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The charismatic giant panda is a global conservation icon and the symbol of our organisation. Thanks to decades of successful conservation work, wild panda numbers are starting to recover, but they remain at risk. Their habitat is severely fragmented which is the biggest threat to their survival. Pandas typically lead a solitary life.
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- Overview
- What Is Potassium?
- It Helps Regulate Fluid Balance
- Potassium Is Important for the Nervous System
- Potassium Helps Regulate Muscle and Heart Contractions
- Health Benefits of Potassium
- Sources of Potassium
- Consequences of Too Much or Too Little Potassium
- The Bottom Line
A potassium-rich diet is linked to many powerful health benefits. It may help reduce blood pressure and water retention, protect against stroke and help prevent osteoporosis and kidney stones.
The importance of potassium is highly underestimated.
This mineral is classified as an electrolyte because it’s highly reactive in water. When dissolved in water, it produces positively charged ions.
This special property allows it to conduct electricity, which is important for many processes throughout the body.
Potassium is the third most abundant mineral in the body (5).
It helps the body regulate fluid, send nerve signals and regulate muscle contractions.
Roughly 98% of the potassium in your body is found in your cells. Of this, 80% is found in your muscle cells, while the other 20% can be found in your bones, liver and red blood cells (6).
Once inside your body, it functions as an electrolyte.
When in water, an electrolyte dissolves into positive or negative ions that have the ability to conduct electricity. Potassium ions carry a positive charge.
Your body uses this electricity to manage a variety of processes, including fluid balance, nerve signals and muscle contractions (7, 8).
The body is made of approximately 60% water (9).
40% of this water is found inside your cells in a substance called intracellular fluid (ICF).
The remainder is found outside your cells in areas such as your blood, spinal fluid and between cells. This fluid is called extracellular fluid (ECF).
Interestingly, the amount of water in the ICF and ECF is affected by their concentration of electrolytes, especially potassium and sodium.
Potassium is the main electrolyte in the ICF, and it determines the amount of water inside the cells. Conversely, sodium is the main electrolyte in the ECF, and it determines the amount of water outside the cells.
The number of electrolytes relative to the amount of fluid is called osmolality. Under normal conditions, the osmolality is the same inside and outside your cells.
The nervous system relays messages between your brain and body.
These messages are delivered in the form of nerve impulses and help regulate your muscle contractions, heartbeat, reflexes and many other body functions (12).
Interestingly, nerve impulses are generated by sodium ions moving into cells and potassium ions moving out of cells.
The movement of ions changes the voltage of the cell, which activates a nerve impulse (13).
Unfortunately, a drop in blood levels of potassium can affect the body’s ability to generate a nerve impulse (6).
Getting enough potassium from your diet can help you maintain healthy nerve function.
The nervous system helps regulate muscle contractions.
However, altered blood potassium levels can affect nerve signals in the nervous system, weakening muscle contractions.
Both low and high blood levels can affect nerve impulses by altering the voltage of nerve cells (6, 14).
The mineral is also important for a healthy heart, as its movement in and out of cells helps maintain a regular heartbeat.
When blood levels of the mineral are too high, the heart may become dilated and flaccid. This can weaken its contractions and produce an abnormal heartbeat (8).
Likewise, low levels in the blood can also alter the heartbeat (15).
May Help Reduce Blood Pressure
High blood pressure affects nearly one in three Americans (17). It’s a risk factor for heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide (18). A potassium-rich diet may reduce blood pressure by helping the body remove excess sodium (18). High sodium levels can elevate blood pressure, especially for people whose blood pressure is already high (19). An analysis of 33 studies found that when people with high blood pressure increased their potassium intake, their systolic blood pressure decreased by 3.49 mmHg, while their diastolic blood pressure decreased by 1.96 mmHg (1). In another study including 1,285 participants aged 25–64, scientists found that people who ate the most potassium had reduced blood pressure, compared to people who ate the least. Those who consumed the most had systolic blood pressure that was 6 mmHg lower and diastolic blood pressure that was 4 mmHg lower, on average (20).
May Help Protect Against Strokes
A stroke occurs when there is a lack of blood flow to the brain. It’s the cause of death for more than 130,000 Americans every year (21). Several studies have found that eating a potassium-rich diet may help prevent strokes (1, 22). In an analysis of 33 studies including 128,644 participants, scientists found that people who ate the most potassium had a 24% lower risk of stroke than people who ate the least (1). Additionally, an analysis of 11 studies with 247,510 participants found that people who ate the most potassium had a 21% lower risk of stroke. They also found that eating a diet rich in this mineral was linked to a reduced risk of heart disease (22).
May Help Prevent Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a condition characterized by hollow and porous bones. It’s often linked to low levels of calcium, an important mineral for bone health (23). Interestingly, studies show that a potassium-rich diet may help prevent osteoporosis by reducing how much calcium the body loses through urine (24, 25, 26). In a study in 62 healthy women aged 45–55, scientists found that people who ate the most potassium had the greatest total bone mass (2). In another study with 994 healthy premenopausal women, scientists found that those who ate the most potassium had more bone mass in their lower back and hip bones (27).
Potassium is abundant in many whole foods, especially fruits, vegetables and fish.
Most health authorities agree that getting 3,500–4,700 mg of potassium daily appears to be the optimal amount (35, 36).
Here’s how much potassium you can get from eating a 3.5-ounce (100-gram) serving of foods rich in this mineral (37).
•Beet greens, cooked: 909 mg
•Yams, baked: 670 mg
•Pinto beans, cooked: 646 mg
Less than 2% of Americans meet the US recommendations for potassium (41).
However, a low potassium intake will rarely cause a deficiency (42, 43).
Instead, deficiencies mostly happen when the body suddenly loses too much potassium. This may happen with chronic vomiting, chronic diarrhea or in other situations in which you’ve lost a lot of water (44).
It’s also uncommon to get too much potassium. Though it may happen if you take too many potassium supplements, there is no strong evidence that healthy adults can get too much potassium from foods (45).
Excess blood potassium mostly occurs when the body cannot remove the mineral through urine. Therefore, it mostly affects people with poor kidney function or chronic kidney disease (46).
Additionally, particular populations may need to limit their potassium intake, including those with chronic kidney disease, those taking blood pressure medications and elderly people, as kidney function normally declines with age (47, 48, 49).
Potassium is one of the most important minerals in the body.
It helps regulate fluid balance, muscle contractions and nerve signals.
What’s more, a high-potassium diet may help reduce blood pressure and water retention, protect against stroke and prevent osteoporosis and kidney stones.
Unfortunately, very few people get enough potassium. To get more in your diet, consume more potassium-rich foods, such as beet greens, spinach, kale and salmon.
Sri Pada's religious associations, its height and its great natural beauty have long made it a favourite with writers and poets and its glories are celebrated in the literature of a dozen languages. The most famous such work is the Sumantakutavannana, a Pali poem composed in the 13th cent by Veheda Thera.
We should do everything we can to save the giant panda because we are the ones that have driven it to the edge of extinction. And because we can. But pandas also play a crucial role in China's bamboo forests by spreading seeds and helping the vegetation to grow. So by saving pandas, we will also be saving so much more.
1 day ago · giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) inhabits bamboo forests in the mountains of central China. (more) Large males may attain 1.8 metres (6 feet) in length and weigh more than 100 kg (220 pounds); females are usually smaller. Round black ears and black eye patches stand out against a white face and neck.
Oct 24, 2006 · Grossly, the constitution of the fetal ductus arteriosus appears to be similar to the contiguous main pulmonary artery and descending aorta; there are important histological differences, however. 4–9 Whereas the mediae of surrounding aorta and pulmonary artery are composed mainly of circumferentially arranged layers of elastic fibers, the media of the ductus arteriosus is composed of ...
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Aug 8, 2023 · The ductus arteriosus is a fetal vessel that allows the oxygenated blood from the placenta to bypass the lungs in utero. At birth, the lungs fill with air with the first breaths, pulmonary vascular resistance drops, and blood flows from the right ventricle to the lungs for oxygenation. The increased arterial oxygen tension and the decreased ...
