Vitamin K supplements could improve anti-blood clot control
By Stephen Daniells

28/11/2006- Daily supplements of vitamin K could help to control anticoagulation in over half the people taking the blood thinning medication warfarin, scientists from the UK have reported.

The result is particularly important because daily dietary control of vitamin K intake is difficult to maintain and even small changes in vitamin K intake are reported to translate into large variations in the production of clotting factors.

Additionally, because vitamin K is known to participate in blood clotting, people taking blood thinners like warfarin are usually recommended to avoid supplementation with the vitamin.
However, researchers from Newcastle University and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, have built on previous research that reported that unstable control of anti-coagulation is linked to low vitamin K intake (Thrombosis & Haemostasis, Vol. 93, pp. 872-875).
"We hypothesised that supplementation with oral vitamin K would improve stability in patients with previously unstable control of anticoagulation," explained lead author Elizabeth Sconce in the journal Blood.
Vitamin K is traditionally less well known than vitamins A to E, but this increasing body of research, as well as increased marketing and advertising from supplement makers, is raising public awareness of vitamin K.