Supplement evidence

020 / 575Mineral

Potassium

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The short answer

Treating deficiency and meeting intake targets, preferably through food.

Evidence and scope: Conditional or population-specific
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: OTC supplements are not a general substitute for a potassium-rich dietary pattern.
Before deciding: Kidney disease and many blood-pressure medicines can make supplemental potassium dangerous.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Meeting usual needsPrefer food: 2,600 mg/day women; 3,400 mg/day men as adequate intake

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

Confirmed deficiencySupplement dosing requires labs and kidney/medicine review

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityWater-soluble

Water-soluble or readily water-dispersible. This does not mean excess is always harmless.

How it is commonly taken

Take prescribed forms with food and water.

Do not combine casually

Do not combine with ACE inhibitors, ARBs, potassium-sparing diuretics, or kidney disease without supervision.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

4research papers in this ledger

34unique primary studies represented

21,022unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2026

Safety signalPMID 41288308

Natriuretic response to an acute oral potassium load in healthy individuals and patients with chronic kidney disease

CKD participants did not show the natriuretic response seen in healthy adults and had a larger plasma-potassium rise, reinforcing hyperkalemia risk when kidney function is impaired.

Published: 2026Duration: Acute 4-hour crossover assessments, with and without lisinopril pretreatmentn=27 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial
Population: 18 healthy adults and 9 adults with stage G3b–G4 chronic kidney disease
Intervention: Potassium chloride or citrate 40 mmol versus placebo
Outcome: Urinary sodium excretion and plasma potassium

Open research record ↗

2021

Supports a specific usePMID 34459569 · NCT02092090

Effect of Salt Substitution on Cardiovascular Events and Death

The salt substitute reduced stroke, cardiovascular events, and death without a detected increase in serious hyperkalemia. The intervention combined sodium reduction with potassium increase and excluded people known to be at high hyperkalemia risk.

Published: 2021Duration: Mean 4.74 yearsn=20,995 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Open-label, cluster-randomized trial across 600 villages
Population: 20,995 rural Chinese adults with prior stroke or older age plus hypertension
Intervention: Salt substitute containing 75% sodium chloride and 25% potassium chloride versus regular salt
Outcome: Stroke, major cardiovascular events, death, and clinically detected hyperkalemia

Funding or conflict note: Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. This is a salt-substitution strategy, not evidence for unrestricted potassium pills.

Open research record ↗

2020

Mixed or qualifiedPMID 32500831

Potassium Intake and Blood Pressure: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Blood-pressure effects were nonlinear: moderate increases helped most in hypertension and high-sodium settings, while benefit weakened at higher exposure and excessive supplementation could raise pressure in some treated patients.

Published: 2020Duration: Included trials lasted at least 4 weeks32 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: Dose-response meta-analysis of 32 randomized trials
Population: Mostly adults with hypertension; many trials used crossover designs
Intervention: Potassium supplementation, generally 30–140 mmol/day, versus control
Outcome: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure by achieved potassium exposure

Funding or conflict note: The abstract did not report one participant total, so participants are excluded from the aggregate total.

Open research record ↗

2017

Supports a specific usePMID 28419159

Oral potassium supplementation for management of essential hypertension

Potassium modestly lowered systolic and diastolic pressure, but heterogeneity was substantial for diastolic pressure and the evidence does not apply to people with impaired potassium handling.

Published: 2017Duration: Included trials lasted at least 4 weeksn=1,213 participants23 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: Meta-analysis of 23 randomized placebo-controlled trials
Population: 1,213 adults with primary hypertension
Intervention: Oral potassium supplements versus placebo
Outcome: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure

Funding or conflict note: The authors declared no competing interests. These trials overlap the 2020 dose-response synthesis.

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence451 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewNIH Office of Dietary Supplements Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

No direct, source-verified endorsement is currently recorded. Research authorship or discussion alone is not treated as endorsement.