Higher potassium intake at dinner linked to fewer sleep disturbances – study

On one hand, if I squint hard enough, I can almost see it, but not exactly for the reasons they propose. Potatoes are infamous for having an extremely high satiety index, that is, you feel very full after eating them. If that holds, it would be easy to see how it could lead to weight loss, since you would feel full earlier and thus eat less.

All that aside, almost all of the results they show are deep within statistical error bounds. My weight easily varies 5lbs (2kg) within a week, saying you lost that amount after a month of diet doesn't really say much to me. I could weigh myself a week from now and say I lost that, then one week on and say I regained it.

If you've tried the traditional diet and exercise and couldn't stick to it, don't let the stigma around glp-1s keep you from taking to your doctor about them. They are a powerful tool. Really helped me

Look into vitamin K2.

When I said lower stomach acid I meant in quantity, not acidity, you're right!

They have long term health consequences and reduce your stomach acid quantity enough that the acid doesn't make it's way back up the throat. So it's masking the root cause. The knock-on effect of taking PPIs or H2-blockers is that you end up with lower acidity which means worse food digestion which means being more prone to bugs and bacteria in food not being wiped out before it gets to the small intestine where it can cause bigger issues like SIBO.

Having the right amount of stomach acid and low PH is crucial to keep the whole digestive system, gut motility and more running properly.

I'd heard claims like that before and I was curious so I googled a bit more.

It sounds like there's this thing "PRAL" or "potential renal acid load" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_renal_acid_load where the affect on stomach acid can be different from a food's pH. But again, the wikipedia article links to some random people's blogs and a single research article from 2019. I'm not sure if this is well supported by research.

They are high in fibre and can thicken the fluid in the stomach. Maybe that's how they help.

It depends. There are varieties of bananas & plantains that are high in latex, and can cause reflux and allergies for some people.

Slouching forward, crunching up your stomach and resting your weight on it.

In other words, good posture.

Alcohol is bad in general no matter the ailment

I also started with general “electrolytes” but found that one of my problems was that I was getting way too much sodium and not enough potassium. This was the primary driver of my post-meal somnolence. Most general electrolyte supplements are primarily sodium, and this was exacerbating my symptoms in some cases. I now only eat meals that have a reasonable amount of sodium and then take a couple of potassium tablets a couple of hours after eating if I feel myself starting to get a little sleepy. 30 minutes later I am ‘back to normal’, whereas I used to be sleepy for several hours as my body tried to bring my electrolytes back into balance. I also would have massive unquenchable thirst during this that I now don’t have.

I have read no studies that link CSF production with electrolyte deficiencies. This is a hypothesis of my own with no backing, so take it for what it is worth. Having said that, there have been many posts on HN on the recent studies on CSF https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39723704. I made the connection with CSF production and electrolytes when I was reading more about CSF production and it jumped off the page at me that potassium and other electrolytes are used to create CSF. It all just came together for me why taking potassium has helped me so much.

Sorry, you asked about ‘possible upstream causes of electrolyte deficiency’.

In my case I believe it is caused by an undiagnosed kidney problem loosely called ‘salt-wasting syndrome’. There are many types, but they all revolve around a genetic disorder where the tubules in your kidneys that are responsible for removing different electrolytes from the urine and retaining them are malformed and are not able to keep the electrolytes like a normal kidney does. Here are a few I found in my research:

-Bartters Syndrome- https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/bartters-syndrome/

Many different variants, so this is a possibility. Type 5?

-------------------------

-Gitelman syndrome- https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/8547/gitelman-syn... Symptoms include tingling of face

————————

Fanconi Syndrome https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/kidney-and-urinary-tract-d...

I my particular case, I believe I have a type that does not impact sodium, but does potassium. When I eat a high sodium meal it causes me to pee a lot to try to get the my sodium levels back to normal. However, my body can’t retain potassium when it does this (and since I was eating much more sodium and much less potassium than my body required) I end up with normal sodium levels but low potassium levels. Taking potassium a few hours after a meal “fixed” this.

Short of genetic issue like this I am not sure what could cause it. I think this can be an early symptom of Diabetes, but don’t know much about that. What I am talking about here has got to be rare, so it may not be applicable to you.

Just another anecdote – when reading some of these links it made me remember another interesting symptom I used to have that I did not know was related: I would get “facial numbness”. Specifically, my lips and the immediate surrounding area would feel slightly numb. Usually in the morning after a poor night of sleep. I would remember feeling this on the way to work in the car. It would contribute to that dazed feeling I felt like I would swimming through a mental fog.

Oh, and one more! I also don’t get nearly so hung over from drinking! This was a surprise for me. I have always drank a lot of water while drinking alcohol, but I would always have the worst drained feeling the next day with such a headache. The headache would last all day. However, if I now take some potassium while drinking and throughout the night (depending on how much I drink), I often don’t have much of a hangover. This amazes me! I am 57 and used to drink a lot when I was in my 20’s. I had some friends that could be normal the next day and it always blew my mind. Now I think I know why. They have normal kidneys!

I find magnesium a tricky one to get right for me. I have tried most of the kinds available and have settled on magnesium chloride in a liquid form. It has a god awful taste, but has absolutely no other side effects.

Citrate causes me to have too soft of stools. Glycinate is often recommended for sleep, but for me it has the opposite effect – it wires me. I have tried taurine, malinate, and threonate, but chloride just works the best for me.

Electrolytes do ‘wear off’ in the sense that they are constantly depleted by your body, even when everything is working well. I have come up with the metaphor that electrolytes are like gas and oil in your car. They are constantly used up and need to be replenished. This is normal.

The good news is that I noticed the difference immediately!

Not OP but the magnesium formulation recommended for sleep is usually magnesium glycinate or biglycinate, not the more common oxide or citrate.

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/magnesium

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/magnesium-types#9-Magne...

Not OP but I've had luck with zinc and magnesium aspartate supplements commonly available on Amazon. I take two caps that each are a net about 500mg an hour before bed, along with 1mg of melatonin.

Been doing this for a lot of years now.

I take anywhere from 600mg to 1000mg throughout the day. It depends on my diet and other things. Never all at once.

Magnesium is a common laxative in high doses. [https://www.drugs.com/mtm/milk-of-magnesia.html#:~:text=Milk....]

An interesting paper on transdermal magnesium:

Myth or Reality—Transdermal Magnesium? https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5579607/

The short story -- As of 2017 the jury is still out as to whether something like an Epsom salt bath may be beneficial because of the magnesium.

If his sleep felt different than usual then the results are probably meaningful.

I am just reporting on available literature, like this:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35184264/

"Observational studies suggested an association between Mg statuses and sleep quality, while the RCTs reported contradictory findings."

One thing thata tired or rushed scientist trip up and writes the wrong sentence, but surely[1] a reviewer should catch such a grave mistake?

I mean it's a very short paper, and the main findings are repeated, so not like it's buried.

[1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7944958/

A liter of coconut water also contains quite a bit of sugar, which might have contributed to your palpitations.

I've experienced palpitations after having Indian food, could coconut milk cause that?

Eloquent truth pointer right there! ;)

Can one simply stick to vodka, skip the potatoes, and reap all the benefits?

Potatoes have almost double the glycemic index of a banana, meaning that the impact on metabolism and insulin production is greater and faster.

Per 100g ground beef is 300+mg of potassium

No carbs, no sugars, no fiber induced bloating, could easily get more than 100g into a meal

My understanding is potassium also competes with salt in the body

I've only ever been able to finish raw banana. I've tried raw potato but it was almost gag worthy.

Potassium is a chemical element, frying it won't change the potassium level.

The trick is to offer bananas to everyone and refrain from eating. Then the mosquitos will prefer the other people and leave you for later.

I’ve mixed them up too and that was the worst Mac and Cheese I ever made!

Condensed milk is evaporated milk + added sugar.

I sometimes buy evaporated because it is a big time-saver, but never sweetened condensed because it's quick and easy to add sugar myself, and leaves me in control of how much relative to the other ingredients.

Both are thicker, creamier, and even sweeter than milk - because even without the added sugar the natural sweetness of the milk is concentrated by the reduction, removing all that water.

The P5P form harms less if in excess. This is in contrast to the default form which is pyridoxine. I have found 20 mg of P5P twice daily to be quite useful for keeping stress spikes in check.

Regarding melatonin, newer data up to 2024 in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38888087/ confirms that 4 mg is an optimal dose for sleep. For a discussion, search for this article on r/FoodNerds.

News articles have a valid purpose of popularizing journal articles for the vast majority of people who will feel lost looking at a journal article directly.

A news article should be compared to another news article, not to a journal article. A journal article can however be compared with another journal article.

I understand that the journal article you linked might be superior.