Managing Potassium Deficiency - Share your experience

[Sushi]

Thanks, Sushi .

I just typed it backwards. I was taking 2calcium and 1mag. (Actually a bit more mag than that, but close.)

But I thought somebody said lately that we should not take calcium at all?

That is individual. Some of us have ion channel transport problems and don't do well with calcium--don't ask me details, cause I don't know them!

Sushi

 

[NilaJones]

Thanks, Sushi!

The knife-type pain was the worst it's been, last night, but I ate a banana and took 666mg calcium, and it improved a lot. I don't know for sure, but since a banana did not help much before, I think it was the calcium. Next time I will try calcium with some low-potassium food, in order to separate the variables. I don't think I should take it on empty stomach.

 

[L'engle]

@NilaJones

That's worrying if the sharp leg pains are getting worse by the day. If I start to get overwhelmed by the potassium issue I take time off from b12 until things go back to normal. (I'm assuming you are taking b12 everyday if you are having such extreme potassium loss). If you get the sharp leg pains probably best to have some potassium source to be on the safe side. Low potassium can be dangerous. You can always step back from the protocol for a time to make things less confusing.

As Sushi says balancing all the minerals is important. I find I need less sodium when on the active b12 than I did without the b12, but some small amount of sodium is still needed.

I don't know much about the calcium magnesium balance. I always seem to be low in magnesium lately.

I hope tonight is better for you.

 

[NilaJones]

@L'engle

I stopped the b12 for a couple of days, Then yesterday I took a dose lower than the one that was previously working fine (before I tried to increase). I took about 3.5mcg (not mg).

Yes, when I woke up with the bad pain in the middle of the night I thought I may have to give up methylation all together for some time. But the improvement after calcium and banana encouraged me.

Today I did not take b12, except about 2mcg in foods. I took calcium, ate some sodium but not a lot, decreased magnesium to 1.5g topical so far but might do more... I am trying to get things back into balance and away from my desperation-induced high doses.

Thank you for your good wishes .

 

[NilaJones]

I had an interesting data point last night. I did my usual (since this crisis) sleep two hours, then wake up with pain. But I was so tired and did not want to get up and stretch for hours and eat and stuff like I have been. So I just fidgeted for a few hours, and then suddenly the pain decreased! Without me doing anything.

By then it was dawn, and I had been in bed for 9 hours and slept for 2 hours. I went back to sleep. Kept waking up every 30 mins or so because it was daylight, but the pain never did get too bad again.

I am wondering if there could be some neurotransmitter thing involving sleep cycles? Or some very slow absorbing nutrient?

I tried to take exactly the same foods and supps today, to see what happens, tho I was out of some stuff and had to substitute.

I feel like crap tonight, tho, because on top of the sleep dep (probably because of it) I've caught a flu -- feverish and nauseous.

 

[Gondwanaland]

Would potassium ascorbate be useful? Does anyone know how much K there is in 500mg of K ascorbate?

izzy

 

[caledonia]

Hurray, I have some very interesting things to report. I finally got stabilized on Now potassium gluconate and then restarted my methylation supps. Within a day or so, I required even more potassium. So I'm now taking 3/4 tsp of the potassium four times a day, which is something like 1600mg per day.

Within a week and a half or so of restarting methylation supps, I started feeling overly revved up, stimulated, and somewhat nervous and anxious. Via muscle testing I determined that I need to drop four supplements - taurine, vitamin D, ribose, and carnitine. That helped some, but I was still having problems. Armour thyroid was the next culprit, so I discontinued that (temporarily) which was helpful, and have been working with my doc on that.

I retrialed half the amount and still had a problem. So my doc wants me to totally discontinue Armour thyroid and then retest TSH in two months.

So woohoo - unofficially my thyroid is at 100% (after 13 years of being on medicine for it). Between that and the other supps I've quit taking, it's going to save me a bunch of money.

My adrenals are also coming along nicely - I only need magnesium and salt twice a day at lunch and supper instead of breakfast, lunch, supper and bedtime.

Being able to drop carnitine and ribose (with no loss of energy like previously) could mean those parts of my Kreb's cycle are now working.

 

[zzz0r]

After applying Freddd's protocol I had seen a major improvement regarding my health and stamina. The only thing that I could not get under control was potassium defeciency as I was taking 2mg NOW Gluconate potassium but there were many times thought the day that I was still defecient.

I was able to get my potassium defeciency under control by using a homeopathetic remedy that was prescribed to me even before the CFS situtation kicked in and it is called kalium sulphuricum. This is however paradoxical as homeopathetic remedies have very low quantity of the main element and they are manily focues on "teaching" the body not to react bad on certain elements. At least this is the theory that I now the homeopathy is based on.

I am now wondering what potassium has to do with sulfur and if they are related in my situation (Ofcourse no need to mention that kalium is the same thing with potassium and also the name in the remedy contains the term sulphuricum which is sulfur). I am thinking to buy some sulfur strips in order to check my urine.

 

[caledonia]

I am also happy to report that now I no longer need magnesium, salt, vit. E succinate and triple boron. Those are the last of my adrenal, Kreb's cycle, and CBS supps, except for one last CBS supp - molybdenum. I've also been able to cut back significantly on fish oil.

I'm taking so few things, I'm actually having trouble remembering to take them - methylcobalamin, adenosylcobalamin, potassium, Zoloft, Yasko All in One multi (which contains methylfolate among other things), and fish oil - that's it.

I'm also having what I believe are metal detox symptoms, specifically from mercury - ringing in the ears, and anxiety with some OCD type death thoughts. These on are the mild side, but still bothersome. I have a metal test coming to see what's going on with metals for sure.

I've also been sleeping about 10% extra. Normally, with this disease I've been sleeping in the 10-12 hour range, now it's almost consistently 12 hours in either one or two sessions.

My sleep cycle is normalizing to falling asleep in the evening and waking up in the morning. This is new for me, and really like a miracle. Having a consistent and normal sleep cycle has been one of my most intractable problems. For many years my sleep moved forward up to an hour a day and I had no regular sleep cycle at all. Now I'm going to bed around 10pm-1am and getting up 10am to noon. Some days I might have to take a nap in the afternoon.

 

[ahmo]

Hi caldeonia. Great report on your progress. How long have you been working on this? cheers, ahmo

 

[Nana86]

Hi everybody!
I was doing kind of a methylation protocol on advise of my doctor which I started around last September/ October. It gave me some improvements, but my situation changed fully when I started taking 5-MTHF, Folinic acid and omega-3-fatty acids like two weeks ago. My Fatigue and concentration is SO MUCH better now! But there are also some things that turned much worse and I am thinking about if this was due to a drop of potassium levels:

The symptoms are: severe headache, dizzyness, stiff muscles like everywhere on my body, muscle pain everywhere and even from a bit of walking around I get heart palpitations and feel very weak (not tired!).

I am already taking 800mg Magnesium (for a few months already) and a few days ago I started taking potassium 1,2g daily + around 4g from food. My calcium intake is around 1,5g from food. I am really confused because my mineral intake should be sufficient, isn´t it?! Do you have any ideas what my problem could be?!

Nana

 

[caledonia]

Hi caldeonia. Great report on your progress. How long have you been working on this? cheers, ahmo

I started October 2012 with getting my Nutreval test and doing a CBS protocol after failing to tolerate B12. Then I did a round of about 4-5 months of methylation last spring into summer. Then I took a long half a year break trying to figure out what ended up being potassium deficiency. Been going about 2 months this round of methylation I think.

So if you don't count all the fooling around with potassium - 3 months on CBS and say 6-7 months on methylation proper.

 

[caledonia]

Hi everybody!
I was doing kind of a methylation protocol on advise of my doctor which I started around last September/ October. It gave me some improvements, but my situation changed fully when I started taking 5-MTHF, Folinic acid and omega-3-fatty acids like two weeks ago. My Fatigue and concentration is SO MUCH better now! But there are also some things that turned much worse and I am thinking about if this was due to a drop of potassium levels:

The symptoms are: severe headache, dizzyness, stiff muscles like everywhere on my body, muscle pain everywhere and even from a bit of walking around I get heart palpitations and feel very weak (not tired!).

I am already taking 800mg Magnesium (for a few months already) and a few days ago I started taking potassium 1,2g daily + around 4g from food. My calcium intake is around 1,5g from food. I am really confused because my mineral intake should be sufficient, isn´t it?! Do you have any ideas what my problem could be?!

Nana

@Nana86 Sorry, looks like nobody answered your question. For some reason, ME/CFS patients have a lot of trouble absorbing electrolytes from food. So don't count what you get from food. 1200mg of potassium may not be enough if you're taking average to large doses of methyl supps.

I'm taking almost that much, with only micro-doses of methyl supps.

Some people have trouble tolerating folinic and it will block methylfolate.

Try reading Roadblocks to Successful Methylation in my signature links and see if it rings any bells.

 

[caledonia]

Speaking of Roadblocks to Methylation, I've run into yet another one (when will it end???!!!). I'm getting heart palps after I take potassium. Normally it's mild and I sort of ignored it, but I overdid some activity this past weekend and that made it worse enough to bring this to my attention. My sodium and magnesium are good, so I decided it might be calcium.

I drank some almond milk (high in calcium) and that seemed help quite a bit. However, I don't think I can drink enough almond milk daily to fix this deficiency.

Question - what is a good brand and/or form of calcium to take? Preferably it would be a powder that I could stir into water and take along with my potassium gluconate.

 

[zzz0r]

Well Caledonia its either that, or people with cfs have severe damage to the central nervous system and thus their need for potassium is elevated as it is a primary nutrient for the creation and growth of the nervous cells.
Or they are dumping potassium due to adrenal glands dysfunction as you have mentioned that to me.

 

[Victronix]

Hi everybody!
I was doing kind of a methylation protocol on advise of my doctor which I started around last September/ October. It gave me some improvements, but my situation changed fully when I started taking 5-MTHF, Folinic acid and omega-3-fatty acids like two weeks ago. My Fatigue and concentration is SO MUCH better now! But there are also some things that turned much worse and I am thinking about if this was due to a drop of potassium levels:

The symptoms are: severe headache, dizzyness, stiff muscles like everywhere on my body, muscle pain everywhere and even from a bit of walking around I get heart palpitations and feel very weak (not tired!).

I am already taking 800mg Magnesium (for a few months already) and a few days ago I started taking potassium 1,2g daily + around 4g from food. My calcium intake is around 1,5g from food. I am really confused because my mineral intake should be sufficient, isn´t it?! Do you have any ideas what my problem could be?!

Nana

The stiff-muscles-all-over are a big symptom for me at the moment, along with a lot of other issues, but you're the first I've seen talking about that particular symptom. The weakness, too. I stopped taking methylfolate a couple of months ago but am still dealing with a lot of symptoms similar to those of low potassium (I'm not CFS but have a B-12 deficiency).

 

[kraken]

Hey guys I need some urgent help identifying low Potassium. Since starting methylation I've had troubles with shortness of breath/low heart rate and what I believe occasional low blood pressure. I have sort of managed to stabilize it but it comes back now and then and today its pretty severe.

First of all, last couple of days I've found myself in paradoxical folate deficiency (got many of the symptoms listed on Fredds guide) so I've upped my folate dosage averaging around 5-6 mg / day. The angular chelitis is clearing up now so I believe i'm dosing right.

Right now I have severe shortness of breath and breathing problems, feels like either I dont have enough energy to breathe in the air, or my lungs have "decreased in size", my throat feels thick, air-passages not "letting through enough air". My heart rate is in this moment at 45 bpm which is very low right? I dont seem to have any arrhytmias though. Earlier today I felt sort of dizzy and was very cold in my hands and feets, also felt very fatigued which I am right now too. I did check my feets at one time and I believe my toes were a bit blue = oxygen deprivation? Also felt very disoriented and unable to focus. At one point I was wondering if I were to call an ambulance. I did feel a bit better when I got myself moving though.

Is this low Potassium? Thing is I have been dosing around 1000 - 1600 mg / day, but maybe this isn't enough. I'm also scared of the situation that these symptoms are not from low Potassium and im overdosing on it instead (causing same symptoms which it apparently could do), but It doesn't really make sense concerning my methylation scheme.

Right now I'm taking:

1xCountry life 5mg methyl b12 after breakfast
5-6 mg methylfolate (divided in 3-4 doses)
500 mg TMG
Zinc/copper 30mg/0,3mg
P5P 33mg
Grape seed extract

Also on Tianeptine and some anti-fungals for my stomach, which seems to help.

 

[Victronix]

Hey guys I need some urgent help identifying low Potassium. Since starting methylation I've had troubles with shortness of breath/low heart rate and what I believe occasional low blood pressure. I have sort of managed to stabilize it but it comes back now and then and today its pretty severe.

First of all, last couple of days I've found myself in paradoxical folate deficiency (got many of the symptoms listed on Fredds guide) so I've upped my folate dosage averaging around 5-6 mg / day. The angular chelitis is clearing up now so I believe i'm dosing right.

Right now I have severe shortness of breath and breathing problems, feels like either I dont have enough energy to breathe in the air, or my lungs have "decreased in size", my throat feels thick, air-passages not "letting through enough air". My heart rate is in this moment at 45 bpm which is very low right? I dont seem to have any arrhytmias though. Earlier today I felt sort of dizzy and was very cold in my hands and feets, also felt very fatigued which I am right now too. I did check my feets at one time and I believe my toes were a bit blue = oxygen deprivation? Also felt very disoriented and unable to focus. At one point I was wondering if I were to call an ambulance. I did feel a bit better when I got myself moving though.

Is this low Potassium? Thing is I have been dosing around 1000 - 1600 mg / day, but maybe this isn't enough. I'm also scared of the situation that these symptoms are not from low Potassium and im overdosing on it instead (causing same symptoms which it apparently could do), but It doesn't really make sense concerning my methylation scheme.

Right now I'm taking:

1xCountry life 5mg methyl b12 after breakfast
5-6 mg methylfolate (divided in 3-4 doses)
500 mg TMG
Zinc/copper 30mg/0,3mg
P5P 33mg
Grape seed extract

Also on Tianeptine and some anti-fungals for my stomach, which seems to help.

Hi kraken,

My sense is that you might have not measured your heart rate correctly, however, if you did, yes, that would be extremely low and worthy of serious concern. Yes, it seems that COULD be a too high potassium symptom.

I would consider greatly reducing the mfolate, B-12 & TMG dosages and starting over at lower dosages. You also need to add at least B-1 and B-2 to offset some of the B-12 stimulation.

The response you describe, to me, seems like a panic attack, particularly the sense of lungs decreased in size.

Many people have indeed gone to the ER when they felt overwhelmed by symptoms and issues with breathing are obviously worthy of an ER visit if they don't change or improve. Its important to be sure, although that's up to you.

Please post an update when something changes.

Thanks,
Vic

 

[Snowdrop]

Hi @kraken

I get very confused about this whole potassium business too. I'm not certain by any means but you might want to consider that it's not more (or less) potassium that will solve the problem but adding some Magnesium.

While browsing through threads from time to time I come across this idea. Mg has muscle relaxing properties which may help.
I've found that the discovery of this potassium need has somewhat distracted from considering possible other deficiencies/needs.

Anyway, I don't think there'd be any harm in trying it.

Hope you can get it sorted.
SD

 

[kraken]

@Victronix, it might not be super accurate since I took it with a mobile app (instant heartrate), however, I've measured my heartrate in similar situations and it was at least 7-8 bpms under. Also felt my pulse physically and it was really slow and low. This thing was no panick attack, I know how a panick attack feels like. As I wrote, this has happened a lot of days since starting methylation but today it was extreme, I still feel weak/short of breath and discomfort in my breast. I had several other symtoms like muscular weakness and stuff that could be attributed to Pottasium. Luckily I have made a blood test two weeks ago when I felt this wasn't right, so I'm waiting for those results. Should have them anytime now.

Thanks for the advice, think I'll go lower on folate tomorrow and maybe the TMG. Maybe my body cant keep up with increased folate doses, or unable to tolerate it properly.

Another thing that I've thought about could be Mast cell activiation and Histamine intolerance as I have some problems with that, I've read people having histamine issues when doing methylation. But thats just a guess. Might try a H1/H2 blocker and see if things get better.

@Snowdrop, thanks for the advice. I've been taking a lot of magnesium as well but I dont think thats the problem. Blood test displayed I wasnt defecient last time. Hopefully I'll recieve my potassium test soon, curious to see my levels after 2+ months of methylation struggling.