Many people may be below the RDA of potassium in this country.

I have seen young teens otherwise healthy end up in ERs with
low potassium levels.

This can be due to kidney wasting.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/000493.htm
Some people have hereditary mild renal tubular acidosis and don't even know it.

Potassium is excreted in the colon, and then resorbed. Any disruption of bowel function can then lead to loss of potassium.

The RDA for potassium was just increased to 4.5 grams because the previous RDA was considered low, and causative of high blood pressure.

Anyone here suspecting low potassium levels should get tested. It is the prudent thing to do.

There is a syndrome called Bartter's:
you might find this interesting:
http://barttersite.org/hypokalemia-or-low-potassium/2/
This site discusses many ways that potassium levels may be affected.

Friday (7/17) "Slept in" until 7:00 AM instead of 5:00 or so. Again no curly toes. Less brain fog than usual. Better walking upon waking. "On" in 45 min.

At an absolute minimum, electrolytes should be the first suspects with any worsening of symptoms. It's a cheap and easy test and the condition is also easily corrected.

Beyond that, however, are harder questions. Do PWP relate differently to electrolytes? Is there a role in causation? What are the limits of optimizing the chemistry? etc.

But the most interesting question for me is why we don't already have the answers to such basic questions.

There is a section on the Bartter's site about magnesium's effects on potassium:

http://barttersite.org/category/magn...cts-potassium/

since about 70% of Americans can be low in magnesium, it might be prudent to consider a supplement for this mineral too.
1/2 the RDA to start.

Hi Everett,
Did you mention what type of Potassium supplement that you take?
I've been having ankle swelling lately (months) and think it's the Mirapex I'm taking. Trying to get an appt. with my Neuro. I haven't had much time to do the internet searches on all this but it looks like I have to start again.
Thanks, Ashley

I think any experiementation should be done under a doctors supervision, high potassium levels especially can cause kidney failure and heart arrithmias among other maladies.
So be careful!!

Charlie

I have to agree with chasmo on this. Mine was an act of desperation that justified the risk in my mind. But now that the crisis has passed I intend to enlist the help of my GP to monitor things.

The fact remains, however, that there are some very big questions here that lack answers. One of those is how stress sensitivity affects potassium levels. Stress causes the adrenals to secrete a hormone called aldosterone which increases the flushing of potassium. Is there an endocrinologist in the house?

Ashley,

Definitely check with your neuro. Clinical edema, or water retention in the joints, is a fairly common side effect of Mirapex- from what I've read and heard.

Rick posted this earlier in thread:

Second, I have been using a Source Naturals product called "K-MAG KG" which lists its active ingredients per two tablets are 200 mg Magnesium; 198 mg Potassium; and 2 gr of alpha-ketoglutaric acid. The latter is new to me and seems to be an amino acid that "combines with the harmful ammonia generated by intense muscle activity".

HTH!

Laura

hi Rick

Ii don't get to read in the forums very often, but evidentally my K levels were fine until I had the experimental brain surgery (Spheramine). I don't recall nor could I find the actual levels, but for weeks after the surgery I took ten (10) potassium tablets a day! I also recall the nurse saying that lowered potassium levels were"common" with brain surgery.

I am anxious to see what you uncover.
Peg

I gotta chime in here, we bought some Wed. and last night had the first "sleep through the night" (awake at 5:30 having hit they hay around 10pm, but that is way better than 3am!) in a very long time. Placebo? Coincidence? Perhaps just exhausted from the week and finally collapsed? Who knows....but we are continuing with the potassium.

We'll see if this continues, and share what we experience. If you take magnesium with the potassium, you need to consider also taking calcium as well-apparently magnesium and calcium work together in a 2:1 ratio, I think it's the calcium which helps with magnesium absorption. I guess another option would be to to take a multimineral supplement but that won't help if you are only short on one or two minerals.

I, too, slept well and more than usual. However, the first fly in the ointment came this morning with the return of curly toes. (sounds like an old scifi title ) We will see what tomorrow brings on that.

I want to emphasize that there are some risks here and if you have any reason to doubt your kidneys, back off until you can see your GP. Also, if you aren't dealing with a PD911 like I was, consider seeing him/her before you do anything - not just for safety but also for data. If we are going to experiment then let's do as good a job as we can.

I think that I will settle in at 400 mg daily until I can see my own doc.

I would be surprised if each of us benefited from this since that would have been easily noticed before now. It could be due to any number of things but one that caught my imagination is that stress hormones can cost you potassium. Since so many of us have weird relations with our endocrine systems already, there may be a clue there.

Now, with curly toes in mind, I am going to move into a new thread. Hope to see you there.