In daily life, many people will have unprovoked physical fatigue, as well as frequent nausea, anorexia, bloating, vomiting, lack of energy, heart rate disorders and other phenomena.
When a series of tests are performed, it is found that the patient's serum potassium level is lower than the normal physiological level, which is called hypokalemia.
Once hypokalemia is not treated early, it will have a great impact on the patient's health and even endanger life. Below, I will give you a detailed introduction to how harmful hypokalemia really is.
How harmful is hypokalemia to the body?
1. Damage multiple systems
Potassium can maintain the normal physiological activity of individual cells, and once the blood potassium level is too low, it can cause damage to multiple systems.
In particular, the patient's digestive system, urinary system and central nervous system, cardiovascular system are seriously damaged, and it is easy to cause repeated vomiting, nausea, bloating, abnormal urination, as well as abnormal heart rate, slow response, mental atrophy, drowsiness, and even coma.
2. Muscle dysfunction
Because potassium ions can play a role in maintaining the normal functioning of muscle cells, once the blood potassium level is too low, it will lead to muscle dysfunction in patients. Even when patients are stationary every day, they experience excessive fatigue, numbness in their limbs, and even muscle pain.
3. It is easy to cause cardiac arrest
Because potassium can play a role in maintaining the normal functioning of cardiomyocytes, when suffering from hypokalemia, the normal function of cardiomyocytes is impaired. It will affect the normal beating of the heart, so that the patient will have arrhythmias.
For example, patients often have a rapid heartbeat, a slow heartbeat, and irregular situations. If symptoms are severe, they can cause patients to develop dangerous symptoms such as ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest.
There are many causes of hypokalemia, but most of them are related to long-term use of some diuretics. Especially the following groups of people, when taking diuretics, must cause a high degree of vigilance.
1. People with bad eating habits
If there is a bad diet in daily life, such as severe partial diet or dieting, then such people should also take diuretics with caution. Otherwise, it will also cause excessive potassium in the body, which will cause the emergence of hypokalemia.
2. People with reduced intestinal function
For most patients with high blood pressure, some diuretics will be taken appropriately in daily life. It can promote the excretion of sodium ions in blood vessels by means of multiple urination, and reduce the pressure on the blood vessel wall.
However, if the intestinal function is weak, the absorption function of nutrients in food will decrease. Once you take diuretics for a long time, hypokalemia will occur due to malnutrition in the body.
How is potassium supplementation for hypokalemia?
If in the acute phase, the patient should be given intravenous potassium supplementation under the guidance of a doctor. Other patients can take some potassium supplement drugs under the guidance of a doctor, such as potassium chloride and potassium glutamate.
In addition, pay attention to supplementing some foods rich in potassium, such as bananas, potatoes, seafood and legumes.
In summary, if the potassium ions in the blood are, then it is hypokalemia. Without timely treatment, it will cause the above three very serious harms to the body.
There are many causes of hypokalemia, but they are related to long-term use of diuretics. Therefore, in daily life, the above two types of people must be cautious about taking diuretics.
For patients with hypokalemia, intravenous infusion of potassium supplementation or oral drug potassium supplementation should be treated under the guidance of a doctor, and more potassium-rich foods should be eaten, and attention should be paid to avoid infection or trauma, if a series of discomfort occurs during treatment and recovery, it is necessary to be admitted to the hospital for formal treatment at the first time.