Potassium supplementation with potassium gluconate solution is superior to blood pressure medication
It is a little-known fact that potassium gluconate solution has a
very mild taste. Four small (45ml) drinks of this a day can
provide 2.4 grams of potassium a day, approximately doubling the
potassium intake.
When combined with general (not obsessive) avoidance of the saltiest
food, the normally very low (below 1.0) dietary potassium to sodium
ratio can be doubled or tripled to a level which will reduce or
eliminate blood pressure problems for most of the population.
This will also greatly reduce the risk of stroke and other diseases.
I am not a doctor so my views on the matter should not affect
anyone's decisions. What counts here is the research articles I
link to. Please read the initial section of the COVID-19 page ../
for the Disclaimer and other background information - and see my notes
below on the dangers of raising blood potassium levels too quickly.
Robin Whittle rw@firstpr.com.au . 2020-03-21 Last
update 2022-02-27 14:20 UTC.
Update 2022-02-28
- Please see the comment by DJ at https://moderndiscontent.substack.com/p/a-candid-discussion-about-this-substacks/comments regarding his or her successful use of an extended release potassium chloride tablet Klor-Con https://www.rxlist.com/klor-con-drug.htm
. This is a wax based tablet which slowly releases potassium
chloride - and so potassium ions and chloride ions. Potassium
chloride https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_chloride_(medical_use)
is 52.4% by mass potassium. This page mentions "Slow-K" as being
developed in the 1950s, which is apparently a similar product.
Other brand names mentioned are K-Dur, Micro-K and Kaon Cl.
Klor-Con tablets contain 600 or 750 mg of potassium chloride, which means they contain 314.4 to 393 mg of elemental potassium.
The above moderndiscontent page is comments to an article by a person
who publishes extensive, detailed, timely assessments of research into
complex biological matters concerning COVID-19. It is perhaps not
the best place to discuss potassium supplements. Can anyone
suggest a public forum where this is discussed?
Assuming these tablets can safely be tolerated (and it seems there are
some potential problems with this) then this would achieve what I am
trying to achieve with potassium gluconate drinks several times a
day. It would probably be better
than what I am trying to achieve since with the drinks, the potassium
ions would go rapidly into the bloodstream - and we would like a slower
release do minimise high levels there.
These tablets would also release chloride ions into the bloodstream,
just as salt (sodium chloride) does. Too rapid a release of
potassium and chloride ions into the bloodstream is deadly - see the
final section on the Wikipedia page on its deliberate use, by
injection, to kill people.
The same general caution applies to what I mention below about
potassium gluconate. If you over do it, it might kill or
seriously harm you.
This does not make it very attractive to doctors, for perfectly good
reasons. Also, it is low cost, simple, surely no longer patented
and so not at all glamorous or profitable for multinational drug
companies. So there would be no big budget for promoting it or
researching its benefits. (Where have we heard this before?
Vitamin D!)
However - and this is the
opinion of an electronic technician with no medical qualifications or
experience - if we can reduce sodium chloride intake by generally
avoiding the saltiest foods and reliably and safely ingest another two
or so grams of potassium, evenly spread throughout the day (for 70 kg
bodyweight), as I generally do with 3 or sometimes 4 ~600mg potassium
drinks a day, then we can remove or greatly reduce the fundamental problem which causes hypertension, stroke etc. etc.
It seems to me that this is well worth striving for, since the
alternative is either hypertension and stroke, or decades of dependence
on anti-hypertension drugs which all have significant side effects.
Regarding these, please see another comment by DJ in the
moderndiscontent comment thread which I responded to. He or she
wrote that one or more blood pressure medications in the context
of some other medication were causing his or her father to suffer from
glaucoma - progressively making him blind.
- Please see my roughly formatted and far from complete notes on boron at: https://aminotheory.com/cv19/#08-boron
for the reasons I include borax in my several times a day drinks.
I think this is likely to reduce the incidence of kidney stones and to
enable existing stones to disintegrate of their own accord.
- For information on vitamin D, especially regarding COVID-19, sepsis, Kawasaki disease, MIS-C etc. please see: https://nutritionmatters.substack.com and https://vitamindstopscovid.info .
../ to the main COVID-19 page of this site.
This page does not involve
any suggestion that people stop taking their blood pressure medication,
except under their doctor's advice. My aim here is long-term - to
raise awareness among doctors and nurses that there is a practical,
palatable, way of solving the low potassium to sodium ratio problem,
also referred to as the high sodium to potassium ratio problem.
Almost everyone thinks that all potassium salts are too strong tasting
to be used in solution. They don't know about potassium gluconate.
There is controversy about the potential ill-effects of blood pressure medication on COVID-19 patients:
www.nephjc.com/news/covidace2
All blood pressure drugs have undesirable side effects. It
would not be surprising if some of these drugs lead to worse outcomes
with COVID-19 or other diseases.
Maximising the potassium to sodium ratio
Most or all hypertension drugs are unnecessary, since for most or all people, the underlying
cause of hypertension is dietary: inadequate potassium and excessive
salt. It seems that we become more sensitive to this as we age.
Increasing the potassium to sodium ratio is well-known to be the
best way to reduce hypertension, the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease etc.
Dozens of
widely cited articles confirm this, such as:
Recently, several studies suggested
that the ratio of sodium to potassium intakes represented a more
important risk factor for hypertension and CVD than each factor alone.
(After converting mols to mass and expressing ratios as K/Na in mass.)
Prehistoric sodium consumption may have been as low as just 0.17 grams per day, and potassium consumption is thought to have been as high as 7.8 to 11.7 grams
per day. As a consequence, the human genome has been selected, within this environment, to provide an appetite for sodium
consumption along with its retention. However, because of the
abundance of potassium in the prehistoric diet, no such mechanisms have
evolved in its case.
A large international cross-sectional study performed in the 1980s demonstrated daily sodium excretion to be as high as 4.1 grams daily and potassium excretion to be as low as 0.91 grams in some populations. [A ratio of 2.2. Excretion is the same as consumption, and is easier to measure.]
Weighted means of all participating centers yields average daily excretion for sodium and potassium of 2.65 grams and 2.15 grams, respectively. These values give a potassium to sodium ratio 0.81 compared with an estimated value of approximately 46 for the prehistoric diet.
Although rare in the modern world, there are small populations of
traditional hunter-gatherer societies subsisting on diets of
traditional unrefined foods and which yield potassium to sodium ratios
comparable with those of the prehistoric diet. Within such societies,
individuals do not exhibit a rise in blood pressure with age and the incidence of hypertension overall is <1%; stroke is similarly rare.
Among the
randomized controlled trials reviewed, the sodium-to-potassium ratio
appears to be more strongly associated with blood pressure outcomes
than either sodium or potassium alone in hypertensive adult
populations.
Patients with
elevated blood pressure may benefit from increased potassium intake
along with controlled or decreased sodium intake.
Dietary Na-K
ratio assessed by a 3-day weighing dietary record was a significant
risk factor for mortality from haemorrhagic stroke, all stroke, CVD and
all causes among a Japanese population.
Na:K intake is an independent predictor of stroke risk.
According to the 2013 article, our bodies evolved with a potassium to sodium dietary ratio (by mass) of
about 46, while modern diets on average provide a ratio of 0.81.
No-one is suggesting we need such a high ratio now, since our
ancestors struggled to get enough salt. However, a ratio of 2 or 3
would enable every cell in our body to achieve a much better potassium to
sodium balance than is possible with unsupplemented, unaltered, modern
diets.
Potassium supplementation with potassium gluconate solution
Potassium entering the bloodstream from the intestine is rapidly stored
in the cytoplasm of all cells, to maintain a high concentration within
the cell and a low concentration outside. Sodium is pumped out of
the cells and into the interstitial fluid and circulating plasma.
The resulting voltage and ionic gradients across the cell membrane of
all cells provides the energy for many transmembrane processes.
2.4 grams of potassium is required to approximately double the
daily intake. The US RDA used to be 4.7 grams. The "adequate" intakes (ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Potassium-HealthProfessional/)
are now 3.4 grams for men and 2.6 grams for women. However, this
is based on highest median intakes for supposedly "healthy" adults -
and most Western adults going into their 50s and 60s suffer from
hypertension, while stroke kills lots of people younger than this.
Most people in Western societies (and in many other countries with modern diets) aged 50 and beyond, are not
at all healthy.
Salt
is hard to avoid, and to maintain potassium to sodium ratios more like
those of our ancestors, we need a lot more potassium than is available
in most diets. According to academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/96/3/647/4576899
60% of US adults consumed more than 3 grams of sodium a day, which is
twice the recommended maximum, while the median potassium intake was
only 2.6 grams.
Potassium can't be ingested as tablets, since there is a limit of
about 100mg per tablet due to potential problems with the capsule or
tablet becoming stuck. Therefore, it must be in food and/or a
supplemental solution.
To get sufficient potassium in food would be difficult, since it
would involve much more potatoes, bananas etc. than most people want to
eat, or could sustain due to their high caloric value. See: blog.watson-inc.com/nutri-knowledge/what-does-4700-mg-of-potassium-look-like .
It is generally believed that potassium solutions can't be used since
all potassium salts have a very strong taste. However, this is
untrue. Potassium gluconate has a mild taste.
An 8.2% solution (86 grams per litre) tastes about as strong as
0.5% table salt (sodium chloride). Seawater is about 3.5%. This is based on the assessment of my wife Tina and I,
and of a few friends. Its taste is much milder than other potassium salts, as noted here:
Achieving a "good source" of potassium, currently at least 350
mg per serving, or even "excellent source," at least 700 mg, is possible
in such products as dairy products, fortified beverages, infant
formula, nutritional products, prepared foods and baked foods, said
Rocio Aramburo, market development manager, health and nutrition, for
Jungbunzlauer, Inc., Newton Center, Mass.
"Potassium gluconate displays a slightly bitter taste," she said. "However, it also offers specific taste advantages over other potassium
salts, and it is particularly favorable in matrixes and beverages."
The sensory profile of potassium gluconate fits better with fruity flavors.
Four 45
gram drinks per day gives about 2,400mg potassium. (Recipe below.) My wife Tina and
I have been taking this for several years. We avoid the saltiest foods but
otherwise do not obsess about it. We are 64 and 55 and our blood
pressure is not elevated, even by recently lowered standards.
This requires about 9kg potassium gluconate per annum for the two of
us. It can be obtained in smaller quantities in Australia
(including Now brand via eBay). We get ours from PureBulk
in the USA for about USD$22 per kilogram, ex-freight. Our most
recent annual order, during a sale, with freight to Australia, cost
USD$307.
A 2001 book by Richard D. Moore MD PhD contains a comprehensive discussion of potassium and sodium metabolism: The High Blood Pressure Solution (Amazon).
Hypertension is the cause of some illnesses, but it is also an
indicator of cellular potassium - sodium imbalance.
Dr Moore advocated high potassium foods rather than supplements, but
these foods contain a lot of carbohydrates. He does not mention
potassium gluconate, so I think it was not widely available in the late
1990s.
Some hypertension drugs lower blood pressure by mechanisms which
improve the body's potassium-sodium balance, such as by reducing
potassium excretion. Others lower it without fixing the potassium
sodium balance at all, by mechanisms such as relaxing blood
capillaries. Increasing potassium and/or decreasing sodium
in the diet improves the body's whole potassium - sodium balance, and
so enables all systems in the body to work better.
Some people with impaired kidney function or other medical conditions
or who are taking particular drugs (such as spironolactone) should not
take potassium supplements. If you are considering doing so,
please check with your doctor first. They may be opposed to
potassium supplementation because it is not a standard part of Western
medicine. For insurance and other reasons, most doctors stick
very closely to conventional practices. I hope this web page will
convince them that for most people, potassium supplementation is safe
and desirable. Tina and I take it for general health, and
we find ourselves somewhat calmer using it.
Unlike hypertension drugs, no-one makes much profit from potassium
gluconate. It is produced primarily as a food additive - so you
won't see it advertised anywhere. Meanwhile drugs are constantly
promoted to doctors - and many of their patients think that drugs are
magic bullets which will fix the intended problem without significant
ill-effects.
Making your own potassium gluconate solution at home
Please take responsibility for your nutritional choices after assessing
all the information above and all you can find elsewhere. I am
just an electronic technician. Ideally your doctor or nurse can
evaluate this information and advise you reliably.
People taking blood pressure medication should not use potassium
supplements except as directed by their doctor. These drugs
interfere with sodium and potassium metabolism in various ways, and the
dosage assumes a normal, unhealthily low, potassium intake.
It is best to
start with small doses of potassium since the body may not at first be
able to store
the potassium in the cells, which is where most of it must go.
High potassium levels in the blood can lead to heart problems and
death, so it is important not to ingest too large an amount at
once. And all doctors are warned of the dangers of introducing
too much potassium intravenously. Still, raising dietary
potassium has profound health benefits without any of the ill-effects
of anti-hypertensive drugs.
600mg potassium (about the same as in two bananas) per drink is
probably a safe maximum, but start with 1/3 or 1/4 of this in case your body needs time to adapt to higher potassium intakes.
Potential dangers of raising potassium levels in the blood too quickly - especially for people who have had bariatric surgery
The water solution is instantly
available to the intestines and will go into the bloodstream more
rapidly than potassium contained in food, such as nuts, sweet potatoes
bananas etc. The drink form, especially on an empty stomach,
might raise blood potassium levels too rapidly and so cause potential
heart disturbances.
Bariatric surgery is likely to make this worse. For instance,
Roux-en-Y surgery - which is widely used in the USA for weight
reduction - removes the sphincter which normally regulates flow from
the stomach to the intestines. The stomach is out of circuit -
only a little of it remains as a "pouch". So drinking 600mg of
potassium all at once may be dangerous
for people with such surgeries - since it is bound to go straight into
the intestines, probably within seconds, and so probably raise blood
potassium levels much faster than would be the case for people without
such surgery.
If you decide to follow my suggestion (remembering you are reading an
electronic technician's ideas, not taking the advice of a doctor who
has examined you) the problem of overly-high potassium levels can
presumably be reduced by sipping each small drink over some period of
time, such as 30 minutes.
Here is our recipe. Four 45 gram drinks provides a total of about 2.4 grams potassium and 12mg boron (see ../#08-boron).
Place 1kg of potassium gluconate in a plastic food container, add 7 grams of borax and shake well.
Add about 86 grams of this mixture to a 1 litre container. We use a measuring cup, rather than using scales each time.
Add 200ml or so of water and shake vigorously for a few seconds. Then add the rest of the water.
Cold water is fine, if you shake it well and allow it to sit in the
fridge for a few hours to dissolve. It dissolves more readily in
warm to hot water, but we like to keep the solution in the fridge.
We take four drinks a day - breakfast, lunch, dinner and before
bed. Each drink is about 45 grams, using a small measuring cup,
though Tina prefers this diluted 2:1 with an equal amount of
water.
Here are the figures:
The mixture is 0.993 potassium gluconate and 0.007 borax.
The total mass of 1 litre of solution with 86 grams of
the mixture and 961 grams of water to fill the container
is 1.047kg, so the solution has a density of 1.047.
The solution is is 8.21% potassium gluconate and 0.67%
borax. This is 1.37% potassium and 0.076% boron.
A 45 gram (43ml) drink of the solution is 0.0430
of the total 1 litre solution.
Potassium Boron
Potassium gluconate 16.7%
Borax
11.34%
86 grams of the
mixture contains
14,261 mg 68.3
mg
Each 45 grams of the
solution contains
0.0430 of this,
so: 613
mg 2.94 mg
4 such drinks a day = 2,452 mg 11.76 mg
Potassium
Boron
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