Blood pressure response to potassium supplementation in normotensive adults and children

To investigate the effect on blood pressure of a modest increase in dietary potassium intake, 38 healthy, free-living families were enrolled in a study involving 4 weeks of potassium supplementation. This was preceded by collection of five baseline measurements of blood pressure and urinary electrolyte excretion and followed by a 4-week recovery period. Although there was a significant increase in urinary potassium excretion during supplementation in both adults and children (p less than 0.001), there were no significant changes in systolic, diastolic, or mean arterial blood pressure. Height and weight increased significantly in children (p less than 0.001), and weight increased in adults (p less than 0.01) over the course of the study. Multivariate analysis of variance of blood pressure controlling for these confounding variables failed to reveal any effect of the potassium supplementation on blood pressure. These results suggest that increasing intake of dietary potassium alone in a healthy, free-living normotensive population is unlikely to have a discernible effect on blood pressure.