So what is potassium? Potassium is one of the seven essential macrominerals and it is vital for our bodies to function properly. It is a type of electrolyte that helps our muscles contract and nerves to function. Potassium also helps with our kidneys and heart as well making it really useful.

Benefits

Recommended daily intake for women is around 2,600mg, and it is around 3,400mg for men. However, recommended intakes change depending on our age and health history. Potassium can help manage our blood pressure by reducing the negative impact that sodium has. It also helps with bone and muscle maintenance. Eating fruits and veggies that have potassium increases our bone density while preserving our muscle mass. Potassium also reduces the risk of having kidney stones. It inhibits the kidney’s ability to reabsorb calcium. 

Sources of potassium

Of course, many fruits and veggies are filled with potassium. Bananas, oranges, apricots, grapefruits, spinach, broccoli, potatoes, peas, cucumbers, and pumpkins are just one of few fruits and veggies that contain a high level of potassium. If you’re in the mood to eat them, try making juices and soups. Orange juice, tomato juice, apricot juice, prune juice, and grapefruit juice are just some of the options you can choose from. There are a lot of dairy products that contain a high level of potassium as well, such as milk and yogurt. If you’re feeling up for fish, rest assured, there are great choices as well. Fish like cod, trout, rockfish, tuna, and halibut are excellent choices if you want to raise your potassium level. 

Naturally, there are other foods that are rich in potassium. They include molasses, salt substitutes, nuts, meat and poultry, brown rice, bran cereal, and whole-wheat bread, and pasta. There are so many great options to choose from, you will never get bored with these foods and drinks. However, many processed foods are also high in sodium, so you’ll have to adjust and balance it out with a proper potassium intake. Lastly, there are supplements for you to use. Supplements can help with kidney stones, manage blood pressure, prevent strokes, manage blood glucose levels, boost bone health, and more. Before taking supplements, it is extremely important to have a chat with your doctor to see if they are okay for you and your health.

Deficiency

Hypokalemia, also known as potassium deficiency, can occur if our potassium levels are too low. That can further lead to many health problems. Some of those problems include kidney stones, high blood pressure, and low calcium levels in our bones. Not only that, but a person can experience constipation, tiredness, muscle weakness, high urine production, and glucose intolerance. To top it all off, you could get muscular paralysis, breathing problems, changes in the heart rhythm, and confusion. Potassium deficiency is no joke at all, but thankfully, it’s really easy to improve our potassium levels. You can try our Blue Lemonade juices which are full of potassium and are sure to help you and make you feel better! Be careful though, too much potassium could also mean a bad thing, so plan your intake accordingly.

Treating low or high potassium levels

If you have hypokalemia, or potassium deficiency that is, don’t worry, there are ways to get this fixed. Have a word with your doctor about taking supplements, they’re usually the first step in getting our potassium levels up. They’re not mandatory though, but they can help in most cases. If your hypokalemia gets worse, there’s always the IV treatment. Hyperkalemia, on the other hand, is a high potassium level and is also not great for our health. Nowadays, we have prescripted medication that helps to excrete potassium. There are also methods that include diuretics or an enema. In more severe cases, kidney dialysis can remove potassium. Once finally balanced, you’ll be able to control it more efficiently so that imbalance doesn’t happen again.

If you need more potassium in your life or just want a great drink, try our Workout Pack which is sure to make you feel better.