Have you ever scraped your knee when riding a bike as a kid or maybe cut your finger while chopping up your favorite veggies? If you have cut yourself at some point in your life and you are reading this, my guess is that your cut healed and you didn’t lose too much blood. Do you know why that is? That was due to the star of this post, vitamin K.1 We’ll talk more about how vitamin K is involved in healing our wounds in a little bit, but first let’s get some background on this vitamin.
This is the last of the four fat soluble vitamins we are going to discuss in the “Vitamin Me” series and it is a very interesting one. This little nutrient comes in two forms, phylloquinone which is our main source, and menaquinones which can actually be produced by the healthy bacteria in our bodies.1 In addition to bacteria, menaquinones can be found in animal based fermented foods, fermented soybeans, and a small amount in meat, cheese, and eggs.1,2 The sources of phylloquinone include:
- Green leafy vegetables
- Collard greens
- Kale
- Spinach
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Lettuce
- Soybean oil
- Canola oil
The functions of vitamin K include making various proteins, building bones, and regulating calcium.2 Now, if there is one thing we know, it’s that there are tons of different proteins the body makes for all sorts of different functions. Vitamin K specifically works in the “hospital” of the body. This vitamin is kind of like the EMT who is constantly patrolling the body in case of an emergency, usually hanging out in the liver, brain, heart, pancreas, and bone.1
You see, when you get a cut or a scrape the layers of the skin are not intact which allows for the blood to exit its circulation.2 This sounds like a bad thing, but the body is pretty smart.2 As soon as this happens, the ambulance and medical team are sent to the scene. Vitamin K creates a protein called prothrombin that helps the blood to thicken and clump together.2 By doing this, it protects the wound and stops the bleeding so the rest of the team can begin their surgery.3 The platelets help the blood to scab and the fibrin protein creates a net to make sure the clot can’t move out of place.3 Once the outside of the wound is secure, the team works on restoring nutrients and oxygen to the tissue inside which to us looks like inflammation.3 Some other team members include the white blood cells, kind of like the nurse, who guard the wound while it is susceptible to infection and cleans the wound so it stays healthy which is why you may see clear puss washing out the cut as it heals.3 After this, the body needs to grow and build new tissue because the fibrin and clot are only a temporary bandage.3 If you recall, vitamin C helps to make collagen which is the protein that aids this process as the fibrin gets stronger and stronger, eventually restoring the skin.3 This is an incredible process and requires quite a team to get the job done, but none of it would be possible without vitamin K.
So how much vitamin K do we need a day? The recommended daily adequate intake is 90-120 micrograms a day.1 Here are some examples of foods and their microgram content:
- ½ cup collards = 530 mcg
- ½ cup turnip greens = 426 micrograms
- 1 cup kale = 113 mcg
- ½ cup broccoli = 110 mcg
- ½ cup roasted soybeans = 43 mcg
- ½ cup edamame = 21 mcg
- ½ cup canned pumpkin = 20 mcg
- ½ cup blueberries = 14 mcg
- 3 oz. rotisserie chicken = 13 mcg
- ½ cup grapes = 11 mcg
- 1 medium carrot = 8 mcg
As you can see there are tons of delicious sources of vitamin K you can incorporate into your diet every day to help support wound healing, bone metabolism, immune health, and skin, blood clotting, and regulating calcium.1,2 This vitamin is always on call to helping us patch and heal our cuts and plays an important part in keeping the immune system strong.1,2 So, the next time you get a cut or scrape and you start to see it heal, just remember it couldn’t be done without the little hero, vitamin K.
Post created by student dietetic intern from the University of Akron: Michaela Campbell
REFERENCES:
- Vitamin K. The Nutrition Source. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-k/. Published July 2, 2019. Accessed January 27, 2022.
- Office of dietary supplements – vitamin K. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminK-HealthProfessional/. Accessed January 27, 2022.
- How wounds heal. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/how-wounds-heal. Accessed January 27, 2022.
