Learning fascinating stuff.
- People can have the deficiency disease Rickets even if they have enough vitamin D in their bodies. This is because Vitamin D (cholecalciferol) needs to be converted to it’s active form calcitriol in the kidneys. If the person has kidney disease, then no matter how much vitamin D the person has, it will not have any effect on the body as it cannot be converted to calcitriol. Hence, renal rickets can not be treated by vitamin D supplements.
- Rickets can also occur in a person if the cells have abnormally small numbers or defective form of calcitriol (active form of vitamin D) receptors proteins. In such cases, even if there is enough amount of calcitriol in the body, it cannot act on cells because of faulty acceptor proteins. Hence, in such people as well, increasing vitamin D dosage will not improve the patient’s condition. However, administrating mega doses of calcitriol can be helpful.
- One of the reasons why the human bodies age is because of oxidation by free radicals. As the body ages, powerful biological anti-oxidants like vitamin E deplete in concentration. Hence, they cannot protect the cell membranes from oxidation (and destruction) by free radicals. So, cells start to die (eg: RBCs undergo hemolysis, they rupture). This is one of the reasons why we get old.
- Bone is a dynamic tissue that is strongly influenced by endocrine factors to restore balance between re-absorption and bone formation. Your bones are continually being reabsorbed and formed in your body! And it’s tightly regulated by your endocrine system.
- Prothrombin time (PT) and blood clotting time are increase during vitamin K deficiency (since clotting factors require vitamin K to be activated). However, these are also taken as indicators for liver function. If the liver is not functioning properly ie; the liver is not producing clotting factors then also PT will increase. In such cases, administrating vitamin K dose doesn’t not stop excessive bleedings in patient (since there are no clotting factors in the first place). So before and after administration of vitamin K, PT should be checked to ensure if it’s working or not. This is especially important before surgeries.
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