Potassium Lab Values

Potassium Lab Values – Overview

Potassium is an important mineral in the human body that helps nerves and muscles function properly. It also helps nutrients move into the cells and let your heart function normally. High or low potassium levels in the human body can be influenced by various factors, including kidney diseases, diet, medications, dehydration, and other medical conditions.

Your doctor would prescribe you a potassium test to check your level of it. Let’s find out the standard Potassium Lab Values with more information about the Potassium Test.

What is a Potassium Test

Your doctor prescribes a potassium test to check the amount of potassium in your blood. A minor imbalance of potassium in our bloodstream can cause many health problems.

Potassium is found in many foods; incorporating these into your diet can help maintain balance. However, imbalances can still occur due to individual health conditions, medications, and other factors. Beets, bananas, avocados, spinach, pumpkins, oranges, etc. are high in potassium. Regularly consuming these foods helps regulate the amount of potassium in your body.

Why Would I Get a Potassium Test

Potassium plays a vital role in your body’s functionality. If you have any health issues with your body, your doctor would prescribe you to go for a potassium test. The following health issues would require a potassium test:

Kidney problems
Diabetes problems
High blood pressure
Metabolic acidosis
Some special diseases

What is the Procedure for the Potassium Test

A potassium test is just like any other blood test. Your doctor may advise you on any specific medications to adjust or avoid before your potassium test, based on their potential to affect test results. Always consult your doctor before making any changes to your medication regimen. Discuss the medications and your current health condition before going for this laboratory test.

The nurse will clean your elbow to remove blood from your vein. A tight band will be wrapped around your hand to locate the veins faster. Most of us are familiar with this procedure, which takes only a couple of minutes.

After that, the nurse will collect the blood from your vein into a glass tube for further testing. The needle and the band will be removed after that and a hole will be covered with cotton wool or a small bandage.

Our body’s typical normal potassium range is between 3.7 to 5.2 milliequivalents per liter (3.70 to 5.20 millimoles per liter), though slight variations may occur between different laboratories.

The normal potassium lab values may differ as the testing procedure may vary from lab to lab. Your doctor must check the final result of your potassium level after the blood test. Your doctor will guide you more about the test result.

What are the abnormalities of the Potassium Test?

A high level of potassium is referred to as hyperkalemia. As per the results, a blood potassium level of 7.0 millimoles per liter or higher than this can be life-threatening. Your body may encounter various health problems due to a high potassium level.

Why is your potassium level high?

There are many reasons why the value of potassium in your body is high. Here, we have prepared a list of reasons behind the high potassium value in your body.

Taking potassium supplement
Havings regular foods with high potassium value
Due to medications
Due to blood transfusion
Due to severe injury
Tissue injury
Type 1 diabetes
Infection
Dehydration problem
Metabolic acidosis
Respiratory acidosis
Addison’s disease
Kidney failure or kidney diseases

Why is your potassium level low?

A low potassium level is referred to as hypokalemia. Low potassium levels in your blood can be caused by…

Not taking potassium-rich foods in your diet
Vomiting, gastrointestinal disorders
Excessive workout and sweating
Deficiency of folic acid
Medications
Taking insulin
Chronic kidney disease
Excessive use of a laxative

Take Away!

You should consume the right amount of potassium in your diet to avoid an imbalance of potassium in your body.

The amount of potassium you should take depends on age, gender, and other factors. Your doctor will tell you more about the right amount of potassium in your body.

The potassium test generally requires no special preparations. Still, it’s important to follow any specific instructions provided by your healthcare provider or the laboratory, which may include fasting or medication adjustments. It is one of the common blood tests that most healthcare providers use to treat certain conditions in humans.

Eat healthy food to regulate not only potassium levels but also all the other nutrients and micronutrients in your body.