You may have heard that potassium is bad for your health, and can cause heart attacks, abnormal heart rhythms or worse. In fact, this is complete misinformation and learning the truth about potassium’s role in human health can change your life for the better. In this video I explain what the research tells us about how much potassium your body needs and how much it can handle. I then put the research to the test and head to the lab to see what happens to my own blood levels of potassium when I take doses even higher than what experts recommend.

Warning: This video is for entertainment and education only. Do not try this at home.

Click here to download a free copy of my book including recipes and meal plan:
https://potassimax.com/pages/daveclaytonmd
For more on the benefits of potassium supplementation, go to www.potassimax.com
I respond to as many comments as I can for the week after I upload. Post your questions and let me answer them for you. Thanks for watching!

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction – After hearing so many people tell me how dangerous it is to take potassium, I decided to put my own body at risk and see what happens when I take up to 4,000 mg of potassium supplement in just one day.
02:13 Research shows that oral potassium supplementation is safe and well tolerated when used for treatment of hypertension. In one study, the side effects for potassium was 11% compared to 8% for placebo, meaning that only an extra 3% of people had side effects.
03:10 In a study of 18 healthy patients, a single dose of 1,600 mg of potassium did not increase blood levels beyond the normal range. Blood levels increased only a fraction of a point and returned to baseline in just a few hours.
03:58 Taking escalating doses of potassium did not increase my blood levels at all as I went from baseline to 2,000 mg, 3,000 mg, and 4,000 mg daily.
07:30 The reason your blood levels don’t rise is that potassium is rapidly absorbed into the cells of your organs, muscles and bones before getting filtered out of the body through the kidneys, where potassium acts to reduce blood pressure by decreasing renin levels and turning off the sodium-chloride cotransporter.
09:20 This information applies to people with healthy kidneys and who are not taking medications that interfere with potassium metabolism. I will cover these special cases in future videos.
10:45 The side effects of potassium supplementation tend to be stomach-related, and occur slightly more frequently than compared to placebo. You can minimize these effects by splitting your dose up or having it with food.

Research cited in video:
BMJ 1987; 294: 1453
CJASN 2023; 18(10): 1260
PLoS ONE 12(4): e0174967
JAMA. 2024;332(12):979-988

This video content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. No representation or warranties are being made with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of said content. This video is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen online. Don't take any supplements without first speaking with your doctor. This video does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. David Clayton and you.

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