Potassium represents 5% percent of the total mineral content of a human body, even though only about one litre is found in the body at a time. Potassium is found in our bodies both inside and outside cells and is a very important mineral required every day to stay healthy. More than 98% of the body’s potassium is intracellular. The body easily absorbs potassium, but nearly 90% of it is excreted through the kidneys and bowels. Thus, potassium is a natural diuretic and is important for the elimination of body wastes, such as water and sodium.

Potassium is a primary electrolyte, it is a great alkalizer, and important for maintaining pH and water balance.

Benefits of potassium:

1. Along with other minerals such as sodium, chloride and calcium, potassium helps in normal cellular function, such as transmission of nerve impulses, digestion, healthy muscle contractions, proper cardiovascular functioning (heartbeat irregularities are normally a sign of potassium deficiency), and helping the body to convert glucose into glycogen (the body’s stored form of energy).

2. Potassium helps promote healthy cardiovascular health. It is strongly believed that potassium has the ability to pump sodium out of the body’s cells and reduce body fluid.

3. Potassium, along with sodium, helps to regulate blood pressure. Increasing potassium in the diet may protect against hypertension in people who are sensitive to high levels of sodium.

4. Potassium also affects blood vessel tone as well as the way blood vessels react to the flowing hormones, thus affecting pressure within blood vessels.

5. Potassium therapeutically assists in the treatment of alcoholism, acne, alleviating allergies, promoting the early healing of burns.

6. It also helps with problems such as congestive heart failure, chronic fatigue syndrome or kidney stones.

7. Potassium plays a vital role in cellular integrity by regulating the transfer of nutrients into the cell.

8. Potassium also attracts oxygen to tissues, helps correct positioning of vital organs. Potassium deficiency indicates that probably albumin, sugar, sodium, and chlorine are also in short supply or not being properly absorbed.

9. Potassium helps proper functioning of the adrenal glands. It helps support healthy sugar balance in the body.

Deficiency of potassium –

The kidneys excrete excess potassium from the body, and deficiencies are rarely found in people on a normal balanced diet. A deficiency may result in fatigue, cramping legs, muscle weakness, sluggish reflexes, acne, dry skin, mood swings and irregular heartbeat.

A shortage of potassium in body may cause a fatal condition known as hypokalemia, resulting from diarrhea, increased diuresis and vomiting. Hypokalemia can occur in people with a chronic disease or due to aging process. Deficiency symptoms include muscle weakness, ECG abnormalities, decreased reflex response, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia and respiratory paralysis.

If the fluid and electrolyte balance is not restored, the risk of heart failure increases.

Potassium deficiency increases acid levels in the body, lowers the natural pH balance, causes problems with the formation of connective tissue. Kidney diseases (such as acute renal failure), diabetes can also cause fluctuations in the levels of potassium. Many medications such as diuretics, cortisone, prolonged use of aspirin, and laxatives also cause depletion of potassium.

Dietary sources of potassium:

Eating a variety of foods that contain potassium is the best way to get the required amount. Individuals who eat a balanced diet do not need potassium supplements. Foods, which are rich sources of potassium include turnips, whole grains, molasses, fish, citrus fruit, apple cider vinegar, bananas, avocados, yoghurt, tomatoes, poultry, oranges, apricots, potatoes (especially their skins), leafy green vegetables such as spinach, lettuce; and meat. One large orange will supply one with 250 mg of potassium, one-eighth of a person’s daily need. Dried apricots contain more potassium than fresh apricots.

Steaming of foods helps to retain nutrients that are lost through other cooking techniques such as boiling (loss of about 50% of potassium content). Steaming results in only a 6% loss of potassium.

Recommended Daily Allowance of potassium:

There is no recommended daily allowance (RDA) for potassium, but it is advised to get between 2,000-3,000 mg per day. The range of intake for children is 780 to 1,600 mg per day.

This is not difficult, and most people meet this requirement on their own through a normal diet. In general, nutritionists recommend reducing salt intake and ensuring adequate supply by increasing the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in the diet.

If one is into bodybuilding, he must increase the potassium intake, since potassium is needed to maintain muscles in good form, and also because potassium is lost from excessive sweating and urine.

Symptoms of high intake of potassium:

Excessive potassium can be toxic and will affect the heart. This is a problem especially when one is suffering from some problem such as kidney failure. Irregular heart beat and muscle fatigue is sign of toxic potassium levels. In healthy people, the kidneys in the urine excrete excess potassium.

Who requires extra potassium?

People who require potassium supplements include:

# women on oral contraceptives,

# chronic alcoholics or drug abusers,

# smokers

# people undergoing stress

# athletes

# people doing strenuous exertion,

# anyone suffering from any degree of mal-absorption syndrome

# people with eating disorders, especially bulimia and anorexia..

Use the different body building supplements available in the market to gain weight for you who have a fast body metablolism. Not only for body building, but also if you are an athlete or aspire to be one then must you take in some supplements to build strong muscles along with your diet as they will boost your energy levels and help you perform better. These supplements also help the weight lifters to heal their injuries faster in case of any damage to the muscles. But before getting into buying some good bodybuilding supplements for yourself you must be very well aware of the differences between the body building additions and the steroids.

The major difference is that the additions will not cause you any side effects if you are using them in a proper manner but on using steroids you may experience the side effects like decreased libido, shrinking of the testicles, disruption of the menses, low sperm count, expansion of breast in males, enlargement of the clitoris, expansion of face hair in females, sleeplessness, acne, increased rage, depression, kidney issues, heart conditions and liver Problems. On the other hand bodybuilding additions will not cause you any of the side affects listed above. All athletes have these additions included in their daily training regime. Therefore anyone interested in bodybuilding must also include them in their training plan.

You must be wondering what makes these additions work. The reason for this is that these additions can compensate for al the nutrients that are lacking in your regular diet. All bodybuilders and sports persons need to supple their body with ample amount of energy so that their body can cope up with the rigorous training programs that they undergo daily. But always remember the fact that these are only diet additions. You use them only to supplement your daily diet with nutrients but you must never think of substituting your normal diet with these kinds of supplements. You must always take your genuine diet.

If you are thinking that these additions can give you nutrients and so you can neglect your diet and consume them instead, then you are making a big mistake.

Those of us who train at the gym are constantly looking for ways to improve the results we get from our hard training. Putting in the hard yards at the gym doesn’t necessarily guarantee physical results. A hardened physique is the result of the mastery of the trio of training eating/supplementation and resting. This article will focus on the eating and particularly the supplementation aspect of gaining lean mass.

There are many ways to take bodybuilding supplements and even more actual supplements to take. A term that has recently been coined in the bodybuilding world is supplement ’stacking’. Supplement stacking refers to the use of a combination of supplements together with one another to achieve an amplified benefit. The kind that muscle gainers are ever in search of. Read the rest of this entry »

Supplement Health Tips – Taking certain nutritional supplements for muscle building is not absolutely necessary; you can do without them, however, some of them really do have their advantages. They can give you an added physical and mental edge. Read the rest of this entry »