Can High Potassium Cause Your Kidneys to Shut Down
Potassium is one important mineral that can help maintain nerve and muscle function. Normal potassium level ranges from 3.5 to 5.5 mEq/L. High potassium often coexists with kidney problems. Can high potassium level cause kidneys to shut down?
Normal potassium level in the blood can make heart beat at a normal rhythm, and it can maintain fluid, electrolyte and PH levels effectively. Generally, healthy kidneys can determine how much potassium retains in the blood and eliminate extra potassium from the body timely.
What causes high potassium level? When kidneys are damaged and unable to eliminate extra waste products and potassium from the body, potassium level in the blood will increase gradually. Additionally, acidosis, hemolysis, tissue damage, taking medications containing too much potassium, and so on, all can cause potassium level in the blood to increase.
High potassium level can cause irregular heartbeat, enlarged heart, severe fatigue, numbness, muscle weakness, nausea, vomiting, different degrees of azotemia and metabolic acidosis. In most cases, high potassium level won't cause kidneys to shut down directly, but extra potassium in the blood can cause disorders of blood flow within kidneys and metabolic acidosis is also harmful to kidneys. Therefore, kidney problem and patients' overall health condition can be threatened easily by high potassium level.
From the above analysis, we can know if people are tested out high potassium level, they should take prompt treatments to lower it timely and effectively. A low-potassium diet, stopping inducing medications, treating the underlying cause or even dialysis, are helpful to lower high potassium level.
The treatment should change from the person to person. To learn what can help reduce your potassium level, you can tell us your potassium level, so kidney experts here can guide you to lower your potassium level and protect your kidneys efficiently .
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