Potassium Deficiency?

Has anyone hear ever dealt with potassium deficiency, even if only mildly low?

 

It's very difficult to acquire a potassium deficiency. Basically the only way to do so is to take a medication that causes it. The lower your levels of potassium the greater rate it is absorbed by the intestines. A deficiency would present itself as cardiovascular episodes (heart arrhythmias, attack, etc.) Potassium is also one of those elements that can interchange fairly well with sodium, magnesium, and calcium, so even a moderate deficiency is unlikely to contribute to any real health problems.

Just posted a note about Iron on your other thread. I really think you should consider excess Iron in your diet.

 

If you are low carb then there is a slight chance you might experience potassium deficiency. When I browsed LC/ZC forums I would see frequently someone being driven to the hospital with PD.

 

I suffered from an episode of severe potassium deficiency that was never really explained.
I suffered from arrhythmia/the sensation that my heart was skipping beats/lurching in my chest, and went to the docs who told me it was probably stress and not to worry. I ran quite a lot (maybe an hour a day?) and didn't eat very much. I lived on lots of coffee and fruit at the time, almost exclusively.

Then I collapsed, my vision became almost hallucinatory, weak legs, nausea and serious chest pain. Literally thought I was going to die.

My potassium level had dropped to 2.2mmol/L. Pretty darn close to a heart attack.

So yes, potassium deficiency is a real thing. Just nip it in the bud early, eat more, and don't just drink coffee and eat fructose. Kind of common sense, but not always when you are blinded by your own self-belief.

 

I had potassium deficiency years ago when dealing with diarrhea daily and not eating enough/nutritious foods. I was even on a potassium-sparing diuretic at the time.

 

3.5-5.2 is the normal lab values. I just tested at a 3.6. Problem is, I don't drink much OJ (makes me sick), and have been staying starch free (potatoes).

 

Milk and coffee both have a lot of potassium. OJ is not required for that purpose.

 

Ray emailed me and said serum usually doesn't show what is actually in the cells. He seems to think that I am not potassium deficient.

 

Resurrecting this thread in hopes of getting an answer to my problem. As of late I've been dealing with erratic heart beat, severe constipation (with soft yellow stools), panic attacks and I actually ended up in ER the other day. They took some blood samples from me, did some basic blood tests, and apparently I have everything more or less on normal range, except potassium, which is at around 3.0 mmol/L, which basically qualifies me for potassium deficiency.


This all started around 2 months ago, when I noticed a strange coloring to my nails. I posted about it here. Since this ER incident (3 weeks ago, not too long ago) then I've been eating more potatoes, potato soup and bananas. I know it is not very "peaty" due to the starch, BUT if I'm to be honest with you, I do really feel much better. The severe constipation (with soft yellow stools) is basically gone, my nails *seem* better, BUT my panic attacks still subsist, even though with a lower intensity.

My question is as follows: Assuming the cause of my problems is indeed a lack of potassium alone (only god knows how poor of a diet I've had in the past 9 months) how long will it take to fix it? The doctor pretty much dismissed any direct action in regards to fixing the potassium deficiency, delegating everything to "it's all a matter of eating better", and didn't seem interested in my nail color/shape at all.

 

Hey,
I didnt read your nails thread...
(1) Copper is helping me, (2)iron helped also before (so you can look into all of the copper and iron threads here)... and eating enough of (3) proteins...at begining it was 200 gram of protein per day, now 100 is fine... protein helped me a loot, you can check out my threads,
(4)Blood sugar spikes (eating carbs without protein and fat) were super stressfull to me in the begining...
good luck and no stress,
Bonus
(5)panic about panic often creates real panic, you dont need to inspect and solve every strange or bad feeling, or make it go away, just ignore it and dont stress about it, your attention increases it, your panic about panic creates then super panic :)

 

Hi,
Have you had a go at tracking the approximate nutrition in the food you are eating for a few days (eg in cronometer or similar) to roughly what you are getting in terms of minerals, calories etc? (Don't believe cronometer's low calorie, high PUFA advice, just use it for tracking.)
You can have a look and see how much potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, etc you are getting in your typical day's diet.
Also look at all the vitamins.

I'm not an expert, but I think panic attacks can sometimes arise in part out of mineral and pH imbalances. If your diet has been deficient for some time, you could be short in mineral buffers other than potassium, too. Eating a lot of refined sucrose or similar doesn't supply much of the necessary minerals.

If you want, you can post cronometer screenshots.

I can now track some symptoms in my nails - that come back if I let some minerals get low for a week or so.