Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Is Potassium?Potassium and Heart HealthDietary SourcesWhen to Seek HelpFrequently Asked Questions
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
What Is Potassium?
Potassium and Heart Health
Dietary Sources
When to Seek Help
Frequently Asked Questions
Potassium is an important mineral for sustaining life, but there is such a thing as “too much of a good thing.” Learn the function of potassium in the body, why potassium homeostasis is key for heart health, and the different levels of potassium in food.
Verywell / Katie Kerpel
Potassium is an essential electrolyte that your body, specifically your heart, nerves, and muscles, needs to work properly.
Potassium regulates a wide range of physiologic functions including muscle contraction, regular heartbeat, and the movement of nutrients into cells and waste products out of cells. A diet rich in potassium helps to offset some of sodium’s harmful effects on blood pressure.
Meeting your daily potassium requirement helps keep your heart working at its best. A healthy potassium blood level is between 3.5 and 5.0 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). Potassium levels that are too high or too low can exacerbate heart failure.
Studies have shown that increasing potassium intake can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, but the mechanism responsible for this is unknown. Some researchers believe that potassium may prevent atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, but more research is needed to support these claims.
Low Potassium Levels
Low potassium levels in the blood, also known as hypokalemia, can be due to a number of conditions including:
Mildly low potassium levels usually cause no symptoms, but larger decreases may cause the following symptoms:
How Does Potassium Affect High Blood Pressure?
High Potassium Levels
Having too much potassium in the blood, a condition calledhyperkalemia, can be dangerous to your heart health. The kidneys are responsible for maintaining the balance of potassium in the blood. The following condition may put you at risk of hyperkalemia:
At first, you may not notice any symptoms, but hyperkalemia may cause symptoms of:
When to Seek Medical AttentionSevere hyperkalemia can lead to heart stoppage and death. At first, you may not notice any symptoms, but hyperkalemia may cause symptoms of:Abdominal (belly) pain and diarrheaChest painHeart palpitations orarrhythmia(irregular, fast, or fluttering heartbeat)Muscle weakness or numbness in limbsNausea and vomitingIf you experience any of these symptoms, call an ambulance or head to the emergency room immediately.
When to Seek Medical Attention
Severe hyperkalemia can lead to heart stoppage and death. At first, you may not notice any symptoms, but hyperkalemia may cause symptoms of:Abdominal (belly) pain and diarrheaChest painHeart palpitations orarrhythmia(irregular, fast, or fluttering heartbeat)Muscle weakness or numbness in limbsNausea and vomitingIf you experience any of these symptoms, call an ambulance or head to the emergency room immediately.
Severe hyperkalemia can lead to heart stoppage and death. At first, you may not notice any symptoms, but hyperkalemia may cause symptoms of:
If you experience any of these symptoms, call an ambulance or head to the emergency room immediately.
Dietary Sources of Potassium
Potassium is an essential nutrient that is naturally present in many foods and is present in all body tissues. Potassium levels are tightly regulated because it is required for normal cell function. This mineral helps to maintain the balance between intracellular fluid volume and transmembrane electrochemical gradients.
Although potassium supplements are available, most people can get the potassium they need from the food they eat and the fluids they drink. Dietary sources of potassium include:
Planning a Low Potassium Diet
High potassium levels in the blood can cause serious heart troubles, especially if you are at high risk of heart failure, but before you severely restrict the potassium in your diet you may want to check in with a healthcare professional to talk about the risks of high potassium and how a low-potassium diet can help.
Low-Potassium Diet
Talk to Your Healthcare Provider
If you are at high risk for hyper- or hypo- kalemia or experience any of the aforementioned symptoms, seek immediate medical attention. Dietary changes can help prevent and treat high or low potassium levels.
Talk to a healthcare professional to understand any risk you might have for hypo- or hyper- kalemia, as they may recommend foods that you may need to limit, avoid, or increase depending on your potassium status.
Summary
Potassium is good in the heart and is found abundantly in the foods we eat and fluids we drink but too much can cause serious heart problems, especially in those with diabetes, hypertension, or kidney disease, who are at high risk of heart failure. Before starting a low potassium, diet check in with a healthcare professional to safely plan your course.
A Word From Verywell
The body does a great job of tightly regulating potassium levels, and most of the time you won’t feel symptoms if your levels are slightly high or low. Even more, most U.S. adults get a healthy amount of potassium in their diet through milk, coffee, tea, other nonalcoholic beverages, bananas, avocados, and potatoes and do not have to make changes in their diets or use potassium supplements to meet their daily requirements.
If you have a condition that weakens your heart, that may not be the case. You may need to pay close attention to the amount of potassium you ingest. But before making any drastic changes to your diet, consult a healthcare professional who will help you adjust your diet in the safest way possible.
It’s always a good idea to stay hydrated, especially with water, given that it is essential to maintaining electrolyte balance, but drinking an excessive amount can lead to a potentially life-threatening loss of potassium in the urine, sometimes called water intoxication.
8 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.MedlinePlus.Potassium.Weaver CM.Potassium and health.Adv Nutr. 2013;4(3):368S-377S. doi:10.3945/an.112.003533National Institutes of Health.How too little potassium may contribute to cardiovascular disease.MedlinePlus.Low Potassium Level.American Heart Association.Hyperkalemia.Office of Dietary Supplements.Potassium.Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Potassium.Olechno E, Puścion-Jakubik A, Socha K, Zujko ME.Coffee brews: are they a source of macroelements in human nutrition?Foods. 2021;10(6):1328. doi:10.3390/foods10061328
8 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.MedlinePlus.Potassium.Weaver CM.Potassium and health.Adv Nutr. 2013;4(3):368S-377S. doi:10.3945/an.112.003533National Institutes of Health.How too little potassium may contribute to cardiovascular disease.MedlinePlus.Low Potassium Level.American Heart Association.Hyperkalemia.Office of Dietary Supplements.Potassium.Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Potassium.Olechno E, Puścion-Jakubik A, Socha K, Zujko ME.Coffee brews: are they a source of macroelements in human nutrition?Foods. 2021;10(6):1328. doi:10.3390/foods10061328
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
MedlinePlus.Potassium.Weaver CM.Potassium and health.Adv Nutr. 2013;4(3):368S-377S. doi:10.3945/an.112.003533National Institutes of Health.How too little potassium may contribute to cardiovascular disease.MedlinePlus.Low Potassium Level.American Heart Association.Hyperkalemia.Office of Dietary Supplements.Potassium.Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Potassium.Olechno E, Puścion-Jakubik A, Socha K, Zujko ME.Coffee brews: are they a source of macroelements in human nutrition?Foods. 2021;10(6):1328. doi:10.3390/foods10061328
MedlinePlus.Potassium.
Weaver CM.Potassium and health.Adv Nutr. 2013;4(3):368S-377S. doi:10.3945/an.112.003533
National Institutes of Health.How too little potassium may contribute to cardiovascular disease.
MedlinePlus.Low Potassium Level.
American Heart Association.Hyperkalemia.
Office of Dietary Supplements.Potassium.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Potassium.
Olechno E, Puścion-Jakubik A, Socha K, Zujko ME.Coffee brews: are they a source of macroelements in human nutrition?Foods. 2021;10(6):1328. doi:10.3390/foods10061328
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