About potassium....

There are a variety of minerals that, when missing, can cause muscle
cramps. Sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium are common to hear
about here. Since LC is a natural diuretic (i.e. minerals get
flushed), LCers tend to notice these things more, which is why a daily
multimineral supplement is recommended for LCers.

As for potassium itself, lite salt or no-salt is the best form for it.
It's cheap and you can get plenty in your diet from just casual use.
The reason the pills have so little is because an overdose of
potassium can be lethal, and it's easy to overdose with pills but very
hard to overdose with salt (you vomit first).

My 8 yr old son uses lite salt, and gets muscle cramps if he doesn't
use any for a few days.

"Pat" wrote:
I had calf and bottom of the foot muscle cramps and started taking extra
magnesium. Result: no more leg cramps. However, I have read in this
newsgroup where people are taking extra potassium to prevent leg cramps.
Yesterday, I looked at the Atkins brand vitamins. They have less than 1%
of
the RDA for potassium!

Potassium is one of the few vitamins that will kill you instantly (heart
attack) if you take too much of it. The vitamin pill manufacturers just
don't want to be sued.

-Mike

I think potassium is also one ingredient that drug makers use when they make
methamphetamine.

Ann


"El Senor" wrote in message
...
"Pat" wrote:
I had calf and bottom of the foot muscle cramps and started taking extra
magnesium. Result: no more leg cramps. However, I have read in this
newsgroup where people are taking extra potassium to prevent leg cramps.
Yesterday, I looked at the Atkins brand vitamins. They have less than
1%
of
the RDA for potassium!

Potassium is one of the few vitamins that will kill you instantly (heart
attack) if you take too much of it. The vitamin pill manufacturers just
don't want to be sued.

-Mike

Stardancer wrote:
The cheapest Potassium you can get is No Salt (Potassium Chloride) as it has
650 mg of Potassium per 1/4 teaspoon - which is a pretty small portion.

No Salt costs about 5 times as much as Lite salt, though, which is
half potassium and half sodium.

--
jamie )

"There's a seeker born every minute."

Pat ), citing the Rules of Acquisition to
alt.support.diet.low-carb, says...

So....where did the people who are taking potassium for that problem get the
info that potassium would be helpful? And what makes you think that
supplementing with 3% of the RDA is going to do any good at all? I don't get
it.

I find that if I skip the potassium tablets supplied by my doctor, I get
leg cramps. If I didn't have access to those, I'd be using more NuSalt,
which is pure potassium chloride.

Supplement manufacturers are reluctant to give people LOTS of potassium,
since a relatively small overdose can bring muscle activity, especially
that ol' heart muscle, to a standstill.

Karen Anderson drinks high potassium V-8, and keeps track of other foods
that can be good sources of potassium.

...........Karl

PS I suppose, _in_extremis_, one could chew on wood ashes. gd&r