RE: Bananas (K-40)

[rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu (Ron L. Kathren)]

I'm afraid, Franz, that you are way off base.  Both hyperkalemia (excess
potassium) and hypokalemia -- ie K depletion in humans -- is a well
recognized clinical disorder with a number of etiologies, one of which is
deficient dietary intake.  Another common cause of hypokalemia is
attributable to reduced gut intake secondary to diarrhea or ther
gastrointestinal upsets, or to depletion of K from medications such as
diuretics (or even intake of large amounts of licorice!).

Primary symptoms of hyopkalemia are neuromuscular, in partuclar muscular
weakness, especially in the lower extremities.  Treatment is typically by
KCl tablets or powders and dietary supplements, although mild cases may be
treated with diet.

Enjoy your bananas.

Ron Kathren
Professor and Director, USTUR
College of Pharmacy
Washington State University

     At 11:03 AM 7/31/98 -0500, Franz Schoenhofer wrote:
>At 15:19 30.07.1998 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Many of my relatives where told by their MDs to eat more bananas in order to
>increase their K levels rather than take some obnoxious tasting liquid
>(K-lyte ???) 
>
>This is nonsense. The level of potassium is "hoemeostatic" controlled
>(whatever this is). This means, if you ingest more potassium, then you
>excrete "at once" more, so that the absolut amount is always the same.
>Since potassium is found mostly in muscles, the only way to increase total
>potassium (not the concentration) in ones body is to gain muscle weight.
>Increasing the food intake by eating a lot of bananas will sure increase
>your body weight but not the muscle weight! Potassium will not be stored in
>fat tissue, the amount of which will surely be increased by the lot of
>carbohydrates present in bananas. 
>
>Radiocesium behaves much like potassium and follows it in the body. We
>found in Austria, that athlets had significantly more Cs-137 in their body
>than the average population, due to their increased muscle weight.
>
>I like bananas and will consume them in the future in moderate quantities
>in spite of the radioactive K-40 and the carbohydrates!
>
>Franz
>
>
>Franz Schoenhofer
>Habicherg. 31/7
>A-1160 Vienna
>Austria
>Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
>Fax.: same number
>mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
>e-mail: schoenho@via.at
>
>Office:
>Federal Institute for Food Control and Research
>Department of Radiochemistry
>Kinderspitalg. 15
>A-1095 Vienna
>Austria
>Tel.: +43-1-40 491 520
>Fax.: +43-1-40 491 540
>e-mail: schoenhofer@baluf.via.at
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