Potassium Supplements And Avoiding Potassium Overdose

Potassium and Dieting

Some people have digestive problems that limit how much they can eat and have to take a supplement of potassium to maintain a healthy potassium level. People who don’t have digestive problems shouldn’t use potassium supplements for weight loss aid. There are a number of delicious and nutritious foods that are high in potassium and many other foods contain plenty of potassium. All of these potassium rich foods work great for losing weight. Why not starve yourself and just drink water and take potassium and other nutritional supplements? Beside the necessity for protein and essential fatty acids, starvation weight loss diets tell your body it’s in a famine environment, so whenever it’s fed, it will store as much of the energy of the meal as fat as it can because it can’t be sure when it will be fed again. Many diets that work require eating 6 small meals a day to prevent the body from going into prevent weight loss famine mode.

The RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) is the government’s advice on nutrition and is for food only throughout the day. The government provides a recommendation for potassium intake but doesn’t include potassium in its RDA. It recommends 400 to 4,700 mg of potassium from food throughout the day depending on age.

Potassium Supplements

By law, nutritional supplements of potassium cannot be sold in doses larger than 99mg (of elemental potassium). Large doses of potassium, especially when there isn’t a significant potassium deficiency can cause a heart attack, that’s why they’re sold in at most 99mg doses. Potassium citrate and potassium orotate are probably the best forms of potassium supplements.

Prescription potassium is usually potassium chloride. When prescribed by a doctor, potassium is measured in mEq (milliequivalents). 75 milligrams of potassium chloride equals one mEq of potassium. Table salt is sodium chloride but table salt substitutes (i.e. Salt Sense) are usually potassium chloride. Many people get too much potassium from using salt substitutes and go to the hospital complaining of a racing heart or heart palpitations.

Many people are sensitive to chloride and even more sensitive to chloride when bonded to sodium and may not even know they’re sensitive to chloride. According to the author of a government study,

“The blood pressure of some individuals is likely to be sensitive to the combination of sodium and chloride in table salt, but in others, blood pressure is probably sensitive to chloride even when it is not combined with sodium.”
Curtis Morris Jr. MD.

The form of potassium in fruits and vegetables is potassium citrate not potassium chloride which explains why fruits and vegetables lower blood pressure and why prescription potassium and table salt substitutes raise blood pressure for many.
10 mEq of potassium = 745 mg of potassium chloride = 1,080 mg of potassium citrate.

(Many people assume salt and sodium are the same thing. Sodium is an element. Chloride is another element. When sodium is bonded to chloride it’s called sodium chloride a.k.a. salt or table salt. Potassium chloride is also a salt and there’s no sodium in potassium chloride. A salt is any metallic mineral bonded to any non metallic mineral. On the periodic table of elements, if you draw a line from boron (B, #5) to polonium (Po, #84), elements left of the line are metallic minerals, right of the line are non metallic minerals. Potassium (K, #19) and Sodium (Na, #11) are on the left side of the line and chloride (Cl, #17) is on the right.)

Potassium Overdose

The phrase “potassium overdose” is often used to mean more potassium than the body needs – whether it’s a little more potassium than the body needs or a lot more potassium than the body needs. The technical term for too much potassium is hyperkalemia.

Potassium overdose symptoms include most of the symptoms of potassium deficiency. A true potassium overdose (toxic amount) causes a heart attack, and for several each year, potassium overdose causes death. Here the definition of potassium overdose is too much potassium but not a true overdose (toxic amount) of potassium.

Using only symptoms, it can be pretty difficult to tell the difference between potassium deficiency and potassium overdose. One symptom that potassium deficiency doesn’t cause as often and potassium overdose does cause more often is a form of paresthesias, a burning sensation in the shape of a line as if a drop of hot water is moving on the scalp. This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will have this symptom every time a potassium overdose occurs, and some may have this symptom and not even notice.

None of the symptoms listed above are distinct symptoms of potassium deficiency or overdose. In other words, each of the symptoms can be caused by a deficiency or overdose of other nutrients, although experiencing two or three of these symptoms simultaneously is a good indication of a potassium deficiency or overdose. Remember that a deficiency of some nutrients can be caused by a deficiency of another nutrient – magnesium deficiency can cause a potassium deficiency, and deficiency of potassium is not the only deficiency that causes thirst.

Blood sugar lower than normal for any reason can cause many of the same mental and muscle weakness symptoms of a potassium deficiency – drop in blood sugar can easily be mistaken for a potassium deficiency, causing one to take more of a potassium supplement, causing a potassium overdose.

A feeling of relief from symptoms of a deficiency of a nutrient using an individual supplement of that nutrient takes no more than a couple of hours. But feeling relief from a significant potassium deficiency by eating potassium rich food or taking a potassium supplement can take as 3 to 5 hours. If you’re experiencing the uneasiness of a potassium deficiency and impatient for the uneasiness to fade off and keep eating more and more potassium rich foods or taking more and more of a potassium supplement, you could easily turn a potassium deficiency into a potassium overdose. Then trying to rid yourself of the uneasiness of potassium overdose is even more trying.

Exercise and water will help some with potassium overdose. During a potassium overdose it’s very important to avoid food with rich and moderate amounts of potassium for at least 3 or 4 days. Eating an omelet with 3 or 4 shakes of salt into the liquid eggs can also bring relief from too much potassium, but continue to avoid potassium rich foods for several days.

Increased Need For Potassium

Heavy labor, weightlifting, extended labor, excessive sweating, alcohol, and food with caffeine (diuretic), like coffee and tea, increase the need for potassium. A drop in blood sugar strains adrenal glands and also causes potassium loss. Sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, increases potassium needs.

Most weight lifters talk about getting enough protein to build muscle, and many buy protein powder to make protein milk shakes. All that protein is hard on the liver and kidneys. Equally important is that the body can’t build an ounce of muscle without potassium. The RDA for protein is about 50mg. The typical American diet of a large amount of meat and dairy food contains 2-3 times more protein than the RDA for protein. Most people lifting weights eat a lot more than 150 grams of protein each day just out of hunger, so there’s no real need for protein shakes. Make the shakes, forget the protein powder, add a banana.

Magnesium and Potassium

Magnesium is a component of over 300 hundred proteins made by the body. Magnesium is needed by cells to retain potassium, so a magnesium deficiency can cause a potassium deficiency. Taking a supplement of magnesium can lower potassium needs because more potassium is being retained and therefore a normal dose of potassium (if taking a nutritional or prescription potassium supplement) could become too much potassium when a magnesium supplement is started.

Food in general doesn’t contain much magnesium – to agree all you have to do is use a food values book to try to create a day of meals you would actually eat that provides the RDA for magnesium.

The first time or two taking a magnesium supplement may cause a sudden trip to the bathroom. The optimal amount of magnesium will increase endurance to a healthy level because magnesium is necessary for cells to make ATP (the body’s molecular batteries of energy). Magnesium is necessary for absorption and use of several nutrients. Magnesium supplements should always be taken before bed and not work nor during work.