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♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- Hello, Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist.
- Hi, I'm Chris, the pharmacist.
- And today the topic is potassium.
Believe it or not, he is the pharmacist,
I'm a physical therapist, we're not nutritionists.
However, potassium affects both of our jobs incredibly.
- Oh yeah.
- And that's why we need to know the basis of it
as well as everybody out there because it's an electrolyte
also in a nutrient that is absolutely critical
to keep you healthy fit and pain free,
which is our motto of this channel.
- Yeah, that's what we want.
- So you are gonna learn what foods you can eat
to get this critical mineral or nutrient.
And Chris is gonna go through it.
You've done a lot of research on this,
it's up to date and just stay tuned.
- All right, so potassium.
Yeah, I would say, I think the title is what it is,
probably the most critical electrolyte mineral
or nutrient for our body.
It's in every single one of our cells.
So I mean, it actually In a matter of fact,
so potassium rules the inside of all cells
and sodium kind of rules the fluid outside of the cells.
- Salt. - Salt.
- Okay. - Sodium specifically.
- Yep.
- But we'll talk a little bit about that as we progress.
- Sure.
- But the reality of it is potassium is critical
for muscle functioning, nerve transmission, bone health.
I mean, it actually works in your kidneys,
from proper kidney functioning
as well as helping to minimize kidney stones.
So there's-
- And I've read something about heart health.
- Oh, well, heart health immensely it helps with that,
we have a diet high potassium,
it helps to those blood vessels relaxed.
- Okay.
- And basically, and potassium, interestingly
there's just so many things
that are intertwined with sodium.
The diet that we choose, if it's higher in potassium
naturally will keep our blood pressure low.
There's a study pun,
study that shows it's a perfect relationship
between potassium in our diet and heart attacks.
The more potassium we have, the less heart attacks we have.
- Oh really?
- Yep.
- Now, maybe you're getting into this later
you just take a potassium pill and that'll be-
- We'll talk about that.
- Okay.
- Not a fan.
- All right. We're gonna get into that.
- We'll get to that later.
The good stuff's kind of in front of us for a couple
of examples, but the higher sodium in our diet,
which is the American diet and lower potassium,
higher risk of heart disease and heart attack.
- Sure.
- So there is study after study, after study
you can go into Harvard medical review
you can use some of the simple things like web MD.
You can find all of these things
if you wanna look for yourself, guys.
- Sure.
- But you can go to the national Institute of health,
that's an excellent site.
That's gonna be a lot more scientific readings.
So if you really dig into this, the details
it's an excellent site for you guys, just type in potassium,
what it's good for and you're gonna find,
and if you go to the national Institute of health, NIH site,
it's excellent for you.
because I know a lot of your people like
to kind of look at some of the things that we talked about.
- Yep, dig into the details.
And if you're not into that, don't worry about it.
He's gonna give you the information and translate it.
- So the reality of this as it sounds
so how much potassium do we really need?
- Yeah.
- And so it's kind of for guys
it's a little bit higher than women.
So about 3,400 milligrams
what does that really mean?
- Right, wow.
- And then women, it's about 2,600 milligrams,
but if they're pregnant, it's 2,900,
so they have some ranges.
But the reality of it is
if you're roughly getting 3000 milligrams
of potassium in your diet, it's a good thing.
And the cool thing about taking potassium through foods
is we can't overdo it.
where as you had talked about the supplements.
- Sure.
- You can overdo it.
So the FDA actually limits the amount
of potassium you can get in that,
whether it's potassium citrate, potassium chloride.
- So you get sick from it if you overdo it?
- You can get sick, you can get nauseated
and that can cause lesions in your gut.
So they actually limit it.
So I'm not a fan of people who are saying,
if I have a customer that comes up and says,
you know, I'm just looking
to get a little bit more potassium in my diet.
And I'm like, first you want to talk to your doctor
because potassium levels itself are very very specific.
And so they want you basically between,
you know, depending upon the study,
3.5 and 5 is the easiest numbers to remember.
- That's a number you get from a blood test?
- That's the therapeutic window.
Yeah. So when your doctor takes blood work from you,
they're looking at this number.
- Sure.
- It's very important for doctors
because too much is bad and too little is bad.
And if you have too much
the side effects are very similar to if you have too little
which is kind of weird, but you treat it,
so you treat it very differently.
If you have too much potassium, you can actually
when you get really high oleic, if it's that number is a six
and that's Milli moles per liter
in case you keep this score at home
cause I know you love those.
(Brad laughs)
So then we wanna use a binder
and there's gonna be some medic,
it's an acute medical crisis.
- So you're saying to get that number in there
if you take supplements
when you take too many of the pills.
- You'd have to take a lot.
You'd have to take a bottle to do it, so it's hard.
- Okay. - Which is good.
- But you could hardly not eat too many fruits?
- It's really hard because of the way that the potassium
is package in all these different fruits
and vegetables that we have up here.
It's a little bit different as far as how the it's absorbed-
- yep
- And actually how it's connected and maintained
in the foods that we eat.
So for whatever reason, and I looked pretty hard
it is really hard to over and abide by potassium
when you're a healthy adult.
- Yep.
- Now that's not to say there are things
that we have to be careful with.
If you have renal failure or kidney failure,
and if you're congestive heart failure with renal failure,
you cannot eat a lot of potassium
and actually can actually backfire on you.
- Even through diet.
- Even through diet, so we have to be careful.
So it's always something that,
if you're gonna make some major changes
you should be visiting your doctor regularly
and have a conversation with them.
Because I think let's say you say something like,
Oh, I've got a bad kidney.
I mean, a lot of the medical things that we have
can go on for years and years and years.
And all of a sudden we kind of go in
because we're like, oh, I don't feel right.
And then you go in
and all of sudden, oh, you've got a problem.
- So if you have against congestive heart failure.
- Or a renal disease.
- A kidney's issue. - A Kidney's issue.
then potassium intake needs to be monitored.
- It needs to be monitored very carefully.
- Okay.
- So like I said, when we said that that neuro therapeutic,
that window they're too low, you can feel fatigue.
You can feel kind of not right, you can be constipated.
- Sure.
- Your heart may not beat properly, too high.
You can feel fatigue.
You can feel nauseated or your heart doesn't beat properly.
- Okay.
- So the symptoms, when they present to an ER situation
like if you're hyperkalemia, which is too much potassium
or hypokalemia, which is too low potassium,
one is probably made from diarrhea
or dehydration, you could have just excreted it out
where there is too much,
who knows if there's something going on with the kidneys,
who knows if there's something else in your body
that's happening.
The doctors are gonna determine that.
But their treatment paths are very different.
So if it's too high we gotta get it down,
if it's too low we gotta get it up.
- Right.
- We want basically back in that box.
- So typically a person will have those numbers.
if you go to the doctor, they take a test.
- Yeah.
- And if you'll know like,
oh, your numbers are a little high, they're gonna address.
- They will address it with (indistinct), yes.
And again for healthy individuals,
so the vast majority of people on the planet
are not gonna have a problem with it.
- Okay.
- So it seems like if you eat a well-balanced diet
that's oriented high with fruits and vegetables
and beans in certain cases, you're not gonna have a problem.
You can't seem to over indulge,
is the point I guess I was trying to make.
- Right.
So as far as those people, what benefits are we gonna get
if we eat plenty of this versus stuff out of a box.
- And yeah, and well, that's my least favorite thing.
Anything out of a box is bad.
I mean, I just it's like everybody; you want a cookie,
you want crackers and I think that's fine,
but, you know, everything is balance and moderation.
- Sure.
- But at the end of the day the key is,
and I think we touched on it early is blood pressure.
So basically a diet high, the number one killer
in the United States, heart disease.
- Right.
- So if we wanna protect ourselves
if we have a diet that's centric on fruits and veggies
it's going to help to minimize our blood pressure issues.
And oftentimes if you're eating enough potassium
in your diet, you're not seeing pharmacists and doctors
for meds because your blood pressure's under control.
- Sure.
- And so if your blood pressure's under control,
it minimizes your risk for all the other complications
that can occur with the heart.
- So we could consider this being our medicine.
- This is yeah.
In a lot of ways, yeah.
But I mean, and like I think I've said before,
it's an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure.
- Sure, sure.
- And that's very famous person said that a long time ago
and I don't know their name,
(Brad laughs)
but I actually,
I think it might have been one of the surgeon generals
but that said, I mean, sayings aside,
it's still very important to gravitate
to these types of things in our diet
and the variety is key, eat the rainbow.
I mean, if you're in a nutshell and you're like,
well, what's a generalized guideline?
Anything that's yellow or orange is generally gonna have
a pretty healthy source of potassium.
- Sure
- But you can take that a step further,
in a lot of things that are green
have a lot of potassium as well.
- It also seems like things that grow in the soil
like the potatoes or the beets-
- Yep.
- Under the ground and they're absorbing minerals
or whatever from the soil.
- I mean, it's a root, so it absorbs the mineral.
And actually it's strange, like we just pick on the beet.
I make a smoothie with these just about every day,
but more potassium is in these leaves
than it is actually in the beet root itself.
So, and they each have different values.
I mean, honestly, these make an excellent salad,
so not that I'm a cooker or anything like that.
But I mean, I throw leaves on burgers if I'm making them
and that mean I bet you can toss a salad with this
and little romaine lettuce and spinach,
you get a good salad out of that.
So, and it's actually higher in potassium
than the beet root itself
- So People might be asking,
well, how much do I really need to,
should I just make sure I eat something
from these food groups
and there's more, you can Google it every day,
probably every day. - I mean variety is key, yeah.
Cause you're not gonna want to eat beet leaves every day.
I mean, you will drive yourself off the deep end.
And I mean, cantaloupe is excellent, bananas are excellent.
We don't have oranges up here, we don't have kiwis up here.
I mean, we do have a avocado.
- There you go.
- High, very high in potassium, but you got sweet potatoes
you got potatoes, I mean, all of these foods.
So you just wanna put all these things in your diet.
I mean, potatoes are an interesting one
because for diabetics, it's not really good
because it is a lot of sugar and starch.
Lots of starch.
- Sure.
- So you have to be careful.
So again, everything is with balance
and with a modicum of you just,
I don't want eat like six potatoes.
I mean, that's not gonna necessarily do it,
you don't necessarily wanna have any potato salad.
Although if it's mixed in,
you're still gonna get your potassium
but you're gonna have all the mayonnaise
and all the other things.
- Yeah, yeah yeah.
- All this sweat makes it tastes good,
so it's kind of hard to,
you have to kind of balance with what you got.
- So for myself personally, I find this pretty exciting
cause I didn't know beets were part of the high potassium.
I've been eating avocados,
I didn't realize I was eating that much Potassium.
- Yeah.
- I've read some nutritional books,
my diets are relatively healthy,
but I think I can get it more healthy
and enjoy my diet even more-
- Oh yeah, absolutely.
- Through some of this
and hopefully now is this gonna make me stronger?
- Well I Don't know.
- You said muscle contraction.
- It does, right.
And potassium is a huge part of any muscle contraction.
So if you're gonna move your arms up or-
- Yeah.
- Bench press or run.
- But it's not gonna make me bigger muscles.
- It's gonna make you bigger, stronger, or faster,
but I mean, the potassium makes your,
it's a coupled with sodium
where there's a whole electrical chemical exchange,
but basically it helps
to make that muscle contract properly.
It's very, very necessary critical thing
especially your heart muscle itself.
- Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, I really like that heart,
the stats of people eat more potassium,
and less salt, is a clear indication.
- Yeah, there are study after study that show.
I can't stress that one enough.
- Sure.
- So I mean it's just
and the American diet diet is exactly the opposite.
It's too much salt, not enough potassium.
- Yeah.
- You can just tilt the Teeter time so to speak.
If we can do that, I mean, we make huge changes
for everybody and then you're not having-
- What about the nervous system?
You said it's good for-
- Yeah, so yeah, basically it's got a bolted gated.
It helps with nerve impulses.
So it helps to create, it help make those cells, make those-
- So functionally is that gonna make us more alert?
- No, we're not gonna turn in the flash
or anything like that
but it just allows healthy nerve conduction.
- Okay.
- So I mean, it's gonna help promote the cell.
I mean it's in every cell in our body,
I mean, we can't stress that enough.
- Sure.
- So it, it governs a little bit of everything
I mean not like, yeah,
so I have a 3,600 milligram of potassium diet,
it's not gonna make you a super human,
it's just gonna make you a healthy human.
- Sure.
- And I think that's the thing that we're all striving for
is to have balance and healthiness.
And I think that's kind of the key to quality of life.
- Right, right.
- So if we can continue to eat a well balanced diet
with a variety, I mean, eat the rainbow.
When dieticians tell you to eat the rainbow-
- What are you talking about eat the rainbow?
- Eat the different colors of foods.
- So the colors have something to do with nutrients?
- Blueberries, avocado, beets, the that's red.
So I mean, bananas are yellow.
- Yeah, okay.
- This is orange.
The ROYGBIV man, you're eating that-
- Berries too, I understand.
- Berries, red berries, blueberries.
They're not quite as high in potassium,
but they all contain it.
So, I mean, you sort of find things that you enjoy
whether it's rolled in a blender in a smoothie,
I mean every day I'm I make a smoothie
that the staples are beets and oranges, kale and spinach.
- All right.
Well, I think this is incredible information
to absorb and change your life.
We're gonna do another video,
I'll be coming up in probably a couple more weeks
on just 10 of these items
and a little bit of fun on how to make it.
- Yeah.
- Cause you wanna make your eating fun,
healthy, and pain free.
(Brad laughs)
- Yeah. Cause eating should never cause pain.
- That's right.
All right, thank you Chris.
Potassium, the big letter K plus, it's not special K
but it's potassium.
- Potassium.
- We should have mentioned that
at the beginning of the video
- Scientific element, it's letter K, so thanks guys.
- Oh, the giveaway.
- Oh, the giveaway, my goodness.
We got to give this away.
- Oh, the giveaway,
we are giving away Bob and Brad foot massage,
it has got little to do with potassium,
but it's great for a healthy feet, keeping your feet.
Doesn't do anything to do with the odor of your feet,
but it does have lot with how good your feet feel-
- Circulation.
- Circulation. There you go.
- I gotcha.
- All right, go to Bob and Brad-
- Feels good.
- I'd like to say this, go to bobandbrad.com,
go to the giveaway section, click on that.
It'll have the information that you can fill in
and win one of these Buttes
and we'll send it right to your house.
- There you go, it's about your time.
- Potassium starts with a P, but you're gonna notice K
with a plus, and that means potassium.
You're gonna see it all over the place
and YouTube, by thumbnails in science all of the time.
- Absolutely.
- Everyone knows has nothing to do with special K,
the cereal.
- No, not the cereal.
- I looked it up, there is potassium in special K
but forget that.
- Yeah, there you go.
- Not much.
- Not much, not enough.
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