Can You Take Calcium and Potassium Together?
SrdjanPav / Getty Images
Medically reviewed by Suzanne Fisher, RD
Calcium and potassium are both important minerals involved in many bodily processes. When dissolved in your blood, they serve as electrolytes. Electrolytes are charged particles that play a role in several functions, including fluid balance and nerve, muscle, and heart signaling.
Getting enough calcium is particularly important to help prevent osteoporosis, a condition of fragile bones that are more likely to break. Calcium may also help with high blood pressure (hypertension). Osteoporosis and hypertension are two conditions that may be worsened by not getting enough potassium.
Most people don’t get enough potassium or calcium in their diet. Some people might benefit from increasing daily consumption of both minerals through diet, supplements, or both. Not everyone needs calcium supplements, and the product may not be worth it unless you are at risk for osteoporosis. Meanwhile, some people need to be cautious about taking potassium, especially if they have kidney disease or are taking certain medications.
Benefits of Calcium
Calcium plays a role in a lot of processes in the body, such as keeping your heart beating normally. Your body typically regulates the concentration of calcium in your blood quite tightly, even in people who aren’t getting enough of the mineral. But to do that, your body sometimes has to steal calcium from your bones, which makes them weaker. That’s why not getting enough calcium leaves older individuals prone to osteoporosis. Taking in enough calcium can help you maintain strong bones.
Some people can increase their calcium with diet alone, through high-calcium foods like dairy products. Other people may need to take calcium supplements to take in proper calcium levels.
Because of the mineral's effect on blood vessels, getting enough calcium may also help prevent high blood pressure.
Benefits of Potassium
Potassium plays multifaceted roles in the body. It has important roles in terms of muscle contraction, heart rhythms, fluid balance, blood pressure, and blood glucose control.
One of the most convincing benefits of potassium is its role in preventing high blood pressure. Not getting enough of the mineral is associated with higher risks of hypertension. Partly through its effect on blood pressure, getting enough potassium might help you decrease your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Emerging evidence suggests getting enough potassium can help you reduce your risk of osteoporosis. However, this potential benefit isn’t as well established, and it’s not clear if supplements would offer the benefit.
Potassium plays a role in helping your body secrete the hormone insulin, which is important for regulating your blood glucose. Not getting enough potassium can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes or make the condition worse if you already have it.
Benefits of Taking Calcium and Potassium Together
For some people, it may be beneficial to take both calcium and potassium. People who are deficient in one may be likelier to be deficient in the other, so trying to correct both deficiencies at the same time may be smart. You might not have high enough levels of the two minerals because of dietary habits, a medical condition that decreases absorption, or the effects of certain medications.
Not getting enough potassium can also cause you to lose more calcium through your urine than you normally would. So if you're already not getting enough calcium, not getting enough potassium can make your calcium levels even worse.
For certain medical conditions, such as high blood pressure and osteoporosis, the protective benefits you could get from the supplements may have a compounded effect when you take the two supplements together rather than one alone.
Getting enough of both minerals may also help reduce the risks of eye damage (retinopathy) in people who already have diabetes. More evidence is needed to say for sure whether the supplement combination can have this benefit.
How To Take a Combination of Calcium and Potassium
Calcium and potassium are most commonly taken as pills, but other formulations, like powders, are available.
One common form of calcium is calcium carbonate, though calcium citrate may be a little better absorbed by the body.
Potassium is most often sold in the form of potassium chlorine, but other effective forms are on the market, including potassium citrate.
You can take the two as separate pills at the same time or spaced out. Your body may absorb the supplements better if you take them after a meal.
Calcium and potassium are sometimes sold together in a combination product. Usually these products also contain magnesium, another mineral important for blood pressure regulation and bone health.
Dosage
The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for calcium varies by a person’s age and sex. That’s partly because people need more calcium during times of increased growth. Amounts also vary because osteoporosis affects older individuals, with women tending to be affected more severely and earlier in life.
Including amounts you get from food and supplements, the RDA for calcium is 1,000 milligrams (mg) for people aged 19–50 and 1,200 mg for people 71 or older. If you are 51-70 years old, the RDA is 1,000 mg for men and 1,200 mg for women.
Calcium supplements range widely in the dosages they provide—from 250 mg-1,200 mg. Some supplements in the upper part of this range might be providing too much calcium when considering calcium from your diet as well.
There's no set RDA for potassium since there isn't as much information about ideal amounts. However, there is an amount experts assume gives nutritional adequacy. For adults 19 or older who aren't pregnant or breastfeeding, the adequate intake of potassium is 3,400 mg for men and 2,600 mg for women. Although, it may be better for adults and children 4 or older to get closer to 4,700 mg daily.
Potassium supplements typically don’t contain anything close to the adequate intake amounts. That’s because some research in the 1960s showed that people who were taking a certain coated version of potassium supplements had an increased risk of damage to their small intestine. Since then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required warning labels on any products containing over 99 mg of potassium. To get around putting a warning label on the product, most supplements contain under 99 mg.
Because of the low amount of potassium in supplements, it may be better for many people to get extra potassium through their diet. For example, an apple contains twice the amount of potassium and a banana contains four times as much potassium as a 99-mg supplement.
Is It Safe to Take Calcium and Potassium Together?
It’s safe for most people to take calcium and potassium together at the doses recommended by your healthcare provider. There doesn't appear to be any recorded negative interaction between the two supplements.
However, you'll want to consider whether you need to take both. Not everyone needs to supplement with extra calcium. Because too much calcium can be harmful, you shouldn't use a calcium supplement unless a healthcare provider has instructed you to based on factors like your diet and age.
While most people can take a small amount of potassium in a supplement safely, people with certain health conditions, like kidney disease, need to be careful about how much potassium they consume.
Check the label of anything you purchase over the counter to see if the product has been third-party tested, as the FDA doesn't test supplements the same way as drugs. You might see a label from the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) or the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).
Potential Drug Interactions
Calcium and potassium may impact the safety or effectiveness of certain medications. In other cases, a drug might increase the amount of calcium or potassium in your body, and so taking supplements alongside the medication might make your levels of either mineral too high.
There are several types of drugs that—when taken with potassium supplements—can increase the risk of a potentially serious condition called hyperkalemia. Hyperkalemia is when the amount of potassium in your blood gets too high. Drugs that can increase your risk of hyperkalemia when taken with potassium supplements include blood pressure-lowering medications like:
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors
Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs)
Potassium-sparing diuretics
Drugs that can have potential interactions with calcium include:
Antibiotics: For example, quinolones and tetracyclines
Levothyroxine: Used to treat hypothyroidism and sold under brand names like Synthroid and Tirosint
Bisphosphonates: A group of drugs used to treat osteoporosis
Isentress (raltegravir): Used to manage HIV
Lithium: Used to treat bipolar disorder
Can You Take Too Much Calcium or Potassium?
It is possible to take too much calcium or potassium—for example, based on conditions you have.
Calcium
It's recommended that adults 19-50 get no more than 2,500 mg of calcium a day with adults 52 or older getting no more than 2,000 mg.
Taking a large amount of calcium can lead to hypercalcemia, which is when the levels of calcium in your blood are too high. Hypercalcemia is a serious medical condition that can cause problems like kidney damage and life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms.
Even without the risk of hypercalcemia, experts have concerns about people taking more calcium than they might need to prevent osteoporosis. According to some research, taking in too much calcium may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke—especially if you are getting some of your calcium through supplements.
Some evidence suggests these risks are reduced if you take vitamin D along with your calcium since vitamin D helps calcium get absorbed.
Potassium
Unless you take a lot at once, most people can safely remove any excess potassium through their kidneys and their urine. Because of this, no official limit has been set for the maximum amount of potassium people can have per day.
However, some people need to be more careful about their potassium intake from food alone because they are at higher risk of hyperkalemia. At the extreme, hyperkalemia can cause life-threatening heart rhythm problems.
Because of the risks of hyperkalemia, people with stages 3-5 of chronic kidney disease may need to limit their potassium intake. Diabetes and diseases of the adrenal glands can also increase the risk of having dangerously high potassium, as can certain medications.
Side Effects of Taking a Combination of Calcium and Potassium
For calcium, some of the most common potential side effects are constipation, diarrhea, gas, and stomach upset. Calcium might also increase your risk of kidney stones, but this isn’t clear.
For potassium, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and nausea are relatively common side effects.
It’s not clear if taking the supplements together increases side effects. In theory, it's possible that side effects that are shared by both might be more likely or worsened if you take the supplements at the same time.
A Quick Review
Calcium and potassium are two minerals critical for many bodily processes. Taking the two supplements together may particularly benefit bone and heart health. However, not everyone needs to take the supplements. It's important to talk with a healthcare provider to see if the supplement combination is right for you and, if so, what dosages of each you should be taking.
For more Health.com news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on Health.com.
