How to Recognize Signs of Low Potassium

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Nancy Dell. I'm a Certified Diabetic Educator and Registered Dietitian. I own Nancy Dell and Associates Nutrition Counseling in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. Today we're going to talk about treating low potassium. An estimated 14% of people in a doctor's office have low potassium and about 20% of people admitted to a hospital have low potassium. If the potassium is just moderately low, there are generally no symptoms but a more severe potassium deficiency may cause you to be tired, may make it hard for you to move. You may actually feel like you're paralyzed. It can affect your mood. It may affect depression as well. Diuretics, asthma medication, Insulin are all medications that may cause low potassium and generally what you want to do to get adequate potassium is to eat a wide variety of foods. You have many many foods that are high in potassium. Within each category, first looking at fruits, your highest potassium food is an avocado. Many people think of banana as being very high and it is but avocado, half the avocado has more than the banana. Also watermelon would be a good source in the fruit category. In the vegetable category your potato is highest. You can actually leech the potassium out of the potato if you boil it too much so you might want to microwave it or bake it to keep it high when you have low potassium. Spinach and sweet potato are also good sources. Your legumes are very high in potassium as well, soy beans being your highest source and you can eat this as a vegetable when you have the Autumn May soy bean in the pod. Your milk foods are very high, both milk and yogurt. Yogurt would be slightly higher than the milk and your fish especially halibut is very high in potassium as well. If your potassium is severely low your doctor would give you a potassium prescription. You would take that supplement for two to three weeks and then have him retest your potassium level. So if your doctor tests your potassium and it's low you have a wide variety of different foods that you can eat that are high in potassium from each food category or you may take a supplement."