Are you low in Potassium/Magnesium?

[john70t]

Saw this video the other day: https://files.catbox.moe/i3cil9.mp4

I've had difficulty sleeping at times and woken with the knee and back painfully locked up solid in the morning. All symptoms of the above. Ruins my morning. To pun a phrase it really cramps my style. I've been doing plenty of water/tea hydration but that wasn't enough.

Last night I took mag/zinc/calcium and drank coconut water. Had nice lucid dreams, excavated easily, and woke up feeling refreshed and 'normal' again. What a difference.

[masraum]

Interesting.

[GH85Carrera]

I eat several bananas per day, and an apple almost every day. My sodium and magnesium were low and my doc said IO need to add salt to my foods, and I started taking 400 Mg of magnesium per day. I don't notice any difference, but I will wait for a month to see my next blood test results.

My biggest concern is so many supplement companies are just scammers. Some pills have zero of the component that it is supposed to provide, and some have several thousand more units than advertised. I hate government regulation, but the FDA needs to monitor the supplement industry, and make sure it actually has what the consumer is paying for.

[McLovin]

Everyone is low in potassium, and probably magnesium too.

Those are the only 2 supplements that intake.

The RDA for potassium is like 4500 mg! Most foods have little to no potassium. And even a high potassium food gets you nowhere close to RDA. A banana for example has around 400. The high potassium foods, the vast majority of people almost never eat.

Also, blood tests are not really accurate for potassium. It can show that your serum blood level is ok, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t deficient. In fact, if it does show you deficient, you are seriously deficient. (That’s why no one even comes close to RDA for potassium, but everyone’s blood tests aren’t detecting it).

Google EXA potassium test for more info. That test is accurate, but rarely used because of cost.

[stevej37]

That's strange because I take GNC men's vitamins that contain Pot and Magnesium.
I have to cut the suggested dose in quarter or I can't sleep more than 4 hrs a night.

It calls for two a day...I take 1 every other day and they work great.

[Bill Douglas]

Good thinking. I'd forgotten about taking them. I've just had a magnesium washed down with a zinc drink.

[jyl]

So how did primitive man get his RDA of potassium? Drank blood?

[McLovin]

Maybe when average life expectancy is 20 years, it’s not as important? Or is one of the contributors to the short lifespan?

The other question that I’ve always had is how was the RDA of 4500 arrived at? And how accurate is it. Who knows, maybe someday they’ll lower it to 1500.

[McLovin]

One thing that does seem proven is higher levels of mag and potassium help prevent afib.

From someone who had afib (and 5 years of multiple heart surgeries to keep it at bay), you really don’t want to get afib.

[JackDidley]

I take Potassium every night about 3 hours before bed time. Before I started this muscle cramps would wake me with serious pain.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by jyl

So how did primitive man get his RDA of potassium? Drank blood?

20 year old NYTimes article

Preserving a Delicate Balance of Potassium

Evolution is an excellent teacher when it comes to figuring out what and how much people should eat.

For example, primates (including those with two legs and big brains) evolved on foods rich in potassium and very low in sodium. Early humans evolved to conserve sodium, which was hard to obtain, and to excrete excess potassium, abundant in many fruits and vegetables.

But Western-style diets these days are the reverse of what those early humans consumed, rich in processed foods, loaded with sodium and relatively poor in potassium. Consequently, according to a report released this year by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, many people now consume diets deficient in potassium and high in acid-generating foods like meats and other animal proteins that further deplete the body's supply of this vital mineral.

...

Among the foods richest in potassium, in descending order by caloric value, are leafy greens like spinach, romaine and cabbage; vine-grown foods like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash and pumpkin; root vegetables like carrots, radishes, turnips and onions; dried peas and beans, and green beans; fruits like apples, oranges, bananas, apricots and strawberries; and tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes, as well as milk and yogurt. Lesser amounts are found in meats, nuts, eggs, cereals and cheese.

In physically active people, potassium is important to sustaining good muscle function. But sports drinks, often consumed to restore the nutrients exhausted by vigorous exercise, are close to worthless when it comes to replacing potassium.

An eight-ounce serving of a sports drink contains about 30 milligrams of potassium. You would have to drink 12 servings of a sports drink, 600 calories, to consume the amount of potassium in one 65-calorie banana, or consume 375 calories of the drink to get the potassium in 27 calories of a half-cup of cantaloupe.

If you consumed 100 calories each of spinach, tomatoes, carrots, chickpeas, oranges and potatoes, you would easily take in a day's recommended amount of potassium and only 600 calories. A potassium-rich diet is also great for weight control.