Potassium is a mineral that your body needs to work properly. It is a type of electrolyte. It helps your nerves to function and muscles to contract. It helps your engine of the body to operate properly , being the heart.  Potassium kept within the normal blood range helps keep the heartbeat stay regular. It also helps move nutrients into cells and waste products out of cells.  A diet rich in potassium helps to offset some of sodium’s harmful effects on blood pressure.   Knowing sodium’s impact on your blood pressure, a boost in your daily potassium intake can help you to maintain a healthy blood pressure or lower it to healthy levels.

Electrolytes are substances that help conduct electricity in your body. Potassium is one of the most important electrolytes in the human body, with others including chloride, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and sodium. As an electrolyte, potassium is vital to the healthy functioning of all of your body’s cells, tissues and organs. It also helps to control the amount of water in your body and maintain a healthy blood pH level. As you lose electrolytes in your sweat, you should always obtain a source of these important minerals during or after a intense physical activity.

Potassium is particularly important for the ability of your skeletal and smooth muscles to contract. Because of this, an adequate intake of potassium is important for regular digestive and muscular functioning. Potassium is also vital to the health of your heart, as a normal heart rhythm arises from optimal muscular functioning. This is especially apparent if you have excessively high or low potassium levels, both of which can cause an irregular heartbeat. As heart arrhythmias are potentially life-threatening, you should always maintain an adequate daily intake of potassium.

When a M.D. or in the hospital the doctor orders electrolytes or drug levels to be done it is measuring the level outside the cell in our bloodstream.  Potassium (K⁺) is the most abundant cation (action) in the body. About 90% of total body potassium is intracellular and 10% is in extracellular fluid, of which less than 1% is composed of plasma. The ratio of intracellular to extracellular potassium determines neuromuscular and cardiovascular excitability, which is why serum potassium is normally regulated within a narrow range of 3.5 to 5.0 mmol/L since the abundance of the potassium is in the red blood cell and its impossible to measure blood levels of anything inside a cell since it would destroy the cell.

Ingested K⁺ is absorbed rapidly and enters the portal circulation, where it stimulates insulin secretion. Insulin increases Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase activity and facilitates potassium entry into cells, thereby averting hyperkalemia. β²-Adrenergic stimulation also promotes entry of K⁺ into cells through increased cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) activation of Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase.  Remember a person with diabetes has very little or no insulin at all which will effect potassium being sent into the cell unless the patient takes their insulin as ordered by the M.D.

Hypokalemia is serum potassium concentration < 3.5 mEq/L caused by a deficit in total body potassium stores or abnormal movement of potassium into cells. The most common causes are excess losses from the kidneys or GI tract. Clinical features include muscle weakness and polyuria; cardiac hyperexcitability may occur with severe hypokalemia. Diagnosis is by serum measurement. Treatment is giving potassium and managing the cause.

Low potassium (hypokalemia) has many causes. The most common cause is excessive potassium loss in urine due to prescription water or fluid pills (diuretics). Vomiting or diarrhea or both can result in excessive potassium loss from the digestive tract. Only rarely is low potassium caused by not getting enough potassium in your diet.

Hyperkalemia

If you have hyperkalemia, you have too much potassium in your blood. The body needs a delicate balance of potassium to help the heart and other muscles work properly. But too much potassium in your blood can lead to dangerous, and possibly deadly, changes in heart rhythm.

Hyperkalemia is a common diagnosis. Fortunately, most patients who are diagnosed have mild hyperkalemia (which is usually well tolerated). However, any condition causing even mild hyperkalemia should be treated to prevent progression into more severe hyperkalemia. Extremely high levels of potassium in the blood (severe hyperkalemia) can lead to cardiac arrest and death. When not recognized and treated properly, severe hyperkalemia results in a high mortality rate.

Technically, hyperkalemia means an abnormally elevated level of potassium in the blood. The normal potassium level in the blood is 3.5-5.0 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). Potassium levels between 5.1 mEq/L to 6.0 mEq/L reflect mild hyperkalemia. Potassium levels of 6.1 mEq/L to 7.0 mEq/L are moderate hyperkalemia, and levels above 7 mEq/L are severe hyperkalemia.

Potassium is critical for the normal functioning of the muscles, heart, and nerves. It plays an important role in controlling activity of smooth muscle (such as the muscle found in the digestive tract) and skeletal muscle (muscles of the extremities and torso), as well as the muscles of the heart. It is also important for normal transmission of electrical signals throughout the nervous system within the body.

Normal blood levels of potassium are critical for maintaining normal heart electrical rhythm. Both low blood potassium levels (hypokalemia) and high blood potassium levels (hyperkalemia) can lead to abnormal heart rhythms.

The most important clinical effect of hyperkalemia is related to electrical rhythm of the heart. While mild hyperkalemia probably has a limited effect on the heart, moderate hyperkalemia can produce EKG changes (EKG is a reading of the electrical activity of the heart muscles), and severe hyperkalemia can cause suppression of electrical activity of the heart and can cause the heart to stop beating.

“A loved one’s suicide can be emotionally devastating. Use healthy coping strategies — such as seeking support — to begin the journey to healing and acceptance.”

MAYO CLINIC

“Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States. It’s estimated for the number of colorectal cancer cases in the United States for 2017 are: 95,520 new cases of colon cancer and 39,910 new cases of rectal cancer.  Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women in the United States  and the second leading cause in men.”

American Cancer Society

“Obesity is a major risk factor for developing coronary heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.”

American Heart Association

“Not everyone is equally likely to engage in the blame game, but there is little scientific research to advise us on who is most likely to do so. We can, however, define a dimension of blame-acceptance by adopting a few simple principles.”

Psychology Today

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How many times have you heard someone who said something that is mean, vindictive and hurtful — or committed a violent and/or destructive act  — justify it by saying the recipient had ‘made’ the perpetrator mad?

That’s an example of using blame to excuse your own bad behavior.

Unfortunately, blame is like anger in that it dulls one sense of empathy. It allows a person to act in a hurtful way to another human being. It isn’t the act itself, but it often clears the road. This is a small, but important point. Ordinary humans have inhibitions that serve as a buffer against what we know is bad behavior. Blame is not the act itself, but it either erodes or outright removes these inhibitions, often both . It develops a thought pattern that allows the person’s emotions to override his/her self-control in order to achieve an often selfish end — including sustaining dysfunctional patterns.

While this may seem like an overly harsh statement, also realize the kind of mindset that so quickly adopts blame as a defensive posture for emotional/ego protection is exactly the  same one that will put you in front of, otherwise avoidable, physical danger.

Blame Action Loops
It is not uncommon for people who engage in blaming behavior to also engage in selfish behavior. And as long as they are getting benefit from it — whether monetary, emotional, comfort, entertainment or psychological stability — they will continue to engage in those actions. But realize that most of the time the person is too busy doing the behavior to see their actions in this context. Look at the diagram below:

What this illustrates is a simplified action loop model of how humans interact with the world around them. When functioning on this basic level, ‘stimuli’ comes in from the ‘world,’ it is evaluated and an ‘appropriate’ action is taken. An example is you come to a corner with a traffic light. The stimuli coming in is the signal is red and cross traffic is passing. The evaluation is, according to the laws, wait. That’s your action. That keeps you from getting run over. The light turns green,  the cross traffic stops and you cross. We do this kind of looping process all the time, adjusting as the results of that action come in.

I believe we are here to learn lessons along our life’s journey. Once we learn a lesson we move on to the next one. However, if we fail to learn a lesson, we keep finding opportunities to learn it again and again.

Isn’t it weird that the woman who can’t leave her old unhappy relationship without starting a new one is always in an unhappy relationship? Or the man who quits his job because he can’t stand his overbearing and ungrateful boss lands a new job with a boss who seems even more overbearing and ungrateful?

Life will continue to throw us the same lessons until we learn from them.

1. Believe there is a lesson to be learned and consent to learn it.

This is probably one of the most important steps. Unless you’re really willing to learn the lesson, even if it feels uncomfortable at times, you can never move forward. Consent to view the situation as something that can help you grow.

2. Admit that you might have helped create the problem.

Warning: This does require you to immediately quit playing the blame game! Just consider the possibility that you somehow contributed to your current situation. This doesn’t mean no one else played a part; it just means perhaps you did, as well.

3. Take some alone time and review the situation.

I’m sure you’ve done this multiple times. It’s time to do it differently. Try to view the situation from a different perspective. Get objective and see it from someone else’s eyes. Is there another way to interpret what happened and how it all played out?

This requires you to be really honest with yourself about your choices and actions. If you’re willing to change your perspective you may immediately see what lesson needs to be learned and exactly how to learn the lesson.

4. Let go of your attachment to the problem.

Trying to control the problem—your boss, your spouse, or your circumstances—will only keep you more attached to it and the more you “leech” onto a problem, the more it “leeches” right back on you.

You will never be able to see the lesson or the solution if you dwell on all the little details about what seems wrong. Letting go could come in many forms: seeing the good in the person who seems difficult, accepting a situation for what it is, or seeing the other side of the story.

Any time we let go of our attachment to what went wrong or what should have happened, we create the possibility of growth—and we pave the path for more positive results.

My personal favorites were step three and four in dealing with my challenges in life.   I admitted the role I played, forgave myself, and was finally able to move forward.

Dropping blame allowed me to let go and move on.

Quitting the blame game and learning life lessons has allowed me to be in a loving, equal, and, best of all, relaxing relationship. It’s allowed me to build my dream career. It’s also allowed me to look at each obstacle I’m facing and find something positive to take away from it.

If you’re having an issue then there is a lesson to be learned. Learn the lesson then you get to move forward. That’s how a game should work!

“Effective gas exchange depends on uniform distribution of function throughout the lung.”

American Lung Association