Benefits of potassium and how to get enough

Potassium supports countless functions in the human body. For example, potassium molecules continually move in and out of every cell, allowing nerve impulses to fire and cells to maintain proper water levels. It also supports the production of certain hormones, like insulin.

These many roles of potassium underpin the tangible benefits you’ll feel day-to-day. Getting enough potassium helps the nervous system fire, supports the health and longevity of our organs and bones, and supports stable blood sugar.

Yet most people don't get enough potassium. Only 20–40% of Americans meet the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's adequate intake of 3.4 grams/day for men and 2.6 grams/day for women. And science suggests optimal intakes may be higher at 3.5–5 grams/day.

What happens when we're potassium deficient? Nothing good. Researchers have linked potassium deficiency to higher risks of high blood pressure, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and diabetes.

While electrolytes are just one piece of the health puzzle, it’s safe to say that consuming enough potassium can support your health in a variety of ways. In this article we’re going to dig into the benefits of this mineral, plus how to get enough through food and electrolyte drinks.

Potassium’s Benefits

#1: Nervous system health

Potassium supports your nervous system because it carries an electrical charge when dissolved in a liquid (that’s what makes it an electrolyte!). Your nervous system uses this electrical charge to send the signals that tell your lungs to breathe, legs to walk, and heart to beat.

It follows, then, that not consuming enough potassium can impair nervous system function. Low blood potassium levels (hypokalemia) can cause issues like muscle cramps, weakness, fatigue, and heart rhythm issues. See this article for a deeper dive into how potassium supports nervous system function.

#2: Blood pressure

Higher consumption of potassium is associated with lower blood pressure. For hypertensive folks in particular, a 2017 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) found that long-term potassium supplementation lowered blood pressure in those with hypertension, especially if those folks had low dietary potassium intakes to begin with.

How does this work? Potassium may lower blood pressure in two ways:

1. By increasing sodium excretion
2. By relaxing blood vessels

Let's talk about the sodium-potassium relationship with blood pressure first. To break it down simply, sodium increases blood volume, which keeps blood pressure up. This helps your heart pump your blood — full of oxygen and nutrients — through your body. Potassium balances this system by increasing sodium excretion and keeping sodium levels within normal ranges. Consequently, blood pressure stays within normal ranges too, not getting too high.

Wait, aren't you supposed to restrict sodium for blood pressure reduction? That's the conventional wisdom, and yes, excess sodium can elevate blood pressure. But the science suggests sodium restriction also raises blood pressure by stimulating hormones like renin and aldosterone, which help your body retain sodium. Not really a win-win situation. Which is why a more effective plan can be to get enough potassium to keep sodium levels balanced.

Besides balancing sodium, potassium also helps relax blood vessel walls, which allows blood to flow through more easily and decreases the pressure exerted on veins and arteries — thus lowering blood pressure. This can also help reduce strain on the cardiovascular system overall.

The takeaway is that potassium sufficiency can help prevent high blood pressure, a significant heart disease risk factor. Read our article here to get the full scoop on electrolytes and heart health.

#3: Bone density

Higher potassium intakes are associated with lower osteoporosis risk. A 2013 RCT found that 24 months of supplementing 2,350 mg of potassium increased bone density in healthy older adults without osteoporosis. A 2015 RCT found something similar: Taking potassium reduced biomarkers of bone loss in older adults. However, there is a smaller amount of evidence that shows potassium doesn’t impact bone density; for example, a 2008 RCT found that two years of potassium supplementation did not improve bone density in postmenopausal women.

All in all, potassium appears to support bone density, but it's not the only factor. Read our article on osteoporosis for a deeper dive.

#4: Kidney stones

Kidney stones are mineral deposits that can be excruciating when passed through the urinary tract. 80% of kidney stones are made of calcium, and potassium reduces calcium excretion through urine, which may translate to a lower kidney stone risk.

In an observational study following 45,619 men over four years, those consuming over 4 grams of potassium daily had a 51% lower risk of kidney stones than men consuming under 2.8 grams daily. This data is observational, so we can't say if potassium caused the reduced risk, but there's no downside to getting the right amount of this electrolyte.

#5: Blood sugar regulation

Your pancreas needs potassium to produce the hormone insulin. And yes, insulin is important.

When you consume carbs, you break those carbs into sugar and absorb the sugar into your bloodstream. Insulin transports that sugar into muscle and liver cells, preventing high blood sugar (high blood sugar damages many organs). Insulin resistance occurs when insulin fails to move blood sugar into cells — the core pathology of type 2 diabetes.

So potassium helps you make insulin, but do higher potassium intakes reduce diabetes risk? Possibly. For instance, The Nurses' Health Study, which followed 84,360 women over six years, found that women eating the most potassium had a 38% lower diabetes risk than women consuming the least. A 2017 review didn’t find the same link, but did note that low blood potassium levels were linked to risk of diabetes.

A key commonality here is that high potassium intakes just about universally coincide with eating minimally processed, healthy foods, which itself is inversely related to all manner of metabolic disease. So while it’s not exactly clear whether a healthy diet reduces diabetes risk or potassium itself does, we do know that potassium supports the blood sugar response. And as we’ll touch on shortly, to boost your potassium intake you’ll want to be eating whole, natural foods anyways.

How to Get Enough Potassium

While we don’t fully know yet how potassium supports all the body’s functions — biology is tricky like that, because we can often spot correlations before we can decipher how it works on a cellular level — there’s no doubt that consuming enough potassium supports health. Research suggests 3.5–5 grams of potassium daily is ideal for blood pressure reduction and is safe for folks with healthy kidneys. Let's review how to know if you're potassium deficient, and tips for fixing that situation.

#1: Assess your potassium status

The most accurate way to assess your potassium status is to calculate your daily potassium intake with a diet-tracking app like Cronometer. Once you have the data, you can adjust your potassium consumption if necessary.

While potassium deficiency can present symptoms — such as high blood pressure, kidney stones, and poor bone density — these symptoms are subtle and can be hard to catch, and can also stem from other causes. It's wise to track these markers, but give more weight to the dietary intake data.

Blood tests are another common way to measure potassium levels, but they don’t indicate potassium sufficiency. Your kidneys work overtime to keep blood potassium levels within a tight range, dialing up or down urinary potassium excretion as needed or even drawing from other stores like bone. Consequently, normal blood levels of potassium do NOT prove you’re potassium sufficient, as your body may be using some workarounds to keep the levels within range.

While low potassium intakes can contribute to low blood potassium levels, if you see this on a blood test, the primary drivers are likely vomiting, diarrhea, or another medical condition that rapidly depletes potassium stores. Low blood potassium often warrants medical attention. Read our low-potassium article for more info.

#2: Eat potassium-rich foods

Meat, fish, and plants are high in potassium. Top sources include chicken, beef, pork, salmon, cod, tuna, spinach, chard, kale, avocado, broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, potatoes, cantaloupe, bananas, squash, tomatoes, asparagus, milk, and lentils. Potassium-rich foods also contain many other beneficial vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

See our article on electrolyte-rich foods for a full list, plus the science behind why real food is the best source of electrolytes.

#3: Make up the shortfall

Okay, so you're eating potassium-rich foods, but your dietary analysis says you're still below 3.5–5 grams/day. This is where electrolyte drinks and supplements like potassium pills, powders, or liquids can help make up any shortfalls. Most Americans need about 1 gram/day of extra potassium to hit the bottom end of the range.

You can spread this extra intake throughout the day to mimic how you’d get potassium through your diet. If you have chronic kidney disease, type 1 diabetes, congestive heart failure, or liver disease, you may want to consult a health practitioner before tinkering with your intake. Folks with these conditions can’t effectively excrete potassium through urine and are at higher risk for their blood potassium levels to become dangerously high (called hyperkalemia). While healthy folks can still get hyperkalemia if they consume high amounts of potassium supplements, the condition is more rare — for instance, the National Institute of Health noted that up to 15.6 grams per day of potassium for 5 days didn’t elevate blood potassium beyond the normal range. Consuming ~3.5–5 grams of potassium per day seems to be the sweet spot for optimal health outcomes.

The market offers potassium chloride, potassium citrate, potassium gluconate, and many other forms of potassium. It's unclear which is best absorbed. We use potassium chloride in LMNT because it's been extensively researched for restoring potassium levels in medical contexts.

Start with diet, then fill in the gaps with extra electrolytes. The benefits of potassium for your nervous system, heart, kidney, bone, and metabolic health will be well worth the attention in the long run.