The Symptons Of High Potassium

Potassium is an essential mineral that serves as an electrolyte in your cells and tissues. An electrolyte is a compound that breaks apart to form electrically-charged ions in a solution such as your bloodstream or the cytoplasm inside your cells. According to "The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy," potassium movement across your cell membranes plays a vital role in such processes as muscle contraction, fluid balance and generation of nerve impulses. Disorders of potassium metabolism can exert profound effects on your health.

Potassium Helps to Maintain Electrical Balance

The electrical charge created by potassium ions inside your cells is roughly matched by an equal amount of sodium on the outside of your cells. Sudden fluxes of potassium and sodium ions across cell membranes are necessary to generate nerve impulses and initiate muscular activity, but your cells then quickly pump the ions back across their own membranes to return to their "resting" state. Your cells expend a lot of energy to maintain this electrical balance.

High Potassium Can Be Dangerous

A 2005 "Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America" review reports that abnormal potassium levels are the most frequently encountered electrolyte abnormalities in clinical practice, and that high potassium is potentially more serious than a low potassium. Excess potassium in the fluid surrounding your cells interferes with many physiologic functions, particularly those that involve electrical activity. Thus, high potassium, or hyperkalemia, often first manifests itself in electrical organs, such as your heart, muscles and nerves.

Symptoms of High Potassium

Your cells possess several mechanisms for maintaining electrical balance in the face of abnormally high potassium levels. They shift other ions, such as chloride, calcium and bicarbonate, and move fluids from one place to another in order to compensate for excess potassium. Hence, as was pointed out in a 2007 "Mayo Clinic Proceedings" review, hyperkalemia is often silent. In fact, you might not exhibit any symptoms whatsoever until serious or even life-threatening complications arise. Heart palpitations, slow heartbeat, nausea, muscle weakness and sometimes even paralysis occur. However, cardiac arrest may be the first sign of an elevated potassium level.

Considerations

Hyperkalemia is relatively common, but it usually occurs in people who are already known to be at risk and who are under a physician's care. Kidney disease is a frequent cause of hyperkalemia, as are medications, such as potassium supplements, ACE inhibitors or spironolactone. Some herbal preparations, such as dandelion, noni and alfalfa, have also been associated with hyperkalemia. If you are taking a drug or herbal supplement that can cause hyperkalemia, or if you have a medical condition that you fear may increase your potassium level, talk to your doctor about getting a blood test.