Prednisone & Potassium, watch it

I am tapering off Prednisone and have been on it since April 2006. I had a blood test the other day and am quite low in Potassium. They gave me a food list of things to eat that are high in Potassium and they are mostly foods I like and eat regularly, so I was surprised about the low Potassium. I did a little Web search and low and behold, Prednisone can cause low Potassium. Now I was well aware about the link between Pred and needing to watch your Calcium and to be careful of high sodium foods, but I was not aware of the Potassium link. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else was similarly unaware.

Mmmmmm..... banana smoothie here I come ....

Meesh

I had heard that prednisone would cause low potassium but had forgotten until I started getting leg cramps in the middle of the night...Almost every night while sleeping, I would get a cramp in the back of my leg or in the bottom of my foot...I've been on pred for several months now, anywhere from 40mg to 10mg...Then is when I decided I must be low in potassium...I stocked up on bananas and ate plenty of them...In March when I had my colonoscopy, they took blood and then called me and said I had low potassium then...Probably from not eating for 2 days!!! My GI told me to eat a couple of bananas a day to get it back up...I did look up on the internet what food had lots of potassium besides bananas...I can eat a few of them, but then I get incredibly tired of them...Thank goodness there are lots of food that contain a good amount of potassium...

Where abouts in the Philippines are you? I lived in Ayala Alabang from 1996-1998.

 

yes, I have low potassium and was also told to eat banana's and tomatoes, which I love, except I love salt on my tomatoes too......I am now on a low salt diet, awesome!