The reason given for administration of Vitamin K is to prevent
haemorrhagic disease in newborns. However consider the following
points:
THE FORM OF VITAMIN K INJECTED:
The body does not readily utilize synthetic vitamins and
minerals. The Vitamin K administered by hospitals to newborns
is the synthetic phytonadione. The natural forms of Vitamin K
that
are found in many foods, particularly in vegetables such as collard
greens, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts and salad
greens, are a different form – they are called phylloquinone
or menaquinone. Certain bacteria in the intestinal tract also
produce menaquinones.
Apart from its synthetic nature, it is based on plant
Vitamin K and injected. The body utilizes vitamins and minerals
that are found in plants and creates the human form it needs,
but this is after they go through the digestion process, which
obviously
does not occur with injections.
"Little is known about the metabolic fate of Vitamin
K. Almost no free unmetabolised Vitamin K appears in bile or urine," states
both the 1988 and 1998 Physician's Desk Reference (PDR). "This
is especially important due to the fact that it is a fat-soluble
vitamin and therefore can accumulate in the body," wrote
Vitamin K Resources (VKR) in the extremely well-documented
and footnoted
1999 article, Intramuscular Vitamin K Injection: Is K OK?
TOXIC INGREDIENTS ACCOMPANYING THE VITAMIN K:
The Vitamin K injections administered by hospitals and
manufactured by Merck and Roche and Abbott contain benzyl alcohol
as a preservative. The 1989 PDR states that, "there is no
evidence to suggest that the small amount of benzyl alcohol contained
in AquaMEPHYTON (Merck's Vitamin K injection product), when used
as recommended, is associated with toxicity." Interestingly,
in November 1988, the French medical journal, Dev Pharmacol Ther,
published a paper regarding benzyl alcohol metabolism and elimination
in babies. The report stated that "...we cannot directly
answer the issue of safety of 'low doses' of benzyl alcohol as
found in
some medications administered to neonates. This study confirms
the immaturity of the benzoic acid detoxification process in
premature newborns."
Roche's Vitamin K product KONAKION contains ingredients
such as phenol (carbolic acid - a poisonous substance distilled
from coal tar), propylene glycol (derived from petroleum and
used as an antifreeze and in hydraulic brake fluid) and acetic
acid
(an astringent antimicrobial agent that may drastically reduce
the amount of natural Vitamin K that would have otherwise been
produced in the digestive tract). As reported in the PDR and
as published in the IM Vitamin K packet inserts for Merck, Roche
and
Abbott, "Studies of carcinogenicity, mutagenesis or impairment
of fertility have not been conducted with Vitamin K1 Injection
(Phytonadione Injection, USP)."
The Vitamin K injection can be in a base of polyethoxylated
castor oil.
Vitamin K injections also contain hydrochloric
acid and lecithin.
EFFECTS OF VITAMIN K ADMINISTRATION:
The manufacturers warn on the product insert: "Severe
reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately
after intravenous injection of phytonadione even when precautions
have been taken to dilute the vitamin and avoid rapid infusion...."
The Vitamin K shot has been linked to leukaemia, including
acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is characterized by an increased
number of white corpuscles in the blood, and accounts for about
85 percent of childhood leukaemia. Research carried out by Dr.
Louise Parker, of the Sir James Spence Institute of Child Health
in Newcastle upon Tyne, produced the most startling results.
Dr. Louise Parker was quoted in the British Medical Journal in
1998
as stating, "It is not possible, on the basis of currently
published evidence, to refute the suggestion that neonatal IM
Vitamin K administration increases the risk of early childhood
leukemia."
The British Journal of Cancer published "Factors associated
with childhood cancer" by J. Golding, et al, in 1990. The
report indicated that universally administered IM Vitamin K injections
significantly increase our children's chances of developing childhood
cancer. A follow-up study published two years later in the British
Medical Journal (Golding J, Paterson K, Greenwood R, Mott M. Intramuscular
Vitamin K and childhood cancer. BMJ 1992; 305:341-346) reinforced
the findings of the previous study. The authors' comments, in keeping
with scientific style, are conservatively stated, but parents who
are concerned about the health of their babies will read "danger" between
the following lines: "The only two studies so far
to have examined the relation between childhood cancer
and intramuscular
Vitamin K have shown similar results and the relation
is biologically
plausible. The prophylactic benefits against haemorrhagic
disease are unlikely to exceed the potential adverse
effects from intramuscular
Vitamin K...."
The chance of your child developing leukaemia from the
Vitamin K shot is estimated to be about one in 500 (MIDIRS
Midwifery
Digest, Vol 2 #3, September 1992).
Animal studies have linked
large doses of Vitamin K to a variety of conditions that
include anaemia, liver damage,
kidney
damage and death.
Interestingly the common problem that
occurs these days of jaundice in newborns has only been reported
since the
introduction
of Vitamin K administration.
According to the product
insert, adverse reactions include haemolysis (or hemolysis
- American spelling) (meaning
breakdown
of red blood cells), haemolytic anaemia (a disorder
characterised by chronic premature destruction of red blood cells),
hyperbilirubinemia (too much bilirubin in blood) and jaundice
(yellow skin and eyes
resulting from hyperbilirubinemia), and allergic reactions
include face flushing, gastrointestinal upset, rash, redness,
pain or
swelling at injection site and itching skin. It also
warns that large enough
doses can cause brain damage in infants and/or impairment
to liver function. Hypoxia has also been published as having
occurred
in
infants after Vitamin K administration.
THE NECESSITY (OR LACK OF NECESSITY) FOR ADMINISTRATION OF VITAMIN
K
The bleeding condition the Vitamin K shot is supposed
to prevent occurs at a rate that is far lower (in a non-Vitamin
K injected child) than the rate of occurrence of leukaemia.
The haemorrhaging condition may occur in approximately 1 in 10,000
live births.
The condition also will not necessarily be prevented
by Vitamin K because it can be caused by other factors than
a lack
of Vitamin K (e.g. See Arch Dis Child 1999; 81:278 (September)).
In fact vaccination is a major cause of haemorrhaging.
The
bacteria that should quickly colonise the gut (in a baby
who is breastfed and not given antibiotics directly
or as one of the ingredients in vaccines, including most
likely the Hepatitis
B vaccine) produces Vitamin K anyway, as mentioned above.
As
early as April 17, 1977, an article in one of the world's most
esteemed medical journals, the Lancet, discredited
the policy
of routine Vitamin K injections. "We conclude that healthy
babies, contrary to current beliefs, are not likely to have a Vitamin
K deficiency... the administration of Vitamin K is not supported
by our findings..." Van Doorm et al stated in the
Lancet article. VKR cited 21 peer-reviewed reports that
had been
published in prominent
medical journals. All of them concur that policies that
mandate the universal injection of newborn babies are not
based on
sound science. There has been much peer-reviewed evidence
generated
which questions the efficacy of routine Vitamin K injections
as sound
public health policy.
Naturopathic physicians and others
who successfully adhere to a more natural approach
to healthcare advocate that
high-risk
mothers should increase the amount of Vitamin K available
to the foetus, and then the breastfeeding infant, by
eating adequate
amounts
of green leafy vegetables and other foods high in
Vitamin K, such as alfalfa, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower,
spinach,
turnip
greens, asparagus, oats and green tea.
Commonsensically,
VKR poses the question, "...how
could God (or nature) have erred so badly as to give
all newborn babies only an infinitesimal fraction of their required
Vitamin
K? Surely the human race could not have survived to this
point if all newborns were born with this deficiency and none
being administered
at birth until very recently." So ironically, when
a Vitamin K deficiency does occur the probable cause(s)
would be some other
artificial, unnecessary interference, which just so happens
to be something that one might say is fairly characteristic
of modern
medical treatments.
