What Causes Low Potassium In The Human Body – ? We didn’t think so. Chances are, you, like many other people, tragically underestimate the importance of Potassium. When dissolved in water, this mineral becomes highly reactive and produces positively charged ions. Due to its special ability to conduct electricity, which makes it necessary for a number of body functions, potassium is classified as one of the five essential electrolytes.

Studies have linked increased intake of foods high in potassium to a host of impressive health benefits. We will cover what potassium is, why we need potassium, how potassium works in the body, and common signs of potassium deficiency. In addition, we will share a list of 15 potassium-rich foods.

What Causes Low Potassium In The Human Body

Potassium is the third most abundant mineral in the human body. Tests show that the vast majority of potassium in your body – about 98% – can be found in your cells. Your muscle cells claim 80% of these potassium stores, while the remaining 20% ​​is split between your bones, liver and red blood cells.

Warning Signs And Symptoms Of Dangerously Low Potassium Levels

Potassium acts as an electrolyte in your body. Once dissolved in water or another liquid, it disintegrates into positive ions that transmit electrical signals. Your body uses these signals to control a number of important processes.

Potassium is responsible for three primary functions: balancing fluid levels, transmitting nerve signals, and regulating muscle contractions. When potassium levels drop too low, or rise too high, the results can be quite serious.

Water accounts for about 60% of our body weight as adults. Water is found both inside and outside our cells: the 40% that is inside our cells is called intracellular fluid (ICF) and the 60% that is outside our cells in places like the blood, spinal fluid and the space between cells is called extracellular fluid (ECF).

Electrolytes – sodium and potassium in particular – greatly affect the amount of water in both your ICF and ECF. Potassium is the main electrolyte found in your ICF and it determines how much water is inside your cells at any given time. Sodium plays the same role when it comes to your ECF.

How To Recognize The Signs And Symptoms Of Low Potassium Hypokalemia

When everything is working properly, there is an equal concentration of electrolytes and stable amounts of water both inside and outside your cells. The technical term for the ratio of electrolytes to fluid is osmolality. The goal is to maintain equal osmolality between your ICF and ECF.

When osmolality becomes unequal, water shifts from the side with fewer electrolytes to the side with more to balance out electrolyte levels. When water moves into or out of your cells, it can cause those cells to swell or shrink. In some cases, your cells may even burst.

Regulating fluid balance is a central health issue. Changes in cell volume that we discussed above can have a particularly damaging effect on brain cells. When ECF volume drops, it can negatively affect blood flow to organs, including your heart.

Eating a potassium-rich diet, in addition to making sure you drink enough water to stay properly hydrated, is a critical part of maintaining balanced fluid levels.

Cushing Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Your nervous system manages the communication between your brain and your body. That communication is transmitted in the form of nerve signals that regulate muscle contractions, heart rhythm, reflexes and many other functions.

Potassium plays a major role in the nerve signal transmission process. When potassium enters a nerve cell, it begins a sodium-potassium exchange that generates the electrical charge required to transmit a signal. And when it leaves a nerve cell, it repolarizes it, allowing the nerve signal to be processed.

The range for healthy blood levels of potassium is between 3.6 and 5.0 mmol/L. If the potassium level in your blood drops by as little as 1%, it can cause a serious imbalance. This, in turn, can disrupt the transmission of nerve signals throughout the body.

To maintain healthy nervous system function, it is important to meet your body’s minimum recommended dietary allowance for potassium.

Can Alcoholism Cause Low Potassium?

As we touched on above, muscle contractions are one of the functions controlled by nerve signals. Altered potassium levels negatively affect nerve signaling, leading to muscle contractions, including your heartbeat.

Potassium is so important to muscle health, we include 12 milligrams of it in our Athletic Performance Blend to help increase endurance and reduce post-exercise soreness.

Hypokalemia occurs when potassium levels drop too low. Hyperkalemia occurs when they rise too high. Both can be dangerous.

The biggest danger associated with changes in potassium levels is changes in your heart rhythm. Low levels of potassium can cause arrhythmias, irregular heartbeats that may require medical treatment and even surgery. High levels of potassium can cause the heart to weaken and overdilate, which can also lead to arrhythmias. When your heart doesn’t beat properly, it also fails to circulate blood to your brain, muscles and other organs.

The Importance Of Potassium

According to an article published in Experimental and Clinical Cardiology, “Hypokalemia is associated with increased risk of arrhythmia in patients with cardiovascular disease, as well as increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and heart failure mortality by up to 10-fold.” In other words, if you have underlying heart problems, Low Potassium levels make it 10 times more likely that those problems will be fatal.

Hyperkalemia is also strongly associated with a higher risk of death for patients with heart disease as well as those with kidney disease, according to a 2017 study.

Hopefully by now you have a sense of how important it is to maintain your body’s potassium levels.

However, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows that fewer than 2% of adults living in the United States meet the Dietary Guidelines for potassium intake. While certainly not ideal, it is unlikely to cause a potassium deficiency.

Risk Of Developing Hypokalemia In Patients With Hypertension Treated With Combination Antihypertensive Therapy

In most cases, potassium deficiency occurs when the body rapidly loses a large amount of potassium. Typical causes include prolonged vomiting, prolonged diarrhea, or other health conditions or situations that result in the loss of a large volume of fluids.

As the NHANES data may have tipped you off, it’s pretty uncommon for someone to get too much potassium. There is no convincing evidence that it is possible to get too much potassium from dietary sources alone, although you can do so by taking an excessive amount of potassium supplements. There have been cases where people have taken a larger dose of potassium than their kidneys can process, with sometimes fatal consequences.

Research shows that in most cases, excessive blood levels of potassium occur when the body struggles to flush the mineral out of the body through the urine. Because of this, dangerously high potassium is most likely to affect people with impaired kidney function. Certain populations have an increased risk of developing hyperkalemia (regarding high potassium levels), including:

Fortunately, when it comes to finding potassium in food, you have plenty of options beyond the most famous: bananas. In fact, bananas aren’t even the most potassium-dense food on our list! Many legumes, nuts, vegetables, fruit and fish contain high levels of potassium.

Potassium Rich Foods

How much potassium should you aim for daily? The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly recommends that adults shoot for a minimum daily intake of at least 3,510 milligrams of potassium from food daily.

Based on information from SELF Nutrition Data, we’ve listed the amount of potassium provided by a 100-gram serving of 15 potassium-rich foods. For some foods, we have also specified the preparation method, as this changes the potassium content.

In almost all cases, it is much better to get your potassium from whole food sources than from over-the-counter (OTC) supplements. As we mentioned above, it is possible to overdose on potassium supplements. Because of that, regulators like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) potassium supplements to less than 100 milligrams. Which, as you can see, is less than half the amount you would get from a single serving of the food listed above.

However, for people with true potassium deficiency, doctors may prescribe high-dose supplements. Never take that type of medicine unless it has been prescribed for you and always follow your doctor’s instructions.

High Blood Levels Of Potassium In Patients With Kidney Disease

While doctors have yet to identify a clear link between diet and psoriasis symptoms, many people with the condition find that consumption of certain foods increases or decreases flare-ups. Learn more about how making better dietary choices can result in psoriasis relief with the Psoriasis Diet.

If you are one of the millions of people who experience indigestion, acid reflux, heartburn, or GERD, and you are considering adding digestive plant enzymes to your diet, you should read this article.

Sign up for our newsletter and let us know what you’re interested in, and you’ll also receive a free e-book.

If for any reason you don’t like us or our products, simply contact our support team within 60 days and we’ll gladly refund you 100% of your payment. When you think about the powerful nutrients your body needs, your mind probably doesn’t jump to potassium—but it should. A majority of the potassium in your body hangs out in your cells, where it helps your nerves and muscles communicate, transports other nutrients, keeps your kidneys working, and keeps your sodium levels from rising too high.

High Potassium (hyperkalemia): Causes, Prevention And Treatment

You should easily get enough potassium if you eat

What causes high potassium in the body, causes of low potassium in the body, causes of low potassium in the blood, what causes low potassium levels in the body, what causes low potassium levels in elderly, what causes low potassium, what causes low potassium in the body, causes of low potassium in human body, potassium in the human body, causes of low potassium levels in the body, low potassium in body causes, what causes inflammation in the human body