Re: Bananas (K-40)

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Thanks, Ron,

To those of us 'of a certain age' the effect of low potassium is dramatic, and
we need to go for the banana or orange juice, as the common responses, but
they are not so much greater sources than milk and other sources. 

But I'd add that, while as Franz notes potassium is homeostatically
controlled, nothing in the 'real world' is 'at once'. The effect of ingesting
significant excess potassium causes dramatic heart irregularities, and even
heart attack and death. 

Moderation in all things. :-)

Does anyone know the range of K between acceptably low and high levels, and
low-low and high-high risk levels? and the half-time of elimination following
ingestion when the body is at high level?

Note also that potassium was separated in the calutrons at Oak Ridge in the
'50s and used in biological experiments. Reports were that the animals on
'denatured potassium' (K-39) did poorly, and recovered when natural K was
added. Charlie Willis noted in a meeting of the NRC's ACRS/ACNW Subcommittee
that he had been aware of a lab doing work with such 'denatured-K' on cells in
1958 that found that the cells looked ok, but they didn't function, but the
LNT kept the work from being reported.

The K-39 was valuable enough that it was recovered from animals, and a vial
dated 1962 was obtained for use in 1982 or so for work with microorganisms
(which also did poorly with K-39, and recovered with the addition of K-40 or
'natural-K'. (Although the vial was contaminated, likely from its original
host animal, and poisoned the initial experiments.) 'Denatured-K was also
available from Russia thru a broker in the UK. Has anyone heard of the
experiments that the Russians were doing?

Does anyone have more information about the K-39/K-40 experiments? or with the
separation of K-39/K-40, or any experiments with separated K-39/K-40?

Thanks.

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
Radiation, Science, and Health
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

Ron L. Kathren wrote:
> 
> 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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