POTASSIUM NUTRITION by Charles Weber,

- POTASSIUM NUTRITION by Charles Weber,

INTRODUCTION of the BOOK   --- It is my belief that a pervasive potassium deficiency caused by improper processing of food is causing a large part of the poor health in western civilization, being especially involved in heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

--- Virtually any textbook in the past would devote no more than a paragraph to potassium which would state that potassium is never deficient in the diet, or give one exception from the dozen or more known ways of loss, or in some only under clinical conditions.

--- The reason for this careless treatment of potassium is probably because potassium is present in almost all foods as grown in large quantities. Professionals think about it as if it were air or water. However, even air and water can be deficient and if voluminous texts are not written about those deficiencies, it is because both of those deficiencies can be detected by our senses. Extremely powerful emotions and instincts impel people to correct those deficiencies immediately and at any cost. Potassium is odorless, colorless, and, in the usual concentrations, tasteless. There is no way to detect a deficiency and cell content can not even easily be assessed in the body by modern analytical procedures other than whole body scintillation counters. Whole body cell content is virtually "invisible" other than by whole body scintillation counters.

--- When potassium supplements are prescribed, they get around the discordance between their convictions and practice semantically by calling the supplements "salt substitutes”, "polarizing solutions”, “GIK” (glucose, insulin, potassium) salts. "pharmaceutical affecters”, "ORT salts (oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea)", or similar terms. A deficiency is further defined out of existence by defining the blood serum content is normal at a 4.2 Meq/liter when the actual figure is 4.8 [Scribner].

--- Psychic stress stimulation of aldosterone, diarrhea (Potassium supplements to babies brought mortality from a virulent strain of diarrhea from 35% to 5% [Darrow] ), profuse perspiration, excessive vomiting, eating sodium carbonate or bicarbonate (because hydrogen ion is excreted at the same site as potassium), laxatives, diuretics, licorice, hyperventilating, enemas, shock from burns or injury, hostile or fearful emotions, and very high or low sodium intakes all increase potassium losses, some massively. All together would probably be lethal in a fairly short time. Reliance on grain (especially white flour) or fatty foods, boiling vegetables, use of chemicals (soft drinks, for instance) instead of food, and use of most processed foods including frozen and canned permit considerable reduction of intakes. So does the reduced appetite associated with a sedentary life.

--- To speak of potassium deficiency as an aberration when enormous numbers of people are affected by these circumstances and our food is so badly damaged is not logical. Even if a serious degenerative disease does not materialize, an adequate intake is desirable to forestall future disasters and to permit one to operate at optimum. Some of the manifestations of the placebo effect become understandable in light of the affect of emotions on electrolyte hormones. However, we cannot always be assured of a placebo being available, certainly not on the firing line, but not even for that matter in the quiet of a hospital where even nurses can be testy at times.

--- It is especially important that nutrition be established by experiment. Currently, every one in the medical establishment is convinced that potassium deficiency cannot be involved in rheumatoid arthritis, but this with only one experiment ever having been performed. It simply is not possible to predict the outcome of an experiment with certainty without actually performing it. It would be desirable to determine the affect of every food common in commerce not only on arthritis, but on all the degenerative diseases. Some foods, known to be poisonous to animals or have poisonous related species in the wild, have been used for thousands of years without ever having been tested. This is undoubtedly due to a universal quasi religious conviction or instinct that foods our parents taught us to eat or taste good could not possibly be harmful. This is not necessarily the case.

Such experiments could have another advantage in that they might uncover foods that have a beneficial effect. Even small effects would be worth knowing about. The above conviction (or instinct) is so strong that most people will not eat nutritious food if tastier, but less nutritious food is available. Their instincts override their intellect not only in their eating habits, but in their scientific efforts. These scientific efforts are further thwarted from pursuing nutritional investigations because medical science stresses pharmaceuticals and glamour theories [Forman].

--- Please keep in mind, though, that potassium ramifies through every cell and process in the body, has almost no storage, and has a dangerous dependence on its precise control for nerve impulse transmission. This makes it a mineral to be cautious about. In particular I recommend getting as much as possible from food. Even food requires a little care because it has a wide range of concentrations.

 You must take responsibility for your own intake and I assume no liability for the correctness of advice in this book. You use this information at your own risk. Also please keep in mind that some of the information in this book is based on poorly performed experiments or biased commercial sites. If you have a medical problem, be sure to seek the consultation of a medical or nutritional professional. Such a person has more information available than just potassium nutrition and, perhaps equally important, is in a position to run tests.

--- Anything a doctor or dietitian can learn about nutrition, you can also. If you do not know the meaning of a word in these articles, for a definition click on (Mirriam-Webster), or on (a medical encyclopedia) or on (a comprehensive encyclopedia).

--- The health of people in the USA is abysmal, and a major part of it is poor nutrition. Vegetable oils and refined sugars, which are essentially devoid of potassium, make up one third of the total food energy. Displacement of vegetables and fruit by whole grains and milk products further reduces the potassium intake because potassium concentrations in vegetables are four times and twelve times those in milk and whole grains, respectively, whereas in fruit the potassium the potassium concentration is two and five times that in milk and whole grains. The disaster is made much worse by refining of whole grains, which white flour has only one quarter the potassium of whole grain. Added to this is the ingestion of huge amounts of sodium chloride salt, beyond anything the body can easily handle.

--- As the 12th century physician, trying to cure by diet before he administers drugs, said; “No illness that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means" or as Hippocrates expressed it in 460

- 377BC; "If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health". It would seem that a healthy life style has been known for a long time. It is my belief that an unprocessed, unfrozen, not canned, high in vegetables, free of poisons diet would keep a large majority of people reasonably healthy and without the need for fad diets. 80% of Americans do not eat adequate vegetables, but even though 72% of Americans take vitamin or mineral supplements daily or occasionally, their health is atrocious. These supplements never include significant amounts of potassium with vitamin pills. Even potassium pills have only a tiny amount. Fairly significant amounts would be obtained if a dozen or two were taken each day (see chapter 8 before taking any). Very few do so though.

--- I would suggest that a partial solution to the problem of poor potassium nutrition would be to place a tax on all food that has had potassium removed by food processors and completely fund all Medicare and workman’s compensation for injuries and disease that relate to rheumatoid arthritis, gout, heart disease, strained ligaments, and high blood pressure. This would also take the Medicare and Medicaid onerous tax burden now incurred for them and place it on the shoulders of those who cause the problem.

--- All the references are gathered together at the end and organized according to chapters except URLs, which follow statements pertinent to them.

--- I repeat, I assume no liability for statements in this book. They are sometimes based on flimsy evidence. Of course, better flimsy evidence than no evidence at all. But in any case I do not want anyone getting sick from a miss print and then even so much as becoming irritated with me.

EPILOGUE
The very extensive USDA Handbook #8 may be seen here but from which one must compute the weight of potassium per Calorie. To access the information you must press "enter" to search, and then divide Kcal into milligrams of potassium. This last table is very comprehensive, is used in search mode, and even lists the amino acids.

It should be possible to lift oneself out of even a severe deficiency in only a month or two using food alone with proper selection. Using potassium chloride supplements it could be as short as several weeks or less if magnesium, and perhaps inositol and vitamin D are adequate. There is danger of imbalances with respect to other nutrients using such supplements only. However, there should be little chance of danger in people with reasonably healthy kidneys if a gram or two per day of potassium is used in conjunction with an unprocessed diet high in leafy vegetables for a few weeks.

Dr. Reza Rastmanesh from Iran has recently performed a large controlled clinical trial testing potassium supplements against rheumatoid arthritis with dramatic decreases in pain in all subjects and increases of cortisol [Rastmanesh]. He would now like to continue his clinical research testing potassium in conjunction with other nutrients, especially magnesium, in an English speaking country. His credentials are impressive. If you know of any rheumatology department able to employ him, please contact me with isoptera at att.net .

The health of people in the USA is abysmal (numerous statistics), and a major part of it is poor nutrition. As the 12th century physician, trying to cure by diet before he administers drugs, said; “No illness that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means" or as Hippocrates expressed it in 460 - 377BC; "If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.

" It would seem that a healthy life style has been known for a long time. It is my belief that an unprocessed, unfrozen, not canned, high in vegetables diet would keep a large majority of people reasonably healthy and without the need for fad diets. 80% of Americans do not eat adequate vegetables, but even though 72% of Americans take vitamin or mineral supplements daily or sometimes [Sardi p148], their health is atrocious, especially old people..

I would suggest that a partial solution to the problem of poor potassium nutrition would be to place a tax on all food that has had potassium removed by food processors and completely fund all Medicare and workman’s compensation for injuries and disease that relate to rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, and high blood pressure. This would also take the onerous tax burden now incurred for them and place it on the shoulders of those who cause the problem

--- The pioneering efforts about potassium for arthritis by Charles de Coti-Marsh enabled him to form a foundation currently active in England that promotes the use of potassium for arthritis and it has helped 3500 people.

SOME LINKS TO HEALTH ARTICLES
--- VII. Copper nutrition and physiology

--- Strategies for CFS and fibromyalgia

--- There is an article discussing cashew nuts to cure a tooth abscess Which might prove useful 

--- Fluoride in city water will cause fluorosis discoloration of teeth, weakened bones, damage to the kidneys, thyroid, and immune system, bone cancer, and, worst of all, damage to the nerves resembling Alzheimer’s disease. It will also cause damage to ligaments resembling arthritis. For a forum that discusses iodide (an antidote for fluoride) access this site.

--- See this site for some links to health articles.

--- It has been determined that adequate selenium will cut cancer risk of several cancer types in half. For a procedure that discusses tetrathiomolybdate for removing copper and thus preventing further solid cancer growth and Hodgkin’s, see this site. This might buy some time until you can persuade a doctor to try tumor necrosis factor or interferon or an opioid antagonist drug called Naltrexone (Naltrexone in the large 50 mg size, originally manufactured by DuPont under the brand name ReVia, is now sold by Mallinckrodt as Depade and by Barr Laboratories under the generic name naltrexone) that blocks some endorphin receptors. Said blockage is thought to cause the body to temporarily secrete more endorphins, especially after midnight at night. These endorphins are thought to stimulate the immune system, and in particular to stimulate the TH-1 or type 1 antiviral response by decreased interleukin-4 and with increased gamma interferon and interleukin-2 and a simultaneous decrease of type 2 anti bacterial response [Sacerdote].
  It appears to be especially effective for minimizing symptoms and retarding progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) There are drugs listed in this site that should not be taken with low dose Naltrexone, including cortisol. There is information in this site for mitigating side effects, including starting with one milligram doses. Advice how to proceed if you have been taking cortisol may be seen here. (also see these sites; this site and this site and a trial) . A few doctors have had encouraging results in Crohn's Disease, and even to some extent in cancer. Low doses of Naltrexone (LDN), 1.5 to 4.5 milligrams, at bedtime is used (timing is important, and it is important not to buy slow release forms). It is said to have no known bad side effects at those doses other than insomnia the first week or two in some. There is also reports from an extensive survey in this site. and an extensive discussion at this site.
 I think some clinical studies on Naltrexone are in order, and it should not be a prescription drug (I have a petition to make Naltrexone an over the counter drug with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research FDA Rockville MD 20857, Re; Docket No. 2006P-0508-CPI. Perhaps if enough people wrote supporting the petition it could be enacted). Though side effects appear unlikely, it is not proven over longer periods. If you try it (it is a prescription medicine in the USA), it seems likely that you should discontinue if you get a bacterial infection in view of its inhibition of antibacterial response.

 There are suggestions on how to obtain Naltrexone without a prescription in this site. Naltrexone is currently being used by Dr. Enlander, a New York City doctor, but with limited success using 3 to 4.5 milligram doses for CFS or CFIDS. . It is also being explored for AIDS by Dr. Bernard Bihari, 29 W 15th St. New York, NY 10011, 212) 929-4196 who is still prescribing Naltrexone for HIV/AIDS. (and currently Executive Director of the Community Research Initiative).

Dr. Gale Guyer of Advanced Medical Center located in Zionsville, Indiana also is using it for cancer. Dr. Bihari has shown promising results for a large percentage of his cancer patients.
Olive leaf extract has shown clinical evidence of effectiveness against a wide range of viruses, including AIDS [Bihari], herpes, and cold viruses. It sometimes produces a Herxheimer or pathogen die off symptoms (from effectiveness against bacteria?).
 There is evidence that it is synergistic (reinforce each other) with Naltrexone. There have been a few case histories of improvement in what were probably arthritis patients and CFIDS patients. The active ingredient is said to be oleuropein or enolate. There has been very little follow up research done on it.

--- Also it has been found that curcumin in turmeric or curry powder will inhibit several forms of cancer, including melanoma. People who live in India where these spices are eaten, have one tenth the cancer elsewhere. It must be used with caution because it can sometimes aggravate the situation [Stix].

--- Here is an article with anecdotal evidence for pressurized oxygen, zinc, vitamin B6, and vitamin C after head injuries. They also claim a fair percentage of prison inmates from psychiatric disorders after head injuries.
 
--- See this site for evidence of a correlation between magnesium deficiency and cancer. The taurate has been proposed as the best magnesium supplement. Since taurine is physiologically active, this may prove to not be the case long term. Taurine or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid is an acidic chemical substance sulfonated rather than carboxylated found in high abundance in the tissues of many animals (metazoa), especially sea animals. Taurine is also found in plants, fungi, and some bacterial species, but in far less abundance. It is an amine with a sulfonic acid functional group, but it is not an amino acid in the biological sense, not being one of the twenty protein-forming compounds encoded by the universal genetic code.
Small polypeptides have been identified as containing taurine, but to date there has been no report of a transfer RNA that is specifically charged with taurine [from Wikipedia]. It is essential to babies and is the most abundant brain amino acid at birth. With maturation babies start to synthesize taurine and glutamate becomes the most abundant in the brain of adults. It is essential to adult cats. It has been found that supplements of the amino acid, taurine, will restore the abnormal electrocardiogram present during a potassium deficiency by an unknown mechanism. This information has been used in several case histories by George Eby to control a long standing type of cardiac arrhythmia called pre atrial contractions (PACs), a benign but irritating and nerve racking heart problem, with 2.5 grams of taurine with each meal. Taurine is said to be low in the diets of vegetarians.
The 2.5 grams recommended by the American Heart Association causes diarrhea in some people and should probably be reduced in those people. There is strong evidence that taurine could have beneficial affects on type I diabetes, and could reduce organ peroxidation and plasma lipids. The retina, lens, and nerves respond better to taurine than other organs [Franconi]. Taurine has been used for high blood pressure [Fujita], migraine headache (I suspect that less than 1000 milligrams can remove the headache caused by allergy to peanuts), high cholesterol, epilepsy, macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, liver disorders, alcoholism, and cystic fibrosis, and depression. Keep in mind that some people may have a genetic defect that limits the amount of taurine tolerated and that adequate molybdenum may desirable. Taurine may make a copper deficiency worse, based on a single case history [Brien Quirk, private communication]. This may be because taurine may be mobilizing copper and zinc into the plasma [Li]. So if you should decide to take taurine, make sure your copper intake is more than adequate, as well as your zinc. Taurine may be obtaind from health food stores as capsules.

A site is available which shows. foods which are high in one nutrient and low in another (including calories). This last site should be especially useful for a quick list of foods to consider first, or for those who must restrict another nutrient because of a genetic difficulty with absorption or utilization

You may find useful for definitions and easy to use a search for abstracts of journal references, "Gateway". You must click on “ MEDLINE/PubMed” or for definitions click on "find terms". You also may find useful a list of medical search engines.
If you use medication, you may see technical evaluations and cautions of drugs at the bottom of this site.

The very extensive USDA Handbook #8 may be seen here. To access the information you must press "enter" to search, and then divide Kcal into milligrams of potassium. This last table is very comprehensive, is used in search mode, and even lists the amino acids. There are also links in it to PDF types of printouts from the table for individual nutrients available here Just click on the “A” or “W” button for the nutrient you desire.

There is a free browser called Firefox, which is said to be less susceptible to viruses or crashes, has many interesting features, imports information from Iexplore while leaving Iexplore intact. You can also install their emailer. A feature that lists all the URLs on a viewed site can be useful when working on your own site.

There is a tool bar by Google that enables you to search the internet from the page viewed, mark desired words, search the site, give page rank, etc.---Google’s “scholar search site” is excellent for all types of references.

You may find useful and easy to use a search for abstracts of medical journal references, "Gateway".
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There is a free program available which tells on your site what web site accessed you, which search engine, statistics about which country, statistics of search engine access, keywords used and their frequency. It can be very useful.

Confidentiality of data relating to individual patients and visitors to a medical/health Web site, including their identity, is respected by this Web site. The Web site owner undertakes to honor or exceed the legal requirements of medical/health information privacy that apply in the USA. While it is not the policy of this author to use testimonials, you may, if you wish, tell of the outcome of health strategies to a site which archives such experiences.

Email = isoptera at att.net or 828 692 5816
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