“The Dark Side of Vitamin K”

Right off the bat by looking at this website, my mind already began questioning the credibility of this source. There was advertisements plastered on every open space and a pop up screen asking me if I would like to subscribe to the newsletter. “Newsletter” was the key word as this implied to me that this website was similar to a magazine. Spreading news in order to gain views. The author, Dr. Joseph Mercola, has been a longtime leader in controversial dietary supplements and alternative approaches to generic hospital practices. His website, mercola.com, has forever been debunked by other professionals in the industry, all pleading that he stop trying to influence people with his illegal and oftentimes incorrect ideas about health.

In this particular article, it deals with Vitamin K and the dark side when it comes to infants and whether or not they should be immunized. Immediately, one has to analyze the bias present here. Dr. Mercola is actively selling out alternative supplemental approaches to health and as such, him debunking the idea of vaccinations would only serve to increase the amount of people looking for these “alternative dietary supplements” he conveniently happens to sell. While he does admit that Vitamin K is a necessity for your newborn baby, he offers alternative ways for ingestion. He offers three main dangers of the shot that also serve to pave the way for this altered approach. He offers that you would be better off to give the vitamin orally and simply adjust the dosage for the baby. However, this alternative method has actually been shown to be more lethal for children when they are not receiving adequate levels of Vitamin K.

In a short project done completed in 2013, 3 years after the publication of Dr. Mercola’s article, it was seen that babies who were denied a Vitamin K shot had higher levels of VKDB (Vitamin K deficiency bleeding). The risk of succumbing to this as an infant is 81 times greater if you do not receive the intramuscular shot. Therein, why is this self-defined Dr. Mercola advertising something that will most certainly raise the risk of developing this bleeding? His only basis for the dangers of the shot was that it would inflict pain, was a higher dose than needed and could potentially become infected. However, do any of these outweigh the mortality risk associated with VKDB? The reasoning for the parents declining the injection? Because they did not want to expose their child to “toxins”, something that is practiced and preached by Dr. Mercola himself in an effort to promote his brand and reap the benefits of uninformed health customers worldwide.


“Posted by Lauren Hiller” (2)

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/27/high-risks-to-your-baby-from-vitamin-k-shot-they-dont-warn-you-about.aspx

https://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPromotion/k.html