Health scare

In the grand scheme of life, my health scare was tame. I never had any symptoms, which I reminded myself constantly during the process in an attempt to calm my overactive worrying.

What happened to me makes the case for consistent health monitoring, even if you feel fine. A routine full workup showed a high level of potassium in my blood. A false positive for potassium can occur, so the test was repeated. When the second results still came back high, I was put on a low potassium diet.

I knew that bananas, potatoes, Gatorade, and juice are high in potassium, so I had already eliminated those items from my diet. But I had no idea that nearly everything I consume is high in potassium! Beans, tomato products, avocado, tofu, yogurt, milk, chocolate - I had to cut out all of these foods. What was I going to eat? It was an overwhelming process at first, but then I made adjustments. I've spent the past few weeks eating a lot of stir fry, macaroni and cheese, cottage cheese, and corn chips. Giving up chocolate, milk, potato chips, and Gatorade were the toughest parts of the diet. Eating out and at other people's houses was especially rough. I ate a lot of Chinese food.

The diet was hard, but the not knowing what was going on was even more difficult. High potassium in the blood can lead to heart issues, so I requested a EKG, which was normal, thank goodness. After the third high reading, my internist sent me to a kidney specialist, which made me very nervous, but my other blood work was so normal that neither doctor suspected kidney problems. There was a possibility that I had Addison's Disease, an adrenal gland disorder, but again, I wasn't having any symptoms that would point to that.

In the end, the cause was apparently simple and easy to remedy. I didn't have Addison's Disease or any problems with my kidneys. I was just eating too many potassium-rich foods coupled with chronic mild dehydration. After a few weeks of the low potassium diet and a concerted effort to increase my daily fluid intake, my potassium level has returned to the normal, although high normal, range. I'll have another blood draw in two weeks.

I thought I was eating relatively healthy. And I was. But too much of a good thing often isn't beneficial, and can be harmful.

So even if you feel good and you don't suspect any problems, get a yearly check-up including fasting blood work. Always better to be safe.

The one humorous moment of this situation was when the nurse was going through the list of foods I couldn't eat. He said, "no brussel sprouts," and I replied quickly, "No problem there!" I am NOT a consumer of brussel sprouts. 

Here's a short list of potassium-rich foods:
potatoes
sweet potatoes
bananas
melons
spinach
avocado
tomato products
juice, especially orange juice
beans
nuts
broccoli
brussel sprouts
milk
yogurt
chocolate
tofu

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