Potassium supplements vs Gookinaid/homebrew

[November Girl]

Gookinaid or Cheney's homebrew contain sodium, magnesium and potassium in water. Instructions are to drink throughout the day. Is this any better than taking supplements once or twice a day, and plenty of water?

 

[Pyrrhus]

Gookinaid is now called Vitalyte.

The purpose of Vitalyte is to replenish blood electrolytes and to increase blood volume, not to treat magnesium or potassium deficiency.

The concentration of electrolytes in Vitalyte is identical to the concentration of electrolytes in the blood. This helps the fluid to be absorbed by the body more efficiently than plain water, thereby increasing blood volume without altering blood electrolyte concentrations.

Whether this is “more effective” than taking electrolyte supplements with plenty of water, probably depends upon what your exact purpose is.

Hope this helps.

 

[Richard7]

I've played around with these things a bit and it depends on your purpose. If you have PoTS and you want to inflate yourself by increasing your blood volume I have found playing around with the WHO oral rehydration solution works best I discussed it here https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/desperate-need-of-help.60803/#post-989561

But I do not really like large doses of amino acids or glucose, indeed I am now essentially PKD https://www.paleomedicina.com/paleolithic-ketogenic-diet/ .

One place where I vary from PKD is that I still need electrolytes and take a mix of 1m MgSO4, NaCl, KCl and trisodium citrate. I vary the composition sometimes but it is currently 1.5ml MgSO4(coarse crystals) 2.5ml NaCl (as rock salt), 2.5ml KCl 1.5ml trisodium citrate per litre. (Sometimes I feel it needs about 20% more salt) I keep it in the fridge because Melissa Cortes said that cold drinks were (in the short term) more effective for PoTS in this presentation

on the the Bateman Horne Centre's youtube chanel website.

This is not as effective as the WHO solution, but it works for me.