Re: Overdosing Potassium (was Susan Garlinghouse at Convention)

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> I must confess to being thoroughly confused.  If a horse's daily ration
contains
> several hundred times the needs of potassium for a horse, then why would
anybody
> need to ever supplement potassium.

The only time it needs to be specifically supplemented is actually during a
ride when the horse is sweating alot, therefore losing alot, is normally
losing some through urine and feces (though less when its in demand), and
when the horse doesn't have the time to eat enough at/during the ride to
supply enough for the demand.  The body doesn't really store potassium (what
it has on board is what is actively involved in ongoing cellular metabolism)
so if the horse is losing alot through sweat at the same time that he's
*not* ingesting more through eating, then you'll get a deficiency.  Does
that make sense?

>
> Do a horse's potassium needs increase a hundred fold during intense
competition?

Without crunching numbers, couldn't tell you the exact increase, but
yes---potassium is lost to a large extent in sweat.  Hundred fold is not at
all an unreasonable number, might even be considerably more than that in the
case of a hot, humid 100.


> Does potassium need to be "balanced" in some way with the other
electrolytes?
Well, not like you do calcium and phosphorus, but you need to provide
e'lytes in more or less the same proportion as they're being lost in the
sweat---alot of Gayle and Art's research in elytes has had to do with elyte
supplementation in performance horses.


> Is there a difference between the potassium found in food and potassium
chloride (KCl)
> which is generally found in "electrolytes"?

Well, the potassium in food is not necessarily bound to chloride, but it all
gets ionized in the gut before absorption anyway, so no differences that
make much practical difference.  At any rate, you don't need to worry about
bioavailability with potassium as you do with other minerals such as calcium
or phosphorus.

>
> Otherwise, it seems to me that as long as the horse is eating, that there
shouldn't
> be any need for potassium supplementation.

Depending on the conditions, the horse may not have sufficient time to eat
enough, especially if the conditions are particularly hot and humid.


>
> And if this is the case, then why do electrolyte supplement mixtures
include potassium?

See above.  In the absence of sufficient supply from either food sources or
elytes, a severely potassium-depleted endurance horse is a horse on the
ground.  Probably the major factor in alot of the metabolic problems back
East, from what Truman has told me over the years.

> It is my understanding that electrolyte formulas are scientifically
arrived at.  Can
> somebody explain the science of this to me?

The elyte mixes replace the elytes in the same proportion they're lost by
exercising endurance horses, who sweat differently than horses in other
disciplines.  Plus, they add a glucose source, because sodium and chloride
don't get absorbed in the absence of glucose and you can't necessarily count
on glucose being present in the gut from food sources.  There's some pretty
good research existing now having to do with elytes in endurance horses,
most of it from Art, Gayles and Michael Lindinger's work.  KER has done some
work in developing EnduraMax as well.

Susan G