Causes & Symptoms of Potassium Deficiency – Dr. Berg

Maintaining healthy potassium levels is essential for a healthy heart. Watch to learn more!

hey guys dr. Berg here in this video we’re going  to talk about potassium in relationship to your cardiovascular system this little video  is based on a really cool article that I put down there to download if you have any  cardiovascular problems you need to read this article this is called the new guideline for  potassium replacement in clinical practice so it’s a group of cardiologists who formed the  National Council on potassium and they show the importance of potassium for the cardiovascular  system so I want to just kind of cover some of the summaries in what potassium can do first  of all if you have a potassium deficiency the name of that disorder is called hypokalemia and  you can remember by kale kale right hypokalemia that’s low potassium now if you have a potassium  deficiency you might feel tired leg cramps muscle weakness constipated tremor because potassium  is intimately involved with muscle physiology neurophysiology and cardiovascular physiology so  you can also have atrial fibrillation which is a rhythm problem of the heart high blood pressure in  fact in most cases of high blood pressure there is a potassium deficiency and what do they give you a  diuretic what is diuretics do most of them deplete potassium so it’s like a never-ending cycle and  then also if you’re low on potassium you will have a higher pulse rate potassium lowers your  pulse rate okay so now the question is how could you possibly get a potassium deficiency right  well here are some of the causes one is maybe too much sodium because when you increase sodium  you naturally decrease potassium because they work together but maybe it’s not potassium maybe it’s  low manganese or magnesium sir magnesium so when you magnesium is necessary to keep potassium  in the right balance and that comes from the vegetables all right insulin high insulin so let’s  say you have insulin resistance or you’re diabetic you know that you’re not going to be able to  absorb potassium that well and that’s why you there’s always a diamond fluid choose in fact it  takes potassium to heal the insulin dysfunction you can almost correct insulin resistance and  improve your blood Sugar’s by taking potassium fascinating and then of course too much sugar from  the spike insulin will actually deplete potassium too many refined carbs will do it that’s why if  you consume a lot of sugar all of a sudden your pulse rate starts going higher also high cortisol  that’s the stress also in a camera a medication called prednisone that can also deplete your  potassium of course you have the diarrhea and vomiting to some degree and then also a condition  called alkalosis alkalosis is when your body is just too alkaline and I know you’ve been taught  that people need to just alkalize the body and all this stuff well actually when you go through a  lot of stress and you have high levels of cortisol your adrenal body type your pH becomes more on the  alkaline side your blood pH becomes excessively alkaline and that’s called PAL Colossus and one of  the symptoms is a potassium deficiency interesting right surgery in trauma when they do a major  abdominal surgery you you’re always watching for potassium because that potassium goes down  when you’re under the SIRT under surgery and you’re already deficient potassium you can create  some serious problems with the heart so that’s why they used to give you a potassium IV when you  go through surgery and then trauma I remember I had a bike accident went over the handlebars  and I let in the cement and my potassium just went down to zero and I think because when you  when you go through stress it spikes adrenaline adrenaline will decrease potassium too and then  we have low hydrochloric acid when you don’t have enough acid your stomach you can’t absorb  potassium and then you have potassium problems so it takes potassium to keep the stomach acids  correct and also taking potassium will help you digest and create stomach acids so so in other  words low potassium can create low hydrochloric acid but then adding acid back in can help  you absorb potassium drinking too much water or can deplete your potassium because water is  not necessarily filled with electrolytes so you take too much water you drink a gallon and you  deplete the last bit of potassium you have and then you end up why with all sorts of dehydration  problems right diuretic that’s another cause of potassium deficiencies and that comes from when  you’re on high blood pressure they give you the relic and then you become the task and deficient  and then you state you continue to have high blood pressure crazy so in this article that I want  you to download these doctors are recommending potassium to prevent and even correct a lot of  the cardiovascular problems and potassium has the potential to creep your arteries elastic decrease  the risk of the stroke and potassium can protect the kidney and even the heart so this whole idea  that if you have a kidney problem you absolutely must stay away from potassium is not necessarily  true unless it’s a severe case now how do you get potassium beet tops okay but if you don’t like the  DB tops you just need to start to increase your salad to seven to ten cups of salad why because it  takes that much potassium and we need a lot like close to forty seven hundred milligrams potassium  is also good for rheumatoid arthritis inflammatory conditions so you can see this mineral is  vital so for more information about nutrition and health and how to create a healthy body check  out my website at dr. Berg com I’ll see you there