Multivitamin with potassium and low Vitamin A?

[preslove]

So, last night I was in the middle of a session with a personal trainer when I got a severe cramp in my calf. Bad enough that we cut the session in half and I can still feel that spot a bit. I got another cramp a few weeks ago doing butterfly laps. She told me that potassium would help. I hate bananas and they're full of sugar & not much fiber, so I'm thinking about taking a multivitamin with potassium.

From my googling it looks like high levels of Vitamin A should be avoided, with some experts saying that you want to stay under 2,500 IU. That sucks, because this centrum brand I found has 3,500 IU, along with potassium.

Do any of you know of one that is 2,500 IU or under Vitamin A, but also has potassium?

 

[Awkward]

Eat spinach. Also, as long as the vitamin A is beta-carotene, you can take in a lot more than that. Healthy livers will convert it all anyway.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

You want to be careful with potassium, hyperkalaemia is not nice. Same with hypervitaminosis A...

You should probably go see a doctor if you're worried about potassium levels. This is better than treating it yourself, because 1) there are prescription medications with just potassium, 2) your doctor can do blood tests to find out if you actually are deficient, and 3) hypokalaemia is usually a signal of some other condition; because there's so much reserve, having low potassium just from not eating enough potassium is quite rare.

As for vitamin A, I think most supplements are in the clear. The FDA has set the upper limit for supplements at 10,000UI/d, and most are under this by a reasonable amount. Given that I don't think there's ever been a case of someone with vitamin A toxicity below 20,000UI/d, like most of the FDA's recommendations, this is quite conservative. If your liver is healthy, you should be able to deal with 3,500. I personally would do as you're doing and try to get it lower just to be safe, but I don't think it's a biggie.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

You want to be careful with potassium, hyperkalaemia is not nice. Same with hypervitaminosis A...

You should probably go see a doctor if you're worried about potassium levels. This is better than treating it yourself, because 1) there are prescription medications with just potassium, 2) your doctor can do blood tests to find out if you actually are deficient, and 3) hypokalaemia is usually a signal of some other condition; because there's so much reserve, having low potassium just from not eating enough potassium is quite rare.

As for vitamin A, I think most supplements are in the clear. The FDA has set the upper limit for supplements at 10,000UI/d, and most are under this by a reasonable amount. Given that I don't think there's ever been a case of someone with vitamin A toxicity below 20,000UI/d, like most of the FDA's recommendations, this is quite conservative. If your liver is healthy, you should be able to deal with 3,500. I personally would do as you're doing and try to get it lower just to be safe, but I don't think it's a biggie.

Bing bing bing. I too came in here to warn about supplementing potassium. Your trainer is not a doctor and shouldn't be prescribing what you should do. Cramping can be caused by a TON of things, one of rare ones being low potassium. Other things causing cramping dehydration, decondition, excess work demand, going through extreme ranges of motion, etc.

Thanks for posting that, Pedantic. Said it better than I would have.