• k0e3@lemmy.ca
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    15 hours ago

    Why are babies born without enough vitamin K? Is it something to do with the modern diet or it’s just a “defect” humans have had for millions of years that we just happened to overcome in 1943?

    • Cornballer@lemmy.zip
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      11 hours ago

      You need bacteria in your gut to produce vitamin K, this takes a while. You can administer vitamin K orally and everything will usually be fine. The issue arises in rare cases where the bile duct hasn’t developed properly. There are other signs but one of them is vitamin K not absorbing properly since it’s fat soluble and you need bile to absorb fat. Administering vitamin K as a shot circumvents the gut and prevents children with these rare conditions from bleeding to death before the issue is detected.

    • Archer@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      The base rate of infant mortality used to be significantly higher than it is now. It’s possible it was always there and we didn’t evolve it away for some reason

  • morysal@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The really awful part is that these parents probably believed they were protecting their children. Misinformation becomes a lot darker when the consequences are irreversible.