Vitamin K

What is Vitamin K?

Vitamin K is necessary for the blood to clot. Newborns are given an injection of vitamin K immediately after birth to reduce the risk of bleeding.

• Vitamin K er en fellesbetegnelse på to naturlige fettløselige forbindelser: vitamin K1 (fyllokinon) og vitamin K2 (menakinon).

• Vitamin K3 og K4 er syntetiske varianter av K-vitamin.

• Vitamin K dannes vanligvis av tarmbakterier, men vi må også få tilført vitaminet via kosten. 

Vitamin K is a collective term for two natural fat-soluble compounds: vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) and vitamin K2 (menaquinone).

Vitamin K3 and K4 are synthetic variants of vitamin K.

Vitamin K is usually produced by intestinal bacteria, but we also need to get the vitamin through our diet.

What does vitamin K do for the body?

Vitamin K is necessary for the blood to coagulate (liver) normally. Vitamin K is also important for the skeleton. There is a close collaboration between vitamin K and vitamin D to get calcium up from the gut and into the skeleton. Vitamin K can therefore be important for preventing osteoporosis.

Sources of vitamin K in the diet

Good sources of vitamin K are green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

Recommended daily intake of vitamin K

There are no Norwegian recommendations on this, but the NNR (Nordic Nutrition Recommendations) recommends 1 microgram (µg) per kilogram of body weight daily. For a person weighing 75 kilograms, the recommended daily intake will therefore be 75 µg.

µg: microgram

What happens with vitamin K deficiency?

Lack of vitamin K can lead to bleeding. Vitamin K deficiency is rare in Norway because the vitamin is produced by our intestinal bacteria, which can make up for low dietary intake. Vitamin K deficiency is most often due to a lack of intestinal bacteria, which can occur, among other things, during long-term antibiotic treatment. Other causes of vitamin K deficiency can be chronic reduced fat absorption from the intestine and biliary constipation.