Cramps

[jeb1644@aol.com]

i HAVE BEEN TAKING MORE LASIX LATELY AS i'M RETAINING LOTS OF WATER. IT HAS RESULTED IN MY HAVEING TERRIBLE LEG AND FOOT CRAMPS. DOES THIS MEAN I NEED TO FIND A SOURCE OF POTASSIUM. WHAT FOODS ARE HIGH IN POTASSIUM?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

JANIE

[DoriSchatell]

Hi Janey,

Online, when you use all capital letters, people think you are shouting. :-)

Potassium levels are not anything to fool around with when you are taking a diuretic (water pill) like Lasix. My own mom has taken a diuretic for years, and she was having lunch with a friend and collapsed, face-first, into her soup! Paramedics had to transport her to the hospital. She recovered and is fine today, but too-high or too-low levels of potassium can cause sudden heart failure. Please ask your doctor about how much potassium you should be eating and how often you should be getting your level checked when you take this drug.

Lasix is a "Loop diuretic" (it works on part of the kidney called "Henle's Loop") which can cause too-low potassium levels.

You can learn about potassium and which foods have it in the Nutrition and Fluids module of Kidney School at http://www.kidneyschool.org. You can go through the module "live" online or download it. There are charts that show higher and lower potassium foods.

As far as your foot and leg cramps, it would help to have more info. Do they happen all day long, or only at night? How often? Does anything make them better or worse? When did they start?