Potassium Facts Potassium is one of the major minerals necessary for human health. It is such an important nutrient that some experts have called it the MOST important. It is generally recognized that the average person does not get enough potassium. This is apparent when we look at chronic health problems which can be directly related to a lack of potassium. Potassium is a potent factor in preventing and/or treating heart disease, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, diabetes, kidney disease, overweight, and some cases of paralysis. (Our recommendation for a good source of potassium is Matol Km.) There is an intricate chemical relationship between potassium and sodium. This delicate balance was first demonstrated as long ago as 1948 when volunteers given diets deficient in potassium retained an unusually high amount of salt. Normally, potassium resides largely within the cells and it is balanced by the sodium outside cells. In this way, potassium maintains, the acid-alkaline balance of our blood plasma, while sodium maintains the osmotic pressure. If potassium is deficient then sodium invades the cell. Sodium can bring so much water with it into the cells that the pressure actually causes many of them to burst. Sodium in the correct amounts is as necessary for health as potassium; however, we must strive for the proper balance for our individual needs. It is generally agreed that we need 2 to 3 grams of sodium daily. Unfortunately, the average American gets about ten times that amount! The damaging impact of this imbalance can be minimized by the addition of potassium to the diet. Remember the issue here is balance, and adding potassium has proven to be as effective as restricting sodium. Sodium, NaC1, is ordinary table salt. People with heart disease can also deflect the damaging effects of sodium by adding potassium to their diets. If you take in a lot of salt, and much of it is hidden, then it is likely that you have a potassium deficiency. When potassium deficiencies have been produced in humans, these persons have quickly developed listlessness, fatigue, gas pains, constipation, insomnia, and low blood sugar. Their muscles become soft and flabby, and their pulse weak, slow, and irregular. An over abundance of salt is not the only perpetrator of a potassium deficiency. It can also be brought on by stress, medications such as ACTH, cortisone, and diuretics as well as by alcohol, coffee, or sugar. People with kidney damage may be prime candidates for a potassium deficiency. The kidneys in correlation with the pituitary carefully regulate the balance between potassium and sodium. This balancing mechanism is carried out in conjunction with the filtering process of the kidneys twice every hour of our lives. In animal studies, a potassium deficiency caused the kidneys to swell to twice their normal size. A damaged kidney may lose potassium through the urine much too quickly. Potassium is essential to the contraction of every muscle in the body. This is another instance where we see the balancing act of potassium and sodium. The two work together in the brain for the transmission of electrical impulses. Sodium stimulates the neuromuscular system so it can react to stimuli, while potassium transmits electrical impulses along the neuromuscular terrain, and it serves as a transfer agent for enzymes in the neuromuscular system. For this reason a lack of potassium can cause partial or even complete paralysis. There are records of people with such unusually high potassium requirements that they are subject to periodic paralysis. However, even though muscles become weak, lax, soft, or partially paralyzed, recovery occurs within minutes after potassium is taken. Undoubtedly the greatest damage done by a potassium deficiency is the effect this lack has on the heart. The heart is a muscle also and the importance of potassium to heart health is also dependent on its work as an electrical transmitter. When potassium is out of balance in the heart, then the actual heart beat is affected. Large changes are enough to stop it altogether, it is a matter of record that heart attacks are associated with low blood potassium and low potassium intake. It is possible that the lack of potassium in the coronary muscles is a major factor in death from heart disease. Potassium also regulates the muscles of the intestines. It can help to regulate the bowels in cases of both constipation and diarrhea. Babies whose lives have been threatened by acute diarrhea have been saved by the administering of potassium. Vomiting and diarrhea can actually cause a potassium deficiency. Besides regulating the bowels, potassium controls excess fungi and bacteria in the intestines. The importance to blood sugar levels is based on the importance of this mineral to the correct function of the pancreas. When people with low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), have been given 2-5 grams of potassium chloride daily, blood sugar has increased quickly and all symptoms have disappeared. When this condition is rampant and no potassium is taken, the stress of the condition causes even more potassium to be lost in the urine. Besides lessening stress by helping to maintain normal blood sugar levels, potassium also works as an anti-stressor by enhancing adrenal function, increasing potassium intake in anticipation of unusual physical or emotional stress is recommended. Because of it's relationship to sodium, a lack of potassium can cause the body to retain water. Diuretics or excessive amounts of water increase the possibility of deficiency because the potassium is washed out with fluid. A vicious cycle is created because a potassium deficiency cases the urine to be so alkaline that minerals can't be help in solution. It is extremely unlikely for anyone to develop excessively high blood levels of potassium. Potassium intoxification occurs only in patients with kidney failure; those who are in shock; people who are acutely dehydrated; or people suffering from Addison's disease. A radioactive isotope study was performed on Matol/Km, which proved that the natural potassium in the product passes through the body if the body does not need it at that time. Dr. Karl Jurak created Matol/Km to improve health and the herbs he chose were higher in potassium than any other mineral. It was his knowledge of cell function that drove him to create a perfect cell food to balance the body's systems. Canada classifies Matol/Km as a "therapeutic formulation." The U.S.A. classifies Matol/Km as a "food supplement", but it is very difficult, given our average salt intake, for us to compensate with potassium from food sources so we need a potassium supplement. Until now, potassium supplements have been difficult for the body to assimilate properly. Matol/Km is a formula that renders potassium in a form that is more readily utilized by the body, and also delivers other cellular needs from plant sources which your body understand and respond.* * "The greatest change in the human diet had been the increase in the
dietary sodium/potassium ratio, "Usually accepted as a symptom of "old age", a decrease in muscular strength may be simply a lack of potassium in the diet." - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition "Investigators have found that dietary potassium supplementation lowers blood pressure in established hypertension." - F.J. Haddy, M.D.
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