Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a very long review, but I promise you'll learn something if you read it. I've been using this supplement for 2 years, and finally decided to review it as I'm placing yet another order for it. Potassium gluconate (this stuff) is the most bioavailable form of potassium for fast-acting use. I see a lot of negative reviews for the product from people who don't seem to understand much about it, so I'd like to respond to the two most common complaints I keep reading about. Common Gripe 1: "This is only 2% of daily potassium! Should be more!" Response: There are two reasons for this. First, potassium is extremely dangerous in high doses. In fact, it's what they use for lethal injections. For this reason, manufacturers need to limit how much is in each pill, in case, for example, someone suffering from dementia were to forget they took their pills and take a few too many. Second, potassium gluconate is a molecule of potassium and a molecule of gluconate stuck together. The gluconate is much larger, and to get more actual potassium, the pill would be unreasonably large. This is a good lead-in to gripe number 2: Common Gripe 2: "This only has 99mg of potassium per pill! Such a rip off! Liars and cheats!!!" Response: You clearly weren't paying attention in grade school chemistry. The chemical formula for potassium gluconate is C6H11KO7. That means you've got one little potassium atom attached to six carbons, 11 hydrogens, and 7 oxygens. The potassium takes up only 16% of the molecule. There are other forms of potassium, like potassium chloride, or potassium citrate, or some other more inorganic form which have a MUCH higher amount of relative potassium, but they either aren't nearly as bioavailable or are dangerous. Bioavailability is the measure of a substance's absorption, a.k.a. how well your body can actually use it. Potassium gluconate is a form that your body can easily utilize, unlike other forms of potassium that you mostly just urinate out 99% of. My second response to this gripe is that people don't realize how impractical the supplement would be if it was actually 595mg of potassium. This supplement is 99mg potassium plus 496mg gluconate, for 595mg total. If the pill had 595mg of potassium, it would need 2981mg of gluconate, for a total pill weight of 3576mg. That pill would need to be the size of your thumb. Would you like to swallow that? Me neither. My third and final response to this gripe is that it's flat out wrong. The label doesn't say 595mg of potassium, it says 595mg of potassium gluconate, and on the back in the serving info says 99mg total potassium. This isn't a lie, nor is it at all misleading. They are representing the information not only the way they legally have to, but the way that logically makes sense. It isn't their fault that you don't understand grade school chemistry or basic math. To close, I'd like to say that this supplement has worked really well for me over the years. I eat waaaay too much salt, and this is a great counter-balance to that. Most people don't realize that a high sodium diet on it's own isn't at all dangerous; what kills you is an imbalance between sodium and potassium. If you have balanced levels of both (you need way less potassium than you do sodium), the two exist harmoniously within you, and excess sodium is more easily expelled through your renal system. I take two of these pills per day, plus one more with any moderately salty meal I eat, or two more with any ultra salty meal I eat. I also take two of them if I feel leg cramps coming on (usually at night); they fix it surprisingly quickly. Lastly, this supplement works well when taken along with a magnesium supplement, which is something else most of us don't get nearly enough of. Magnesium helps you absorb potassium, and is responsible for countless critical physiological systems. I worked in a cation homeostasis lab for 6 years studying the physiological impact of the absence of these important ions, so I promise I'm not just blowing smoke out my rear end about this stuff. Anyway, I would recommend magnesium in the form of magnesium lysinate glycinate chelate. It's the best bioavailable form of magnesium. I currently use the Doctor's best 100mg ones, but they're really big and hard to swallow, so I'd recommend getting smaller ones if you can find them.