What Does Low Potassium Mean?

Potassium is an essential mineral in the body and necessary for cell, nerve, and muscle function. With low potassium there is an insufficient amount of it present in the body for those functions to occur to the extent they should. Low potassium is also known as hypokalemia, and it won’t be a dangerous condition most of the time. However, severely low levels may have negative effects on the nervous and digestive systems. People experiencing them are often unaware of having a long-term potassium deficiency . 

What Causes Low Potassium?

Low potassium is nearly always the result of either diet, medical conditions, or medication use.  For dietary causes it is related to not eating enough of potassium-rich foods. Medical conditions that can cause low potassium include hyperaldosteronism, osmotic diuresis, chronic kidney disease, mineralocorticoid excess, Cushing’s disease, thyrotoxicosis, renal tubular acidosis, or eating disorders like Bulimia.

Medication use can factor into low potassium when people are using insulin, antimicrobials like penicillin and gentamicin, Beta2-receptor agonists like epinephrine, diuretics and thiazides like Diamox and Zaroxolyn, and mineralocorticoid / glucocorticoid medications like fludrocortisone and prednisone. Use of diuretics for treatment of pulmonary edema, congestive heart failure, and high blood pressure is the most common diagnosis case for low blood potassium levels.

Low Potassium Symptoms

It is typically only with severe deficiency cases that low potassium symptoms are seen. In these cases people will have symptoms that may include constipation, fatigue, muscle damage, muscle cramping or spasms, heart palpitations, or tingling or numbness in body extremities. 

People with poor heart health are more at risk of low potassium levels causing a cardiac arrythmia, and this is especially true with cardia ischemia.

Low Potassium Treatment

Supplementing with oral potassium is the standard approach for low potassium treatment. This may in the form of potassium chloride (K-Dur), potassium phosphate, or potassium carbonate, and the affected individual’s doctor may recommend one over another based on other mineral balances determined from blood tests. For severe cases of low potassium an IV may be required and this will be administered under medical supervision.

A doctor may also recommend an increased intake of certain foods in a person’s diet to treat low potassium. Foods like potatoes, lima beans, spinach, bananas, avocado, and pomegranate juice, among others.