What I am speaking of is Potassium. Issues relating to this have come up in the forum a few times lately and I received a PM from a member also related to this. So I'm taking it as a sign to talk about this. It's actually pretty important. To save some time, here is the relevant part of my reply to PM.

"The key to reducing blood pressure is not to eat less sodium, but to intake more potassium. Heartbeat and blood pressure etc has to do with the ratio of sodium and potassium. It's the sodium-potassium pump that causes the heart to beat. Sodium keeps water inside cells and potassium keeps it outside.

Few people get enough potassium and the criminals at the FDA have made it illegal to sell a sup with more than 99mg. This is ludicrous as you need about 5g a day. This is so Big Pharma can sell potassium as a DRUG to folks that develop cardiac problems due to deficiency.The ratio of potassium to sodium should be about 3:1 to 5:1. So of course if you don't have enough potassium, you need to lower sodium to try and bring it into balance.

What I do is use potassium chloride by NOWfoods which is 8oz powder sold as a "salt substitute", NOT a supplement. It cost 4-5 bucks and I get mine at Swanson Vitamins though I'm sure it's widely available. I mix that in my water with sea salt to give me 5g potassium and 1.5g sodium. Another option is Mortons Lo-Salt sold at the grocery, again as a salt substitute. It's a 2:1 ratio potassium to sodium which isn't ideal but it's easy to get and I'd suggest taking enough of that to get 4g/2g."

For those willing to read a long-ass post, I'm going to include a portion of something I wrote years ago under a different persona.

"Potassium is essential to our health. Potassium is present in all cells and is critical to cardiovascular and nerve function, regulating the transfer of nutrients into cells and facilitating muscle energy. This wonder mineral also regulates water balance, assists recuperative powers, and aids rheumatic or arthritic conditions by causing acids to leave the joints, thereby easing stiffness. At the same time potassium is vital for the elimination of wastes, is a natural pain desensitizer, helps control convulsions, headaches and migraines, and promotes faster healing of cuts, bruises and other injuries.

Because of its very high electrochemical activity, potassium is on the move all the time, and we need vast quantities to replenish that lost every day. When we exercise and sweat, we lose potassium through urine. When we are under extreme stress for a variety of other reasons, potassium loss can treble instantly. "Persons eating [sodium] salt as they wished excreted nine times more potassium than when their salt intake was limited, and human volunteers kept on diets deficient in potassium retained so much salt that they developed high blood pressure."

If Mother Nature was to deprive you of potassium completely, hard scientific evidence proves you would be dead in less than three weeks. But in many ways this would be a merciful release when compared with the infinitely more painful and far slower death caused by slow potassium deprivation, the preferred method of the FDA and AMA. Proper scientists agree the daily potassium requirements of an average adult are between 3,500 and 5,000 milligrams, but the average potassium intake of Americans through the food chain is only 1,500 to 2,100 milligrams per day, representing an overall average shortfall of 1,850 milligrams. And a lot of this is from potatoes, so if you don't eat a lot of french fries and baked potatoes, potato chips, etc, you are probably even more deficient.

Obviously humans can survive at these savagely depleted levels, because Americans manage to eke out about 70 years each, before this basic potassium deficiency overwhelms them and they finally die, sometimes in great pain from a number of directly related illnesses including arthritis, osteoporosis, hypertension [high blood pressure], angina, strokes and so on. It is scientifically beyond question that all would live longer and suffer less pain if they received the necessary quantity of potassium each day, which is where the American Food & Drug Administration [FDA] should do a John Wayne job, and ride gallantly to the rescue.

Alas, the Food and Drug Administration has not and will not do so, because of sustained lobby pressure by the pharmaceutical multinationals. Despite having full and unrestricted access to the real scientific data providing hard proof of widespread potassium deficiency bordering on a pandemic, the FDA has deliberately avoided specifying a "Recommended Dietary Allowance" [RDA], while simultaneously passing a law restricting the potassium content of all alternative medicines to a mere 99 milligrams."

So, yeah.

Potassium Deficiency Symptoms
Deficiency of potassium can result in a fatal medical condition, known as hypokalemia.The most common problems associated with decreased potassium levels are the following.

Arrhythmia
Congestive heart failure
Hypertension
Depression

Potassium deficiency increases the acid levels in the body, which lowers the natural pH of the body. It also affects the formation of connective tissues, thus making the body tissue vulnerable to various other health problems. The signs of this deficiency appear when the level of potassium in the body decreases to a great extent. Some of the common symptoms of potassium deficiency are listed below.

Muscular weakness
Fatigue
Unusual anxiety and confusion
Improper digestion leading to constipation
Hypertension
Weakness in the body
Excessive thirst
Dry skin
Acne and other skin problems
Heart palpitations
Irregular heartbeat
Abnormal psychological behavior

Foods high in potassium:
1 cup White Beans (cooked) 1000mg
1 cup Spinach (cooked) 839mg (1c raw 167mg)
Baked Potatoes (With Skin) average potato (173g) 926mg
Dried Apricots 1/2 cup 755mg
Baked Acorn Squash 1 cup cubed 899mg
Yogurt (Plain, Skim/Non-Fat) 1 cup 625mg
Salmon 3oz fillet 534mg
Avocados average avocado (201g) 975mg
Mushrooms (White) 1 cup sliced 428mg
Bananas average Banana(118g) 422mg