The number one sign that you're low in potassium, but actually I'm going to give you seven signs with the most common one last, but you first need to know this one number right here, 4700 milligrams. This is the amount of potassium that an average person needs every single day. And if you take a look at all of the nutrient requirements out there, calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, there is nothing that is even close to this high as a requirement. Why do we need so much less than 3% of Americans hit this number right here and realize this is only the RDA, just the bare bones you need to get by, not the therapeutic dose that you need to correct anything. That means that 97 out of 100 people are low in potassium and rarely does anyone even know it, and really the great majority of people aren't even hitting half of this per day. So the question is not am I deficient? It's how deficient you are. And these symptoms I'm going to cover will tell you how deficient you are. Let's just go through them right now. Number seven, constipation. And this is surprising for a lot of people because they don't connect the dots between potassium and constipation, and potassium controls the smooth muscles of the body. Your entire colon is all smooth muscle. So if you don't have enough potassium, you can't control the contraction and relaxation of the muscle in the colon. And then all of a sudden it starts backing up because you no longer have that pumping action. There's even this condition in hospitals where someone is very deficient in potassium, they call it paralytic ileus, which basically means your small intestine is paralyzed. It doesn't work anymore. And that usually happens after surgery, which brings up another point. When someone goes through any type of surgical procedure, I don't care what procedure, when your body goes through surgery, it's very, very traumatic and stressful, even know the central nervous system is unconscious. Your body is still feeling it. And so this is why a lot of times they give you a potassium IV, because you get this massive spike of cortisol and adrenaline that happens in the body, which then causes this flushing response of potassium. And if you don't have enough potassium, you can have a lot of complications. And one is this paralysis of the intestine, which then brings us to number six, bloating and water retention. When people think of bloating, they usually think, Oh, I ate something that's bloating me, they don't think of a potassium deficiency that can bloat you. But when potassium goes down, the kidneys stop flushing sodium. And then you start retaining fluid, potassium and sodium work together to balance fluids. And a lot of people are stuck on this, Oh, I have too much sodium. Actually, you just don't have enough potassium. Sodium holds water, but potassium releases that water or puffiness or swelling that you have in the body. So a lot of people ask me, what supplements do I recommend? Now, of course, I'm not biased of my own high quality supplement line. But if you go to Amazon and type Dr. Berg supplements, you'll find more information. Let's go to number five, frequent urination and excessive thirst. Typically, when we think about that, we think about a diabetic, right? They have blood sugar problems. They're always urinating the urinate at night. They're also thirsty, but it can also be a potassium deficiency, which is very surprising. Low potassium slows down the kidneys ability to concentrate urine. So instead of producing urine, it's getting rid of urine. So the kidneys start producing this large amount of diluted urine and then you pee more. So this can be a loss of potassium. And then there's another connection with potassium and insulin because when we talk about diabetes, we think insulin, insulin resistance. So the way it works is kind of a two way flow. In the pancreas, you have these little cells that control insulin. That cell, the beta cell, is dependent on potassium. So you need potassium to regulate insulin. And this is why diabetics are usually always very deficient in potassium. And this is also why people that are very deficient. Potassium tend to be more of a pre diabetic or even a diabetic. So this comes down to what I've been talking about in a lot of my videos. People need more electrolytes, especially potassium and sufficient amounts, but they also need to be on a low carb diet. Both those together produce huge positive effects on your health. And of course, if you're diabetic, you should be eating more foods high in potassium or even taking potassium to help reduce the need for medication. So you can regulate blood sugar better. And of course, that also relates to number four, tingling and numbness, especially in your feet, sometimes in the hands. Now we think about that as peripheral neuropathy, which comes from diabetic symptoms, but it can also be a potassium deficiency, regardless of being a diabetic, because potassium is involved in nerve impulses. And so if there's not enough potassium, the nervous system doesn't work effectively. So this is not just a B12 deficiency or a B1 deficiency. It could be a potassium deficiency as well. In order for a nerve impulse to move or travel, potassium is needed. So when you think about potassium, think about electrical charge. And this is why it can also relate to where the nerves go. They go to muscles. So you could have muscle problems in the heart or even in the skeletal muscle as a cramp. And I know in other videos, I talk about that being a magnesium deficiency. Well, stay tuned because we're going to talk a little bit more about that as well. Number three is high pulse rate. Quick story. When I was getting married many years ago, my wife and I were at a restaurant, which was an Italian restaurant consuming a lot of pasta, and we're really into this great conversation. And apparently we were the last people in the restaurant. And then I noticed one of the waiters was going past us with this cart of all these desserts. And they approached us and they said, listen, before we throw these out, do you guys want to sample any of these? And of course, I'm always like, well, you don't want to waste food. So of course we're going to sample them. And we did sample every single dessert. So after consuming a massive carbohydrate meal, okay, and now all this sugar, and I'm talking about a lot of sugar, when I didn't realize at the time, was when you consume that much sugar and refined carbohydrates, the need for potassium goes straight up in vertical. In other words, you are going to suddenly become deficient of potassium. And one of the first signs you're going to notice is higher pulse rate. Your heart's going to be labored. It's going to produce these pounding heartbeats. So when you put your head on the pillow, and you actually hear this pulse beat, boom, boom, boom, boom, think low potassium. Little did I know that if I took some potassium, that would have brought my pulse rate down, and I would have drifted off into a wonderful sleep. Okay, number two, heart palpitations. I briefly mentioned this. In other videos, I talked about heart palpitations or atrial fibrillation being a magnesium deficiency, but also it could be a potassium deficiency because both of those electrolytes work together on the pacemaker of the heart. They keep the heart in rhythm because they're intimately involved with the electrical voltage to the heartbeat. So if we take a look deeply into what this potassium is really doing, we have a combination of two pumps. One is the sodium potassium pump. Okay, this is a little pump that allows the electrical charge to develop in a nervous system that then can actually activate the muscles. And then deep in the mitochondria, you have another pump that makes energy that's ATP. And that requires magnesium. So we need magnesium to make the energy, which is involving this little pump, but also we need that magnesium energy in this other pump to allow this other pump to work. And I'm talking about the sodium potassium pump. So in other words, the sodium potassium pump is dependent on magnesium. It doesn't work independently. It needs magnesium. And this is why when you take electrolyte powder, you need all the electrolytes, not just one. All right, so now let's go into number one, the most common sign of a potassium deficiency. This is the most misdiagnosed, most biochemically profound sign, which is this, persistent fatigue and muscle weakness that does not get better when you sleep or rest. You feel tired, you feel heavy, you feel slow, you feel sluggish, you're foggy mentally, think potassium. Don't buy into, well, I must be just getting older. That's not it. Okay, it's usually a potassium deficiency. Why do I say that? Because less than 3% of Americans hit this RDA for potassium. All right, now that you know this information, there's one more super common disease. Actually, it's probably the most chronic disease in the US, affects over 120 million Americans. And what's really bizarre is 90% of this disease is classified as an unknown cause. 50 years and billions of dollars of research, and they cannot find the cause of high blood pressure. Well, I disagree 100%. And I created an entire video on this topic. You must watch it right now. Check it out. It's right here.
