From the time you are born to the time you reach adolescence, your need for potassium grows. Potassium is an electrolyte, and along with sodium, as the Linus Pauling Institute explains, it helps maintain an electrochemical gradient between the inside and the outside of your cell membranes. This gradient is vital to muscle and nerve function. Your body relies on potassium, an essential mineral, to help maintain the balance of water in your body and assure that your muscles keep flexing and your heart keeps pumping.
Potassium and Adequate Intake
There has not been a sufficient amount of research to establish a Recommended Dietary Allowance, or RDA, for potassium. Instead, the Institute of Medicine has established an Adequate Intake, or AI for potassium. In age and gender groups with the exception of breastfed infants, the AI for potassium is the amount that is typically consumed by healthy individuals in that age or gender group. For breastfed infants, the IOM established AI based on the mean intake of potassium in that demographic group.
Dosages By Age
From birth to 6 months of age, the AI for potassium is 0.4 g per day. Between 7 and 12 months the AI for potassium is 0.7 g. Children between the ages of 1 and 3 have an AI for potassium of 3.0 g. Between the age of 4 and 8 the AI for potassium is 3.8 g. Between the ages of 9 and 13, the AI for potassium is 4.5 g. From the age of 14 and up the AI for potassium is 4.7 g, with the exception of lactating women, who have an AI for potassium of 5.1 g per day.
Potassium Deficiency
If you are low in potassium, the effects can range from the mild, as in muscle cramps, to the catastrophic, as in cardiac arrhythmias leading to death. Potassium deficiency affects both voluntary and involuntary muscle, and as a result, your symptoms can include fatigue, muscle weakness, intestinal paralysis, bloating, abdominal pain and constipation, according to the Linus Pauling Institute.
Sources of Potassium
It is far safer to obtain potassium through dietary sources than by using a potassium supplement. The University of Maryland Medical Center states that potassium supplements should only be taken under a doctor's supervision. By eating foods rich in potassium, you can obtain your daily intake without risking hyperkalemia, a syndrome related to potassium toxicity. Good sources of potassium include avocados, citrus fruit, potatoes, bananas, spinach, flounder, chicken and clams.
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