V-8 low sodium juice

Just a heads up, the formula has been changed.

Potassium down to 850 from 900.

Campbell Soup’s rep. had no explanation as to why. Everything else stays.

The 11.5 oz cans I have, bought at the wholesale club, show 1180mg / 34% daily value.

AB, can you link me to the product? Never heard of it. Thanks.

As they just spike the juice with potassium chloride, you can purchase any low sodium juice you like and add the potassium in the quantity you want. Salt substitute that is pure KCl can be purchased at almost any grocery in the salt section - just check the label.

George, I am totally fummoxed as to how much potassium to take. I feel safe and ok with Magnesium since bowel intolerence is a sign of too much, but clueles as to potassium. I an a big veggie and salad eater. However, when I have an Afib episode, it seems to shorten the time.

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Catherine
AB, can you link me to the product? Never heard of it. Thanks.

Here you go:

[www.samsclub.com]

Thank you.

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Catherine
George, I am totally fummoxed as to how much potassium to take. I feel safe and ok with Magnesium since bowel intolerence is a sign of too much, but clueles as to potassium. I an a big veggie and salad eater. However, when I have an Afib episode, it seems to shorten the time.

I found that drinking two 11.5 oz cans of LS V8 on an empty stomach could often terminate afib and flutter episodes. That provides 2360 mg of potassium. As long as your kidney function is normal and you're not taking potassium-sparing drugs, that should be perfectly safe.

I later went to using much higher doses, and using pure potassium chloride instead of V8, but doing that is a bigger project that requires a potassium meter and some homework to keep it safe. I've taken upwards of 8000 mg of potassium in the span of a couple hours many times and have even combined it with a potassium-sparing diuretic, so a few cans of V8 aren't going to do you any harm.

I concur with Carey, as long as you have good kidney function. Likewise, I've taken 8 g of potassium at a time without issue (never took the diuretic). I prefer potassium citrate powder or bicarbonate powder to chloride as the citrate will converte to bicarb in the body and I think this provides other metabolic benefits. When i used to travel with potassium chloride, It would get flagged on the TSA scanner. I learned to put it in a bin where they could look at it easily. The chloride form can be hard on some some people's stomach.

Carey, my BP med ( Triamterene/HCTZ) the Triamterene is potassium sparing. My very first episode of Afib happened 24 hours later when my doctor changed my BP med. to just HCTZ, so potassium is very important for me and the Afib.

The 5.5 oz cans of LS V-8 juice contains 800 mg of potassium. I can drink 2 a day and up it later on.

Catherine:

You are taking a Potassium sparing drug, why are you taking extra potassium? You said that "my doctor changed my BP meds to just HCTZ, so potassium is very important for me and the AF", that means that the drug is sparing your potassium and by taking in the juice which contains 800 mg. of Potassium you can be getting an overload of potassium, that can be dangerous and could cause you to have episodes of AF. Carey did say that as long as you are not taking potassium sparing drugs it would be safe to drink LS V-8.

Do you know what your potassium level is from your blood work? Didn't your doctor mention to you not to take extra potassium, taking it from your food is different than from taking a lot extra from cans of LS V-8 juice which contains 800 mg. of potassium.

Liz

Liz, I don’t disagree with you and that’s why I don’t take potassium supplements.

Two weeks ago I went into Afib, after a long stretch, and had an 8oz. glass of LS V-8. My episode lasted only 2 hours versus the usual 4 to 6 hours.

I also don’t know, and as you suggest bloodwork to determine my levels, what they are.

Also the fact that I’m on a potassium sparing diuretic, still, I seem to be experiencing them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2018 04:09PM by Catherine.

You'll notice that there are no warnings on the LS V8 cans. Is that because the Campbells company that makes it is unaware that potassium can be dangerous for people with kidney dysfunction and those who are on potassium-sparing drugs? No, not likely. It's not there because it's a very low risk and none of their customers are dying because of it.

Don't go overboard, and ask your doc for a basic metabolic panel periodically to keep an eye on your potassium levels, but don't be afraid of potassium consumed in food. If your kidney function is normal and you don't do crazy stuff, you'll be fine.

Carey said"

You'll notice that there are no warnings on the LS V8 cans. Is that because the Campbells company that makes it is unaware that potassium can be dangerous for people with kidney dysfunction and those who are on potassium-sparing drugs? No, not likely. It's not there because it's a very low risk and none of their customers are dying because of it.

Diabetics should not eat a lot of sugar, it could raise their blood sugar level, not good. I don't think there is a warning to that affect on the labels of cookies or candy bars etc, so because their are no labels to that affect, if I follow your above logical, it should be ok to eat those items. I also didn't say that people were dying from too much potassium, I said It could be dangerous.

L.

Catherine - For an afibber, it’s certainly important when you are using a diuretic that you don’t deplete important electrolytes… potassium, obviously, but also magnesium and diuretics don’t typically ‘spare’ magnesium. So, for NSR, your heart needs the all the electrolytes in the proper ratios to remain balanced and functional. If you responded positively to the extra V8 then you probably were low on potassium. Often during the afib cycle, we urinate more and all the electrolytes are excreted.

You may find the following helpful.

Richard Moore MD and PhD (biophysics) writes in his book, The Blood Pressure Solution (2001)
useful information which is also reported in Conference Room 72 [www.afibbers.org] by Erling Waller on the function of the sodium/potassium pump in arrhythmia – which is important for us to understand from the body’s biochemical/biophysical function. Spending some time reading there and reading through the afibber responses may give you some associations to which you can relate. Lots of great contributions there …from George N, Dean, TomC reporting on his followup to George’s alerting us to the Cardymeter, etc.


The first paragraph (following) is the lead-in for the topic… and has to do with hypertension, but the point to
recognize here is the relevancy of magnesium deficiency and how that affects potassium function. There
are many reminders to afibbers that one needs to be optimized continually in intracellular magnesium stores before
adding potassium since that can only make arrhythmia worse. As I recall, it was an Altura study that demonstrated that
finding.

“Some people with primary hypertension do indeed have low levels of magnesium in their blood serum. In these people,
Lower serum magnesium levels have been found to be associated with increased activity of a blood hormone, renin, which acts to increase blood pressure. (See Chapt. 17). A recent study has shown that the level of free magnesium inside blood cells is about 15% lower in people with primary hypertension than in the rest of the population.

Magnesium deficiency may contribute to high blood pressure in another way. Magnesium loss increases the tendency of the body to lose potassium, and administration of magnesium is sometimes required in order to enable the body to replenish its stores of potassium. In fact, in patients with low blood levels of magnesium, attempts to restore blood levels of potassium to normal are ineffective until normal levels of magnesium are first restored. Not only that, but administration of magnesium has been reported to increase sodium excretion by the kidneys and magnesium deficiency decreases urinary sodium, possibly because of a decrease in a sodium-excreting thiazide diuretics results in not only a decrease in not only a decrease in body potassium, but also a decrease in body magnesium content, reinforces the desirability of using nondrug approaches – especially for people with mild hypertension.”

Note: there are five footnote references I didn’t include but I can list if you are interested in following the supporting research.

CR 74 is on the Cardymeter although there’s a newer version being used now.
[www.afibbers.org]


Jackie

Carey, I picked up the 11.5oz cans today and plan to continue. Besides, my BP med has been reduced to half a tablet. My kidney functions are fine.

Jackie, if my BP continues to remain stable, I will eventually stop the half tablet.

I realize it doesn’t take much, whether it be diet or stress, to throw the heart off. That seems to be the challenge.