|  | | | Vitamin K and clotting
One of the most basic defence mechanisms the body has is the clotting process to prevent blood loss.Both detailed and more basic accounts of the process can be found on the web.
Essentially, clotting is a three stage process:
 | Damaged blood vessels contract to minimize blood loss |
| Small particles called plateletsstick together to plug gaps temporarily |
| A series of proteins in the blood trigger off a complex cascade which produces a stable clot and plugs the wound while healing occurs |
It is in the last of these stages, formation of a clot by activation of coagulation or clotting factors, that Vitamin K is important. The Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organization have prepared a general expert document on human vitamin and mineral requirements - Chapter 10 of this offers a detailed discussion of the biology of Vitamin K and consequences of deficiency. A number of the clotting factors are synthesized in the liver in a process which requires Vitamin K.
Deficiency of Vitamin K results in the production of abnormal forms of the clotting factors called PIVKA - Proteins Induced by Vitamin K Absence.
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