Video

Transcript

today I want to talk about why potassium

makes you energetic and why if you’re

deficient you become fatigued

now this topic is quite fascinating

because it relates to a pump in all of

your cells of the body called the sodium

potassium pump and I’m going to dive in

a little bit just to explain what that

is and why that is so significant it has

to do with this out of all the energy

that your body uses to digest to grow

hair to create motion with muscles and

the energy it takes to run all the

enzymes this little sodium pump takes

the lion’s share of energy nearly 30

percent of all the energy that is

utilized from your body from the food

that you consume is allocated this one

little pump

of course these pumps are in all the

cells but it’s interesting that your

body is giving that much energy to this

one specific function and many people

don’t really even know what it is

they’ve never even heard about it before

now the definition of the word pump is

slightly different than the sump pump

that you have in your basement it’s a

biological definition the definition of

this pump is a mechanism for the

movement of electrolytes through the

cell membrane so you have this membrane

this cell wall which is very very thin

it’s like two molecules thick and

electrolytes are electrically charged

chemicals or in this case electrically

charged minerals and we’re talking about

sodium and potassium

very simply the main goal of this pump

is to keep sodium going out and

potassium going in in other words to

keep the potassium inside the cell and

keep the sodium outside the cell that’s

its goal now when you have different

concentrations of electrically charged

minerals inside the cell versus outside

the cell you basically create a battery

okay so the purpose of the sodium

potassium pump is to maintain electrical

charge so that cell can act as a battery

all right so now the question is what is

the significance of having your cell

maintain electrical charge what is it

actually doing and that’s going to be

the next topic it has everything to do

with four things primarily there’s other

things but the four primary functions

are this to support neurons in helping

the nerves transmit signals ok

communication through the body and I’m

talking about all the nerves including

nerves in your brain the central nervous

system also to work with calcium to help

the muscles contract and relax so we

have nerve and we have muscle function

also to help the cell establish the

correct pH and help maintain fluid

control as you know if there’s a problem

with sodium for example if it’s you’re

retaining too much sodium you’re gonna

actually the cells are gonna swell too

much right so the balance of potassium

and sodium is very very important and to

maintain the proper volume of fluid

through the body now here’s what happens

when you’re low in potassium and by the

way you also need sodium for this pump

to work too but you need four times as

much potassium than sodium and if we

look at sodium versus potassium more

people are deficient in potassium and

then they are sodium so what happens

when you’re low in potassium

well the nerves suffer you start getting

brain fog why because we’re talking

about the nerves in your brain also you

can get slow reflexes tingling in the

nerves numbness in the nerves

abnormal heart rhythm because the sodium

potassium pump is located in the

pacemaker of the heart which controls

the rhythm of the heart so it affects

the brain as a brain fog or you’re going

to have motor nerve problems too the

muscle which could affect the ability to

move and and actually maintain a certain

motion for a period of time so you might

get tired a lot faster because you just

don’t have the sodium potassium pump

working effectively throughout the

entire body all right number two has to

do with the ability for the muscles to

contract and relax

I can show up in cramps that can show up

in fatigue as an muscle fatigue it can

show up in muscle aches muscle stiffness

tremors constipation because your colon

is actually smooth muscle and that could

be a problem

weakness in general and high blood

pressure because your arteries have a

certain type of muscle that can be

dysfunctional all right and then we have

pH if you’re deficient in potassium the

body has a tendency to be more acid and

then fluid control if there is a

potassium deficiency you can get

swelling in the body I mean how many

people have way too much sodium versus

potassium and their ankles are just

swollen when you consume foods higher in

potassium swelling goes away so I just

wanted to show you the the connection

between what this sodium potassium pump

controls and the effects that it can

create if it if you’re missing the

actual raw material that makes up that

pump now let’s go into this last part

right here how do people become

deficient in potassium dietary they

don’t consume enough foods high in

potassium the foods that have the most

potassium would be leafy greens or

avocados so people just don’t consume

enough you’d have to consume seven to

ten cups of salad or vegetables to get

close to your RTA’s which is 4700 and

the reason to bringing this up is

because potassium is the hardest to get

it’s very easy to consume sodium but

it’s not as easy to get potassium from

your diet okay if you’re in diuretics

that could cause a potassium deficiency

vomiting diarrhea can deplete you a

potassium if you’re a diabetic and you

have high insulin that can create a

potassium deficiency if you consume

sugar who are you doing a high carb diet

that will deplete potassium as well the

more stress you go through the more

injury you have the more trauma the more

the body will dump potassium and lastly

I wanted to talk about this one last

thing keto what that’s right going on a

ketogenic diet can cause your body to

require more potassium why because when

you go on a ketogenic diet and you lower

your carbs and you don’t need the

quantity of storage sugar anymore sugar

actually stores water or fluid so one

sugar molecule will store almost three

molecules of water so basically the more

sugar you consume the more glycogen you

have the more fluid that you’re

retaining like you’re a sponge of fluid

so when we cut down the carbs you lose

the fluid and because these two minerals

sodium-potassium work together you’re

gonna lose not just sodium but you’re

gonna lose potassium you’re gonna end up

with the lower amount of potassium if

you’re already deficient in potassium

you’re gonna be even more deficient and

this is why people get the keto fatigued

this is why they might get cramps this

is why they might get side effects when

they go on a ketogenic diet but not if

they’re doing the healthy version of

keto that I recommend which is basically

consuming foods that give you more of

the nutrients that you need potassium is

important the B vitamins a little bit

more sea salt would be very beneficial

so if you started the ketogenic diet and

you feel tired and you feel weak all you

have to do is beef up no pun intended

the potassium and some sodium and that

should go away pretty quick all right so

that was a very long explanation of why

potassium makes you energetic but I

think it was important and I think it’s

actually incredibly interesting so

thanks for watching so if you want more

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