Hi,
yes you are quite right with the ‘loss of body fluids’ as a potential cause for low potassium (hypokalemia). I have suffered from the symptoms you mentioned (severe sweating, particularly during the night – prior to wearing a Philadelphia collar) and the muscle twitching (fasciculations) and cramps and pre-cramps, I haven’t had the muscle stiffness upon over-stretching though but the rest I can relate to.
Hi. Thanks for your reply!
During the time you suffered from hypokalemia, was there anything else abnormal in the blood tests?
I have to admit, I have also wondered how to ‘up’ my potassium levels, so thank you for raising this and prompting me to look into it! My food intake (which includes a banana every day) still doesn’t increase my levels by that much – though at the moment, although low, I am in the normal range.
A banana per day? That’s nothing! I eat AT LEAST 8 bananas per day. 😀 A very good source of potassium is coconut water – typically, 1 litre contains the daily recommended dose of potassium. Another good source are dates.
I’ve just been doing a little bit of research because I wondered if a deficiency in something else could contribute (i.e. something necessary to assist absorption/retention, or something) and I came across folic acid. Now I have to say that my symptoms haven’t been as bad since I have been supplementing with B vitamins, which include folic acid.
Interesting. I supplement B12. Folid acid I get in abundance, as I follow a low-fat, high carbohydrate, plant-based vegan diet. I have been following such a diet for around half a year, and my potassium has somewhat increased during that time.
Also interestingly snd perhaps more importantly, we talk a lot on here about Magnesium Deficiency, which I try and correct with Epsom Salt baths. It is rife amongst us and this article talks about how being Magnesium deficient can stop us from retaining potassium, exacerbating Hypokalemia !
Thanks for the paper – that IS very relevant indeed! I have started supplementing magnesium in the last few months. Maybe that was the missing link to correct my hypokalemia, and I just have to keep doing this.
As my diet is sufficiently high in both magnesium and potassium, I suspect that I might be absorbing less efficiently these (and maybe other) nutrients, and/or excreting them in larger quantities via sweating and urination. Since I do not sweat much MUCH more than other people, and some initial urine tests seem to suggest that I do not excrete a lot of potassium (though more detailed tests need to be done), my current suspicion is that I have malabsorption problems. This would be consistent with the fact that, despite eating enough calories, I am very slim, and this was the case during all my life.
Thanks for making me think more about this!