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Understanding Your Hyperkalemia
Barely 3% of healthy people need to worry about hyperkalemia (high potassium levels), but you’re at least three times more likely to have this dangerous condition if you have kidney disease.
The tricky thing about hyperkalemia is that you may not have symptoms alerting you to a problem until the condition reaches an advanced stage.
At Deon D. Middlebrook MDPC in Detroit, Michigan, our kidney specialist, Deon Middlebrook, MD, can help protect your health by assessing your risks and creating a personalized plan to prevent or treat hyperkalemia and kidney disease.
Why you need potassium
Potassium is essential for nerves because it helps initiate and carry the electrical impulses they use to communicate. Though that makes potassium important for your entire body, your muscles and heart are the two most vital areas affected by hyperkalemia.
Potassium also maintains normal fluid levels in your body and works with sodium to control your blood pressure.
Your body typically maintains specific potassium levels in your bloodstream. When blood levels fall or rise above the healthy range, you can develop life-threatening problems.
Hyperkalemia and kidney disease
Hyperkalemia is rare in healthy people. The condition doesn’t arise from eating potassium-rich foods — unless you have an underlying health condition. However, potassium levels can increase in anyone who gets too much through supplements.
Medical conditions that increase your risk of hyperkalemia include:
- Diabetes
- Adrenal insufficiency
- Congestive heart failure
- Burns and traumatic injuries
- Hormonal disorders
- Lupus
However, the most common cause is kidney disease.
The kidneys are responsible for regulating blood levels of potassium. They constantly filter your blood, remove wastes and excess potassium, and eliminate them through your urine.
Kidney disease develops when conditions like high blood sugar (diabetes) and high blood pressure (hypertension) damage structures that filter blood.
The damage prevents your kidneys from removing extra potassium. As a result, blood levels rise above the healthy range.
Why hyperkalemia is dangerous
Potassium levels usually increase gradually as kidney function continues to decrease. This slow progression leads to the first of two reasons why hyperkalemia is so dangerous:
1. Early symptoms seldom appear
In most cases, you won’t have early signs of hyperkalemia because they don’t appear until your blood potassium is dangerously high. The earliest signs are fatigue, stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea.
2. Hyperkalemia disrupts muscle and heart function
As hyperkalemia progresses, muscles can’t function properly, including the muscles in your heart. As a result, you develop symptoms such as:
- Muscle weakness
- Tingling sensations in your arms and legs
- Chest pain
- Difficulty breathing
- Pounding, fluttering, or racing heart
Without treatment, high potassium may lead to the following life-threatening challenges:
- Paralysis
- Heart arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat)
- Cardiac arrest (your heart suddenly stops)
If you have any symptoms of heart problems, including a racing heart, dizziness, shortness of breath, and chest pain, call 911 for emergency care.
Hyperkalemia treatments
The first step is doing blood work to identify your potassium levels and determine if they’re so high you need immediate, advanced treatment.
Otherwise, we restore healthy potassium levels by treating the underlying kidney disease while recommending therapies to lower and control potassium levels.
Lowering potassium may mean dietary changes, replacing medications contributing to hyperkalemia, and prescribing medications that lower your potassium level.
Benefits of a risk assessment
Like hyperkalemia, the symptoms of kidney disease usually don’t appear until you already have substantial kidney damage.
The best way to protect your health is to evaluate your risk factors to determine your chances of developing these health concerns. Then, we can help you take the steps needed to prevent hyperkalemia and kidney disease or stop them from worsening.
Kidney disease is the primary risk factor for hyperkalemia. Your risks for kidney disease rise if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease.
African Americans have a much higher risk of kidney disease compared to other races. Your chances also increase if you’re overweight or obese or have a family history of kidney problems.
We offer comprehensive risk assessments and advanced treatment for hyperkalemia and kidney disease. Call our practice, Deon D. Middlebrook MDPC, or connect through online booking today.