Potassium Citrate

What Is Potassium Citrate?

Potassium is the main mineral inside your cells, as sodium is the main one outside them. Here it is carried as potassium citrate, the potassium salt of citric acid, the acid that gives citrus its sourness. The citrate is not just a carrier; the body puts it to work as well.

How It Works in the Body

Cells spend a large share of their energy on a pump that pushes sodium out and pulls potassium in. The electrical gradient that results is what a nerve discharges when it fires and what triggers a muscle fiber to contract. Every heartbeat runs on it. Potassium also works opposite sodium in setting water balance across cell membranes. The citrate half is metabolized in the liver to bicarbonate, the buffer the body leans on to hold its acid-base balance steady.

What It Supports

• Electrolyte balance: Potassium is one of the main electrolytes and helps maintain normal fluid balance inside cells.
• Nerve signalling: The sodium-potassium gradient is what lets a nerve cell carry a signal.
• Muscle contraction: Potassium is required for normal muscle contraction, the heart muscle included.
• Acid-base balance: Citrate is converted to bicarbonate, so it contributes to the body's normal buffering.

Who It May Suit

Potassium comes mostly from produce, so intake tracks how many plants are on the plate: potatoes, beans, lentils, leafy greens, tomatoes and citrus. This suits eating that is light on those foods, and people who sweat heavily. The capsule is plant-based cellulose.

Good To Know

Supplemental potassium is held to 99 mg per serving by long-standing labeling convention, a fraction of what a day of food provides. Talk with your healthcare provider before use if you have kidney disease, or if you take a potassium-sparing diuretic such as spironolactone or amiloride. The kidneys are what clear potassium from the blood. When that clearance is limited, blood potassium can climb to a level that disturbs the heart rhythm.