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

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

• 0:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
• 0:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
• 0:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 0:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
• 0:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: And now I'm here to guide you.
• 0:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
• 0:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
• 0:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 0:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
• 0:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: You are in the right place.
• 0:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the love your gut podcast.
• 0:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: Hello.
• 0:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: Hello.
• 0:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome back to the next episode of the love your podcast.
• 1:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: I have been trying to record this episode for, I think seven or eight days now.
• 1:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I am so happy to be here with you.
• 1:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: Life with three kids has just been so much fun, but also has been a little bit crazy.
• 1:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: We got hit with the flu in our house.
• 1:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: Thankfully the baby is fine, but the older two kids had the flu and We had all sorts of other things.
• 1:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's kind of like when it rains, it pours.
• 1:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 1:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: So today we are going to talk about potassium and why potassium is such an important mineral.
• 1:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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?
• 2:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 2:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: So most people think of potassium for muscle cramps, right?
• 2:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like we think of bananas, we think of athletes.
• 2:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: But did you know that potassium is actually a mineral?
• 2:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: Critical for moving waste through your gut without enough potassium.
• 2:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: Your digestive system really slows down.
• 2:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I had a client I want to give you an example.
• 2:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: We'll call her Sarah.
• 2:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: She struggled with constipation for years.
• 2:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 2:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 3:04
  Dr. Heather Finley: Once we addressed this, her digestion completely changed.
• 3:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 3:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: And potassium is so important for so many reasons.
• 3:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: So many different things in the body, which we're going to get into in this episode today.
• 3:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: But let's start off with why potassium is essential for gut function.
• 3:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I want you to think of your intestines like a long conveyor belt.
• 3:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: It moves food and waste through your system.
• 3:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: Potassium is kind of like the electricity that powers the motor.
• 3:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: So when you're low, that conveyor belt slows down.
• 3:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: This leads to really sluggish digestion, bloating.
• 3:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 4:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: This leads to food sitting in the intestines longer than it should.
• 4:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's not just about eating more fiber to get things to move.
• 4:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 4:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like.
• 4:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: SIBO, or large intestinal dysbiosis.
• 4:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 4:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: Perhaps you've done a SIBO protocol and you ended up right back at square one.
• 4:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 4:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: So.
• 4:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: Step number one is we have to get this conveyor belt moving.
• 5:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: So here are some signs that you might be low in potassium.
• 5:08
  Dr. Heather Finley: On the digestive side, you might be bloated, you might be constipated, you might have sluggish digestion.
• 5:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: On the energy side, you might have fatigue, dizziness, feeling tired after meals.
• 5:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: Potassium regulates or helps to regulate blood sugar.
• 5:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: Some stress symptoms, you might feel wired but tired, you might have muscle weakness, you heart palpitations.
• 5:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: You will be less resilient to stress.
• 5:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: We deplete potassium when we're stressed and potassium makes us more resilient to the daily stressors that we might encounter.
• 5:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then potassium is also needed for thyroid function.
• 5:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So from a hormone perspective, low potassium equals a slow metabolism and slow digestion.
• 5:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: You need adequate potassium to convert T4 to T3, which is the active thyroid hormone.
• 5:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 6:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: And she was also dealing with really extreme fatigue and felt dizzy when she would stand up.
• 6:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we ran her htma test.
• 6:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: Her potassium was so low.
• 6:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: Once we replenished it, she went from struggling with bowel movements to having daily regular meals.
• 6:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: bowel movements and digestion.
• 6:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: And here's the kicker in three weeks, like it wasn't like this took months.
• 6:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: The, the best part about minerals is that you really can see a huge change sometimes instantaneously.
• 6:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 7:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: a lot quicker.
• 7:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I want to talk about some of the hidden causes of low potassium.
• 7:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 7:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: Number one, chronic stress and high cortisol.
• 7:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: When you are stressed, your body pushes out more potassium through your urine.
• 7:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: This is why high stress people tend to feel wired and tired.
• 7:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: Um, they're wired and exhausted.
• 7:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: They get heart palpitations and have slow digestion.
• 7:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: Think about how you feel after a really stressful day.
• 7:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you had a really stressful day at work.
• 7:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: Maybe you had a really stressful day with your kids.
• 7:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: You're tense.
• 7:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: Your digestion's off.
• 7:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: You're probably craving something salty or sweet.
• 7:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: That is your body screaming for mineral support and your body's not doing anything wrong.
• 7:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think we often judge ourselves or think that we're doing something wrong or there's something broken with our body.
• 7:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: If we have these cravings, your body's just craving something as a signal to you that something is off.
• 8:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so that's how it's dealing with stress.
• 8:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: Another hidden cause, which I talked about earlier, is low potassium diets.
• 8:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: A lot of women, and people in general, are not eating enough potassium rich foods.
• 8:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 8:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: Bananas.
• 8:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yes, eat bananas.
• 8:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: The internet has demonized actually a lot of really high potassium foods, and I have to believe that that is likely part of this.
• 8:59
  Dr. Heather Finley: Dairy is also high in potassium, leafy greens, avocados.
• 9:04
  Dr. Heather Finley: These are things that you should be including in your diet, especially if you struggle with thyroid issues.
• 9:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: fatigue issues, poor digestion, slow metabolism, et cetera, et cetera.
• 9:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: Anything we're talking about on this episode.
• 9:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then the third kind of hidden cause is just overall mineral imbalances.
• 9:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: So when you do an HTMA test, you get a bunch of ratios back.
• 9:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: So keep in mind, minerals are like a symphony.
• 9:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: So when one mineral is off, the whole symphony sounds terrible.
• 9:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so we're really not actually that concerned.
• 9:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 9:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: So potassium doesn't work alone.
• 9:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's directly linked to sodium.
• 9:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you are too low in potassium or too high in sodium digestion will suffer.
• 10:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: HTMA testing can reveal a lot of imbalances that traditional blood work will not catch.
• 10:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: It can also.
• 10:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 10:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: This doesn't even have to be Like having diabetes, but this can be from blood sugar swings throughout the day.
• 10:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 10:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you struggle with sugar cravings, unstable energy.
• 10:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: You feel hangry.
• 10:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: We've all been there.
• 10:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: Your blood sugar might be impacting your potassium levels and vice versa.
• 11:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: So high insulin levels will cause potassium to shift inside cells, leaving less in your circulation.
• 11:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: So it's kind of like having a ton of money in your savings account, but nothing in your checking account.
• 11:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: You technically have plenty, but it's not available when you actually need it.
• 11:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: When you actually need to pay a bill.
• 11:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: So let's talk about how we can increase potassium for better digestion.
• 11:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 11:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: I love my like OG mineral mocktail.
• 11:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 11:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 12:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 12:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: If that's what you normally have, have some dairy, yogurt, et cetera.
• 12:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 12:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: Most of our clients are low in potassium, um, on HTMA testing.
• 12:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so the recommendation that we tend to give is to have one potassium rich food with every meal.
• 12:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: And that may seem like a lot, but truly to meet your potassium needs, that's really what you need to be doing.
• 12:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: Um, and then including some kind of mocktail or mineral support throughout the day as well.
• 13:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Sodium also helps potassium absorption.
• 13:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you actually need adequate sodium levels and to, to help balance out potassium.
• 13:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: So this is why things like the adrenal cocktails work because they give you both minerals at once.
• 13:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 13:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can go listen to it.
• 13:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: So adrenal cocktails can be a great place to start.
• 13:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: They sell a powder that's literally called adrenal cocktail.
• 13:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: I will warn you, it does not taste good.
• 13:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: It is like, just basically adding salt to your water because it's a combo of salt, vitamin C, and potassium.
• 13:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: That's That's what makes up an adrenal cocktail.
• 13:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 14:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 14:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: So some people will try to increase potassium.
• 14:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: But they don't feel any better.
• 14:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 14:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 14:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: That are going to affect how you respond to adding in more potassium, which is why testing can be so helpful.
• 15:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 15:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're wondering, you know, whether your potassium is low, whether, You should add in different minerals and in what amounts.
• 15:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: Our HTMA bundle is going to be open when this episode goes live.
• 15:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can click the link in the show notes and secure one of the spots.
• 15:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: We open this bundle.
• 15:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: About four times a year.
• 15:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: It always sells out within like 24 to 48 hours because it's so popular.
• 15:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: HTMA testing will show you exactly what is going on in your body and exactly what's going on with your minerals.
• 15:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: You'll get the full HTMA test.
• 15:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: You will also get a one on one consult with our team to go over the results and create a plan.
• 15:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 16:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: That's Personally, what I do right now, especially in this season of life.
• 16:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: So this is really perfect for you.
• 16:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you've been struggling with bloating, constipation, sluggish digestion, you kind of feel like you've tried everything.
• 16:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: Definitely click the link in the show notes.
• 16:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so long as we have not sold out to the link, we'll still be there.
• 16:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 16:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: When this bundle opens, I would love to hear from you and hear if this episode resonated with you.
• 16:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 16:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: such a low lift, like adding in more potassium to your diet is not typically that hard to execute.
• 16:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: It takes intentionality and it takes planning.
• 16:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: But when you're consistent with it, you can see huge results.
• 17:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then you can obviously take it a step further.
• 17:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 17:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode.
• 17:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: Send me a DM.
• 17:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: 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.
• 17:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: So thanks for tuning in.
• 17:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'll catch you next time on the next episode of the love your gut podcast.