Potassium Level and Chronic Kidney Disease
2013-12-29 13:12
What are the relationships between potassium level and chronic kidney disease? As we know, CKD patients often have high potassium, which will affect their daily life. So kidney disease patients should keep the balance of potassium level and kidney disease. In order to make a beneficial potassium level for CKD patients, they should first know some informations of potassium.
What is potassium and why is it important to people?
Potassium is a common mineral which can be found in many foods, and it plays an important role in keeping the heartbeat regular and keeping the muscles working right. Healthy kidneys can keep a normal potassium level in body. However, for CKD patients, their kidneys are damaged and they fail to work well. The excess potassium cant be excreted out by kidneys, so the potassium will build up in blood, which will cause high potassium level. When patients have high potassium level, they may feel weakness, numbness and tingling. Besides, if the potassium level is in a dangerous level, patients may have irregular heartbeat or a heart attack, which may even cause a death.
What is a safe potassium level for people?
If the potassium level in blood is 3.5-5.0, people are in the safe zone.
If the potassium level is 5.1-6.0, people are in the caution zone.
If the potassium level is higher than 6.0, people are in the danger zone.
How to keep the potassium level from getting too high for CKD patients?
- Patients should limit the high potassium foods, which will help patients to cut off the source of potassium intake.
- Patients should eat a variety of foods but in moderate amount.
- If patients want to take some high potassium vegetables in their diet, they should leach them before eating. Leaching is a process which can help leak out the potassium in vegetables.
- CKD patients should not drink or use the liquid from canned fruits and vegetables, or the juices from cooked meat.
- Most of the foods contain potassium, if patients eat too much low-potassium foods, they will also increase their potassium level, so patents should measure the amount of their potassium intake everyday.
These are some useful informations for CKD patients who have high potassium, we hope all the patients can keep a normal potassium level in their bodies. If you still have some questions or you want to get a kidney-friendly diet for your illness, you can send e-mail to kidney-treatment@hotmail.com.
- Tag: CKD Diet
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