Do you get enough potassium? I do not!

So I didn't realize how important Potassium is and that I am not getting even close to enough! I started following a high calorie diet to try and gain weight and it has me tracking calories, fat, fiber, sodium, and potassium.

Most adults need about 3,000 - 3,500 mg a day. I am only getting maybe 1,000 mg each day. I eat a banana every day so I think I figured that had me covered. Duh, not even close!

What I didn't know is everything potassium does. I knew it was important for electrolyte balance and muscles. But it is also involved in regulating bone mass and adrenal function. Both important for us Crohnies. And as I was reading I guess I kind of forgot my colon is a muscle because it said how important potassium is to digestive health and the muscle health of the colon.

Guess I need to add some new foods to my grocery list this week!

I here ya on eating being a pain. Trying to eat enough to gain weight is exhausting, I am so tired of thinking of something to eat that is nutritious, won't hurt my tummy, and actually tastes good!

The foods I think I am going to add are Avocados, baked potatoes, spinach, and low sodium tomato juice, in addition to my daily banana.


Other good sources but foods I don't think I could handle right now are prunes, brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, orange juice, dried apricots, broccoli, lentils, kidney beans. Something I didn't know is a lot of fresh fish is also a good source of potassium.

In my quest to get more potassium I came across a few things that helped me get a lot in one serving and didn't bother my tummy.

Low Sodium V8 juice has 820 mg in one 8 oz serving

Low Sodium Hot n' Spicey V8 juice has 1000 mg in one 8 oz serving (that is almost 1/3 of the whole daily requirement)

I made a smoothie with milk (380 mg), half of an avocado (485 mg), banana (450 mg), unsweetened cocoa powder ( 80 mg), and ice. It was pretty good and and I got a lot of potassium in one smoothie!!!

I kind of forgot my colon is a muscle because it said how important potassium is to digestive health and the muscle health of the colon.

The one nutrient that is especially noted for repair of intestinal tissue is l-glutamine.

Potassium is in a constant balancing act with sodium. Too much of one will cause a deficiency of the other. Most people eat too many processed foods which are packed with sodium and may be one reason why so many have high blood pressure.

Most unprocessed fruit and vegetables have abundant potassium. Since my diagnosis I have completely quit soda and substituted diluted fresh squeezed orange juice. Most unprocessed juices are packed with potassium. Cut out salt-filled processed foods. My blood pressure has since dropped from a high normal 135/82 to consistently around 118/70.

I think restless legs syndrome and/or leg cramps are signs of low potassium and magnesium. I known Crohn's clobbers absorption of B12, folic acid, and zinc, maybe potassium too?

Alrighty - just checked my online chart and my potassium and sodium were perfect. Gaah. Now I'm even more confused about these leg cramps. Oh well. I'll figure something out!

Are you dehydrated....I get leg cramps when I am low on any of my triumvirate of missing things...potassium, B12 or water.

Also if you don't like bananas, try a smoothie with a banan in it or blend a banana in some chocloate Ensure. I like bananas, but get sick of them so I bury them in other things. bananas in Ensure is how I get through the liquid diet days. I also keep a stash of small baby food jars of bananas in my work desk so I can have a little without overwhelming myself.

I can't find anything in my chart that shows a magnesium level.

Because magnesium is crucial for hundreds of the body's metabolic processes, less than one percent of the total magnesium level can be measured in the blood. So blood tests for magnesium are mostly inaccurate. There is the blood ionized magnesium test that works accurately but it is still in the research stage.

Daily magnesium requirements are about 400 mg. I look at my diet and see that on most days I don't come anywhere near ingesting that much. On the other hand too much magnesium can cause diarrhea. So I take about 200 mg of supplemental magnesium and regularly take Epsom salt baths to absorb it while bypassing the digestive system. I feel great after a magnesium bath.

I take a potassium supplement.  During my last bad flare I had unexplained severe leg muscle pain.  Despite all the tests they could not figure it out.  I started taking that and magnesium.  I stopped for a while but am back on the potassium because I was getting muscle cramps like charley horses, but not just in my legs.  Seems better now that I've been taking it again.

I would be careful about starting a potassium supplement, especially if your blood work showed you are at normal levels. While I was researching high potassium foods I came across information more than once that said potassium is a supplement you should not take without doctor supervision. Most said you should only be taking potassium as a supplement if prescribed by your doctor.

Even though you still may be in "normal" range it still could be too low for you. I need to be at least 4 or 4.5 optimally. I had severe heart probs at levels of 3.4

I have not posted on the Crohn's forum before but this post caught my eye. I was recently hospitalized for severe dehydration and it seems my potassium had "bottomed out". I was told I was very fortunate as I was close to having a heart attack and honestly I do not know how I made it to the hospital without an ambulance. They admitted me right away and I wound up being in the hospital for 5 days as they could not bring my potassium and magnesium up to the normal range.

Here's the important thing though. They finally got them up barely and my PCP prescribed me a potassium supplement but I had to continue to have my levels monitered although not daily as in the hospital. When they were deemed acceptable, I was to quit the supplement as too much potassium is just as bad as too little and this was drummed into me when being released from the hospital and by my PCP. Message was, "do not treat yourself for potassium issues. Too much is just as bad as too little. I had no idea. The pharmacist said the same. Do this only under a Dr.'s care. I am still having issues. The prescribed supplements are little packets of powdery potassium and I guess if your potassium is out of balance, your magnesium is likely to be as well as they go hand in hand. Sorry for being so long winded but just be careful. ~Rufous~

I have a long history with Potassium. Many years ago was recovering from my bowel resection and they found that my potassium levels were so low that I was at the brink of a heart attack. The doctor prescribed these giant pills of Potassium chloride and magnesium(which helps absorb the potassium). After a month it was back to normal and my leg cramps were also gone.

Started doing research on Potassium and Crohns causes a lot of diarreah which drains the potassium out of your body. Have been taking Potassium Chloride for years, it is very caustic and may irritate your bowels so drink lots of water with it. Found out to my surprise that Potassium regulates the signaling of muscle contractions and taken in large doses intravenously stops the heart. Dr Kevorkian used Potassium intravenuously to cease the life of his patients, it is one of the 3 components of lethal injections ! The doses are massive, 100 mEq which is hundreds of times more than what we take orally(1 pill is about 3% of daily minimum) so don't worry about it.

There are many other kinds of Potassium supplements: Aspertate, Gluconate, Citrate (my favorite).

Note: the colon is not a muscle, it is an organ of the digestive system. It is surrounded by a thin ribbon of muscle called Taenia Coli which helps the colon do its function. The digestive track has the more generalized Muscularis Externa which contracts and relaxes the entire track to aid digestion.

Low potassium is no joke!
In high school, the mother of one of my classmates suddenly died.
An autopsy and labs determined that she had died due to lack of potassium.
At the time, I couldn't imagine anyone being that low in a vitamin, but now I know better.