15 Signs You’re Not Getting Enough Potassium

Your heart skips a beat (palpitation)

Some people relate that moment when your heart skips a beat with love. No, that is usually a saying, in reality even when you find the person you really love, the heart never skips a beat, instead, it beats even faster. You should know that there is nothing to smile about if you feel your heart skip a beat because it is a sign that you are unwell. Yes, it might be more serious than you think.

When your heart rate suddenly speeds up or skips a beat more often, visit a doctor. This is a direct sign that you have some deficiency of potassium. This is a clear indication that your potassium has significantly gone down translating to improper functioning of your heart’s muscles as well as your blood vessels. Heart muscles depend a lot on potassium ions for their functions; contraction and relaxation.

Weak and crampy muscles

Is there a moment when you try carrying that light object that you carry every day but now you feel like you trying to carry half of Mount Everest on your shoulders? As stated earlier, potassium is necessary for lean and proper functioning of muscles. This is because for proper contraction of muscles, a healthy quantity of this mineral is highly recommended for smooth muscle functioning. Low amounts will therefore lead to those painful aches and spasms in your muscles making movement impossible. You may also experience absent or depressed deep tendon reflexes. Slight pain during exercise is also felt. If you experience this feeling, try a diet of foods high in potassium. This might help a lot.

Eating processed food

Are you the kind of person who only feels good when taking ready and processed foods? If you are fond of taking processed food then you are in danger of potassium deficiency. This is because processed foods unlike whole meals have lower percentages of potassium as well as other nutrients. This can also be attributed to the fact that such foods such as chips, crackers as well as frozen foods contain high amounts of sodium pausing the risk of getting high blood pressure. You should therefore reduce the amount of salty food in order to enable your body absorb, retain and utilize the much needed potassium.

Fatigue

Do you have the feeling of tiredness and fatigue even before the day kicks off? Yes, that feeling that makes you think that you are sick, yet you are not. Research has proven that someone having the feeling of fatigue regularly is mostly due to lack of potassium ions in the body.

Feeling tired all the time can be associated to hard physical work but feeling suddenly wiped out even without exerting yourself in a heavy task is an indication that you are possibly suffering from hypokalemia. This is because every cell in your body is in need of the right amounts potassium for proper functioning. If you are getting proper amounts of rest but the simplest of tasks leave you exhausted, then you should know that you are possibly suffering from potassium deficiency.

Tooth erosion

Are you the kind of person who avoids certain food types just to keep your weight/shape in check. Then you are at a higher risk of suffering from potassium deficiency. This may occur to people with severe cases of anorexia and bulimia. This is because such people are obsessed with their body image and will try as much as possible to stay away from healthy food just to maintain their desired body size/weight. Such people may include wrestlers, cheerleaders and most models.

Keeping your body size and shape can as well be done as long as you eat the right amounts of needed nutrients. Don’t be much into getting a perfect body that you even forget the health repercussions that come with it. I don’t think anyone will want to have that Mr/Mrs “Perfect body but with awful teeth due to poor hygiene.

Abnormal psychological behavior

On the extreme end, you may experience abnormal psychological behaviors. With low potassium you may exhibit such behaviors which may include depression, mood swings, psychosis, mental lethargy, confusion and bouts of hallucination. In addition, you may experience difficulty focusing or retaining important information therefore leaving you frustrated especially with your job.

In conclusion, potassium is not hard to acquire and consume. This is because it can be found in most foods and therefore there is no excuse for you to suffer from potassium deficiency. With all the right food in mind, living a healthy active life is guaranteed as long as you keep processed food to the minimum.