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Comment by elric | Hacker News Reader

PSA: before you start supplementing potassium (or gorging on bananans or potatoes), please be aware that too moch potassium can lead to heart rhythm disturbances, and that some common medications (like anti-hypertensives) can have further predispose you to developing hyperkalemia.

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While true, this is overblown. RDA for potassium intake is 3500-5000mg daily for an adult male. Most people do not get close to this amount. Potassium supplements are 99mg per pill. You have to take a lot of pills to reach that level. Getting too much potassium by eating potassium-rich foods would be difficult without an underlying kidney disorder.

Having said that, don’t be a dumb-a* and take too much of a good thing.

It depends on how you take it. If you chug almost liter of coconut water (like I did) you can get palpitations (like I did). That has >500mg potassium in a form more bioavailable than say a banana or butternut squash.

Also the RDA is not something you should have all at once. That’s a sure way to disrupt your heart.

I've experienced palpitations after having Indian food, could coconut milk cause that?

A medium sized potato has that amount, I doubt it’d be the coconut milk to blame. Also, coconut water != coconut milk

Its common after eating certain kinds of foods.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22416-heart-p...

A liter of coconut water also contains quite a bit of sugar, which might have contributed to your palpitations.

Point out the radiation dose from bananas to the fad dieter, see what that does.

For what it’s worth, it’s actually nothing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose

Hyperkalemia is most commonly encountered in patients with decreased kidney function.

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