Guest Author - Carolyn Chambers Clark, ARNP, EdD

Potassium is an important mineral if you want a healthy nervous system and a regular heart rhythm. Potassium can help prevent stroke, and works with sodium to control your body's water balance. Potassium also aids in proper muscle contraction.

That's not all potassium does. This mineral helps you maintain stable blood pressure and transmit electrochemical impulses. When you have enough of this mineral, it aids in transferring nutrients through cell membranes.

Signs of potassium deficiency include dry skin, acne, chills, constipation, depression, diarrhea, salt retention/fluid collection (edema), nervousness, insatiable thirst, fluctuations in heart beat, glucose intolerance, growth impairment, high cholesterol levels, low blood pressure, sleep difficulties (insomnia), headaches, trouble breathing.

Potassium deficiency can also lead to thinking impairment, muscle pain, leg cramps, fatigue, and diminished reflex action so you bump into walls and walk around in a daze.

In the summertime or anytime you perspire profusely, you can lose valuable amounts of potassium. If you have diarrhea, use diuretics or laxatives, are feeling stressed, smoke and use caffeine, you may be deficient in this mineral because all of these situations can reduce potassium absorption and increase the body's need for potassium.

What to do?

Eat more of these potassium-rich foods:

*fish
*fruit (especially apricots, avocados, bananas, dates, raisins)
*vegetables (especially winter squash)
*legumes (dried beans and peas; peanuts)
*whole grains (breads, cereals, pasta)
*potatoes and yams
*nuts
*blackstrap molasses
*brown rice

If you're really deficient in potassium, consider taking a potassium gluconate tablet (99mg; find it at the health food store and keep it for emergency situations; follow the directions on the bottle), preferably with food, until the muscle pain, thinking impairment, dazed feeling, and/or heart palpitations stop. After that, be sure to eat potassium-rich foods at every meal.