Potassium is a life Saver for your body-by Dr Harold Gunatillake

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Transcript:
Potassium is a mineral that is crucial for normal cell function in the body, including heart muscle cells. The body gets potassium through foods. Millions of lives could be saved every year if people ate more potassium-rich foods
such as bananas and cut down on their salt intake, research suggests. People who have a high potassium intake have a 24% reduced risk of stroke, according to a new study.

High potassium intake is not recommended if you have chronic kidney disease. Potassium is an electrolyte like sodium, calcium, magnesium, and many others essential micro-nutrients for healthy life. Potassium is the third most abundant mineral in the body.
When it is dissolved in water, it produces positively charged ions. Ions are atoms or molecules with a net electric charge due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons. This specific property allows it to conduct electricity, which is important for many processes throughout the body.
Females between the ages of 14 and 18 who are pregnant should aim for 2,600 milligrams of potassium per day. Those who are lactating should aim for 2,500 milligrams of potassium per day.
Females between the ages of 19 and 50 who are pregnant should aim for 2,900 milligrams of potassium per day. Those who are lactating should aim for 2,800

milligrams of potassium per day.
What does potassium do in the body?
*It regulates fluid balance.

*Helps muscle contractions
and nerve signals
*High potassium diet help
Reduce blood pressure and
water retention.
*Protects against stroke.
*Prevents osteoporosis.
*Prevents kidney stones

Potassium is mainly found in cells, and about 80% in your muscles, and the rest in bones, liver, and red blood cells. In the red cell rhythmic potassium transport regulates the circadian clock. Recent studies suggests that the measurement of intra-cellular potassium concentration in red blood cells (RBC-K) can be a marker for assessing the risk, development, and treatment of high blood pressure.

Heart-healthy benefits of potassium.
Potassium helps the heartbeat to be regular. Both potassium and sodium concentrations play a crucial role in electric signal functioning of the heart’s thick muscle called the myocardium.
It helps trigger your heart to squeeze blood through your body. It also helps your muscles to move, your nerves to work and your kidneys to filter blood.
If the potassium level is high in the myocardium that can lead to irregular heart rate, and your skeletal muscles can lead paralysed.
Low potassium levels also give irregular heart beats can have heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest.
If you want to lose sodium from your body, you should eat more potassium. Potassium helps to ease tension in your blood vessel walls, resulting in reducing peripheral resistance of the arteries, helps to lower your blood pressure. So, when you have high blood pressure, you should eat foods containing high potassium levels.

Dash Diet ( Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is recommended for high blood pressure. The diet recommends fruits, veggies, low fat dairy foods and fish. They are all natural sources of potassium.
A medium banana has about 420mg of potassium and half a cup of plain mashed potatoes has 475 mg.
Other potassium rich foods include:

Apricots and apricot juice
Avocados
Cantaloupe and honeydew melon
Fat-free or low-fat (1 percent) milk
Fat-free yogurt
Grapefruit and grapefruit juice (talk to your healthcare provider if you’re taking a
cholesterol-lowering drug)
Greens
Halibut
Lima beans
Molasses
Mushrooms
Oranges and orange juice
Peas
Potatoes
Prunes and prune juice
Raisins and dates
Spinach
Tomatoes, tomato juice and tomato sauce
Tuna

Potatoes we all eat almost daily in our rice and curry are high in potassium, but you can lower their potassium level enough to safely by adding a small portion to your kidney friendly diet.
Potassium can be removed partially from potatoes by soaking a warm water for about two hours, which pulls the potassium out. Then wash the potatoe slices with warm water, and then will be ready for cooking.
Too much taking potassium in your food may be harmful if your kidneys don’t function well.
Excess potassium in your blood may not be filtered through the kidneys, resulting in a potassium build up. We call it hyperkalemia.
It is also known that chronic constipation can raise your potassium level. When your kidneys are working well, they can remove any extra potassium from your blood.

Generally, there are no warning signs for hyperkalaemia.

High potassium may not give early symptoms. Late symptoms are feeling sick in the stomach, a low, weak, or irregular pulse and fainting bouts.
If you ever get these symptoms, get your doctor to check on your blood potassium level.
Your doctor will assess your diet for potassium. Check for other reasons for hyperkalemia
If you on spironolactone or ACE inhibitors, you may need to avoid eating too much potassium.
If you have CKD, you may need to avoid eating too much potassium, which includes:
Alcohol, Red wine, Coffee. Caffeine. Black Tea Pomegranate juice, Co Q10, B vitamins, Magnesium, olive oil, dark chocolate Stick to low potassium foods
Three to four cups of coffee a day is considered high in potassium and could raise your blood potassium level. Adding creamers or milk can further raise your coffee’s

potassium content. Drinking less than three cups are safe. Each cup of coffee provides 130 mg potassium.
Caffeine found in coffee, tea soda and foods can also place a strain if you have bad kidneys. Excess caffeine intake has also been linked to kidney stones.
Potassium strengthens your bones and prevent osteoporosis Eating meat products and dairy encourages acidity in the body and may make your bones brittle, and cause osteoporosis.
Eat plenty of potassium rich foods like fruits and veggies.
This talk discusses the importance of maintaining a normal level of potassium in your body by eating foods that contain potassium.
So think of your potassium as much as you concentrate on your cholesterol to keep a healthy heart.
Stay safe and goodbye for now.

Thousands of years ago, when humans roamed the earth gathering and hunting, potassium was abundant in the diet, while sodium was scarce. The so-called Paleolithic diet delivered about 16 times more potassium than sodium. Today, most Americans get barely half of the recommended amount of potassium in their diets. The average American diet contains about twice as much sodium as potassium, because of the preponderance of salt hidden in processed or prepared foods, not to mention the dearth of potassium in those foods. This imbalance, which is at odds with how humans evolved, is thought to be a major contributor to high blood pressure, which affects one in three American adults.