allergic to vitamin K

When my kidneys failed they gave me vitamin k by injection and my body went into shock, I had an allegric attack. I thought I was dying. My body doesn't like any greens I get so sick from them and spinach is the worst.

I am also allergic to vitamin K, as I found out after making the mistake of taking K supplements for a couple of months. So you are not alone. My symptoms included burning lips and rashes on the back of my hands and wrists and also on my posterior. I suspect that the K reaction is also partly responsible for some intestinal inflammation I seem to be experiencing.

I have no credentials, but I have spent many hours researching this on the web. At first I found no confirmation that K could be the problem. Eventually I found statements that it could cause allergic reactions "in rare cases."

Vitamin K is one of the "fat soluble" vitamins, along with A, E, and D. These tend to be stored in the liver and fat cells in the body. I suspect that having saturated my system with vitamin K is the reason I have to be very careful about eating many things I used to enjoy. What's more, I conjecture, from discussions I have seen on vitamin D, that losing weight is releasing stored vitamin K back into my system. I must therefore not lose the weight too rapidly, as I seem to experience mild reactions when I do. I hope that when all the weight is lost, I will be able to eat small portions of broccoli and maybe even spinach.

I would suggest bookmarking a web nutrition database and checking the vitamin K content of all the foods you eat. The big ones are spinach, turnip greens, and other of those dense dark green veggies. Broccoli has less, but still quite a bit. But even blueberries and cashews have some vitamin K content. Also make sure your multivitamin does not include K.

One more thing that took me a long time to figure out is that there are 3 forms, K1, K2, and K3. I believe K3 is an artificial form only and not a concern. However K2 is found in fermented foods, most commonly cheeses and yogurt. K2 is being touted by some as a new superfood who recommend things like natto, which is made from fermented soy beans. This would be lethal for me. You should also be aware that many databases will only list the K1 content which can be misleading.

I hope this helps. This is essentially what I have distilled from my own experience and hours at a time over many months of searching the web. Good luck.

r

Hi casaatthebeach,

It is possible that you are allergic to Vitamin K. If you are allergic to vitamin K, your immune system overreacts to the substance when it is ingested. As with most supplements, consuming vitamin K that naturally occurs in food will not trigger an allergic reaction, but when taken in supplement form, your body may not recognize it as safe and unleash an attack against the ingested supplement. Your immune system triggers the production of different chemicals throughout your body. These chemicals can cause irritation and inflammation in different parts of your body.

Have you been to an allergist to be tested for different allergy types?

-Rosa