What are the causes of vitamin k deficiency in human?

A deficiency of vitamin K is unlikely in healthy adults. The populations groups that appear to be most at risk for a vitamin K deficiency are newborn infants, people being treated chronically with antibiotics, people with severe gastrointestinal malabsorption disorders, and the elderly.

Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, biliary stasis, sliver diseases, cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, and Ascaris infection can interfere with enteric absorption of vitamin K.

The synthesis of vitamin K by the intestinal flora meets the requirements of this vitamin. But sterilization of the large intestine by the prolonged use of sulfonamides and antibiotics or diarrheal diseases like sprue, ulcerative colitis and conditions with reduce fat absorption may lead to vitamin K deficiency.

Vitamin K deficiency also occurs in patients with malabsorption and sometimes following prolonged use of broad spectrum antibiotic by mouths (which can destroy the colonic bacteria). Many antibiotics like penicillins, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, chloramphenicol, amphotericin B, erythromycin are reported to cause vitamin K deficiency and hypoprothrombinemia.

Certain types of drugs can impair vitamin K function. These include warfarin and other 4-hydroxycoumarin anticoagulants and large doses of salicylates, which inhibit the redox cycling of the vitamin.

Newborn are particularly at risk because their food is limited to milk, which is low in vitamin K; their stores of the vitamin are low because inadequate amounts cross the placental and their intestinal tract is not yet populated by vitamin K-synthesizing bacteria.
What are the causes of vitamin k deficiency in human?

What is malnutrition?

Malnutrition is defined as deficiency of one or more of the essential diet ingredients. Malnutrition includes undernutrition and overnutrition. Undernutrition is a state of an insufficient supply of essential nutrients, while Overnutrition refers to an excessive intake of one or more nutrients, which creates a stress in the bodily function.

Primary malnutrition is caused by lack of essential nutrients such as vitamins, minerals or proteins. It can be secondary, which means it results from an error in metabolism (as in disease of the gastrointestinal tract, thyroid, kidney liver or pancreas), by increased nutritional requirements (growth, injuries, burns, surgical procedures, pregnancy, lactation, fever) interaction between nutrients or nutrients and drugs used in treatment.

According to the FAO of the United Nations in 2012, approximately one in eight people globally or 842 million people, suffered from chronic hunger. Research suggested complex relationships between nutritional status and a wide variety of macro-level and micro-level factors, such as agricultural production, economic strategies, women’s roles and time allocation, nature of local diet, food availability, intra –household allocation to food, breast feeding, weaning practices, sanitation and infection.

People should eat appropriate quantities of quality food, and it should contain all the vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates fats and minerals needed to keep the body healthy.

In developed countries, obesity due to a poor diet with high levels of fat and lost of junk food is a type of malnutrition. Elderly people and hospital patients may also suffer from malnutrition, because they may not be able to look after themselves properly and may be too weak or ill to eat properly.
What is malnutrition?

How food spoils?

Food spoilage is a complex process that changes in food making it unsafe, less acceptable or unacceptable to the consumer for its original purpose.

The spoilage can be detected organoleptically. That is, people can either see the spoilage, smell the spoilage, taste the spoilage, feel the spoilage, or combination of the four sensations.

Food may be spoiled by being contaminated with disease-causing organism that may not be organoleptically detected by consumer, by contamination with glass, pieces of metal or paint, light oxidation of colors, by undergoing chemical change (e.g. rancidity) or by the growth of microorganisms that may become manifest in a variety of ways.

It is widely recognized that food spoilage often occurs due to growth of microorganism and activities of enzymes they secrete.

Food spoilage is usually and indicator that a food has been improperly handled or stored too long.
How food spoils? 

Hypolactasia

Milk is the only source of lactose, a disaccharide. Lactose is hydrolyzed to its monosaccharides, glucose and galactose, by a specific enzyme, lactase, which is β-galactosidase and located in the brush border of small-intestinal microvillus epithelial cells.

Hypolactasia is defined as lactase deficiency inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. Lactose intolerance is defined as symptomatic hypolactasia.

There are five causes of hypolactasia
*Congenital loss and it is very rare
*Inherited loss on weaning (very common)
*Gut infections such as rotavirus and Giardia
*Damage to the villi in the small intestine caused by radiotherapy or bacterial overgrowth
*Hormonal disturbances, menopause and aging

The symptoms are the result of lactose absorbing water in the intestine through osmotic mechanism, which speeds intestinal transport. Lactose is then metabolized by colonic bacteria producing lactic acid, hydrogen and CO2.

Among hypolactasia symptoms:
*Flatulence and meteorism
*Ill-defined abdominal pain
*Diarrhea

The symptoms start 1-2 hours after a lactose-containing meal and its depend on the amount of ingested lactose.

In children hypolactasia rarely develops before the age of 5 years. School-aged children often have milk-induced complaints associated with hypolactasia.

Hypolactasia occurs in 17% of Northern European inhabitants. It is more common in the Mediterranean are and much more common in many tropical countries.
Hypolactasia