I just had some regular bloodwork come back with mild / moderately low potassium level. The doc said I should eat more potassium-rich foods ordered a retest in 10 days.
Maybe I'm over-thinking / over-googling, but it seems like it's pretty rare to have low potassium if one isn't on a diuretic of some kind?
Basically just wondering if this had turned up for anyone.
I know an excess of insulin can cause a metabolic shift of potassium out of the blood stream (causing low serum potassium levels, and it's listed as a side effect of insulin), but I think this mostly happens with a massive administration following DKA? Rather than just being low all night from a miscalculation before dinner, etc?
Although the doctor is the primary authority, I wouldn't overreact to it. If you do a lot of labs, you'll occasionally find things that are mildly low or high, and unless it's a pattern, I think of it as basically background noise.
if your doctor never sent you to ER for treatment probably not. hypokalemia is serious. when mine was low I was treated for it and it occured at the same time I was dx'd with hypothyroidism
For me, if my bg has been running high, (even for just a fraction of a day), potassium levels drop pretty quickly and I get leg cramps.
Dehydration and/or DKA can lead to low potassium. As can diuretics as commonly used in many blood pressure medications. All of these can be common things in diabetics (especially me!) and may indicate changes in medication or diet.
I had very low potassium in dka, I think with the metabolic changes and treatment with fluid and insulin all the potassium initially goes into the cells, and then comes out when dka stops/your blood ph returns to normal, that is what my endo discussed with me. However they need to keep a close watch on this during dka, because I think it can drop even lower in the cell concentration also. Mine dropped to 2 during dka- I was given iv potassium infusions and pills and then I was told to keep supplementing it after I got out of the hospital the second time. Mine was still low then but at the bottom or just below normal range but above 3. Since then I noticed I'm usually at the low end so due to other symptoms like leg cramps I kept supplementing it until recently. I also read on the novolog insert that it can cause low potassium- so the insulin therapy can be a cause.
A special case of potassium loss occurs with diabetic ketoacidosis. Hypokalemia is observed with low total body potassium and a low intracellular concentration of potassium. In addition to urinary losses from polyuria and volume contraction, also an obligate loss of potassium from kidney tubules occurs as a cationic partner to the negatively charged ketone, β-hydroxybutyrate.
About a year before I was diagnosed with diabetes, I was also found to have mildly low potassium. My doctor prescribed supplements which brought it up. The low sodium version of V8 is also high in potassium.
Yet another diabetes irony, and yet another reinforcement of the YDMV principle ("Your Diabetes May Vary"). I have been using insulin for several years, and my last labs but one revealed abnormally HIGH potassium. So the doc advised me to eat fewer high potassium foods.
I had very low potassium at diagnosis. I had to get two IV bags of potassium at the hospital. I currently have a mild deficiency on occasion, but increased plant based foods in my diet has helped a lot in this regard.
In general, almost everyone on a Western diet consumes less potassium than the recommended level. It's pretty hard to get up to the recommended 3800 mg for men and 2800 mg for women. One study I read said consuming up to 4500 mg a day, as an adult, reduced the mortality rate in all age groups, and they suggested raising the recommended level. They said something like 50% (don't remember the exact number) of the people in their study consumed lower levels than the recommended, and something like 70% consumed less than the 4500 mg that they recommended. However, this poses a potential problem for diabetics, as we can have compromised kidney function, where potassium intake has to be monitored. The only way to know for sure is to get regular blood tests, as you probably already know. :)
Potassium is a bit like glucose: it needs to kept be in a "normal" range. You're potentially in trouble if it's either too high OR too low. Too much can stop your heart.
When my potassium falls low, I feel very weak and suffer leg cramps. I get treated for it and must have weekly blood-work follow up, to track its progress.
How about the link between low potassium and brain fogs? I seem to suffer very often rather incapacitating brain fog (kind of impossible to seriously concentrate) episodes and this is becoming a really large problem at work (I'm a software dev). It usually occurs an hour after lunch, even if the lunch is a salad (~4 units of insulin).
I followed for a year my theory of a leaky gut and I think I've been doing a good job at it, but the problem persists.
I recently found out that Novorapid (Novolog) has this leaching potassium issue and wonder if that is the cause? As lack of decent potassium levels in the brain are a reason for lack of mental clarity.
I eat a lot of spinach and some bananas and sweet potatoes and other K-rich foods, but my theory is that this happens only when bolusing large amounts (>4 units). My last test showed 3.4, which is above the minimum, but it's a year-old test and this problem has been recurring with higher frequency for the last couple of years (I'm T1 for 9 years now).
3.4 is too low for potassium. You need to be at least 4 for good health. I’m currently have on going low potassium due to falsely elevated labs n it not being treated now it’s taken even longer to overcome. My good no is 4.5. Mine got depleted through antibiotics n now I’m currently at 3.4 which is just too low.
Low potassium can be caused by other medications other than diuretics such as antibiotics or steroids. Clarithmyocin depleted mine from being on it 3 times in the 1 year. Prednisone and albutol inhalers deplete it too. Vomiting and diarrea are the only other 2 things that deplete it.
