibiotics or sulfonamides will sterilize the intestines or decrease the activity of gut bacteria, indirectly causing a decreased availability of endogenous vitamin K.
When dicumarol is prescribed, vitamin K supplements are given concomitantly to insure against potential life-threatening hemorrhage.
Hemorrhagic diseases due to vitamin K deficiency can occur in newborns during the first few weeks of life. Newborns have a very limited supply of the vitamin at birth. Very little is acquired during fetal life because vitamin K does not readily cross the placenta; the sterile intestine is not immediately colonized by vitamin K-producing bacteria. Thus, the infant's stores become low within one week after birth, and bleeding tendencies may become evident.
Vitamin K deficiencies can also result from the use of mineral oil as a laxative. The vitamin becomes irreversibly bound to the oil droplets in the intestine, which cannot be absorbed in that form, and is ultimately excreted in the feces. Because its use can also result in deficiencies of the fat-soluble vitamins, mineral oil should not be taken for constipation.
Toxicity Levels
Unlike the other fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin K is not stored in any significant quantity in the liver; therefore toxic levels are rarely achieved.
Synthetic vitamin K (menadione) has double the potency of natural vitamin K on a per weight basis, resulting in a narrower margin of therapeutic safety. Because menadione is toxic at excessive dosages, the Food and Drug Administration has banned is use as an over-the-counter supplement.
The possible symptoms of vitamin K toxicity include: thrombosis, vomiting, kidney tubule degeneration, and jaundice and hemolytic anemia in newborns.
Recommended Dietary Allowances
RDA for adult males: 80 mcg
RDA for adult females: 65 mcg
RDA for children 7 to 10 years: 30 mcg
RDA for infants: 10 mcg
RDA for pregnant and lactating women 65 mcg
Food Sources
Intestinal bacteria synthesize vitamin K, and serve as the only endogenous source of the vitamin for humans.
Vitamin K can be acquired exogenously be eating a diet composed of the following foods.
Extremely High (650 mcg/100 g)
· Beef kidney
· Beef liver
· Broccoli
· Cabbage · Cauliflower
· Lettuce
· Soybeans
· Spinach
Medium (10 - 100 mcg/100 g)
· Alfalfa
· Bacon
· Bran flake
· Butter
· Cheese
· Egg yolk
· Potatoes
· Strawberries
· Tomatoes
· Whole wheat
Low (0 - 10 mcg/100 g)
· Carrots
· Corn
· Green peas · Milk
· Mushrooms
· Parsley
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Vitamin K
Is this really safe and necessary?
Bronwyn Hancock October 2003
The reason given for administration of Vitamin K is to prevent haemorrhagic disease in newborns. However consider the following points:
The form of Vitamin K injected
· The body does not readily utilise synthetic vitamins and minerals. The vitamin K administered by hospitals to newborns is the synthetic phytonadione. The natural forms of vitamin K that are found in many foods, particularly in vegetables such as collard greens, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, brussels sprouts and salad greens, are a different form – they are called phylloquinone or menaquinone. Certain bacteria in the intestinal tract also produce menaquinones.
· Apart from its synthetic nature, it is based on plant Vitamin K and injected. The body utilises vitamins and minerals that are found in plants and creates the human form it needs, but this is after they go through the digestion process, which obviously does not occur with injections.
· "Little is known about the metabolic fate of vitamin K. Almost no free unmetabolised vitamin K appears in bile or urine," states both the 1988 and 1998 Physician's Desk Reference (PDR). "This is especially important due to the fact that it is a fat-soluble vitamin and therefore can accumulate in the body," wrote Vitamin K Resources (VKR) in the extremely well-documented and footnoted 1999 article, Intramuscular Vitamin K Injection: Is K OK?he amount of Vitamin K administered
Toxic ingredients accompanying the Vitamin K
· The vitamin K injections administered by hospitals and manufactured by Merck and Roche and Abbott contain benzyl alcohol as a preservative. The 1989 PDR states that, "there is no evidence to suggest that the small amount of benzyl alcohol contained in AquaMEPHYTON (Merck's vitamin K injection product), when used as recommended, is associated with toxicity." Interestingly, in November 1988, the French medical journal, Dev Pharmacol Ther, published a paper regarding benzyl alcohol metabolism and elimination in babies. The report stated that "...we cannot directly answer the issue of safety of 'low doses' of benzyl alcohol as found in some medications administered to neonates. This study confirms the immaturity of the benzoic acid detoxification process in premature newborns."
· Roche's vitamin K product KONAKION contains ingredients such as phenol (carbolic acid-a poisonous substance distilled from coal tar), propylene glycol (derived from petroleum and used as an antifreeze and in hydraulic brake fluid) and acetic acid (an astringent antimicrobial agent that may drastically reduce the amount of natural vitamin K that would have otherwise been produced in the digestive tract). As reported in the PDR and as published in the IM vitamin K packet inserts for Merck, Roche and Abbott, "Studies of carcinogenicity, mutagenesis or impairment of fertility have not been conducted with Vitamin K1 Injection (Phytonadione Injection, USP)."
· The Vitamin K injection can be in a base of polyethoxylated castor oil.
· Vitamin K injections also contain hydrochloric acid and lecithin.
Effects of Vitamin K administration
· The manufacturers warn on the product insert: "Severe reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately after intravenous injection of phytonadione even when precautions have been taken to dilute the vitamin and avoid rapid infusion..."
· The Vitamin K shot has been linked to leukaemia, including acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is characterized by an increased number of white corpuscles in the blood, and accounts for about 85 percent of childhood leukaemia. Research carried out by Dr. Louise Parker, of the Sir James Spence Institute of Child Health in Newcastle upon Tyne, produced the most startling results. Dr. Louise Parker was quoted in the British Medical Journal in 1998 as stating, "It is not possible, on the basis of currently published evidence, to refute the suggestion that neonatal IM vitamin K administration increases the risk of early childhood leukemia.".
The British Journal of Cancer published "Factors associated with childhood cancer" by J. Golding, et al, in 1990. The report indicated that universally administered IM vitamin K injections significantly increase our children's chances of developing childhood cancer. A follow-up study published two years later in the British Medical Journal (Golding J, Paterson K, Greenwood R, Mott M. Intramuscular vitamin K and childhood cancer. BMJ 1992; 305:341-346.) reinforced the findings of the previous study. The authors' comments, in keeping with scientific style, are conservatively stated, but parents who are concerned about the health of their babies will read "danger" between the following lines: "The only two studies so far to have examined the relation between childhood cancer and intramuscular vitamin K have shown similar results and the relation is biologically plausible. The prophylactic benefits against haemorrhagic disease are unlikely to exceed the potential adverse effects from intramuscular vitamin K..."
The chance of your child developing leukaemia from the Vitamin K shot is estimated to be about one in 500 (MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, Vol 2 #3, September 1992)
· Animal studies have linked large doses of vitamin K to a variety of conditions that include anaemia, liver damage, kidney damage and death.
· Interestingly the common problem that occurs these days of jaundice in newborns has only been reported since the introduction of Vitamin K administration.
· According to the product insert, adverse reactions include haemolysis (or hemolysis - American spelling) (meaning breakdown of red blood cells), haemolytic anaemia (a disorder characterised by chronic premature destruction of red blood cells), hyperbilirubinemia (too much bilirubin in blood) and jaundice (yellow skin and eyes resulting from hyperbilirubinemia), and allergic reactions include face flushing, gastrointestinal upset, rash, redness, pain or swelling at injection site and itching skin. It also warns that large enough doses can cause brain damage in infants and/or impairment to liver function. Hypoxia has also been published as having occurred in infants after Vitamin K administration.
The necessity (or lack of necessity) for administration of Vitamin K
· The bleeding condition the Vitamin K shot is supposed to prevent occurs at a rate that is far lower (in a non-Vitamin K injected child) than the rate of occurrence of leukaemia. The haemorrhaging condition may occur in approximately 1 in 10,000 live births
· The condition also will not necessarily be prevented by Vitamin K because it can be caused by other factors than a lack of Vitamin K (e.g. See Arch Dis Child 1999; 81:278 (September)). In fact vaccination is a major cause of haemorrhaging.
· The bacteria that should quickly colonise the gut (in a baby who is breastfed and not given antibiotics directly or as one of the ingredients in vaccines, including most likely the Hepatitis B vaccine) produces Vitamin K anyway, as mentioned above.
· As early as April 17, 1977, an article in one of the world's most esteemed medical journals, the Lancet, discredited the policy of routine vitamin K injections. "We conclude that healthy babies, contrary to current beliefs, are not likely to have a vitamin K deficiency... the administration of vitamin K is not supported by our findings..." Van Doorm et al stated in the Lancet article. VKR cited 21 peer-reviewed reports that had been published in prominent medical journals. All of them concur that policies that mandate the universal injection of newborn babies are not based on sound science. There has been much peer-reviewed evidence generated which questions the efficacy of routine vitamin K injections as sound public health policy.
· Naturopathic physicians and others who successfully adhere to a more natural approach to healthcare advocate that high-risk mothers should increase the amount of vitamin K available to the foetus, and then the breastfeeding infant, by eating adequate amounts of green leafy vegetables and other foods high in Vitamin K, such as alfalfa, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, turnip greens, asparagus, oats and green tea.
· Commonsensically, VKR poses the question, "...how could God (or nature) have erred so badly as to give all newborn babies only an infinitesimal fraction of their required vitamin K? Surely the human race could not have survived to this point if all newborns were born with this deficiency and none being administered at birth until very recently." So ironically, when a Vitamin K deficiency does occur the probable cause(s) would be some other artificial, unnecessary interference, which just so happens to be something that one might say is fairly characteristic of modern medical treatments.
Alternative to Vitamin K administration
· The main way Mother Nature provides Vitamin K to a newborn is that there is some in breast milk but also then once the baby starts breastfeeding, the baby's own gut flora immediately start proliferating and producing it.
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Toxic ingredients accompanying the Vitamin K
· The vitamin K injections administered by hospitals and manufactured by Merck and Roche and Abbott contain benzyl alcohol as a preservative. The 1989 PDR states that, "there is no evidence to suggest that the small amount of benzyl alcohol contained in AquaMEPHYTON (Merck's vitamin K injection product), when used as recommended, is associated with toxicity." Interestingly, in November 1988, the French medical journal, Dev Pharmacol Ther, published a paper regarding benzyl alcohol metabolism and elimination in babies. The report stated that "...we cannot directly answer the issue of safety of 'low doses' of benzyl alcohol as found in some medications administered to neonates. This study confirms the immaturity of the benzoic acid detoxification process in premature newborns."
· Roche's vitamin K product KONAKION contains ingredients such as phenol (carbolic acid-a poisonous substance distilled from coal tar), propylene glycol (derived from petroleum and used as an antifreeze and in hydraulic brake fluid) and acetic acid (an astringent antimicrobial agent that may drastically reduce the amount of natural vitamin K that would have otherwise been produced in the digestive tract). As reported in the PDR and as published in the IM vitamin K packet inserts for Merck, Roche and Abbott, "Studies of carcinogenicity, mutagenesis or impairment of fertility have not been conducted with Vitamin K1 Injection (Phytonadione Injection, USP)."
· The Vitamin K injection can be in a base of polyethoxylated castor oil.
· Vitamin K injections also contain hydrochloric acid and lecithin.
Effects of Vitamin K administration
· The manufacturers warn on the product insert: "Severe reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately after intravenous injection of phytonadione even when precautions have been taken to dilute the vitamin and avoid rapid infusion..."
· The Vitamin K shot has been linked to leukaemia, including acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is characterized by an increased number of white corpuscles in the blood, and accounts for about 85 percent of childhood leukaemia. Research carried out by Dr. Louise Parker, of the Sir James Spence Institute of Child Health in Newcastle upon Tyne, produced the most startling results. Dr. Louise Parker was quoted in the British Medical Journal in 1998 as stating, "It is not possible, on the basis of currently published evidence, to refute the suggestion that neonatal IM vitamin K administration increases the risk of early childhood leukemia.".
The British Journal of Cancer published "Factors associated with childhood cancer" by J. Golding, et al, in 1990. The report indicated that universally administered IM vitamin K injections significantly increase our children's chances of developing childhood cancer. A follow-up study published two years later in the British Medical Journal (Golding J, Paterson K, Greenwood R, Mott M. Intramuscular vitamin K and childhood cancer. BMJ 1992; 305:341-346.) reinforced the findings of the previous study. The authors' comments, in keeping with scientific style, are conservatively stated, but parents who are concerned about the health of their babies will read "danger" between the following lines: "The only two studies so far to have examined the relation between childhood cancer and intramuscular vitamin K have shown similar results and the relation is biologically plausible. The prophylactic benefits against haemorrhagic disease are unlikely to exceed the potential adverse effects from intramuscular vitamin K..."
The chance of your child developing leukaemia from the Vitamin K shot is estimated to be about one in 500 (MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, Vol 2 #3, September 1992)
· Animal studies have linked large doses of vitamin K to a variety of conditions that include anaemia, liver damage, kidney damage and death.
· Interestingly the common problem that occurs these days of jaundice in newborns has only been reported since the introduction of Vitamin K administration.
· According to the product insert, adverse reactions include haemolysis (or hemolysis - American spelling) (meaning breakdown of red blood cells), haemolytic anaemia (a disorder characterised by chronic premature destruction of red blood cells), hyperbilirubinemia (too much bilirubin in blood) and jaundice (yellow skin and eyes resulting from hyperbilirubinemia), and allergic reactions include face flushing, gastrointestinal upset, rash, redness, pain or swelling at injection site and itching skin. It also warns that large enough doses can cause brain damage in infants and/or impairment to liver function. Hypoxia has also been published as having occurred in infants after Vitamin K administration.-----
Could our sons severe learning disability and diagnosis of autism have been due to this vitamin?? I can link our other 2 childrens autism and disabilities to their jabs( MMR and DTP respectively), but this is the only one my youngest has had?? he was terribly jaundiced, and was close to having a blood transfusion a few days after his birth, this is all very worrying, could it have caused brain damage?
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http://www.jabs.org.uk/forum/post.asp?method=ReplyQuote&REPLY_ID=2224&TOPIC_ID=682&FORUM_ID=4
kiwimaj
10-04-2009, 02:21 PM
When my son was born 16 years ago, right after he was born the nurse asked if we wanted to have the k shot, I def seem to remember her saying this helped prevent childhood leukemia. You have just spent god knows how many hours in labour, then have the baby dragged out by it's had with byceps, you are emotionally and physically drained beyond belief..you are def not in the right mental state to question (well I wasn't) and I def don't remember being told about the shot when I went for my pre-natal checks etc.
I said yes, why wouldn't I, I mean, of course I wanted my child to not get cancer (looking back it was just a rouse, god knows what that shot contained..:eek:)..Nowadays I would def not have that jab, along with all the other poisons they inject. I didn't notice any negative after effects of the jab and he never suffered from jaundice or such, but again, would not do it today.