High Potassium

[Bub]

Went through the roof.  Don't know where it came from.  I watch my diet closely. My phosphorus is always high but never my potassium. I am baffled.

[Restorer]

What was the time period of the increase? I found out my kidneys had failed after my heart went crazy due to high potassium - turns out the ibuprofen I had taken for a stiff neck can sometimes cause a big shift of potassium from inside the cells to the blood. Maybe a similar shift happened to you.

[kristina]

I don't know whether there is an answer? 
We cook our vegetables in plenty of water
in an effort to "bleach out" the potassium.
Then, whilst cooking, we change water again and
when the vegetables are cooked, boiling water
is sprinkled over them again before we eat.
We do the same with our pasta/noodles
and wash the rice for a long time in
running water before cooking.
For the actual cooking we only use filtered water.
I don't know whether these measures have any influence,
but my potassium is (still) well under control without medication.

[Rerun]

Milk always gets me.   I sneak one sip and my potassium goes up!  This time of year candy (Haloween) is hard to resist.

Hope you get a hold on it.

[KICKSTART]

My potassium went through the roof as my PD started to stop working. Have they given you any of that lurverly powder to mix with water and drink yet ? 

[Zach]

There are some medications that can cause a rise in potassium.

Here's a good article about potassium:
http://www.renalandurologynews.com/Hyperkalemia-Control-in-Stage-5-CKD/article/109760/

And this is a USDA list of the potassium content of some foods:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR15/wtrank/sr15a306.pdf

Depending on what your nephrologist has prescribed, the average hemodialysis patient (3-4 hours x 3/week) is limited to 2,000 mg per day of potassium.

Ameican Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) has a nutrition guide which lists food's potassium, phosphorus, sodium, etc.:
http://www.aakp.org/brochures/nutrition-counter/

Good luck in getting your potassium back to normal.

[zona]

I have problems with pottasium also. No matter how much I watch my diet it just seems to happen.

[billybags]

pottasium, is a pain in the bum. You try your best, do every thing Kristena does diet wise and it still goes up. .I honestly do not know the answer to this one. We try to be so careful, at times you think "sod it" why do I bother.

[rose1999]

We try to be so careful, at times you think "sod it" why do I bother.

Oh please all of you DO keep bothering, it was high potassium that caused Dad's death, it shot through the roof following his amputation and they could not get it down. 

[Mizar]

How High is to High? My Husband came Home with His " Report Card " Yesterday and His is 6.6 . The Clinic says this is to High, yet reading on different Web Sites ( yeah, I know, don't believe all You read on the Net " some Sites, say, the Danger Zone, is not until it's past 7 or even 8. I don't know how concerned to be about this.

[Jie]

If anyone complains about high potassium, just try to do PD.  Before PD dialysis, I tried very hard to control potassium. With PD, I need to eat some high potassium foods each day to keep my potassium in the normal range.

[Restorer]

Mizar, it depends on when in the day his blood was drawn. I have my blood drawn earlier in the day, so if my potassium is a little high then, it's just going to be higher later in the evening after I've eaten more.

[zona]

I was also told 7 is the danger zone. Mine runs as high as 5.something. What I was wondering is what happens healthwise when it gets high.

[monrein]

If it goes high enough your heart will stop.  Potassium regulates muscle activity and the heart is all muscle.  Fluid overload and high potassium are extremely dangerous in the short term.

[silverhead]

I won't get into the pro's and con's of the Death Penalty here in the States, but when the prisoner is in the "chamber" the chemical they inject is Potassium, it stops the heart very quickly.......

[RichardMEL]

My potassium went up a bit so they put me on a "K1" bath to lower my K during dialysis more(ie: take out more). it took out too much and I had horrible symptoms until we changed the bath back. The nurses were blaming me for not eating enough higher potassium foods between sessions! It's very hard to go from a mindset of "too much is bad" to "eat more" !!!

[Ken Shelmerdine]

 High doses of certain Blood pressure drugs such as angio retensin blockers example Candesarten can cause raised levels of serum potassium. Also if bicabonate levels are below 22 the blood becomes acidic and this in itself causes serum potassium to rise.

[Bub]

Thanks all for valuable information and good links!

Restorer, I think you got a hit on this one as I had a tooth ache the day before and was out of Tylenol so I took Ibuprofen.  Maybe that is what caused it.  Thank you!

[Goofy]

My potassium goes crazy.  One month its high, the next month its normal.  My doc always stress the fact that high potassium can kill you.

I have to drink this really, really, icky stuff.  I saw Kickstart had mentioned something.  Mine already comes in liquid form.  Maybe its the same thing.  I can't remember the name right now but if anyone wants to know, I can post it later.

[Wallyz]

We need a home potassium blood testing method.  There are morning where I am prtty sure I have low potassium, and I eat foods with potassium to hemlp it, but if I am wrong, then I could kill myself. Its a little ridiculous that some thing is variable and this important is left to a monthly test.

[MomInDialysis]

There are some medications that can cause a rise in potassium.

Here's a good article about potassium:
http://www.renalandurologynews.com/Hyperkalemia-Control-in-Stage-5-CKD/article/109760/

And this is a USDA list of the potassium content of some foods:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR15/wtrank/sr15a306.pdf

Depending on what your nephrologist has prescribed, the average hemodialysis patient (3-4 hours x 3/week) is limited to 2,000 mg per day of potassium.

Ameican Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) has a nutrition guide which lists food's potassium, phosphorus, sodium, etc.:
http://www.aakp.org/brochures/nutrition-counter/

Good luck in getting your potassium back to normal.

Thanks Zach.  These sites were really good. 

[nursewratchet]

How High is to High? My Husband came Home with His " Report Card " Yesterday and His is 6.6 . The Clinic says this is to High, yet reading on different Web Sites ( yeah, I know, don't believe all You read on the Net " some Sites, say, the Danger Zone, is not until it's past 7 or even 8. I don't know how concerned to be about this.

Anything over 6 is high.  Some people's bodies make compensations and some don't.  It is hidden in so many things.  If it is a rarity that yours is high, it could be a misdraw from your labs.  Ll high potassiums should really be double checked.

[Zach]

Here is a recent study about potassium in food additives:
http://www.jrnjournal.org/article/PIIS1051227609002106/fulltext

From the study:
" ... Cheese is certainly on the list of foods to avoid because of its high phosphorus content. However, its contribution to dietary potassium is little appreciated. Although cheddar cheese (Kraft Sharp Cracker Barrel) had only 92 mg/100 g of potassium, the same manufacturer's American Singles and Velveeta products had 319 and 389 mg/100 g of potassium, respectively (unpublished observations).

Beef frankfurters further illustrate the discordance between increases in potassium and phosphate attributable to food additives. Oscar Meyer and Ballpark both contain phosphate additives, whereas Sabrett does not.6 However, Oscar Meyer and Sabrett have similar amounts of potassium (181 and 177 mg/100 g, respectively), whereas Ballpark has far more potassium (430 mg/100 g; unpublished observations).

In some cases, the data turned common wisdom on its head. The less processed Wise potato chips have almost twice the potassium (1150 mg/100 g) as a manufactured potato chip (Pringles, 646 mg/100 g). Fast food, recognized as contributing substantially to the dietary phosphate burden,7 is also problematic with respect to potassium. Panera's chicken chipotle sandwich on French bread had more than twice the potassium content of Wendy's chicken filet sandwich (421 vs. 184 mg/100 g, respectively). White Castle French Fries had 47% more potassium than those of Burger King (584 vs. 397 mg/100 g, respectively; unpublished observations).

The issue of potassium-containing additives is clearly important. Hyperkalemia is a significant cause of mortality in dialysis patients, as well as in CKD patients not on dialysis.8, 9 The 2114 mg of potassium in 8 ounces of enhanced beef strip steak by itself exceeds the daily prescribed dietary potassium of many patients, and might go unrecognized as an etiologic factor in any associated hyperkalemia..."

[Bill Peckham]

We need a home potassium blood testing method.  There are morning where I am pretty sure I have low potassium, and I eat foods with potassium to hemlp it, but if I am wrong, then I could kill myself. Its a little ridiculous that some thing is variable and this important is left to a monthly test.

Scribner invented a bedside potassium testing kit - before he put together the first shunt. I think Blagg talks about it on the Nephrology Oral history project. Labs will be pure costs under the proposed expanded bundle so maybe the Scribner kit will make a come back.

Blagg will be talking about dialysis history at the RSN meeting on Saturday - I'll try to get him to talk about Scribner's potassium test kit.

[billybags]

Wallyz, That sounds a brillient idea having a pottasium kit.