Video

Transcript

today we’re going to talk about low

potassium okay the signs the symptoms

the causes the treatment all the details

about potassium I’ve done a lot of

videos on potassium I’m always updating

my videos I’m finding new information

I’m also reminding people about things

that are really really important and out

of all the minerals I think potassium is

at the top of the list as far as

importance so the reason why we need

potassium mainly is because it’s a part

of a certain enzyme or a pump in all of

your cells called the sodium and

potassium pump okay that is a pump that

keeps these two minerals separated to a

certain degree to create a battery

effect in your cells so potassium is

intimately involved in the power in the

cells and I’m talking about the power to

generate energy for your nervous system

primarily as well as your muscular

system okay all your muscles and I’m not

just talking about your skeletal muscles

from your legs and your arms but the

muscles in your colon the muscles and

the lung which is the diaphragm which is

a little bit different but that’s not a

skeletal muscle but it allows you to

breathe so that’s a really really

important function right there it also

is involved in PH and potassium also

works with other minerals like sodium

for example it can also work with

magnesium and so in the diet for example

if one is going too high the other one

will also need to go up as well for

example you don’t have to worry about

consuming too much sodium as long as

your potassium is at least twice as high

and so the average person needs like 4

700 milligrams of potassium and like

half of that sodium ideally but that can

increase if you’re going up with sodium

but the average person is not consuming

even close to what they really need of

potassium and this is why this video is

important because most people are

deficient in potassium so you should

know the symptoms you should know how

you become deficient it’s not always

from your diet but the medical term for

low potassium is hypocalemia

okay that means low potassium in your

blood the thing you need to know with

potassium is that 98 of all the

potassium is located inside the cell

only two percent is outside the cell in

your blood so when you get a blood test

you’re really only measuring a very tiny

bit like two percent of all your

potassium in your body so it’s not the

best way to know what’s going on deeper

inside the body an intracellular

potassium test is more difficult and

sometimes it’s hard to find a lab that

will do that so let’s kind of go through

the symptoms of low potassium okay

number one would be muscle weakness okay

let’s say you’re climbing up the stairs

and you’re like oh my gosh my legs are

just so heavy or you’re starting

exercise and you just don’t have the gas

you just feel kind of tuckered out that

could be a potassium deficiency this is

why it might be good sometimes to take

an electrolyte powder with potassium to

get more energy while you’re exercising

a lot of times people will feel a

significant difference with that now we

also have your lungs which is controlled

by the diaphragm so in other words a

lack of potassium can affect your

breathing right it’s harder to breathe

a lack of potassium can affect the colon

muscles the peristalsis the pumping

action of your digestive system and that

can show up as constipation as a symptom

and also you can notice cramping in your

calves in your feet in other parts of

your body you can even notice twitching

but also twitching could be a lack of

calcium as well or even magnesium a lot

of these minerals kind of cross over so

cramps in your calf could be potassium

it could be magnesium it could be

calcium so this is why the video to kind

of learn a little bit more about the

overview of this one mineral another

common symptom is arrhythmias the heart

rhythm another one would be hypertension

as in high blood pressure and even as

that might relate to vascular

stiffness in other words potassium helps

keep the arteries soft okay to prevent

high blood pressure so 90 of all

hypertension is called essential which

means unknown cause I think a good

portion of that is either a potassium

deficiency

insulin resistance or

a low vitamin D situation another

symptom would be fatigue and then

another one alkalosis you have a

situation where potassium is intimately

involved with helping regulate your pH

so if your blood is a little bit too

alkaline or too acid potassium is

usually involved if the pH is more

alkaline in your blood okay potassium is

going to move from your blood more into

the cell so you’ll end up with less

potassium potassium is also involved in

the storage of sugar in your liver and

in your muscles it’s called glycogen so

if you’re consuming sugar

you’ll lose potassium

in this in the sugar itself it kind of

gets stuck in the liver and the muscles

it becomes unavailable to you unless you

use up that sugar so um but that’s just

one way that you could become deficient

in potassium another symptom would be

insomnia

um another symptom would be a higher

pulse rate so potassium keeps your pulse

rate lower and another condition called

pulsatile tinnitus now what is that that

is a situation where you start hearing

your pulse beat okay it could be a

swishing or a pounding where you put

your head in the pillow and you just

hear your heart beat just pounding like

that it’s not even necessarily a higher

pulse rate you just hear or feel your

heart rate okay that is a potassium

deficiency all right so now the question

is

how do you become deficient in the first

place it could be because you’re not

consuming foods high in potassium that’s

a common cause and then also you’re

eating a lot of junk foods which are

loaded with sodium that really throws

off your ratios another few common

causes would be you’re losing fluids

like your vomit uh you’re doing

excessive laxatives where you’re you’re

losing fluids or you have diarrhea that

could be the reason why you’re deficient

in potassium another common thing is

diuretics diuretics many times will pull

out sodium and potassium stress in

general can create a potassium

deficiency and this is why a condition

where you have high levels of cortisol

called Cushing syndrome can give you

signs of a potassium deficiency so by

taking potassium you can feel calmer you

can have more energy you can have more

strength in your muscles you can have

better bowel movements but like I

mentioned before

potassium is involved with storing sugar

so one way to to deplete or shift

the available potassium to the

unavailable potassium is to eat a lot of

sugar or refined carbs okay

I have done that many times in my 20s

in my 30s now and I’m being very

sarcastic I’m in my 50s and I haven’t

consumed refined sugars in many many

years but when I used to eat a lot of

sugar I had a lot of these symptoms that

we’re talking about this is why

diabetics are usually always deficient

in potassium and they should be

consuming a good amount of potassium the

higher their blood sugars are and so

even potassium can help the insulin work

better it can help the insulin

resistance situation now when someone

starts the ketogenic diet they lose a

lot of glycogen since a lot of that

potassium is stuck in that glycogen

they’re going to also lose a lot of

potassium this is why when you’re on the

ketogenic plant I always recommend take

electrolytes to get back that potassium

so you want to get heavy potassium

definitely a good amount of sodium as

well to get your electrolytes back

drinking a tremendous amount of water

forcing yourself to drink like a gallon

of water can definitely do it as well

when you’re doing fasting okay I always

recommend adding more potassium as well

as sodium as in sea salts through the

process that way you can keep your

electrolytes up because you’re not

eating any food and so you need to be

taking these nutrients because you don’t

really store a lot of these electrolytes

for a long period of time so if you’re

doing prolonged fasting you could really

end up with a potassium deficiency and

feel faint and even pass out you know

that’s not a good thing so take your

electrolytes if you’re fasting if you

have low magnesium that can affect your

potassium as well okay because they it

takes a certain amount of magnesium to

retain potassium and the last thing that

can affect potassium is if you get

injured or you go through surgery yeah

and so that can shock the body it’s a

big source of stress and then you could

just dump your potassium and end up with

hypokalemia so what are the best foods

to get your potassium what about a

banana well a banana has a lot of sugar

and it only has like 300 milligrams for

a medium-sized banana you need 4 700

milligrams okay so a banana is not a

good source of potassium what about

potatoes well potato has a good amount

of potassium but it also has all that

starch unless you consume a raw potato

which you’re probably not going to do I

would avoid potatoes too so these are

the foods that are high in potassium at

the top of the list you have beet leaves

if you put those in your salad you’ll

have a lot of potassium you also have

any type of leafy green is loaded with

potassium the salads I need the

cruciferous vegetables any of the leafy

greens will give you enough potassium

avocados are a very good source of

potassium squash and lima beans have a

good amount of potassium now of course

lima beans are in the bean family I

don’t really recommend consuming a lot

of those if you’re going to have them

have a small amount and we also have

salmon has a good amount of potassium so

potassium is not just in vegetables it’s

also in certain Meats as well so I hope

you now have a better understanding of

ask him and a better appreciation of

potassium if you haven’t seen this video

on electrolytes that I did I have a very

cool demo in this video to show you how

potassium and other electrolytes can

power your body check it out I put it up

right here