what to do when one has potassium deficiency???

Question

what can you do to help cure your potassium deficiency???

Answer 1

Low Potassium Treatment

Self-Care at Home

If you are monitoring low potassium levels, you may want to avoid long, strenuous physical activities because of sweat loss of potassium.

If certain dietary supplements, herbals, diuretics (water pills), or laxatives are causing your symptoms of low potassium, you should avoid taking these products and consult with your doctor.

Medical Treatment
Potassium replacement therapy will be directed by the type and severity of your symptoms. Actual treatment will begin after lab tests confirm your diagnosis.



People suspected of having severely low potassium need to be placed on a cardiac monitor and should have an IV started.

Usually, people who have a mild or moderately low potassium levels (2.5-3.5 mEq/L), who have no symptoms, or who have only minor complaints only need to be treated with potassium given in pill or liquid form. This is the preferred route because it is easy to give, safe, inexpensive, and readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Some preparations, or too high of a dose, may irritate the stomach and cause vomiting.

If cardiac arrhythmias or significant symptoms are present or if the potassium level is less than 2.5 mEq/L, IV potassium should be given. In this situation, admission or observation in the emergency department is indicated. Replacing potassium will take more than a few hours.

For those who have severely low potassium and have symptoms, both IV potassium and oral medication are necessary.

Precautions:
When potassium is used with medications such as ACE inhibitors, there is a risk of developing a high level of potassium.
Potassium-sparing diuretics and potassium-containing salt substitutes can also result in high potassium levels.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Hum, well a cure depends on quite a lot of factors.

1) You've probably already done this since you know or suspect a potassium deficiency...visit your doctor! Stay in contact with your doctor and/or nurse. A potassium deficiency is nothing to mess around with!

2) Follow the advice your doctor or nurse gave you! A visit to the hospital or doctor's office does you no good if you don't keep up with the treatment regimen.

3) Have you discussed this problem with your doctor in depth? It is important to know why you have this problem. Knowing the cause makes treating the disease and symptoms much easier.

4) Eating foods rich in potassium and taking suplements are excellent ways to give your body what it needs. Again be sure to communicate with your doctor, potassium can be dangerous if you are taking too much! The saying, "if a little is good, a lot must be better" does not apply in this case.

5) Good Luck and I hope you recover quickly!

Answer 4

I have to watch my potassium intake, because I am a kidney patient. So I guess you could eat all the things that I have to avoid. Try bananas, tomatoes, nuts, oranges. Any fruit and veg has lots of potassium in. Regards.

Answer 5

I've had this. When I had my second baby I wasn't eating properly and my fingers were going numb and skin felt tight and stretched across my knuckles. My doctor told my to eat potatoes. They are full of potassium and within a week my blood test was ok. He suggested bananas as well but I couldn't eat that if my life depended on it!

Answer 6

Ingest more potassium.. like potatoes (peels and all), bananas or can do the easy thing and get pill form. Kelp and sea foods are a pretty good source also.

Answer 7

Take Tomato Juice(fresh) twice daily.Make it yourself from fresh tomatoes and drink.Include tomto in your daily food.Substitute comman salt( sodium chloride) with potassium chloride (rock salt,saindhava namak).Tastes same.There are multivitamin tablets containing potassium.Get OTC vitamin tabs or that prescribed by a doctor.

Answer 8

Take potassium supplements, eat foods high in potassium such as tomatos, bananas, and kiwis.

Answer 9

East plenty of fresh tomatoes. They are packed with potassium. Hope this helps.

Answer 10

Banana's are chock-a-block full of potassium. If that still isn't enough you may want to look into nutritional supplements.