Tag Archives: Potassium

In The Lab, Medicine, Reviews

Tests: The Comprehensive Metabolic Panel Report

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This is a big one, and produces a lot of information.

Your metabolism is the workhorse of your body, and this panel measures certain critical chemicals and waste products that make metabolism and life possible.

Sodium -The main element in the fluid outside your cells. It draws water into vessels, supporting blood pressure. Drinking water is critical to life, and a recent study used the serum sodium as a proxy to indicate whether you are drinking an adequate  amount. If the level is below 142 mmol/dl,  you are adequately  hydrated and your life expectancy is higher.

Potassium – The main element in cells. There is a pump in the membrane of the cell that pumps potassium into the cell, and sodium out, to maintain a critical electrical charge across the cell membrane. Even small deviations in serum potassium can be worrisome.

Chloride – The anion that Electrically balances sodium and potassium. Can be important in acidosis.

Glucose – The major Energy source of the body. Too little, and you pass out. Too much is a long-term stress on the body, as in diabetes.

Carbon dioxide – As bicarbonate, important in adjusting the acidity of fluids outside the cell.

Anion gap – an important check for doctors.

BUN – A Measure of excess protein in the diet, and can be very elevated in kidney disease. I usually have an elevated BUN, because I eat a lot of protein due to  my age. My creatinine is always normal.

Calcium – important for bones, and many other processes, including cellular signaling.

Albumin – An important blood protein that supports blood pressure.

Creatinine – A waste product that is used as a measure of kidney function.

AST (SGOT) – A liver enzyme used to measure inflammation of the liver.

ALT (SGPT) – A counter check to the AST.

Estimated GFR – Based on creatinine, it is a measure of kidney function.

Total protein – Includes albumin + the amount of globulin. The latter includes proteins involved in immunity, measured by subtracting the albumin from the total protein.

The metabolic panel is used to give clues to a whole host of diseases such as diabetes, liver disease, Kidney disease, immune deficiencies, endocrine diseases, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and the like. It is so useful that Medicare pays for it, usually.

—Dr. C.

Diet Health, NUTRITION, Prevention, Studies

Potassium-Rich Diets Prevent Kidney Stones

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Anyone who has ever had a kidney stone never wants a repeat of the blinding pain that comes when it passes. Now, a new study maps out a diet that can help guard against that.

The cornerstones of that diet include eating plenty of foods that contain potassium, as well as a few servings of low-fat dairy daily, to get enough calcium. High-potassium fruits and veggies that could help include bananas, oranges, grapefruits, apricots, mushrooms, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, and melons such as cantaloupe and honeydew.

To arrive at those recommendations, researchers from the Mayo Clinic used data from questionnaires completed by kidney stone patients between 2009 and 2018. The team compared the diets of 411 people who had already had their first kidney stone and a control group of 384 individuals.

“We had this information and then we, number one, could look at things that … differed between controls and kidney stone formers, but then we’ve also been following these people forward in time,” said study author Dr. John Lieske, director of the O’Brien Urology Research Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

During a median of just over four years of follow-up, 73 patients in the study had recurrent kidney stones.

Lower levels of calcium and potassium predicted that recurrence. After adjustments for non-dietary factors, lower calcium continued to be a predictor. So did lower potassium, but only among those who weren’t already taking certain types of diuretics and calcium supplements.

Read more at Health Day

Men's Health, Opinion, Women's Health

DIETARY HEALTH: “SALT AND THE HUMAN CONDITION”

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Salt, so important to human health and disease, is also prominent in HUMAN HISTORY. Civilization has required it from earliest times. Cereal grains, the ‘Staff of life” is relatively low in SODIUM CHLORIDE, salt, making it a desirable food additive.

PRESERVATION of food before refrigeration required salt. Natron (Natrium is latin for salt, and Na is its chemical symbol) was the Egyptian city known for its salt. Salary was an income supplement to Roman Legionnaires for purchase of salt.

Salt, gold and slaves were prominent in north African trade, and salt was often as valuable, ounce for ounce, as gold. “Below the salt” in medieval times meant the “cheap seats” in Feasts; only the “high table” had salt.

SEA WATER was about 0.9% salt at the dawn of Life, and that is presently the salt concentration in EXTRACELLULAR FLUID.

TASTE BUDS are happy with salty foods, and one set is specialized to pick up salty favors. The 4 others are sweet, sour, bitter and umami. As you can see, these taste buds were pro-evolutionary in our paleolithic ancestors.

The extra salt, sugar, and fats that taste so good in our present modern, excessive society are over-generously supplied by capitalistic producers intent on enhancing sales. Portions keep getting ever larger to encourage us to eat more.

Salt supports BLOOD PRESSURE, and sometimes ER Patients in shock are given saline infusions. More commonly, HYPERTENSION is treated by salt restriction, as illustrated in the accompanying Infographic.

POTASSIUM is the most common cation in the INTRACELLULAR FLUID, just as Sodium is most common in the Extracellular fluid. Our bodies fastidiously defend narrow concentration limits of Sodium, Potassium and other electrolytes which are important constituents of the famous Milieu interieur.

It is interesting that the Sodium-Potassium ATP Pump requires a large percentage of the ENERGY used to keep us alive. This pump also keeps our cell membranes POLARIZED, so important in NERVE TRANSMISSION.

So eat a lot of NATURAL FOODS, high in potassium, and avoid the catsup, sauces and condiments that riddle our high sodium, Fast food, modern diets.

–Dr. C.

In The Lab, Men's Health, Women's Health

BLOOD TESTS: THE BENEFITS THAT “COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANELS” REVEAL

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One of my nurses who was usually in good health developed chronic complaints. She felt tired all the time and had a variety of aches and pains. She has been going through menopause for a long time but this set of problems seem different. Then she broke her arm after sustaining a minor fall. An investigation was in order. I should order some tests, but which ones?

Anemia would explain the fatigue so a CBC was a no brainer. With the surprise fracture, I wanted to cast the net wider, so I ordered a comprehensive metabolic panel.

This is an automated test that was a good value for the amount of information provided, I thought.

Nobody was more surprised than I when the test provided results that were the key to her very rare diagnosis. Her serum CALCIUM was very high, and her alkaline phosphatase was also elevated.

Further evaluation showed her diagnosis to be PRIMARY HYPERPARATHYROIDISM.

Removal of her abnormal parathyroid gland was curative. I have been a big fan of the Comprehensive Metabolic  Panel ever since.

The Panel of 14 tests includes:

  • Glucose – an essential test to check in Diabetes, Seizures and Coma.
  • Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, and CO2 and the associated Anion Gap – can be abnormal in a variety of accidents, and other conditions.
  • BUN and Creatinine – cleared by the kidneys, and become elevated in Renal, or Kidney conditions.
  • Calcium and alkaline phosphatase – reflect bone metabolism, and are sensitive to Vitamin D and parathyroid hormone, as in my nurses case.
  • Albumin and Globulin – important blood proteins. Globulins contain the   important immunoglobulins. A variety of conditions will influence their values.
  • AST (SGOT) and ALT – elevated in liver disease

Type in “Comprehensive Metabolic Panel” in google, and choose from the variety of “hits” to get more information about this “ Sherlock Holmes’ Magnifying Glass” for Physicians.

Medicine would be hard pressed to do without it!

Dr. C.