QuestionI have a high potassium reading 5.4. This coming Wend I am suppose to have a scope job done on my knee. What can I do to get the reading down to 5.0 between now and then? I am 72 years old.
AnswerI sure do understand your need to get scoped soon, but elevated potassium isn't something a home remedy will fix safely. (too low potassium is a huge problem too, and a risk you take by trying to lower your level without blood tests & doctors titrating it down slowly).
Potassium levels are best monitored by your doctor and carefully adjusted. It is so dangerous to try to alter this balance yourself; you need a doctor to draw your blood and make recommendations.
Importance of potassium--why does it matter?
Your heart is both a muscle (mechanical) and electrical. The sodium and potassium in your heart muscle conduct an electrical impulse that signals the heart to contract. If your potassium gets out of whack (high or low) you can suffer a heart attack due to an irregular heartbeat, caused, in essence by a conduction problem of the electrical impulse that starts each heart beat. (A fluttering heart doesn't fully squeeze blood to the body. The pool of blood in the bottom of the ventricle that doesn't get fully squeezed (due to a weak nerve impulse to contract or competing impulses)forms clots.
5.4 potssium is considered mild hyperkalemia.
for cause, significance and treatment see this article....
http://www.medicinenet.com/hyperkalemia/article.htm
Please see your doctor about your potassium level,
and I hope you can get your knee taken care of soon, too.
Maggie Smith, RN, MSN
