Potassium bicarbonate supplement: muscles, nerves...

Potassium bicarbonate or potassium hydrogenocarbonate (KHCO3) plays an essential role in regulating acid-base balance. A supplement can restore blood pH within a relatively short time (just two to three weeks) and prevent the loss of dry mass from bones and muscles.

What is Potassium?

Potassium is a mineral which plays an essential role in the body. Located in cells in the form of the potassium cation K+, it is primarily involved in the regulation of cardiac function, neuromuscular excitation and acid-base balance.

Potassium is not naturally present in the body and must therefore be obtained from the diet. Foods rich in potassium include fruits and vegetables such as spinach, squash and bananas. Other forms of potassium such as potassium bicarbonate are available in dietary supplement form, available to buy at Supersmart in vegetarian capsules.

Why is it important to supplement with Potassium Bicarbonate?

For several decades, scientists have been exploring a line of enquiry that may explain the rise in certain ‘modern' diseases linked to diet: acid-base balance. For the body to function properly, it must maintain a balanced pH - neither too high (too acid) nor too low (too alkaline) - ensuring a ‘basic' ie, slightly alkaline, arterial ph, between 7.34 and 7.45.

Acid-base balance largely depends on the ‘acidifying' or ‘alkalinising' elements of the diet. Acidifying foods such as cereals and protein (especially animal protein) provide amino acids which contain sulphur and/or phosphorus, and salt provides chloride ions. These three minerals contribute to the body's net systemic acid load. Alkalinising foods such as fruit and vegetables (root and tuberous) provide alkaline potassium salts.

Until the end of the Paleolithic period, our prehistoric ancestors had a highly alkaline diet, due to its very high potassium salt content (two to three times more than in today's diets) which easily neutralized the acids produced by dietary metabolism. Modern diets, however, with their excessive meat, cheese and salt-enhanced cereal content, are leaving our bodies awash with chronic acidosis. This acidosis predisposes the body to:

1. Muscle loss;
2. Cardiovascular problems (high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks);
3. Kidney stones (crystallisation of uric acid);
4. Osteoporosis and joint problems - because if the diet is too acid, the body draws on bone tissue to provide the calcium bicarbonate it needs to neutralise this acid load; bone density thus decreases and bones become fragile.

Supplementation may therefore be necessary when the diet is too rich in animal protein (meat, fish, eggs or dairy products) and also to prevent the development of kidney stones and uric acid crystallisation that accompany age-related decreases in kidney function. Sportspeople can also benefit from supplementation since they consume higher than average amounts of protein and produce more lactic acid.

Buy Potassium Bicarbonate capsules to regulate acid-base balance.