High blood pressure is a precursor for serious complications including heart attacks or strokes. But one’s lifestyle habits can greatly affect how high one’s reading may be. The power of supplements can be extremely effective when treating a variety of health ailments. According to studies, taking potassium supplements could help lower your reading and reduce your risk of serious health consequences. How?
Potassium helps counteract the effects of sodium on blood pressure.
The American Heart Association also points out that potassium helps decrease pressure on your artery walls.
Numerous studies support potassium supplements as a treatment to lower blood pressure.
Health experts advise a typical dose of 99 mg of potassium supplements per day to help lower your reading.
In a study published in Hypertension, the effects of taking potassium supplements to help lower one’s blood pressure was analysed.
The study noted: “Much evidence suggests that potassium intake plays an important role in regulating blood pressure.
“Clinical trials of potassium supplementation have shown a significant blood pressure-lowering effect, particularly in individuals with high blood pressure.
“Randomized trials have shown that increasing potassium intake lowers blood pressure.
“Our results, in conjunction with the evidence from many previous trials that potassium chloride has a significant blood pressure-lowering effect, suggest that potassium citrate has a similar effect on blood pressure as potassium chloride.
“These results support other evidence for an increase in potassium intake and indicate that potassium does not need to be given in the form of chloride to lower blood pressure.
“Increasing the consumption of foods high in potassium is likely to have the same effect on blood pressure as potassium chloride.”
Foods that are rich in potassium are also important in managing high blood pressure because potassium lessens the effects of sodium.
The more potassium you eat, the more sodium you lose through urine. Potassium also helps to ease tension in your blood vessel walls, which helps further lower blood pressure.
Increasing potassium through diet is recommended in adults with blood pressure above 120/80 who are otherwise healthy.
Foods rich in potassium include bananas, cooked spinach, cooked broccoli and mushrooms.
“Even though potassium can lessen the blood pressure-raising effects of sodium, eating more potassium should be combined with your efforts to break up with that excess salt and develop other healthy eating and lifestyle habits,” advised the American Heart Association.
“Too much potassium can be harmful in people with kidney disorders.
“As kidneys become less able to remove potassium from your blood, too much potassium may build up.”
Consult with a healthcare professional before taking any over-the-counter potassium supplement.
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