What's the Health Benefit of Potassium?

Potassium

Good Food Sources: Dried apricots, baked potatoes, dried prunes, cantaloupe, bananas, spinach

If monkeys eat as many bananas in the wild as they do on television, there is no way that any of them will ever suffer from high blood pressure.

That's because potassium--in humans, anyway--is a key factor in keeping blood pressure at the right level for maximum cardiovascular health.

How does potassium regulate blood pressure? Scientists believe it may have something to do with potassium's ability to pump sodium out of the body's cells and reduce body fluid. Potassium may also affect blood vessel tone, or resistance. Or it may be that potassium modifies the way blood vessels react to circulating hormones that affect blood pressure, such as vasopressin and norepinephrine.

In any case, potassium's ability to lower blood pressure is such that some scientists suspect low dietary levels of the mineral may actually trigger high blood pressure in certain people.

Aside from its miraculous effect on blood pressure, potassium is also necessary for good muscle contraction, healthy electrical activity in the heart and rapid transmission of nerve impulses throughout the body. This is why heartbeat irregularities are considered a classic sign of potassium deficiency. Other symptoms of deficiency can include muscle weakness, numbness and tingling in the lower extremities, nausea, vomiting, confusion and irritability.

http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/10/11.cfm

www.DEPSYL.com

http://bionutritionalresearch.olhblogspace.com/

http://depsyl.blogspot.com/