Ep. 65: Low Potassium = Slow Digestion? How This Overlooked Mineral Impacts Your Gut

✅ How potassium fuels digestion & why low levels = slow bowels

✅ Why stress, adrenal function, and blood sugar can deplete potassium

✅ The best potassium-rich foods for gut health

✅ Why HTMA testing is a game-changer for uncovering mineral imbalances

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Transcriptions:

SPEAKER: Dr. Heather Finley

Dr. Heather Finley: 0:03 Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist. I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I’ve been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain. I’ve dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues. And now I’m here to guide you. On this podcast, I’ll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort. So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good. My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back. So if you’re ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief. You are in the right place. Welcome to the love your gut podcast. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the next episode of the love your podcast. I have been trying to record this episode for, I think seven or eight days now. So I am so happy to be here with you. Life with three kids has just been so much fun, but also has been a little bit crazy. We got hit with the flu in our house. Thankfully the baby is fine, but the older two kids had the flu and We had all sorts of other things. It’s kind of like when it rains, it pours. So anyways, I’m getting you this episode way later than I ever intended to, but nevertheless, it’s happening and I’m super glad that you are tuning in. So today we are going to talk about potassium and why potassium is such an important mineral. You might feel like you drink plenty of water, you eat all these fibrous foods, you even take probiotics, yet you still feel bloated, you still feel sluggish, maybe you even still have hypothyroid symptoms, your hair’s falling out, your digestion is slow, you’re backed up, nothing seems to work, so what is missing? What if I actually told you that it might not be your gut bacteria, but it actually could be a mineral balance and that is what is keeping you stuck. So most people think of potassium for muscle cramps, right? Like we think of bananas, we think of athletes. But did you know that potassium is actually a mineral? Critical for moving waste through your gut without enough potassium. Your digestive system really slows down. So I had a client I want to give you an example. We’ll call her Sarah. She struggled with constipation for years. She had tried all the gut health hacks, magnesium, fiber, probiotics, you name it, she had tried it, but she still felt bloated all the time. When we finally ran an htma test on her, which is a hair tissue mineral analysis, we found her potassium was rock bottom, like it was literally zero. Once we addressed this, her digestion completely changed. What I want to add here is that I saw some study, I can’t remember where, but basically saying that 97, 98 percent of Americans don’t meet their daily requirement for potassium, yet we’re not really doing anything about it. And potassium is so important for so many reasons. So many different things in the body, which we’re going to get into in this episode today. But let’s start off with why potassium is essential for gut function. So I want you to think of your intestines like a long conveyor belt. It moves food and waste through your system. Potassium is kind of like the electricity that powers the motor. So when you’re low, that conveyor belt slows down. This leads to really sluggish digestion, bloating. constipation, potassium really regulates these muscle contractions, which remember your gut is a muscle and when potassium levels are low, movement is going to slow. This leads to food sitting in the intestines longer than it should. It’s not just about eating more fiber to get things to move. If your muscles don’t have any electricity, then food is just going to sit there and this can lead to other imbalances in your gut. Like. SIBO, or large intestinal dysbiosis. So it’s not to say that different probiotics or SIBO protocols or anything like that is not going to work for you, but perhaps you’ve done all of that. Perhaps you’ve done a SIBO protocol and you ended up right back at square one. If your body doesn’t have the essential minerals such as potassium that it needs to actually move things through your gut, then you’re just kind of on this vicious cycle. So. Step number one is we have to get this conveyor belt moving. So here are some signs that you might be low in potassium. On the digestive side, you might be bloated, you might be constipated, you might have sluggish digestion. On the energy side, you might have fatigue, dizziness, feeling tired after meals. Potassium regulates or helps to regulate blood sugar. Some stress symptoms, you might feel wired but tired, you might have muscle weakness, you heart palpitations. You will be less resilient to stress. We deplete potassium when we’re stressed and potassium makes us more resilient to the daily stressors that we might encounter. And then potassium is also needed for thyroid function. So from a hormone perspective, low potassium equals a slow metabolism and slow digestion. You need adequate potassium to convert T4 to T3, which is the active thyroid hormone. So, I’ll give you an example, we had a client named Emily, she had been constipated her entire life, literally she said, kind of like my story, you know, I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t constipated, she was drinking magnesium, eating chia seeds, doing everything she could to fix her gut. And she was also dealing with really extreme fatigue and felt dizzy when she would stand up. So we ran her htma test. Her potassium was so low. Once we replenished it, she went from struggling with bowel movements to having daily regular meals. bowel movements and digestion. And here’s the kicker in three weeks, like it wasn’t like this took months. The, the best part about minerals is that you really can see a huge change sometimes instantaneously. Like you drink a mocktail in the afternoon and all of a sudden you have a little bit of energy, but even for some of these GI related concerns, when you get minerals on board, you’re going to feel better. a lot quicker. So I want to talk about some of the hidden causes of low potassium. Number one, the most common one that we see, please don’t turn this episode off when you hear me say this, promise me you’re not going to do that. Number one, chronic stress and high cortisol. When you are stressed, your body pushes out more potassium through your urine. This is why high stress people tend to feel wired and tired. Um, they’re wired and exhausted. They get heart palpitations and have slow digestion. Think about how you feel after a really stressful day. Maybe you had a really stressful day at work. Maybe you had a really stressful day with your kids. You’re tense. Your digestion’s off. You’re probably craving something salty or sweet. That is your body screaming for mineral support and your body’s not doing anything wrong. I think we often judge ourselves or think that we’re doing something wrong or there’s something broken with our body. If we have these cravings, your body’s just craving something as a signal to you that something is off. And so that’s how it’s dealing with stress. Another hidden cause, which I talked about earlier, is low potassium diets. A lot of women, and people in general, are not eating enough potassium rich foods. If you’ve been following a low carb diet, carnivore diet, or restricting low carb diets, Large amounts of food groups you might not be getting enough even quote unquote healthy eaters who avoid Processed foods might not be getting enough potassium Some foods that are really heavy hitters when it comes to potassium that you should definitely think about including would be coconut water potatoes Yes, eat potatoes. Bananas. Yes, eat bananas. The internet has demonized actually a lot of really high potassium foods, and I have to believe that that is likely part of this. Dairy is also high in potassium, leafy greens, avocados. These are things that you should be including in your diet, especially if you struggle with thyroid issues. fatigue issues, poor digestion, slow metabolism, et cetera, et cetera. Anything we’re talking about on this episode. And then the third kind of hidden cause is just overall mineral imbalances. So when you do an HTMA test, you get a bunch of ratios back. So keep in mind, minerals are like a symphony. So when one mineral is off, the whole symphony sounds terrible. And so we’re really not actually that concerned. In some sense, of course, we are concerned if things are super low, but we’re less concerned about one specific mineral and more concerned about how are they interacting with each other. So potassium doesn’t work alone. It’s directly linked to sodium. If you are too low in potassium or too high in sodium digestion will suffer. HTMA testing can reveal a lot of imbalances that traditional blood work will not catch. It can also. Give us some clues as to perhaps why you’re super puffy or why you feel super swollen or inflamed Sometimes this can be low potassium or how different minerals are interacting with each other another reason that Potassium could be low would be from blood sugar and insulin resistance. This doesn’t even have to be Like having diabetes, but this can be from blood sugar swings throughout the day. Fasting insulin being too high, which if you don’t know your fasting insulin or you haven’t ever had that run, it would be a great thing to look at. If you struggle with sugar cravings, unstable energy. You feel hangry. We’ve all been there. Your blood sugar might be impacting your potassium levels and vice versa. So high insulin levels will cause potassium to shift inside cells, leaving less in your circulation. So it’s kind of like having a ton of money in your savings account, but nothing in your checking account. You technically have plenty, but it’s not available when you actually need it. When you actually need to pay a bill. So let’s talk about how we can increase potassium for better digestion. Some simple food swaps to get more potassium would include eating, obviously more potassium rich foods like coconut water, make a mineral mocktail with coconut water. I love my like OG mineral mocktail. I posted this on Instagram probably, I know my son was really little, so it was probably like three, almost three years ago in the summer. And I, Would always drink this in the morning after I got back from a super hot Texas summer walk Um, I would do coconut water with lime juice and salt And mix it all together You can add some cream of tartar for some extra potassium. It’s super delicious and It is so refreshing and you feel better instantly, but coconut water Switch this out once a day for a plain water, um, baked potatoes instead of white rice. If that’s what you normally have, have some dairy, yogurt, et cetera. Um, instead of always choosing almond milk, eat some bananas, have some avocados, cooked spinach, whatever you can do to get some of these foods in your diet. Most of our clients are low in potassium, um, on HTMA testing. And so the recommendation that we tend to give is to have one potassium rich food with every meal. And that may seem like a lot, but truly to meet your potassium needs, that’s really what you need to be doing. Um, and then including some kind of mocktail or mineral support throughout the day as well. Sodium also helps potassium absorption. So you actually need adequate sodium levels and to, to help balance out potassium. So this is why things like the adrenal cocktails work because they give you both minerals at once. Um, if you’re curious about adrenal cocktails and if they actually work, I have a whole episode on that, which is one or two episodes back. You can go listen to it. So adrenal cocktails can be a great place to start. They sell a powder that’s literally called adrenal cocktail. I will warn you, it does not taste good. It is like, just basically adding salt to your water because it’s a combo of salt, vitamin C, and potassium. That’s That’s what makes up an adrenal cocktail. I’ll put the link in the show notes if you want to try it, but you can also make super delicious tasting adrenal cocktails that have a sodium source, a potassium source, and a vitamin C source. Um, even the one that I mentioned, the, the lime, drink that I was just talking about could be kind of its own adrenal cocktail. So some people will try to increase potassium. But they don’t feel any better. That’s because your body might need a different balance of minerals, which is exactly why htma testing is so helpful to see what your body actually needs. If you are stressed and bloated and struggling with hair loss and thyroid symptoms, low energy, Anything I’ve mentioned here, I can probably bet that your potassium is low, how low, I don’t know, but there might be other things at play such as really high sodium, really low sodium, a huge magnesium loss, etc. That are going to affect how you respond to adding in more potassium, which is why testing can be so helpful. And so it might be something that you want to think about if you are drinking mineral mocktails and you’re like, yeah, I think they kind of help, but there’s obviously something more that I want to explore. So if you’re wondering, you know, whether your potassium is low, whether, You should add in different minerals and in what amounts. Our HTMA bundle is going to be open when this episode goes live. So you can click the link in the show notes and secure one of the spots. We open this bundle. About four times a year. It always sells out within like 24 to 48 hours because it’s so popular. HTMA testing will show you exactly what is going on in your body and exactly what’s going on with your minerals. You’ll get the full HTMA test. You will also get a one on one consult with our team to go over the results and create a plan. You even get the option of formulating your own custom mineral powder that you can use to make it super, super easy to do this every day. That’s Personally, what I do right now, especially in this season of life. So this is really perfect for you. If you’ve been struggling with bloating, constipation, sluggish digestion, you kind of feel like you’ve tried everything. Definitely click the link in the show notes. And so long as we have not sold out to the link, we’ll still be there. If it’s not, then definitely make sure you’ve downloaded our mineral guide and you will be the first to know what it is. When this bundle opens, I would love to hear from you and hear if this episode resonated with you. I know it was a bit of a shorter episode, but I think it’s so important that we focus on sometimes some of these things that are. such a low lift, like adding in more potassium to your diet is not typically that hard to execute. It takes intentionality and it takes planning. But when you’re consistent with it, you can see huge results. And then you can obviously take it a step further. With testing, but even if you’re not ready for that, a huge and really transformational change that you can make is getting enough potassium in your diet to help with stress resilience, help with digestion, help with your thyroid function, and really just help your body to be in the best possible shape that it can. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Send me a DM. Screenshot this episode, tag me however you want to share it, and check out the link in the show notes if you are ready to get your own htma test and get your own personalized recommendation. So thanks for tuning in. I’ll catch you next time on the next episode of the love your gut podcast.