Like if you used a measuring spoon to measure out 1/8 of a teaspoon (about 500mg) and dissolved it in some water could you get potassium that way. I figure if it was that easy then you could buy potassium chloride tablets at a health food store for 500mg, but nobody carries potassium supplements in doses higher than 99mg.
Use google to look up the recipe for Gatorade. It’s got KCl in it at a safe dose.
Now, not that anyone would ever actually do this, but tech grade KCL is available at garden supply stores, and is quite easy to recrystallize on the stove.
Do be careful. Note that Potassium Chloride is the same stuff they put into death row inmates to make them, well die. I’m not saying you can’t do this safely but there may be good reasons for getting it in small doses throughout the day rather than trying to get a whole bunch in one gulp. Geeze, have a banana why don’t you.
The master speaks on this topic as well.
true KCl is dangerous, but im not looking to dump the entire bottle into a bottle and drink it, im only going to take 500mg 2x a day or so as a supplement.
Bananas will kill you too if you eat about 50 of them. So will fig newtons. So will aspirin, so will water if you drink too much of it too quickly.
Right, but all of those have high lethal doses. KCl has a very low lethal dose.
Um, don’t you think that maybe there’s a good reason they only supply small amounts of the stuff? This is obviously a really, really stupid thing to do to yourself. Have fun!
Um, dont you think that people can count numbers on a measuring spoon?
i will have fun though.
You have looked up the density of KCL haven’t you?
1.984g/cm[sup]3[/sup], via CRC.
It’s not just the K+, it’s the balance between your body load of K+ and other ions, most particularly Na+, Cl- and Ca++.
Disruptions in that balance can affect your muscles and nerves, resulting in spasms or seizures, in minutes. Applying a much smaller load directly, it can take seconds. C Everett Koop recounts in his autobiography, a time when he killed a patient by using a potassium salt of an antibiotic instead of a sodium salt. Death resulted from what amounted to a few tens of milligrams of potassium.
Admittedly, he was a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, and drinking excess potassium is an entirely different (and far safer) proposition. Still I would second thye assertion that there’s a reason commercial supplements use relatively modest doses. Alas, the fact that someone argues against it tells me that they don’t have the grasp of physiology to understand any short compelling proof of its wisdom.
But I feel I have to try:
You can amply -and safely- supplement your potassiumin a more balanced way through food. A medium baked potato or 20 french fries has an estimated 270 mg. If you feel the need to supply not just thousands of milligrams, but thousands fo mEq (the important ionic measure = or better yet use units of mEQ/kg/min) without knowing what a MEq is, or the conversion, or why it’s crucial… Well, I have to wonder why.
To be fair, I made my own electrolyte supplements in my youth… as a starving medical student, just a year short of graduation, with a graduate degree in molecular biology and more years of biochemistry than I care to count. I think there is a difference in our planning and calculations
If you think 50 bananas will kill you, that illustrates my point. 1 tsp of crystal KCl contains almost 4000mg of K+. Dissolve it in a glass of water, and you will have a brief electrolyte change [and imbalance] greater than eating 50 bananas. Bananas have sodium (etc.) as well as potassium, so they don’t disrupt your electrolytes as much. 4000mg of KCL in water won’t most people, but it’s more dangerous than you imagine, especially since you can drink it in the time it takes to eat a single banana. This drastically increases the risk of a transient cardiac disruption.
I’m not saying it’ll kill you, but it’s a greater risk than I’d undertake for a hospital patient unless I really needed to. You never know when your heart will flake out, and you won’t exactly be in a position to help yourself (even if you knew how) – and we won’t even discuss the many renal effects, which can be significant.
Such large boluses of K+ are nutrituonally useless anyway. Do you know how your body will resolve the imbalance? By peeing out the extra K+. It’ll do it as quickly as it can, because it doesn’t have significant reserves of Na+ or Cl- , and mobilizing excess reserves of, say, Ca++ in you bone would take days too long. Patients who consume far too much salt often consume far too much “salt substitute” when they are forced to decrease sodium – and do you know what the commonest salt substitute is? KCl + salt. I’d rather see you use that (and drink lots of water) to achieve whatever balance you think you want to attain.
Extra K+, in modest doses over the course of a day, is normally harmless. In large brief doses, it’s like… well imagine someone announced they were going to eat 50 bananas every day (using your “potentially lethal dose”) and used your argument that sufficient water will kill you. Would that sound right to you. Just because one thing can kill you, does it mean you can do anything else that can kill you? Wouldn’t it make more sense to calibrate by what won’t kill you?
It’s not that I think you’re at imminent risk of death. The bigger risk is in your reasoning.
Do you know how to detect a transient K+ overdose? If not, you haven’t nearly done your homework (not that merely knowing would help)
You, uh, wanted to take 500 mg. That’s a lot. Perhaps you can count numbers on a measuring spoon, but I suspect you don’t have the knowledge to know which numbers to count to. If it was safe to take larger quantities than 99 mgs as a supplement, why wouldn’t pills supply that amount? It’s not like the stuff’s expensive.
But hey, your heart, your kidneys, your osmotic balance . . . and as always, have fun!
Your sig does your response justice, soooo many thinly guised supercilious insults. But your info was good, thanks.
So what is the LD[sub]50[/sub] of, uh, bananas?
Just a little food for though…
All the K+ I’ve come across during my time as a paramedic is packaged as 20 mEQ in a 1L bag. When I transport any patient on a K+ drip recieves more than 10mEQ an hour the drip must be on a pump (to ensure that the exact dose is given) and the patient must be on a cardiac monitor.
That’s not exactly true. Potassium is water soluble, as long as your kidneys are working you can eat all the bananas you can hold.
KCl is an intravenous drug. Its in most IVs in the hospital.
The lethal injection is dependent on the rate at which its injected. A fast bolus will cause arrhythmias. It can be reversed if the bolus is accidental and observed. High doses of IV Glucose, insulin, or Calcium can all reverse the Potassium overdose.
Not to the OP’s original question. First, if you aren’t taking aloop diauretic, and not on dialysis, you don’t need extra potassium. Your kidneys are very frugal with it.
No matter how one takes it, (those who need it) its nasty. The most palatable way to take prescription liquid KCl is,so I’ve been told, in unsalted vegatable juice.
Hey Westly, FWIW I have been formulating my own “gatorade” for years. I work in the blazing sun and get such happy symptoms as “jumpy legs” and "severe muscle cramps.
I have found that quinine helps immensly, delivered in the form of tonic water. Takes a couple of bottles. A multi mineral tablet every few days doesn’t seem to hurt.
Oral rehydration recipies can be found all over the net, just use your common sense ( I’m sure you have plenty)
You’re right. There was too much attitude - and frankly not nearly as much specific factual detail as I should have provided, despite your gracious credit. It wasn’t the post I meant to write, or frankly even the post I thought I wrote.
I’ve been in a foul mood the past couple of weeks. It’s been shining through, even when I don’t feel any personal animus. I’d like to think that I’d ordinarily have caught this during editing, but my impatience and unfocused frustration have also kept me from properly revising my posts lately.
I owe you a specific apology, Wesley Clark. I also owe a general apology to all the Dopers who’ve had to put up with my drivel during this rough patch.
My temporary emotional state is no excuse for unjustifiably snide posts, especially since it didn’t reflect my feelings about you or your [quite reasonable] question.