The U.S. Department of Agriculture created the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 as a guide for healthy people ages 2 years and older to maximize the nutritional content of their meals. By following these guidelines, you can meet your daily nutritional needs for essential vitamins and minerals, including potassium, a mineral essential for good health. Failing to eat foods containing potassium can contribute to a low potassium level, which your doctor can treat with a potassium chloride supplement. Because of potentially dangerous side effects, only take potassium chloride under your doctor's supervision.
Potassium's Role
Potassium functions as an electrolyte. This means it helps to carry tiny electrical impulses between nerves and muscle cells. This function makes potassium important for maintaining normal nerve and muscle function. Potassium also plays a role in keeping the heart beating rhythmically. Potassium works with sodium to balance the amount of fluid in the body. Sodium, or table salt, increases blood volume, which causes an increase in blood pressure. Potassium counteracts the effects of sodium, therefore helping to regulate and maintain a healthy blood pressure. A low potassium level can contribute to high blood pressure, a medical condition known as hypertension.
Potassium Sources
Many foods naturally contain potassium, which makes it easy to meet your daily potassium intake, listed by the Institute of Medicine as 4,700 mg per day. Fruits and vegetables serve as riches source of potassium, including bananas, potatoes, prunes, raisins, lima beans and spinach. Most people who eat a balanced diet with the recommended servings of fruits, about 1.5 to 2 cups per day, and vegetables, between 2 and 3 cups per day, meet their daily potassium needs through good nutrition. If you suffer from a potassium deficiency, you may benefit from taking potassium chloride.
Potassium Deficiency
Since many foods contain potassium, a deficiency known as hypokalemia usually occurs due to excessive loss of potassium. Conditions that can cause excessive loss include chronic diarrhea, prolonged vomiting and kidney disease. Usually the kidneys regulate the amount of potassium in your blood by removing excess, but kidney malfunction can cause too much potassium to excrete with the urine. Potassium deficiency causes fatigue, muscle cramps and intestinal paralysis. In severe cases, it can cause abnormal heart rhythms that can lead to death. In these cases, doctors can prescribe potassium chloride to treat a deficiency.
Dangers
Too much potassium in your blood can be as dangerous as too little potassium. For this reason, try to remedy a potassium deficiency first through good nutrition. If you do take potassium chloride, your doctor should closely monitor your blood potassium levels. Too much potassium, a condition known as hyperkalemia, causes tingling in the hands and feet, muscle weakness and temporary paralysis that can lead to more severe complications including an abnormal heart rhythm that leads to a heart attack.
References
- U.S. Deparment of Agriculture: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010; December 2010
- Institute of Medicine: Recommended Daily Intake Summary; 2011
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: Food Groups
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Potassium; Stephen Ehrlich; May 2009
- Linus Pauling Institute: Potassium; Victoria Drake; December 2010
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