It's almost the New Year again, and it's the season to eat sugar oranges like crazy......
Winter is the season of oranges, and oranges are indispensable in the New Year's goods of every household. A few days ago, when Lao Zhang was shopping for vegetables, he saw a small sale of oranges that were big and round, and they looked very beautiful, so he couldn't bear to buy a big bag and went home.
I tasted an old Zhang who thought it was very sweet, and I ate a big bag of oranges in half a day. But after taking a nap, Lao Zhang felt that his stomach hurt uncomfortably, and when he came to the hospital, he found that he had eaten too many oranges, and excessive gastric acid secretion stimulated.
Coincidentally, during the examination, the doctor found that Lao Zhang had some low blood potassium and asked him to eat more potassium-containing fruits and try to eat less oranges. So what are the adverse consequences of potassium deficiency in the human body? Why is it not recommended that we eat too many oranges in winter?
1. If you don't have the strength after heavy snowfall, it may be that your body is deficient in potassium
In fact, potassium deficiency has become more and more common, because salt is very important in our country's diet, and the main component of salt is sodium ions, sodium ions and potassium ions are antagonistic to each other, and the more you have, the less I will become.
Coupled with the poor absorption function and single diet structure of the elderly, it is easy to have the dilemma of insufficient potassium intake, especially for hypertensive patients taking hydrochlorothiazide, which is more likely to lead to excessive potassium excretion and low blood potassium.
In the human body, potassium ions are one of the indispensable and necessary elements, because basic life activities such as nerve conduction and muscle cell contraction require potassium ions to operate inside and outside the cell. Therefore, when the concentration of potassium ions in the human body is low, cellular activity will "stop dry", especially when cardiomyocytes stagnate, and may even cause cardiac arrest.
Therefore, patients with potassium deficiency may often experience these symptoms:
(1) Poor power
When the blood potassium is too low, the activity of nerve cells and muscle cells decreases, and if there is a problem with the nerve cells, the patient's central nervous system function is bound to be affected, which is manifested by pathological symptoms such as drowsiness and apathy.
If there is a problem with the muscle cells, the patient may also experience muscle weakness, the most typical is weakness at the ends of the limbs, and in severe cases, he may not even be able to walk and hold things.
(2) Arrhythmias
Although potassium deficiency can affect the activity of cells throughout the body, there is no doubt that cardiomyocytes are very sensitive to potassium ions. When we lack potassium ions, the activity of heart muscle cells is greatly reduced, which leads to limited heart activity, bradycardia, premature beats, etc.
(3) Increased blood pressure
Then the most widespread effect of potassium deficiency is high blood pressure. Too little potassium means too much sodium, and sodium can change the osmotic pressure and draw water out of the cells.
But the problem is that too much sodium will cause more water in the blood, which is the so-called water and sodium retention, which is also one of the common causes and pathological manifestations of hypertension, that is, low blood potassium indirectly causes high blood pressure.
(4) Indigestion
Of course, the lack of potassium ions can also affect the nerve cells of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in weakened digestive function, so patients with low blood potassium often suffer from indigestion, such as stomach bloating and loss of appetite.
So how can we supplement potassium in our daily life?
In fact, on the dining table of our people, salt is an important component, so it is unrealistic for ordinary people to expect to supplement potassium by limiting sodium, at this time, you can often eat potassium-containing foods, especially fruits, and many potassium-rich fruits do not contain too many sodium ions, which is simply a "potassium supplement artifact".
2. How to properly supplement potassium? Keep your eyes open, these 3 fruits are worth choosing
First of all, let's talk about why you can't eat more oranges in winter.
In fact, oranges are rich in vitamin C and dietary fiber, which can help us defecate and improve immune function, but there is also a lot of sugar in oranges, especially non-sour oranges, eating too much may cause blood sugar to rise, and even damage to pancreatic islet function.
People with low blood potassium tend to develop high blood pressure, which has many common harms with high blood sugar, so oranges are not conducive to potassium supplementation.
There are also oranges themselves are very rich in organic acids, which will also induce our body to secrete a large amount of gastric acid, just like Uncle Zhang, the acidity in the stomach may rise rapidly, which will hurt the gastric mucosa, and even induce gastric ulcers and other diseases, those who are deficient in potassium are prone to indigestion, so the stomach discomfort caused by eating too many oranges is simply "worse"!
There is also a fruit, which is also very "deceptive", that is, bananas.
Bananas themselves have a high starch content, which will cause our blood sugar levels to rise after eating bananas, and the same as oranges, patients with low blood potassium are prone to high blood pressure, so elevated blood sugar is very bad for health.
When we choose fruits for potassium supplementation, we should not only look at the potassium content, but also look at the potassium nutrient density, which is the value of potassium content divided by calories. Why should you look at this indicator?
Because even if a fruit has a high potassium content, it is also high in calories, so it is easy to cause excess calories after eating into the body, and people are easy to gain weight, which is still not good for health. When we choose fruits, fruits with high potassium ions but low calories are the most suitable, and how to evaluate this indicator is to look at potassium nutrient density.
Although bananas contain 256 milligrams of potassium in 100 grams of pulp, they also contain 93 kilocalories, so its potassium nutrient density is 2.75, which is not high!
After calculation, 100 grams of oranges contain 48 kilocalories and 159 milligrams of potassium, and its potassium nutrient density is 3.31, so even if the potassium content of oranges is not as high as bananas, it is more suitable for potassium supplementation.
Melons are fruits with a high potassium nutrient density. The potassium nutrient density of 100 grams of cantaloupe is 5.59, and the potassium nutrient density of papaya is as high as 6.06!
3. What to do if the potassium deficiency is serious, there are several methods to remember
However, we must know that potassium supplementation through fruits is more about preventing problems before they occur, and if hypokalemia really occurs, necessary drug treatment may still be indispensable.
1. Oral potassium supplementation
After potassium enters the body, the digestive tract absorbs up to 90%, so oral potassium supplementation is a simple, direct and convenient method.
Our commonly used oral potassium supplementation drugs are mainly potassium chloride, but this drug itself has a certain stimulating effect on the digestive tract, so patients with a fragile digestive tract can also choose potassium citrate, but they must consult a doctor before taking it.
2. Intravenous infusion
Then, when the patient is completely unable to take oral potassium supplementation, or when the patient is severely deficient and critically ill, a more efficient intravenous infusion should be chosen. The advantage of intravenous potassium supplementation is that it can increase the patient's blood potassium level in a short period of time and prevent the patient from developing serious heart diseases due to severe potassium deficiency.
3. Atomization
What if the patient can neither take it orally nor can it be given intravenously? Then ultrasound nebulization is a method that can turn the liquid medicine into a fine aerosol that enters the terminal bronchi and alveoli with the respiratory tract, so as to facilitate the patient's medication.
4. Enema
Enema is also one of the commonly used potassium supplementation methods in clinical practice, mainly because the pH of the colon is neutral or weakly alkaline, so it has a strong absorption function of potassium ions, and the diffusion effect of the intestinal mucosa can well help the body to absorb potassium ions evenly.
The colon itself has a regulatory function and does not cause excessive concentration of potassium ions in the serum, so the risk of adverse reactions is lower for patients with potassium enema supplementation.
Doctor's summary:
In short, potassium ion is one of the basic elements necessary for the human body, but it is often ignored by us, low blood potassium is often closely related to heart, nerve, muscle, digestive and other diseases, and is one of the common causative factors of hypertension, so daily potassium supplementation is very important, you can often eat some fruits with high potassium content.
bibliography
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