Korean Job Discussion Forums

Tiberious aka Sparkles · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: I'm one cool cat!

I think I may have discovered

(the Fountain of Youth)

the reason for my muscle twitches and irregular heartbeat: low potassium.

My question is, which foods are chock-full of the stuff? (I'm too lazy to spend 5 minutes searching Google. Chalk it up to low potassium.) Because I'm a homophobe, I'm not very fond of bananas. What are some alternatives? Turns out there's not much potassium in potato chips and Snickers bars.

Funny thing is, I think orange juice has lots of potassium; but for the past 8 weeks I've drunken a tall glass of OJ every morning, and yet the problem persists. In fact, it may actually have worsened.

Maybe I should see a doctor. I look forward to him postulating that I have AIDS or MS.

BSS_*_

Delirium's Brother · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:45 am Post subject:

bananas

"a banana a day keeps the twitching away." Laughing

Read

The miracle fruit! Get over your fears! Cut it up in your breakfast cereal. BTW go to the doctor anyway. I need you to survive long enough to find me a job Wink

cwemory · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Location: Gunpo, Korea

Apricots
Artichokes
Avocados
Bananas
Cantaloupe
Cod
Dates
Dry beans (i.e. kidney beans and navy beans)
Figs
Flounder
Honeydew melons
Kiwi
Lentils
Nuts
Oranges
Peaches
Potatoes
Prunes
Pumpkins
Raisins
Salmon
Sardines
Potassium-based salt replacements
Tomatoes
Watermelons

Some drugs (diuretics and laxatives) are known to cause low potassium levels.

Corporal · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

Just take a supplement. You'd have to eat a lot of bananas to combat a deficiency. And that might have a lot of unpleasant side effects.

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

A great source of potassium (and natural sugar) are dates. They often carry them at the Foreign Food store on "hooker hill"...

Alcohol, coffee, common salt and white sugar reportedly deplete your potassium levels so you might want to find healthier substitutes. I prefer using sea salt - but in Korea it costs at least five times what it does in the U.S... http://www.consumerhealth.org/articles/display.cfm?ID=19990817230721

Regarding orange juice (at least what's available in Korea) I also had some muscle spasms (or something - maybe arthritus ...) in my hands and it seemed to get worse when I drank orange juice. Confused

huffdaddy · Joined: 25 Nov 2005

tzechuk · Joined: 20 Dec 2004

[quote="Tiberious aka Sparkles"]I think I may have discovered

(the Fountain of Youth)

the reason for my muscle twitches and irregular heartbeat: low potassium.
/quote]

You are probably right because when I was pregnant, my doctor back home in the UK told me that if I ever got a leg cramp, it was probably because I was low on potassium and he told me to eat bananans...... taking a potassium supplement during pregnancy is apparently not advisable.. not that you are pregnant and need to know that.

Anyway.. uh.... drink banana and apricot smoothies?

Tiberious aka Sparkles · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: I'm one cool cat!

ChopChaeJoe · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Location: Seoul

Man, i bought a big ol' huge bag of sea salt the last time I was in gunsan for 1,000.

But unless I see authoritiv prrof to the contrary, it's chemically the same as the regular stuff. Calcium chloride.

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Reportedly, sea salt has way more minerals, has a different crystal composition, and doesn't have the harmful additives that common salt has. (Of course, the more polluted the ocean gets, the less healthy sea salt would become...)http://www.curezone.com/foods/saltcure.asp

I have seen one cheap Korean brand that's labeled in English "sea water salt", but that may (or may not) be a loose translation/interpretation ... All the imported stuff is sky high - up to 30,000 won for for an amount less than half the size of a regular salt container...

Delirium's Brother · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:23 pm Post subject:

jinglejangle · Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Location: Far far far away.

Avocados are good. Guacamole's good too. Avos have more potassium than even bananas.

red dog · Joined: 31 Oct 2004

OP, how do you know low potassium is causing your problems? Did a doctor diagnose you, or are you diagnosing yourself? If it was a doctor who told you that, what tests did he or she run? Maybe there's some other problem that has nothing to do with potassium?

Tiberious aka Sparkles · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: I'm one cool cat!

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Then there's the Korean option of going to an Oriental Medicine clinic. Unfortunately, most of their herbal medicines and treatments aren't covered by insurance, and they're expensive.

I checked out the biggest oriental clinic yesterday for a chronic herniated disk problem and "weak kidney function" (I'm old ...) and the total tab for a couple different treatments, X-rays, and a month's supply of herbal medicines was over 800,000 won. (I guess I won't be buying a new cell phone and digital camera this month ...) I was told by a nurse that usually only the first visit is expensive. (Maybe no one ever goes back for a second time ...) Here's a link to the clinic for any interested sick people with money to burn: http://www.jaseng.net/menu/home/home_3/home_5/Read.asp

The director of their International Clinic is an Austrian guy, Dr. Raimund Royer, who speaks fluent English and Korean and writes a lot of articles in Seoul Magazine and other publications...