General potassium question ER 20 MEQ

What is Klor-con M20 ER 20MEQ tab? Generic for potassium chloride ER 20MEQ. Is it just potassium chloride like the powder I buy??
Why is it prescription? Is it a megadose? Or a special potassium?

ER is extended release, I assume, So that would be the difference. You could take your supplement over time to approximate it. 20 meq is 1500 mg of potassium. I take 4 grams a day as citrate. I mix the powder in my water bottle and drink it over the day to approximate the extended release.

George

It's prescription because it's a single pill with more than 99mg of potassium in it. That's the legal limit. No other reason, and there's nothing special about it.

It is potassium chloride but it's not equivalent to pure potassium chloride. It's an extended release tablet designed to release potassium gradually over a longer period of time. I know from personal experience and a potassium meter that pure potassium chloride causes an immediate spike in your serum potassium level, and that triggers your kidneys to aggressively remove it. The result is a spike followed by a very rapid drop back to normal, and sometimes you can end up lower than you started out. If you have normal kidney function, a gram of potassium will be excreted within one to two hours, so it's impractical to keep potassium levels elevated with plain potassium chloride. That's why the extended release tablets exist. It's a slow infusion of K+ that doesn't trigger an overreaction by your kidneys. That also makes it safer. George's method also works, as do food sources. All of them represent some form of extended release.

Thank you Carey and George and all

I would love to know how much and what kind of potassium and magnesium tontake for afib. I had an abliation in March. Dealing now with depression. I live in New Jersey.

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Margaret
I would love to know how much and what kind of potassium and magnesium tontake for afib. I had an abliation in March. Dealing now with depression. I live in New Jersey.

I have found the best source of potassium for me was simply drinking low sodium v8 juice.
You get 850 mg. of potassium in 1 glass and it seems to stop at least temp. some pac's i get.
I drink 3...12 oz glasses a day...1st thing, middle and just before bed.....thats about 3600 mg and it has a very calming effect on my heart.

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Margaret
I would love to know how much and what kind of potassium and magnesium tontake for afib. I had an abliation in March. Dealing now with depression. I live in New Jersey.

Hi Margaret,

The standard answer for magnesium is the glycinate form being most bioavailable. That being said, I take buckets of mag/day to keep my afib in remission (currently 2.5 g/day) and any form works for me. This can include glycinate, citrate, bicarbonate, malate, hydroxide, chloride, acetate. Some of these I make up myself. I have made bicarbonate from the recipe from our site. I've gotten di-magnesium malate powder from an equine source.. I make my own milk of magnesia from magnesium hydroxide powder in filtered water. Magnesium acetate from milk of magnesia and organic apple cider vinegar in a 2:7 ratio.

The low sodium V8 juice vanlith mentions is veggie juice spiked with potassium chloride. Sometimes the chloride form can be hard of people's stomach. You can also buy potassium chloride powder in the grocery in the salt section, normally labeled as "no-salt" or salt substitute and you can spike anything you want. I tend to prefer either the citrate or bicarbonate forms. They tend to be easier on the stomach. I get them as a powder - citrate, bicarbonate.

As to quantity, assuming your kidneys are good (if they aren't either of these can build up and have problems), start low and work up. Magnesium to bowel tolerance is a good place to go. Just slowly go up till your stools start to get loose. This may be a positive for your depression, too.

On potassium, you don't want to take it all at once, as Carey points out. Again start slowly and work up. 4 g/s a day is probably a max. Dissolve some in a water bottle and sip over the day. This will act as "time release."

George

George, thank you. What supplement:pill do u take? My potassium is always low. Doctor says not to take potassium as could be dangerous. My. Mood test always show low potassium. I try and eat two bananas a day. Any advice greatly appreciated.

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Margaret
George, thank you. What supplement:pill do u take? My potassium is always low. Doctor says not to take potassium as could be dangerous. My. Mood test always show low potassium. I try and eat two bananas a day. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Bananas are a double edged sword as they are high glycemic. The glucose can cause the body to dump more potassium.

I put 2 tsps of potassium citrate powder (about 4 g of potassium) in a water bottle and drink it over the day. So I don't take potassium pills.

Any pills only have 99 mg of potassium in them, not very much, would take 40 of those pills to get 4 g of potassium. You could take a few take a few pills at a time at various times over the day, however.

What I've found is that when my magnesium levels are in order, my potassium levels fall in line.


George

George, how long have u had afib? Have u had abliation or just medication. This afib can. E a beast. I am in NJ and had my abliation at Morristown Medical Center

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Margaret
George, how long have u had afib? Have u had abliation or just medication. This afib can. E a beast. I am in NJ and had my abliation at Morristown Medical Center

I've had afib for over 14 years, and been on this board for that time. Within 2 months of my first episode, I had a 2 1/2 month persistent episode (cardioverted chemically with flecainide). I then proposed a plan to my EP - using electrolytes to stay in afib remission and on-demand flecainide as a backup when I did go out of rhythm. This has been successful and I've done this since. My af burden since has been low. I've yet to have an ablation. My understanding is my 2.5 month episode means I would be a "complex" case if I did get one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2018 10:24AM by GeorgeN.

George,

You mentioned that your afib burden is low - how often do you go into afib so that you need to convert with the flec?

Cheers

Anne

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AnneC
You mentioned that your afib burden is low - how often do you go into afib so that you need to convert with the flec?

Well the answer is a bit nuanced. When I converted the 2 1/2 month episode, it took 20 hours. So did the next one a month later. I think that atrial stunning was a factor in that episode. It took about 4 or so months till I got my protocol reasonably tweaked as I was experimenting and making it up. At three months I had an episode after breaking train in 3' snow with a 70# pack and thien constructing a 3 person snow cave. Excessive endurance exercise, like this, was my path to afib and continues to be a trigger in a delayed, vagal. sence. That episode took 25 minutes to convert after I chewed the flec in the snow cave and washed it down with ice water from a half frozen water bottle. After the next episode a month later, I realized I'd dropped taurine powder from my supplement stack. When I added it back in, I went over two years without an episode (I also quit doing any endurance training, though remained very fit). I then thought I was "cured" so I stopped all the supps and was visited with afib within 48 hours. That convinced me I wasn't cured and I continued with the supplements. I'd get episodes maybe once a year or so. About 9 years ago, I decided to keto adapt, knowing that the adaptation phase can cause electrolyte disturbances. But I went ahead and sure enough, I did get an episode during adaptation. After that I decided to really push the mag hard (and I maintained the keto adaptation). Again I was doing well, maybe one episode a year till I went through a divorce about 6 years ago. My control deteriorated and my worse time was 4 episodes, 4 nights in a row. I managed to control that initially with daily flec and then tapered that and replaced the flec with powdered ginger spice daily before bed. On this, I was getting maybe one episode a month. Then I reread the literature and realized I'd been consuming excess calcium from brie cheese I was stress eating. I quit the cheese and my control went back to pre-divorce levels. In the last year, I decided maybe I shoulding push the mag quite so hard as my RBC magnesium level was 7.9 and the high end of normal is 6.8. So I backed off a bit. A family member also came down with a glioblastoma, a very serious brain cancer (John McCain has it). With that, I've spaced out taking the mag for a day or two a number of times as I've been distracted. This is almost a guaranteed trigger. However the flec usually converts me in around an hour. A few times it will go to two and I think once to 4 and once to 6. Several months ago, I was able to convert an episode with CO2 as described here I've not had another episode, so no opportunity to try this again.

If I'm really paying attention, I can go a year or two without an episode. And as I write this, I realize I didn't take my mag tonight, so I will go do it now....