I'm up to 6g of supplemented potassium per day - a mixture of citrate, gluconate, and coconut water. And I try to eat potassium-rich food as much as possible.
I'm on a simplified yasko program. I started B12 in April and added 1g of potassium per day to get my body ready for the methylfolate. I'd read a lot on this forum and Freddd's warning about hypokalemia. Last fall, my blood potassium level was 4.3. Right before I started methylfolate in June, I had a hair test done and potassium was at 24 (range 8-75).
I started on 200mcg of methylfolate in June. The first week was rough, then I felt better. But over the next few months, I got worse and worse. I did exactly what Freddd said not to do and wrote it off as "detox". My symptoms were insomnia, migraines, back spasms when sleeping, upper back/shoulder/neck tightness and pangs, and a horrible buzzing feeling that seemed to match the descriptions of excess gluatamate. None of this was really anything new for me, just worse. I was taking lots of supplements to help with that, but nothing worked.
About a month ago, I got foot/lower leg cramps at night and realized I needed more potassium. It took a few days to get up to a dosage high enough to get rid of the cramps. During that time, I was stunned as ALL of my other symptoms were going away as I took more and more potassium. I felt so relaxed I was euphoric.
I've since cut methylfolate back to 1 drop of Yasko's methylmate b - 67mcg. I've tested cutting back on potassium and it all comes right back, so I feel confident I've ruled out other explanations. The other day, I tried cutting back to 5g and right before bed, I felt a headache coming on. I took 500mg of potassium and it was gone in 30 minutes. I'd never been able to make a headache go away like that!
I just did another hair test and my potassium this time was a 3 (range 8-75). I'm going to experiment with taking potassium every couple of hours.I've been taking it with food, but assume that I'm not absorbing all of it with such high doses at once. Since I had so much success with taking it for my headache the other night on an empty stomach, perhaps smaller dosages spread out will work better.
I take a run-of-the-mill dosage of magnesium and that has shown up ok in all testing. In experiments with adding more, I don't notice any benefits. I haven't tested it enough, but have noticed lately that salty foods do seem to cause more hypokalemia symptoms.
Like some others have stated, I wonder now if I've had low potassium issues for years. My blood tests were fine and even my hair test seemed ok back in May, but perhaps some people need to be in the upper range.
There is information on the Yasko forums about potassium, although you don't hear parents talking about it as much as people are talking about it here. Excretion of cesium, cadmium, and thallium are all mentioned as a cause for the body dumping potassium. Also mentioned are the ACE gene deletion (which is common) and chronic stress which cause the body to hold onto sodium while dumping potassium.
