In the appropriate amounts derived from dietary sources, potassium isn't harmful. In fact, your body requires it. However, that doesn't grant you license to consume limitless amounts of this essential mineral. Taking higher-than-normal dosages of potassium can cause adverse effects ranging from the merely unpleasant to the dangerously life-threatening.
Potassium
When potassium is in liquid, as it is inside your body, it forms ions. This quality is what makes potassium an electrolyte. Potassium ions accumulate in your cells in concentrations 30 times greater than in the fluid outside your cells. The accumulation of ions creates potassium's contribution to membrane potential, the electrochemical gradient that exists across a cell membrane. Membrane potential is a crucial element in enabling your nerve cells to transmit impulses and your muscles, including your heart muscle, to flex and contract.
Toxicity
Hyperkalemia is a condition in which your body contains higher-than-normal levels of potassium. Normal potassium levels range from 2.6 to 4.8 milliequivalents per liter, or mEq/L, of blood. If your potassium level is higher than 6.0 mEq/L, you are in danger of suffering toxic effects. These include weak and tired muscles, paralysis, nausea and abnormal heart rhythms that can potentially escalate to cardiac arrest.
Causes
The amounts of potassium that you get from dietary sources don't cause hyperkalemia, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. Hyperkalemia is more likely the result of taking high dosages of potassium supplements or of an inability to excrete excess potassium. If you have kidney disease, hyperaldosteronism or use potassium-sparing diuretics, you might be at increased risk of hyperkalemia.
Dosages
Due to the risk of adverse effects, you should not take potassium supplements unless instructed to by your health care practitioner. Most adults easily obtain the safe recommended daily potassium amount of 4.7 g by eating a range of fruits and vegetables. For instance, a medium banana supplies 422 mg of potassium. A baked potato, with the skin, provides 928 mg. Oranges and their juice, lima beans, molasses, sunflower seeds, raisins and raisin bran cereal are also good sources of safe dietary potassium.
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