Potassium Citrate 99mg

Description

Potassium citrate 99mg a capsule, counted as elemental potassium rather than as the weight of the salt. That distinction matters more here than almost anywhere else on the mineral shelf. Tripotassium citrate is roughly 36 percent potassium by mass, so delivering 99 mg of the element takes about 275 mg of the compound, and a potassium citrate 99mg label that quietly meant 99 mg of salt would be supplying around a third as much as you thought.

Label figures

Why every potassium citrate 99mg bottle stops at the same number

Because 99 mg is the convention the whole American supplement trade settled on, and it exists for regulatory rather than nutritional reasons. Higher single doses of potassium salts in solid oral form carry labelling requirements and warnings in the United States, so the industry stays underneath that threshold and sells capsules at 99 mg.

The consequence is worth stating plainly. Nobody meets a potassium requirement from this aisle. The adequate intake sits between 2,600 and 3,400 mg a day for adults, which would mean twenty six to thirty four capsules. A potato, a cup of beans or a banana does more for potassium intake than a bottle of these does, and the NIH potassium fact sheet has the food table that proves it.

So who actually buys it

Potassium citrate 99mg suits two groups. People on a ketogenic or very low carbohydrate diet, where the usual potassium rich foods have gone, and people on a low sodium pattern who are watching the balance between the two. Those are the cases the original listing names, and they are honest ones. For everyone else the arithmetic above applies.

Citrate against chloride and gluconate

Potassium chloride carries a higher elemental fraction than potassium citrate 99mg capsules do, and a sharper taste, and it is the form most medical potassium replacement uses. Gluconate is bulkier still, at around 17 percent elemental. Citrate sits between them and is the form usually chosen for capsules. The elemental figure is in the main amount column on the minerals page for all three, with the compound weight underneath, because that is the only way the comparison works.

The interaction that outranks the dose

Potassium citrate 99mg capsules interact with ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, potassium sparing diuretics and with reduced kidney function, in all of which cases potassium retention rather than potassium intake is the issue. This is the single most important line on the page. Anyone on those medicines or with any kidney condition should take the decision to a clinician rather than to a product listing.

What the research measured

Trials on potassium intake have mostly used dietary modification or doses far above a single capsule, frequently 1,500 to 4,700 mg a day, with blood pressure readings, urinary potassium excretion and serum potassium as the measured endpoints. That is a description of the amounts administered in the literature and the instruments used. It is not a claim about this bottle, and the gap between those figures and 99 mg is the reason we print both.

Taking a potassium citrate 99mg capsule

With food and with water. Potassium salts on an empty stomach are a common cause of nausea, and the citrate form is no exception. There is no reason to take several capsules at once given everything above.

Testing

Every lot of potassium citrate 99mg is assayed for elemental content by an independent laboratory and screened for heavy metals and microbials, which matters in this aisle because mineral salts are mined material rather than grown. Under strength lots are withdrawn from sale and the failing certificate stays published, as described in why we publish the batch that failed. Your lot report is linked above.