Video

Transcript

so why is potassium the most important

electrolyte that’s the question for

today well let’s just take a look at

four main electrolytes we have k plus

which is the chemical symbol for

potassium we need 4 700 milligrams then

we have sodium which is n a plus

1500 to 2300 milligrams then we have

calcium ca

we need a thousand milligrams and the

magnesium

we only need 420 milligrams so we can

see that we need 10 times as much

potassium than we do magnesium then with

sodium we need twice as much potassium

and with calcium we need four times as

much so why do we need so much potassium

well first of all what is an electrolyte

electrolyte is an electrically charged

mineral when you take an electrolyte and

you put it in water it separates and

becomes conductive to electricity so our

bodies use electrolytes for various

things to help conduct nerve impulses to

help you contract and relax muscles to

help maintain ph in the body as well as

to help push fluid through the body

thirty percent of all the energy

in our body

comes from this little pump called the

sodium potassium pump but i do have to

say that the definition for pump is

slightly different than the pump that

you probably have down in your basement

as the sump pump this is a biological

definition it means the mechanism for

movement of electrolytes through the

cell membrane okay so that’s a little

bit different than just a pump pushing

fluid somewhere so 30 of all the energy

that you have whether it’s digesting or

thinking et cetera thirty percent of all

the energy comes from this sodium

potassium pump so the purpose of this

pump is to basically keep sodium out and

keep potassium in so it’s keeping these

two minerals separated okay that’s the

purpose of this pump anytime you have

two different minerals which are

electrically charged in a different way

okay you form a battery

so with a battery you have a positive

and a negative there’s a difference in

this electrical charge and that allows

for energy to be maintained for the

purpose of this pump is to maintain

cellular energy so your cells are

basically

batteries

and the battery is there to help

generate nerve impulses

which happen to be connected to muscles

so it’s activating the muscles you have

electrical impulses that are actually

changing the muscle rhythm then we need

energy to have the muscles contract and

relax and help regulate the ph of the

body and one purpose of that is to allow

enzymes to work so for example there are

certain enzymes that actually work in

different phs so

if your digestive system is the wrong ph

that enzyme won’t work let’s take the

stomach for example you have this

extremely powerful

protein enzyme called peptase right and

that enzyme is activated when the

stomach reaches a certain ph level if

the stomach never reaches that ph level

and then the enzyme never becomes

activated and then you don’t digest

protein so the ph is very very important

and the stomach is greatly dependent on

potassium

for its ph and its ability to digest

protein all right and then we have fluid

balance if you don’t have enough

potassium guess what your ankles are

going to swell up with fluid sometimes

when you see people with sandals they

have this

these indentations around the sandals

where they have this all this puffy

fluid and i just want to walk up to them

and tell them just take some potassium

all that fluid will completely go away

probably within a few hours but i have

to withhold myself from doing that

because sometimes people consider that

rude all right so what does potassium do

well it keeps us

energetic okay it gives us endurance

when we exercise if you’re low in

potassium you will not be able to go as

far when you exercise

it also prevents cramping like the

cramps that you get in your calves or

your feet now it could also be magnesium

as well also potassium is necessary to

prevent arrhythmias okay which is part

of the pacemaker of your heart

it also helps prevent twitching

tremors

constipation because you have this it’s

called peristalsis this pumping action

through your colon which is controlled

by the nervous system and the muscular

system so without potassium you don’t

get this pumping action through the

colon and things just kind of sit there

also potassium is necessary to prevent

vascular calcification

so potassium is definitely needed in the

regulation of calcium now without

potassium you get insomnia you can’t

sleep so potassium is a physiological

tranquilizer it relaxes the body much

like magnesium does so let’s just say

for example you’re deficient in

potassium for some reason you’re going

to lay there on the pillow and try to

get to sleep but your heart’s going to

be pounding

faster

you’re going to feel your muscles more

tense

you’re not going to be able to get into

that relaxed state all right the next

thing is insulin resistance i have a lot

of videos on this topic

potassium is needed to prevent insulin

resistance in fact if you take a

diabetic or a pre-diabetic or someone

with insulin resistance they’re always

deficient in potassium so potassium will

help your blood sugars it will help

lessen this insulin resistance and

insulin in the cell allows certain

nutrients to go inside and fuel so

anything that inhibits this insulin

function

stops the absorption of nutrients and

fuel into the cells so this is just

another reason why potassium is

important in blood sugars now you also

have stored glucose that’s called

glycogen glycogen is a string of glucose

molecules which also have with it a

string of potassium molecules so in

order for glucose to be stored in the

liver and the muscle you also need

potassium and without the potassium you

don’t store glycogen as well and so if

you don’t store glycogen the body then

starts storing more fat instead of

stored sugar and so potassium is

involved in a lot of different aspects

of your blood sugars when you go on the

ketogenic diet

the requirement for this glycogen goes

down so you’re not going to need to

store as much glycogen the same thing

goes with when you do intermittent

fasting so you’re not eating so your

body is then running on ketones so

you’re not running on glucose so you

don’t need as much of this

so this kind of goes away so you’re

basically burning it up and it’s not

replaced as much especially in your

liver after about one to two days and so

what happens is you’re going to lose a

lot of glycogen glucose

and you’re also going to lose potassium

this is why when you start on the

ketogenic diet you need to take a

potassium supplement i always recommend

one in electrolytes so you have all of

them not just potassium all right the

next thing that potassium does is it

helps to prevent high blood pressure if

someone has high blood pressure the

easiest thing to do is just to increase

the potassium and their body and it

usually will come down the other cause

of high blood pressure is low vitamin d

and then a lot of times people say well

wait a second i thought high blood

pressure was caused by high sodium okay

well you need

sodium and potassium in the right ratios

so instead of lowering sodium which by

the way you need a certain amount of

sodium for a lot of reasons why not

increase potassium because yes you might

have too much sodium but in reality you

just don’t have enough potassium to deal

with that sodium so these people that

are salt sensitive usually are just

potassium deficient all right and

another common myth that i’ve heard is

that you don’t want to take potassium

because it’s very toxic to the kidney

that’s false information in fact

potassium protects your kidneys unless

you have stage five

kidney failure in which case you have to

avoid a lot of different nutrients but

if you don’t have end stage kidney

failure potassium is actually beneficial

for the kidneys and i’m going to put a

link down below for those people who

have not heard that information before

in fact potassium citrate

is good for preventing kidney stones

it’s also good to prevent gout which is

uric acid crystals so potassium is

actually very very good for a lot of

different things

now i already mentioned this it prevents

edema okay swelling if you have swelling

usually you have an imbalance of too

much sodium and not enough potassium

when you take sufficient potassium

it’s like a diuretic if you have fluid

retention you will get rid of that

excess fluid all right i already

mentioned this potassium counters sodium

toxicity

also i already mentioned that it helps

you make stomach acid and i also

mentioned it helps prevent

gout because potassium citrate is

alkaline and if you keep the the ph

correct and don’t allow your ph to

become too acidic you won’t have these

uric acid crystals coming out of

solution aggravating

your big toe joint all right so now the

question is why are we deficient in

potassium well the number one reason is

because of the diet the average person

only consumes about a cup and a half of

vegetables every single day okay a cup

and a half well where in food would you

get a lot of rich potassium bananas

right

well in a banana it’s only 300

milligrams we need 4 700 milligrams so

if we do the math

you would need 15.6 bananas per day to

reach your

4700 requirement now

the problem with bananas is they come

with too much sugar so bananas are not

the best source the best source would be

leafy greens okay but yes you would need

at least seven to ten cups to contribute

to this amount but realize also other

food will contribute so it’s not just

the salad there’s even potassium in

certain things like salmon for example

and there’s potassium in nuts and seeds

and nut butters and so there’s other

sources of potassium but the leafy

greens have a good amount and it’s

fairly easy to eat big salads now

when i say one cup i’m talking about

like a small handful which is like one

ounce so you need like a bowl of salad

you could do one for your lunch and then

you can do one for your dinner to make

it really easy but i did a video on

showing you the amount so i will put

that link down below

now avocados are loaded with potassium

one avocado is roughly about 700

sometimes 800 milligrams of potassium so

avocados are really good now i don’t

recommend going out and getting a

potassium supplement unless there’s a

higher amount of potassium like an

electrolyte powder because typically the

supplements for potassium only come in

99 milligrams okay so you would need

like what 47

pills every single day and that’s not

very practical

so i recommend you try as much as you

can to get it from your diet or get a

good electrolyte powder that has enough

of these electrolytes

number two if you

are vomiting you’re going to lose your

potassium if you have diarrhea you can

lose your potassium diuretics are

notorious for becoming potassium

deficient

i mean it’s kind of wild that you’re

here you are taking a drug for your high

blood pressure

when that is going to deplete your

potassium and create

a higher amount of blood pressure

doesn’t make sense to me

okay stress

when you have stress you deplete your

potassium reserves and by the way when

you actually take potassium it relaxes

your nervous system it pulls you out of

this stress state

sugar depletes your potassium real quick

i have to tell this story my wife and i

years ago right right before we’re

getting married

we went to shop around for um wedding

cakes okay

and we were sampling wedding cakes and

we’re eating sugar all day this is

before i had any awareness on

healthy foods at all so we ended up that

night at an italian restaurant and we

had pasta pizza we had bread we had wine

we were carved out right and then we

looked up and everyone was gone in the

restaurant except us and they were

except another guy was

going past us with the dessert trays all

the different desserts they were

actually going to toss them and he

wanted to know if we wanted to sample

some before he

tossed them and of course i don’t like

to see food go to waste so i started to

dive in and started consuming

as much additional dessert as i can cram

into my mouth now as i was driving home

that night i remember

i feeling kind of weird so i got home

i went to bed

tried to go to bed and i started to hear

my

this pounding in my ear just like boom

boom boom boom boom what is going on i

had no idea that was a severe potassium

deficiency caused by consuming a

tremendous amount of refined grains and

sugar

okay so all this refined grain and sugar

literally depletes you of potassium and

starts to accelerate the heart rate

my heart rate was literally going so

high my heart was pounding out of my

chest okay i didn’t sleep one minute if

i would have known what i know now back

then i would have just either took some

potassium or had a big salad to try to

replenish some of this lost potassium

perfect example of low potassium all

right when you do keto you need to take

potassium because you’re going to lose

fluid which you’re going to then lose

potassium when you drink alcohol

you can deplete your body of potassium

when you consume excessive fluids so

some people drink gallons of fluid while

they’re working out and they’re sweating

too and they’re losing not just their

sodium electrolyte they’re also losing

their potassium so they’re going to

become very dehydrated and feel dizzy

and weak and so

when you drink gallons of water you

better be drinking your electrolytes at

the same time but not just potassium

sodium too

and i mentioned this sweating right here

okay diabetes diabetics

need or require more potassium and

they’re usually always deficient in

potassium because of this insulin

resistance thing

so potassium is very very important for

diabetics especially

yet they’re just retaining

sodium like crazy in fluid without the

potassium all right then we have fasting

now the thing about fasting is when

you’re fasting especially prolonged

fasting

sometimes uh you’re not able to store

some of these electrolytes for a long

period of time so if you’re deficient

you know whether it’s magnesium or

potassium going into a fast

and you’re not consuming anything

no electrolytes then it’s exaggerated

you can feel dizzy you could pass out so

this is why when you fast i recommend

taking electrolytes all right so now

that you know about potassium

let’s show you the video that i

mentioned about

consuming enough salad i put it right

here check it out