Potassium supplements

After watching the television news, reading the newspapers, and seeing various stories on the internet, many of us know that we should be taking some kind of vitamins in order to supplement our health. After all, you can’t turn around lately without bumping into a news story about how Americans’ general health is declining, and many of us are now overweight, sedentary, diabetic, or all of the above. That’s not the mention the fact that healthcare costs have risen so dramatically that many people no longer visit the doctor to get the preventative or even curative medications and treatments they need for their conditions. Whatever the reason, it is clear that America is in the middle of a health epidemic, and if you are searching for ways to supplement and maintain your good health, you are not alone.

When scanning the grocery store or health food store aisles, though, it can be difficult to decide on a healthful supplement. Will a multivitamin do the trick? You’ve always heard that vitamin C is good for a myriad of ills. But what about Vitamin D, or E or B12? Well, one supplement that is commonly recommended is a potassium supplement. Potassium is a chemical that is ingested in a person’s regular diet, but in many cases, people do not eat enough foods containing potassium and thus are potassium deficient. There can be a number of reasons aside from dietary reasons that people find themselves with a deficiency of potassium in their bodies. Some medications, for example, leech the potassium from the body. So do some medical treatments.

So what is so important about potassium and why should you take a potassium supplement? Potassium assists with many bodily functions. When it’s there and working, you do not realize it. But when potassium is missing from your body, you may suffer from a myriad of uncomfortable and even dangerous symptoms. Symptoms in a human body lacking potassium often include nausea and vomiting, muscle weakness, mood swings, and an irregular heartbeat. If you are found to be lacking in potassium in a major way, a doctor might even bring you in for treatment and inject you with potassium shots. As you can probably tell, potassium is an important bodily chemical and should not be messed with.

So say you don’t want to take a potassium supplement. How then do you get enough potassium in your body to prevent irregular heartbeat, muscle weakness and mood changes? One way is to eat foods that are high in potassium. As you will notice from the following list, many foods rich in potassium are foods that picky eaters prefer not to ingest. If you or someone you know avoids most of these foods, he or she may be suffering from a potassium deficiency, and it’s time to either get more potassium into their diet or start giving them potassium supplements. Potassium rich foods include spinach, squash, lentils, kidney beans, split peas, watermelon, raisins, yogurt, orange juice, and Brussels sprouts. If you want to maintain a healthy and balanced diet, you should eat at least some of these foods every day or every week. Orange juice with breakfast, a watermelon slice with lunch, or a heaping serving of spinach at dinner should do the trick.

If you feel that you are suffering from a serious health problem or nutritional problem, be sure to consult your primary care physician before diagnosing yourself. He or she can give you guidance as to treatment, and might even end up recommending something along the lines of a potassium supplement. Do visit first, though, to make sure you are not suffering from a more serious malady.

Last updated on Mar 24th, 2010 and filed under Vitamins and Minerals. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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