Baby Food warning heightened, after baby in The Bahamas gets sick – Magnetic Media

#TheBahamas, February 25, 2022 In The Bahamas, heart disease and hypertension are among the leading causes of doctors visits, illness, and death (source: Ministry of Health in The Bahamas.) Bahamian doctors advise that both tracking and maintaining healthy blood pressurelevels are essential to overall long-term health. A well-balanced diet is important too, to ensure your body receives necessary nutrients and vitamins, including potassium.

While other nutrients are important for your health, potassium is recognized for its ability to help lower high blood pressure. To better understand how that happens and how to incorporate a healthy amount of potassium into your diet, we spoke to cardiovascular specialistRaghavendra Makam, MD, MPHat Cleveland Clinic Floridas Indian River Hospital in Vero Beach, Florida.

Does potassium lower blood pressure?

Dr. Makam confirms that, yes, potassium really does lower blood pressure. The American Heart Association (AHA)recommendshaving a sufficient potassium intake both as a preventative measure and a treatment option for patients withhypertension, he notes.

How does potassium lower blood pressure?

Dr. Makam explains that the most direct way potassium helps lower blood pressure is in how the nutrient interacts with your kidneys and sodium. We know too much sodium is bad for blood pressure, so kidneys have a mechanism for excreting excess sodium to maintain blood pressure, he explains. Potassium helps the kidneys excrete that excess sodium instead of retaining it.

Potassium also helps improve your bodys overall vascular health, he adds. Potassium eases tension in the walls of blood vessels and that, in turn, can have other benefits on your heart health.

Because potassium positively affects your entire vascular system, it helps reduce multiple risks, explains Dr. Makam. Because it helps blood vessels in your brain, kidneys and heart, it reduces the risk of stroke, kidney failure and heart disease.

How much potassium do you need on a daily basis?

Surveys have shown that people generally eat too much sodium and not enough potassium, says Dr. Makam. So, getting that balance right as part of a well-rounded diet is essential. The recommended daily requirement of potassium is around 4,700 to 5,000 milligrams.

Good sources of potassium

Youve probably heard at some point that bananas are the best source of potassium, but Dr. Makam cautions against relying on a single fruit as a staple for your daily potassium requirement.

Since a medium banana contains about 422 milligrams of potassium, you would have to eat more than 10 bananas a day to get the recommended daily amount of potassium, which is obviously not a wise choice given the additional calories it adds to the diet, he says.

So while bananas can be one source, its important to make sure youre usingother fruits and vegetablesto maintain that potassium intake. Other foods Dr. Makam recommends for healthy amounts of potassium include:

Besides making sure your diet is well-balanced, Dr. Makam recommends factoring in other components, like sugar and starch contents, when choosing foods.

Are potassium supplements OK?

While some people may choose to include certain dietary supplements as part of their daily intake, Dr. Makam notes, nature trumps man-made stuff. Its always preferable to get these nutrients and vitamins in adequate amounts from natural sources.

Because of the unregulated nature of supplements, he says, its always best to talk to your healthcare provider about ways to improve your intake of certain nutrients and vitamins before buying any supplements.

Is there such a thing as too much potassium?

Just as with anything, its possible to have too much potassium, says Dr. Makam. Too much potassium can cause severe muscle weakness and heart rhythm problems that can be serious if not diagnosed and corrected early.

People who should avoid high amounts of potassium

Dr. Makam notes thatangiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)inhibitors, Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) and Aldosterone antagonists, which are some of the common medications designed to lower blood pressure, already help your body retain potassium. If youre taking one of these medications and include extra potassium on top of that, there are risks of complications.

He also points out that people withkidney diseaseshould also avoid excess potassium. Damaged kidneys cant remove excess potassium from your blood, so the amount can build todangerous levels, if not monitored correctly.

The key is balance, says Dr. Makam. Your healthcare provider will know your specific health conditions, your current medications and latest blood levels, which will help come up with the right approach for you.

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Baby Food warning heightened, after baby in The Bahamas gets sick - Magnetic Media