So, potassium supplements. I’m to take them, and have taken them for years. They are by prescription. The dose I was started on, 20 meQ, is a) enormous, b) dry and uncoated, c) gag-inducing, so I’ve been allowed to take the 10 meQ, which is a smaller caplet but still dry, uncoated, and gaggy. It also costs $$ because this dose isn’t in my insurance plan’s formulary. At least once a week now, taking it makes me throw up. I am not alone in finding it vile. Hence my question: Why aren’t there potassium supplements that have an enteric coating or use a capsule? At least, I can’t find them (except one OTC brand that has only 99 mg, whereas I’m currently on 740 and was initially supposed to be on 1480).
At this point, I don’t really care if it’s potassium chloride, citrate, or some other -ate, I just want a delivery vehicle that doesn’t make me vomit. I’ve ordered some gummies to try, but in general, gummies lose potency quickly in the jar, and I don’t like to work against my diabetes meds with the sugar, even though it’s not a lot.
Please don’t recommend potassium salt substitute. I find it disgusting. I eat a high potassium diet to the extent that I am able.
Is there something magical about potassium that precludes the use of a gelatin capsule or enteric coating?
Does anyone use the gummies? Are they palatable?
Should I care about chloride, citrate, other formulations? Does it matter?
Thanks.
No, Discourse, this isn’t at all similar to “Cheapest, quickest way to make a cubic meter sized time buried capsule that will last 1000+ years” or “What makes one car’s air conditioner create cold air so much quicker than the other car?” but thanks anyway.
I just looked on Amazon. I typed Potassium supplement. 1000s.
I see a couple of capsules type. Of course you can’t see the size. And there’s a liquid 500mg. That sounds really gross.
Lots and lots of gummies. It’s according to whether you can work the carbs in your diet. I can’t imagine they have very much sugar in each gummy. You could buy a bottle of say 30 at a time. And subscribe to have it delivered every month.
I hope you can find in. 750mg. Potassium supplement capsules.
I suppose that means what I think capsules are. The gel coated ovoid shaped thingys. Some show pictures of the actual pill. It looks like it. You can actually email them thru their Amazon store.
When I was on a doctor-supervised protein-sparing liquid diet, I had potassium supplements in a liquid form, because with no solid food in the stomach solid potassium “would burn a hole through the stomach lining,” as the doctor told me. I have no idea of the dosage, this was going on 20 years ago. In case this information is of any use to you.
Be very, very careful buying drugs off of Amazon (or on line in general). Unless it is from a licensed, certified, verified source you have no assurance of what you are getting, it’s purity or dosage.
Mg and mEq units are not easily comparable. Drs, nurses and pharmacists have agreed for many decades that those abbreviations are easily conflated and trouble just waiting to happen. Here’s a mg=mEq for potassium from drugs.com (sorry it’s in a less than ideal format, the details are in there, but buried):
…How is Potassium Chloride supplied
Strength
Description
10 mEq (750 mg)
Yellow, oval, biconvex, film-coated tablets, debossed with “YH156” on one side and plain on the other side.
20 mEq (1,500 mg)
White to off-white, oval, biconvex, film-coated tablets, debossed with “YH155” on one side and plain on the other side.
Here’s a good article on potassium supplements from Good Rx:
Note that if you are treating kidney stone issues, potassium citrate is the preferred formulation.
The American Urological Association offers this about potassium citrate, including specifics about what they found about pot. citrate available on Amazon, mentioning several brand names.
… The top 6 potassium citrate supplements were purchased from Amazon.com in October 2020 and April 2021. These supplements and Urocit®-K were dissolved in deionized water and diluted before measurement with a colorimetric citrate assay kit. A pH electrode was used to measure the pH of each sample and the alkali citrate content of each supplement was calculated.
Results:
Urocit-K and Thorne® had the highest percentage of alkali citrate per gram. NOW® supplements and Nutricost® offered the cheapest alkali citrate at less than 1 cent per mEq.
Conclusions:
Citrate supplements vary widely in their cost and citrate content. Patients and providers may find this information useful depending on their individual preferences for cost and pill size. Pharmaceutical Urocit-K was not the most cost-effective option; however, it may be the more convenient option as it requires fewer pills.…
A month’s supply of 20mEq prescription potassium citrate would cost you $26.10 from WalMart (with a ‘coupon’ from the Good Rx site). That would be taking two capsule/tablets for that daily dose.
To get that from Amazon (non-prescription) you’d need to take 15 capsules A DAY to get that same dosage. That cost would be $22.50 a month. For me, taking 15 Amazon capsules a day vs. 2 Rx would not be worth it to save less than $4.00. Nope, nope, nope, as our dear friend Beck would say.
If your insurance company won’t pay for the Rx (the b@st@rds!), pick your battles, choose to die on another hill and bypass your insurance, get the virtual coupon from the GoodRx website and pay $26 out of pocket. Any pharmacist knows how to use GoodRx to get you that price. To get it from Amazon you’re gonna pay $22.50 plus shipping, meaning it’ll cost you more than $26 and you’ll have to swallow a fistful a day.
Right. My insurance covers it 100%.
I go to brick and mortar pharmacy.
The Amazon thing I mentioned was because the OP was looking for an OTC alternative, that was a smaller capsule, not a gaggy powdery pill.
I would never take that many pills a day for one supplement, there’s no reason to. I’m sure there’s something else available.
@susan , maybe your doctor’s nurse line or patient portal could help you locate the mg size, pill type, pill size and coating thing you’re needing. I would ask.
Doc maybe too pressed for time and patients to dig thru a PDR or website. Even the pharmacist might help.
I’ve been taking potassium citrate for kidney issues for years now. My major issue is: why is it so expensive? It’s generic medicine with a very simple formula (I assume), with established uses, yet it’s never covered by insurance.
It was for some other drug, but my pharmacist was willing to sell me empty capsules i could fill myself. They were too large for what i wanted, so i never bought them. But they might work for you, if you are willing to put your pills into the capsules yourself.
