A few years ago, I found my blood pressure was slightly elevated. It came as a shock because it has always been pretty normal. So, there I was, wearing a cuff that monitored my blood pressure 24/7!
I consider myself a woman with a healthy plate and active lifestyle, but that time, I found myself asking: “What nutrient could I be missing in my diet?”
It turns out that the natural changes in our body during menopause can truly affect many aspects of our health — our blood pressure included!
And that’s how I learned about the wonders of potassium. This mineral is a vital nutrient that helps keep our blood pressure in check and offers many other health benefits, too!
Let me shine a spotlight on potassium and share which good sources to go for! In this article, we will dive into this often-overlooked mineral and tackle some handy tips to keep it balanced!
What is Potassium and Why is it Important for Women?
Potassium is a vital mineral for many functions in your body. It is one of the key electrolytes (minerals that carry an electric charge) that help regulate various processes — including fluid balance, hydration, muscle function, nerve signaling, heartbeat and blood pressure.
Fluid Balance and Hydration
In perimenopause, your progesterone levels decline — which disrupts the natural fluid balance in the body. That’s because progesterone works as a natural diuretic!
Fluctuations in estrogen levels may also further impact your fluid balance, making it common for midlife women to feel bloated and have symptoms of edema (swelling).
Potassium can save the day when it comes to this, as it can help maintain fluid balance! It allows your cells to stay hydrated by enabling them to absorb the right amount of water.
This is essential for your overall health, especially as you move through midlife! The natural changes in your hormonal and hydration levels can affect your energy and well-being, so it’s essential to nourish your body during this phase!
Smoother Muscle Contractions
Potassium is a popular mineral for athletes, but it’s also time to make it popular among midlife women! Ever notice how cramps can strike out of nowhere? A deficiency in potassium could be the reason behind that.
Potassium helps by supporting the smooth contraction and relaxation of your muscles — which is crucial not just for your workouts but also for your daily activities!
Potassium also plays a part in the nervous system by facilitating communication between nerves and muscles. This is key for maintaining the strength we need as we age — physically and mentally!
Better Heart Health
Your heart is essentially a muscle that relies on potassium (and other electrolytes) to beat rhythmically. A healthy level of potassium can, therefore, make sure that your heart operates smoothly!
This can reduce the risk of heart issues, specifically irregular heartbeats and palpitations. In fact, studies found that postmenopausal women who eat more potassium are less likely to suffer from a stroke.
Healthier Blood Pressure
It’s interesting to know that potassium works in tandem with sodium — another key electrolyte. While too much sodium can lead to water retention, potassium helps counterbalance that effect!
In turn, potassium prevents fluid retention, ensures healthy blood volume and, ultimately, regulates blood pressure.
The sodium-potassium partnership is very important! As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states, consuming too much sodium and too little potassium can raise your blood pressure.
If you’re wondering how potassium interacts with other electrolytes in your body, watch this informative video from Dr. Eric Berg:
💡 FACT: People often confuse “salt” and “sodium,” but they’re different. Salt is a crystal-like substance known as “sodium chloride.” Sodium is a mineral and a part of salt. Knowing this helps in nutrition and health talks because it clarifies dietary guidelines and health impacts.
9 Benefits of Potassium for Midlife Women — Summed Up!
We’ve mentioned the primary role of potassium in supporting vital processes in your body. What a powerful mineral, isn’t it?
You would be glad to know that those major health benefits (from fluid balance to muscle function, nerve signaling and heart health) also have flow-on effects on many aspects of your health!
Without a doubt, potassium can be one of your best nutritional sidekicks in midlife to:
1 Prevent bloating and swelling
2 Reduce and prevent muscle wasting, twitches, cramps and muscle weakness
3 Maintain normal blood pressure
4 Support the production of your feel-good hormones and brain chemicals
5 Boost your adrenals and thyroid health
6 Manage stress, mood swings and anxiety [(as potassium helps regulate your cortisol levels)
7 Enhance digestion and gut function
8 Help your liver and kidneys detoxify harmful substances and toxins (which may increase blood pressure)
9 Lower your risk of cardiovascular diseases
✅ How Much Potassium is Recommended for Women?
Most health organizations typically recommend around 2,600 to 3,000 mg as a good range. But remember, we all have unique dietary needs depending on our health status! It’s always wise to check in with your healthcare provider to see what’s best for you.
✅ What are Good Sources of Potassium?
Finding potassium won’t even make you break a sweat. It’s in fruits and veggies like sweet potatoes, spinach and avocados — perfect choices for a nutrient-dense meal! Think about incorporating these potassium-rich foods when cooking. Your body will thank you!
Here’s a video from Live Healthy Over 50 to give you more real natural options for your potassium needs!
Nourish Your Body Right: 6 Hacks to Power Up with Potassium!
These simple hacks will help you incorporate more potassium-rich foods into your diet — perfect for that extra health boost in midlife! Give them a go!
1 Make a big salad every day!
Go for potassium-rich vegetables and leafy greens, such as spinach, kale, bok choy, arugula, zucchini and Swiss Chard. Cucumbers and mushrooms are good sources, too!
You can also sprinkle some flax seeds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds and olive oil on top. And add your protein source, of course, like eggs, chicken and salmon!
Want more tips? You’ll find more ideas on how to make a healthy and delicious salad here in less than 5 minutes!
2 Whip up a potassium-powered smoothie!
A smoothie is always good as you can throw in a mix of what you have at home!
My go-to ingredients are banana, spinach leaves, Greek yogurt, coconut water, avocado, berries, chia seeds, kiwi and blue berries. Just have fruits in moderation though, as some are high in sugar!
3 Munch on a potassium-rich snack!
Dried apricots, prunes and Greek yogurt are great snacks if you want to increase potassium. Nuts and seeds, like almonds, chestnuts, dried watermelon seeds, cashews and dried coconut are good, too!
4 Slow down on the caffeine and alcohol!
Coffee and alcoholic beverages are silent diuretics. They make you pee a lot and can make your body flush out potassium. Try to slow down or cut back on these drinks!
5 Ditch all processed and fast foods!
Highly processed foods contain a lot of trans fat and salt — which can mess with your sodium-potassium balance! But hey, that’s just one of the reasons why we need to say goodbye to them.
The bigger reason? They contain no nutritional value and bring toxic preservatives into your system. Study after study proves that over time, eating processed foods harms almost every corner of our body!
6 Consider supplements!
If you’re deficient in potassium (which you can find out by taking a test), you may want to consider taking supplements. Make sure to have a talk with your doctor before taking any supplements, though! They are called “supplements” for a reason — they’re made only to support a healthy plate from real, natural sources!
As we wrap up this talk about potassium, let’s take a moment to appreciate how this mineral supports so many aspects of our health in midlife!
From keeping your blood pressure in check to maintaining that all-important muscle function, it’s truly a powerhouse nutrient. So, whether you’re munching on avocados, adding some spinach to your smoothie or enjoying a serving of sweet potato, it’s all about taking those small steps to nourish your body!
Keep experimenting with your meals, make things fun, listen to your body and hey, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
Want to know how other nutrients can help you?
I’ve got great tips and tricks on my Help and Self-Help archives!
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Feel free to browse around my homepage!
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References:
ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Potassium-HealthProfessional/
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5518321/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25190445/
cdc.gov/salt/sodium-potassium-health/index.html
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4332769/
msdmanuals.com/home/hormonal-and-metabolic-disorders/electrolyte-balance/overview-of-potassium-s-role-in-the-body
heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/changes-you-can-make-to-manage-high-blood-pressure/how-potassium-can-help-control-high-blood-pressure
int/tools/elena/interventions/potassium-cvd-adults
Chronic Lyme Disease has robbed me of potassium among other things. So, if you are dealing with other unexplained symptoms, you may have chronic Lyme Disease.
My hot flashes are bad. Do I lose potassium/electrolytes in all of this sweating?
Hi Christine,
Yes, we absolutely lose electrolytes when we are sweating. Important to have electrolytes
and minerals in balance.
Dr. Axe has a good article about electrolyte imbalance. You can check it out here:
https://draxe.com/health/electrolyte-imbalance/.
Potassium is essential for us so the body can function properly. Dr. Berg explains
the importance in a really good way. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2vPQYP0dpI.
The hot flashes can be reduced with many things. Our article has a lot of tips:
https://mymenopausejourney.com/hot-flashes/.
I would advise you to see your health provider to get the right treatment and
check your electrolyte and mineral levels.
Hope that helped 🙂
I’m in perimenopause, and I am in and out of the ER for high blood pressure and low potassium. I am taking 1.5- 99mg potassium supplement everyday, plus I eat 2 sweet potatoes just about everyday, fruit, veggies. My potassium keeps going low. My doctors are failing me, so I have turned to the Internet. I have found that estrogen dominance causes a loss of potassium. Does this happen in perimenopause?
Hi Mo,
Glad to have you here and we’re happy that you’re taking care of yourself.
Have you tried visiting another doctor for second opinion? Sometimes, we need to find someone who specializes on specific conditions.
We don’t give medical advice on our site, but we will try to give you helpful information as much as we can.
Dr. Berg follows a holistic approach in treating medical conditions. In one of his helpful videos, he says we need to take 4,700mg to 6,000mg of potassium every day and where we get it really matters. You mentioned about eating sweet potatoes (which is a good thing), but maybe you could try swapping or adding more green salads to your diet.
In the same video, he also explains about some medical treatments to lower blood pressure which can actually do the opposite (increase it more). He talks about taking diuretics which can make you more potassium deficient and drinking more water which dilutes your electrolytes (including potassium). Totally restricting salt because you’re salt sensitive can also be one problem why your BP increases. You can watch his full video here for more great info: https://youtu.be/MFmjLloYN7A.
Aside from those we mentioned above, stress and too much sugar and alcohol intake can also lower your potassium. You may want to listen to Dr. Berg’s explanation here: https://youtu.be/q2vPQYP0dpI.
For estrogen dominance and low potassium, there might be some connection as low progesterone can decrease potassium levels. When you have estrogen dominance, your estrogen and progesterone ratios are out of balance. Your progesterone becomes a little too low than your estrogen. Check out some info on that: https://mymenopausejourney.com/symptoms-low-progesterone-menopause/.
On another note, have you taken a menopause test to check your hormones (especially your estrogen and progesterone)? If you haven’t, we have a list of helpful tests here: https://mymenopausejourney.com/menopause-test/.
Taking extra magnesium could also be good because it calms you down. You can read more about it here: https://mymenopausejourney.com/magnesium/. Dr. Axe has a great list of potassium-rich foods: https://draxe.com/nutrition/top-10-potassium-rich-foods/.
We hope you’ll find relief soon and feel all better. If you want to share, please don’t hesitate to come back and tell us your experience. It would be nice to help others.
Take care,
Gita