Fri, Nov-09-01, 09:48
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Registered Member
Posts: 48
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Plan: Carb. Addicts
Stats: 185/190/170
BF:21%
Progress: -33%
Location: USA
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Heart Palpitations and Potassium
Dear Karma,
Natrushka may be right about the potassium. I have hypokalemic (low potassium) Periodic Paralysis and use a low carb diet to control insulin and stabilize my muscle cell membranes. Once in a while, one of us dies when our potassium gets too low (in our case, it's not really gone, it's just in the wrong place--for you, the potassium is probably just being flushed down the toilet).
If you are having heart problems you need to, Need To, NEED TO go to the ER.
They may blow you off, but they can and should check for low potassium on the heart monitor. Classic EKG signs of low potassium are prolonged QT or PR intervals or flattened T waves. Any cardiologist should recognize low potassium if they know they are supposed to be looking for it. Please don't mess around with this. If your potassium is so low your heart rate or rhythm is affected, it needs to be fixed, and can be fixed NOW. Please don't wait. Go to the ER NOW. Drinking prescription potassium bicarbonate or getting some intravenus potassium may be able to stop the skippiness inside of 30 minutes and prevent your heart from loosing its rhythm completely.
Generally, most people can get by with over the counter potassium gluconate tablets during Induction. These usually come in 99 mg tablets and are equal to about 3% of the typical daily requirement. That means that 10 of these pills might be 30% of your daily needs when you are eating "normally". You might need a lot more during your Induction phase. If your EKG comes back showing low potassium, you might need to skip Induction and go on to eating 50-60 grams of carbs (still very low and effective for weight loss) plus get some prescription strength potassium. Talk with your docs. and please write again when you get back from the ER.
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