Under Appreciated Issues In The Treatment Of Chronic Illness -- Low Grade, Chronic Acidosis Combined With Potassium Deficiency -- Part V -- Potassium Metabolism And Clinical Application Of Potassium Supplement.

Over the last few months I have devoted the Moss Nutrition Report to my cause of increasing awareness in the clinical nutrition community that, even with the new treatment vistas that have been opened to us through genomics, new generation functional medicine tests and supplements, and exciting dietary protocols such as intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet, addressing basic issues such as muscle and protein metabolism, acid/alkaline balance, and optimal potassium intake still has significant clinical utility. In this installment, I would like to go back to the subject of potassium and explore in depth its metabolism and application in terms of supplementation. To do this I will first review an excellent paper that provides some of the often ignored and under-appreciated fine points of potassium metabolism. Then I will provide an overview of three papers that consider three important aspects of potassium supplementation -- improving bone health, retarding systemic protein breakdown, and deciding which form of potassium supplementation is best.