CORRESPONDENCE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Blood Pressure Reduction With Potassium Supplementation
Roger Kapoor, MD, MBA and
John R. Kapoor, MD, PhD*
* Division of Cardiology, Stanford University, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305 (Email: jkapoor{at}stanford.edu).
Hypertension remains a major contributing factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Optimal blood pressure (BP) control is therefore of great importance. Several nonpharmacological interventions exist to optimize BP, including the reduction of alcohol intake, weight loss, and limiting dietary sodium to <100 mmol/day (1). Notably, many clinical studies also support the BP-lowering effects of potassium supplementation (2–8).
In 1 placebo-controlled study of 104 hypertensive patients, a relatively low dose of potassium aspartate (30 mmol/day) led to statistically significant sustained reductions in office and 24-h ambulatory systolic and diastolic BPs (p < 0.001) (2). Significant reductions (p < 0.001) in both home (3.6 ± 0.9 mm Hg/1.7 ± 0.5 mm Hg) and 24-h systolic BP (3.4 ± 1.0 mm Hg/1.2 ± 0.5 mm Hg) was also observed in another randomized study of 55 patients with essential hypertension who were treated with potassium chloride supplementation (64 mmol/day) for 4 weeks compared with placebo (8). Participants in a larger randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (n = 150) given potassium chloride (60 mmol/day) for 12 weeks also experienced significant reductions in systolic BP (–5.0 mm Hg, 95% confidence interval: –2.1 to –7.9 mm Hg, p < 0.001) (6).
Finally, a pooled meta-analysis of 33 randomized controlled trials on the effects of potassium chloride supplementation (average of 75 mmol/day) on BP in hypertensive and normotensive patients demonstrated a significant reduction in average BP of 3.1/2.0 mm Hg with potassium (3). The BP-lowering effects of potassium tended to be greater in hypertensive patients (4.4/2.5 mm Hg) than in normotensive patients (1.8/1.0 mm Hg) (3). The authors of that study concluded that "increased potassium intake should be considered as a recommendation for prevention and treatment of hypertension."
Therefore, maintenance of adequate dietary potassium intake shows promise in the prevention and treatment of hypertension and should be thought of as part of the armamentarium of lifestyle changes.
 |
References
|
|---|
1. Sarafidis PA, Bakris GL. Resistant hypertension: an overview of evaluation and treatment J Am Coll Cardiol 2008;52:1749-1757.[Abstract/Free Full Text]2. Franzoni F, Santoro G, Carpi A, et al. Antihypertensive effect of oral potassium aspartate supplementation in mild to moderate arterial hypertension Biomed Pharmacother 2005;59:25-29.[CrossRef][Medline] 3. Whelton PK, He J, Cutler JA, et al. Effects of oral potassium on BP. Meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. JAMA 1997;277:1624-1632.[Abstract/Free Full Text] 4. MacGregor GA, Smith SJ, Markandu ND, Banks RA, Sagnella GA. Moderate potassium supplementation in essential hypertension Lancet 1982;2:567-570.[Web of Science][Medline] 5. Fotherby MD, Potter JF. Potassium supplementation reduces clinic and ambulatory BP in elderly hypertensive patients J Hypertens 1992;10:1403-1408.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] 6. Gu D, He J, Wu X, Duan X, Whelton PK. Effect of potassium supplementation on BP in Chinese: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial Hypertension 2001;19:1325-1331.[CrossRef] 7. Brancati FL, Appel LJ, Seidler AJ, Whelton PK. Effect of potassium supplementation on BP in African Americans on a low potassium diet. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Arch Intern Med 1996;156:61-67.[Abstract/Free Full Text] 8. Kawano Y, Minami J, Takishita S, Omae T. Effects of potassium supplementation on office, home, and 24-h BP in patients with essential hypertension Am J Hypertens 1998;11:1141-1146.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Related Article
-
Reply
- Pantelis A. Sarafidis and George L. Bakris
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2009 53: 1164-1165.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
Top
References