What is Potassium?
Potassium (K+) is an important mineral the body needs to maintain and regulate many functions in the body. It is essential to life because it helps balance body water, regulate blood pressure, maintain heart function, and facilitate various cellular and tissue functions. Its function inside the cells is influenced by it positive electrical charge, which makes it a cation and an electrolyte, or a substance that regulates the flow of molecules, particularly water, across cell membranes.
As a mineral, potassium is found abundantly in seawater and soil. It is essential not only to all plants and animals, but also to man.
Potassium Food Sources
High potassium foods include fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, broccoli, beans, peas, avocados, oranges, strawberries, and bananas. Cereals, orange juice and dried fruits like raisins, prunes, apricots, and dates are also excellent sources of potassium. Fish (salmon, flounder, cod, and sardines), meat, chicken, milk, yogurt and nuts are also good sources of this mineral.
What are the Benefits of Potassium?
Potassium is the main intracellular (inside the cell) cation, which works with sodium, the main extracellular (outside the cell) cation, to maintain water and electrolyte balance in the body. This function influences most of its actions in the body, including the following:
It helps regulate blood pressure levels.
It maintains the balance of acids and bases in the body.
It helps in the transmission of nerve impulses.
It is essential to voluntary muscle contraction.
It plays a critical role in the electrical activity of heart muscles.
It aids in digestive function.
It is important in building body proteins.
It plays a role in carbohydrate me...
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...t to 3.5 g) potassium daily may prevent it.
It is important to remember to take potassium supplements as prescribed by a doctor to avoid adverse effects. Taking them in two to four divided doses with a full glass of water helps reduce stomach irritation. Inform your doctor if you have any medical condition or medicines being taken, which can interact with potassium supplements. Report any signs and symptoms of potassium side effects so that your blood potassium levels may be monitored.
Works Cited
Medline Plus. Potassium in diet. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002413.htm
Vitamins and Health Supplement Guide. Potassium Supplements. http://www.vitamins-supplements.org/dietary-minerals/potassium.php
WebMD. Potassium. http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-851-POTASSIUM.aspx?activeIngredientId=851&activeIngredientName=POTASSIUM
(13) Pazirandeh S. Overview of vitamin K. In: UpToDate, Post TW (Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA. (Accessed 27th April 2014)
A few nutrients that I can add to my diet are: potassium, vitamin D, Dietary Fiber, and calcium. I can gain potassium by eating bananas. Potassium helps with heart function, as well as smooth and skeletal muscle contractions. By in taking lima beans, peas, or broccoli I will be able to make sure that my body receives dietary fiber. Fiber helps with
... potassium level is higher than 4.5 mmol/liters. If further diuretic therapy is not tolerated, contraindicated or ineffective, considering an alpha- or beta-blocker might be prudent. If blood pressure remains uncontrolled with optimal or maximum tolerated doses of four drugs, seeking an expert advice would be the next and last step (Williams, 2013).
Many fruits and vegetables contain potassium and other nutrients that help bone health. Eating potassium helps the diminution in bone mineral density that occurs with aging, particularly among elderly women. Bananas, plums, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes include potassium. The good amount of daily potassium is 4,700 milligrams (Medical 2013).
The point (40mM K+) at which the Nernst equation accurately showed potassium as the main ion which set this particular membrane potential, may have been caused by chloride reaching it’s reversal potential. Note that this reversal potential of about - 40mV is higher than chloride’s usual reversal potential of -70mV. At this point there is no net flow of chloride. However, the following increases in chloride concentration in the extracellular space caused for an increased driving force on chloride to enter the
... like tuna, mackerel, and salmon. some dairy products, orange juice, soy milk, and some cereals. The only mineral that was the least of the 100% recommended by my DRI was potassium, Which I plan to get from bananas like I stated before, avocados and cantaloupe.
...ively charged sodium ions out of the neuron for every two positively charged potassium ions into the cell, thus resulting in a net change of the charge inside the neuron of -1 for every pump of the enzyme. Because the pump transports ions against their concentration gradient to return the neuron back to its resting potential, the pump requires ATP. Without the ATP needed to repolarize the neuron, the membrane potential cannot return to its stabilized state.
The sodium-potassium pump transports sodium out of and potassium into the cell in a repeating cycle of shape changes. In each cycle, three sodium ions exit the cell, while two potassium ions enter. To begin, the pump is open to the inside of the cell. In this form, the pump really likes to bind the sodium ions and will take up three. When the sodium ions bind, they trigger the pump to break down the ATP. The pump then changes shape, re-orienting itself so it opens towards the extra space. In this confirmation, the pump no longer likes to bind to sodium ions, so the three sodium ions are released outside the cell. Then in its outward-facing form, the pump switches and will now bind potassium ions. It will bind two of them, and this triggers
Raw nuts are always a preferred choice, if you are going to have salted nuts, then you better keep track of your sodium intake. Nuts are also high in Total Fat, Potassium, fiber and is a good source of protein. In 1 oz (24 whole kernels)(28 g) of nuts, there are 14.2 g of Total Fat, 6 g of Carbohydrates, 207.44 mg of Potassium, 3.5 g of Fiber and 6 g of Protein.
Potassium is one of the most important elements in human diet. To begin with, potassium works with sodium for various reasons. For example, it helps to regulate body waste, control heart rhythms, and assist in reducing high blood pressure. It also aids in clear thinking by sending oxygen to the brain. This element is crucial to the maintenance of the nervous system and the muscular system. Potassium is an electrolyte, and therefor regulates the balance of fluids inside and outside the cells, including blood.
Calcium and Potassium modifications are specialized individual according to a specific disease, age and inadequate amounts of calcium or potassium higher or lower than normal value.
Most of the calcium rich foods are animal products and byproducts, but vegans don’t consume these. Vegans derive calcium from foods such as kales, tofu, soya beans, white beans, Brazil nuts, almonds and almond milk. Failure to eat plenty of these may make you fall short of the recommended target of 1000 mg per day. Calcium supplements come in handy in this case.
Critical to the function of the nerve cell, the cell membrane maintains intracellular conditions that differ from those of the extracellular environment. There is an excess of negative ions inside the cell membrane and an excess of positive ions outside (middle of Figure 1). The electrochemical gradient across the membrane is the means of nerve impulse transmission. The concentration of potassium (K+) is 30 times greater in the fluid inside the cell than outside and the concentration of sodium ions (Na+) is nearly 10 times greater in the fluid outside the cell than inside (See Table 1). Anions, particularly chloride (Cl--), are also unevenly distributed. Nerve cells use both passive diffusion and active transport to maintain these differentials across their cell membranes. The unequal distribution of Na+ and K+ is established by an energy-dependant Na+-K+ ãpumpä, moving Na+ out of the cell and K+ into the cell. Specialized proteins embedded in the nerve cell membrane function as voltage-dependant channels, passing through Na+ and K+ during nerve impulse transmission.
One of them is to take a tablet in which the patient will be required to take after meals or with milk to avoid irritating the stomach. Your doctor may also prescribe them as soluble tablets or syrup, as an injection into a muscle or vein, and as a cream. Whatever the method used, the patient should know that the dose and durationTreatment varies depending on the stage of disease and other factors.
In conclusion, our body is made up of several ions that are essential in the body in order to obtain a healthy system. In order to be provided with the benefits these ions offer the body, the body must be cared for by being fed the right foods, being exercised regularly and making sure it’s healthy by attending scheduled check-ups. Ions help the body in more ways than one. They provide the body with nutrients that strengthen our health system in order to ensure we maintain our well-being. These ions can be beneficial to the human body by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.