Potassium: Salt of Life

A thought to consider, perhaps many of your health problems could be related to simple problem: potassium deficiency? Take a look at the symptoms of potassium deficiency- anxiety, depression, insomnia, constipation, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney stones, hyperthyroidism, arthritis, obesity, headaches, pain in the eyes, muscle spasm or fatigue, muscle tension, restless leg syndrome.

Now, let us try to understand what potassium is and how our body stays healthy with it. Unlike table salt (sodium chloride), potassium (as its chloride salt) is vital for life. Potassium is the third most abundant mineral in the body. It is present in all cells and is critical for cardiovascular and nerve function. It is a key player in regulating the transfer of nutrients in cells. Potassium is also an electrolyte, meaning it has a high participation in electrochemical activity inside our body. Lack of potassium therefore causes edema (water retention), chronic headaches and pain in the eyes. Potassium helps to regulate blood pressure and more specifically lowers blood pressure. Potassium is vital for the elimination of wastes, is a natural pain killer, promotes faster healing of cuts, bruises and other injuries. The recuperative power of potassium is amazing: for example it aids rheumatic or arthritic condition by causing acids to leave the joints thereby easing stiffness. Getting enough potassium in your diet could be very helpful in preventing and treating heart disease as well as preventing a stroke. A potassium deficiency can lead to lower urine citrate, which in turn can lead to kidney stones. Sufficient amounts of potassium in the diet may also protect you against hypoglycemia and obesity. Potassium is stored in the muscles and controls both voluntary and involuntary muscles in the body. Therefore, low potassium in the diet contributes to muscle spasms and twitches, muscle fatigue, leg cramps, and "restless leg syndrome."

Potassium does not work independently. There is a strong relationship between potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium. Maintaining a balance between these four minerals is crucial to good health. Today very often our diet contains high levels of sodium causing imbalance. An renowned nutritionist Adelle Davis  points out that people eating excessive salt (sodium chloride) excreted nine times more potassium than people with a restricted salt intake. Further human volunteers kept on diet deficient in potassium retained so much salt that they developed high blood pressure.

The daily potassium requirement of an average adult is between 3,200 and 41,00 mg per day. But today the average intake of potassium is only 1,500 to 2,100 mg  per day. According to Dr. Jane Higdon of Linus Pauling institute of Oregon State University, there is considerable evidence that a diet supplying at least 4700 mg/day of potassium is associated with decreased risk of stroke, hypertension, osteoporosis and kidney stones. Fruits and vegetable are among the richest source of dietary potassium. Banana, potatoes with skin, prune, oranges peaches, tomatoes, raisins, artichokes, lima beans, acorn squash, spinach, sunflower seeds, almonds, molasses, cantaloupe, salmon and chicken are some natural sources. That being said the alarming fact is that fruits, vegetable and grains now are being cultivated on lands that no longer contain enough of certain minerals. Thus no matter how much of them we eat today we lack minerals required for perfect health.

Dietary supplement of potassium is the best way to ensure that the body need is met. Important to note that the American FDA and the Australia AMA limits over the counter potassium supplements to 99 mg per serving. This amounts to 2.8% of the FDA’s own recommended daily allowance. Supposedly this limit is due to concern over potassium overdose. But FDA freely allows medication that deplete potassium to be sold. Drugs that deplete potassium include diuretics, laxatives, cortisone, aspirin, cardiac drugs, steroids, certain therapies used to treat advanced liver disease. While quite rare it is possible to overdose on potassium with fatal consequences. Normal route for potassium to enter body is by the way of mouth, either from food or solution made up if 100% water soluble potassium chloride dissolved, which is the safest. Healthline.com states although there is no established safe upper limit potassium toxicity appear to develop with an intake of approximately 18,000 mg and may lead to cardiac arrest. Considering this information you can see that while possible it would be very difficult to overdose

 Again it is rare and when it does occur it usually caused by underlying medical conditions. Therefore if you have any of the conditions mentioned in this article or are currently on medication it is strongly encouraged to do further research on potassium deficiency and your specific condition.