Vitamin K: an old vitamin in a new perspective.

The topic of "Vitamin K" is currently booming on the health products market. Vitamin K is known to be important for blood coagulation. Current research increasingly indicates that the antihaemorrhagic vitamin has a considerable benefit in the prevention and treatment of bone and vascular disease. Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) is more abundant in foods but less bioactive than the vitamin K2 menaquinones (especially MK-7, menaquinone-7). Vitamin K compounds undergo oxidation-reduction cycling within the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, donating electrons to activate specific proteins via enzymatic gamma-carboxylation of glutamate groups before being enzymatically reduced. Along with coagulation factors (II, VII, IX, X, and prothrombin), protein C and protein S, osteocalcin (OC), matrix Gla protein (MGP), periostin, Gas6, and other vitamin K-dependent (VKD) proteins support calcium homeostasis, inhibit vessel wall calcification, support endothelial integrity, facilitate bone mineralization, are involved in tissue renewal and cell growth control, and have numerous other effects. The following review describes the history of vitamin K, the physiological significance of the K vitamers, updates skeletal and cardiovascular benefits and important interactions with drugs.

[Göppingen 1999 vaccination program in the 5th and 6th grade]. / Impfkampagne in den 5. und 6. Schulklassen des Landkreises Göppingen 1999.

During a campaign carried out by the Ministry for Social Affairs in Baden-Wuerttemberg to promote vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella (German measles) (MMR), the Juvenile Medical Service at the Public Health Office in Goeppingen carried out a broadly offered vaccination (advisory) programme in the Goeppingen area for 5,800 schoolchildren in their first and second years of secondary education (10-12-year olds) from September to December 1999. Our first aim was to detect in this target group vaccination gaps which could be closed by practising physicians, but our medical service also offered the mentioned vaccinations in those cases where no family doctor had been requested to vaccinate. Furthermore, the vaccination rates of standard immunizations were registered and a regional health report was published. Vaccination gaps were found especially at schools for children requiring special care and attention and schools for the less academically inclined, and showed an increased low-threshold need for immunization offers.