Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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KatieS
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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Perhaps, all E4s should consider purchasing a home B/P monitor. My B/P was always low 100s/60s for decades, then in my mid-50s , had "white coat" B/P elevations. Edging into my 60s, B/P was more labile in stressful situations noted on the home monitor. At that point, an E4 should consider exercise stress testing or at least, Mer's home test. I think this particularly applies to those of us still struggling with IR and/or strong family history. In part, discontinuing estrogen might have tilted the hormonal balance towards hypertension.
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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Stavia wrote:Merouleau, we dont do the 220 minus age anymore. We aim for systolic less than 140 or 150 depending on which guidelines you follow, but thats validated against bp in a resting state.
I was referring to a rule of thumb for estimating maximum heart rate, not diastolic blood pressure. (It really is just a rule of thumb - in this blog, a vendor of a system to calculate MHR excoriates the rule. She also inadvertently validates its use for my purposes by suggesting that it may be off by as much as 11 BPM. Oh the horror. :-) ) I was just exposing my thought process around what might constitute "moderate exercise" for my do-it-yourself HRE screening.
I see your readings as completely appropriate physiologically.
Thanks for the feedback. It means a lot to me coming from a practicing physician.
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Stavia
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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merouleau wrote:
Stavia wrote:Merouleau, we dont do the 220 minus age anymore. We aim for systolic less than 140 or 150 depending on which guidelines you follow, but thats validated against bp in a resting state.
I was referring to a rule of thumb for estimating maximum heart rate, not diastolic blood pressure. (It really is just a rule of thumb - in this blog, a vendor of a system to calculate MHR excoriates the rule. She also inadvertently validates its use for my purposes by suggesting that it may be off by as much as 11 BPM. Oh the horror. :-) ) I was just exposing my thought process around what might constitute "moderate exercise" for my do-it-yourself HRE screening.
I see your readings as completely appropriate physiologically.
Thanks for the feedback. It means a lot to me coming from a practicing physician.
Oh, my bad, didnt look properly. I blame being 24 hours into travel with not much upright drugged sleep in cattle class lol. And struggling with free laggy airport wifi.
Your BP is excellent and your resting pulse ditto.
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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Perhaps, all E4s should consider purchasing a home B/P monitor.
Kit, Good idea. My experience was identical to yours. My lifelong low BP slowly crept up -in exactly the same pattern as yours- when I was becoming insulin resistant. Like you, I had perfect standard lipids, so didn't take the "hint". Luckily, with my current regimen, my BP is super low again. You make a great suggestion to periodically check. Elevated BP should never be ignored in our population.
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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merouleau,

My PrecisionXtra tests higher than my Bayer Ascensia Contour meter, however PrecisionXtra was spot on with tests from two different labs (within 2 mg/dL). That being said, my LpPla2 varied by 30 points two days apart (215 & 245) from the two different labs (Singulex & LabCorp).

As a part of my "keep afib in remission plan," I've taken buckets of both magnesium (4-5g/day) and potassium (4-6g/day) for over 10 years without any issue on creatinine levels. I do know that many cramps will resolve with sufficient mag intake and that mag levels need to be optimized or potassium may be counter productive. Healthy kidneys will excrete excess potassium. Did you have serum potassium test last year?
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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GeorgeN wrote:As a part of my "keep afib in remission plan," I've taken buckets of both magnesium (4-5g/day) and potassium (4-6g/day) for over 10 years without any issue on creatinine levels. I do know that many cramps will resolve with sufficient mag intake and that mag levels need to be optimized or potassium may be counter productive. Healthy kidneys will excrete excess potassium. Did you have serum potassium test last year?
Thanks for sharing your experience, George. 4-6g/day is a heroic dose. If that's not causing trouble for you, I guess potassium supplementation is the wrong explanation. I was also taking 533 mg of the Albion mag that was supposed to be glycinated but was likely just ordinary magnesium oxide.

I have read that muscle injury can affect a creatinine test. I have also read all over that creatine supplementation doesn't elevate creatinine readings, which makes me a bit suspicious. Perhaps the bros doth protest too much? In both cases last year I supplemented creatine 1T and played ice hockey the night before the blood draw. It's a grueling activity that causes soreness all over my musculature - I wonder if that and/or the creatine could account for the increase.

After 22 years of 1.0 and 1.1 creatinine readings, this is what happened:

March 2014
Potassium 4.6 mmol/L ref 3.5-5.2
Creatinine 1.32 mg/dL ref 0.76-1.27

July 2014
Potassium 5.1 mmol/L ref 3.5-5.2
Creatinine 1.41 mg/dL ref 0.76-1.27

April 2015
Potassium 4.6 mmol/L ref 3.6-5.1
Creatinine 0.90 mg/dL ref 0.75-1.38

It's not critical that I figure out what happened. I'm just curious.
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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merouleau wrote:
GeorgeN wrote:
After 22 years of 1.0 and 1.1 creatinine readings, this is what happened:

March 2014
Potassium 4.6 mmol/L ref 3.5-5.2
Creatinine 1.32 mg/dL ref 0.76-1.27

July 2014
Potassium 5.1 mmol/L ref 3.5-5.2
Creatinine 1.41 mg/dL ref 0.76-1.27

April 2015
Potassium 4.6 mmol/L ref 3.6-5.1
Creatinine 0.90 mg/dL ref 0.75-1.38

It's not critical that I figure out what happened. I'm just curious.
With your potassium levels, I would see no reason to supplement. A sample during my first afib episode was 3.2. Now, my serum levels will be ~3.9-4.1 on a fasting test, spiking to 4.8 if I test 4 or 5 hours after consuming supplements. I now know that magnesium is an important part of the potassium equation. Heavy exercise can deplete magnesium. Most with afib have co-morbidities like hypertension, CVD & etc. In my case, it was chronic fitness. I was training for a high altitude race (starting at 6,300' and topping out around 14,200' for 13.3 miles) on a 14,000' peak. It was likely magnesium depletion that led to my low potassium level.

The advice to supplement with electrolytes during ketosis comes from Volek & Phinney, http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com/ two of the top LC/HF researchers. My experience (at least about sodium supplementation) is it is most important during conversion to a keto diet. I did have one experience where I was relatively lethargic during skiing. My friend commented that I was much less high energy than usual. I went in and had a cup of miso soup (basically sodium in water). The change was immediate. I went back out and was back to my usual high energy.
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Re: Glucometer accuracy, potassium supplementation

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Thanks for the additional helpful perspective, George.
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