Diuretics are designed to rid the body of excess fluids to help to remove strain from the body, but excess urination caused by diuretics can affect the electrolyte balance in your body, particularly your levels of potassium.
Your kidneys play an essential role in regulating the electrolyte balance in the body and it is therefore crucial for regulating your potassium balance. Kidney insufficiency or a kidney disorders can affect your potassium levels and may lead to low levels of potassium in your body.[2]
The regular use of laxatives and sweating can also change the electrolyte balance and cause low potassium levels. Any prolonged loss of fluid from your body has the potential to alter the electrolyte balance and may therefore influence your potassium levels.
Vomiting and diarrhea can affect your potassium levels as well, but loss of potassium due to these causes is generally short lived. Your body can rebalance electrolytes fairly easily after short bouts of illness. Prolonged illness however, can be potentially detrimental, and you need to ensure your diet is rich in potassium containing foods if you are ill for prolonged periods of time.
For most individuals, ensuring your diet is high in potassium containing foods is sufficient to boost your natural potassium levels, unless you are taking chronic long-term medication or suffering from long-term illness, in which case potassium supplementation may be more appropriate. Either way, you need to ensure you speak to your physician about any supplements you take.
A Special Note about Magnesium
It is estimated that 68 to 80 percent of Americans weren’t getting the proper amount of magnesium in their system. Magnesium deficiency still frequently eludes diagnosis. If we are low in magnesium, the pumps in our cell membranes that concentrate potassium inside the cell don’t work.
We can take all the potassium we want, to the point of dangerous over-dosage, and it won’t get inside the cell where we need to have it. That’s why your doctor will usually ask you to take a magnesium supplement along with prescribed potassium.
Make sure you are aware of the warning signs of magnesium deficiency.
Symptoms of Low Potassium (Hypokalemia)
One of the biggest problems in terms of potassium is the fact that symptoms of potassium deficiency are often mild and vague and this means that potassium deficiencies are often overlooked. This can result in devastating and sometimes life-threatening consequences.
Since potassium is vital for supporting electrical signal transmission, it’s not surprising that symptoms relating to the muscular system are top of the list of the symptoms of low potassium levels.
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