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| == '''[[Potassium in nutrition and human health]]''' ==
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| To maintain [[Life|life]] and [[health]], the diet of humans must contain the chemical element,<b>[[potassium]]</b>, in its ionic form (K<sup>+</sup>), usually consumed as potassium salts of organic acids in food (e.g., potassium citrate), found most abundantly in non-grain plant foods (vegetables and fruits).
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| In 2004-2006, and again in 2010, the ''Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science'' <ref name=ottendribook>Otten JJ, Hellwig JP, Meyers LD (editors) (2006) Dietary Reference Intakes: The Essential Guide to Nutrient Requirements. National Academies Press. Pages 370-379. ISBN 0-309-65646-X</ref> and its ''Food and Nutrition Board'' <ref name=napdri04>Panel on Dietary Reference Intakes for Electrolytes and Water. Standing Committee on the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes. Food and Nutrition Board. Institute of Medicine of The National Academies (2004) [http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10925&page=186/ Dietary Reference Intakes For Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate] “Potassium” pp. 186-268. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.</ref> <ref name=ai-k>[http://www.dietaryguidelines.gov Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010]. [http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/DietaryGuidelines/2010/PolicyDoc/PolicyDoc.pdf PDF (p40]. U.S Dpartment of Agriculture. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.</ref> recommended that adult humans consume 4700 milligrams (mg) of potassium per day, or more, which, calculated from the atomic mass of potassium (39.1 mg per [[Mole (unit)|mmol)]], corresponds to 120 millimoles (mmol) potassium per day: 4700 mg/39.1 mg/mmol=120 mmol. That recommended intake of potassium substantially exceeds estimates from recent surveys of average intakes by the general population, raising the possibility that a persisting state of suboptimal body potassium content, and rate of throughput of potassium, prevails in the general population. <ref name=03-04K>[http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=14958 What We Eat in America, NHANES 2003-2004, Tables. 1. Nutrient Intakes: Mean Amounts Consumed per Individual, One Day, 2003-2004 (Downloadable PDF File)]</ref> <ref name=05-06K>[http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12355000/pdf/0506/Table_1_NIF_05.pdf Nutrient Intakes: Mean Amounts Consumed per Individual, One Day, 2005-2006.] U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Services, Fast Facts, Reports/Articles, and Tables (2005-2006).</ref> <ref name=eatk2010>[http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=18349 What We Eat in America, 2009-2010]. USDA. Downladable pdf Tables.</ref>
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| Subsequent sections will discuss potassium intake recommendations for children and special groups, as well as more recent perspectives on the 'optimal' requirements for dietary potassium in humans.
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| ==General considerations==
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| Potassium ranks as the most abundant cation (positive ion) inside animal [[Cell (biology)|cells]] (intracellular), and as such contributes critically in numerous important ways to the optimal functioning of cells and therefore to optimal functioning of the organ systems and individuals they compose. Among other metabolic functions, potassium plays a role in the synthesis of proteins and in the biochemical transformations required for carbohydrate metabolism.
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| Potassium plays an esential role in maintaining the electrical potential difference across the cell's plasma membrane, the intra- to extra-cellular electrical potential difference, typically referred to as the 'membrane potential'. That physicochemical regulatory function importantly enables normal transmission of information along nerves (nerve impulse transmission), normal contraction of muscle fibers, and normal functioning of the heart. The concentration of potassium inside cells (the intracellular fluid) exceeds that outside cells (the extracellular fluid) by an order of magnitude (~30 times), whereas the extracellular concentration of sodium exceeds that of its intracellular concentration by an order of magnitude (~10 times), the reverse of the situation with potassium. Those concentration differences between potassium ions and sodium ions generates the membrane potential, the inside potential negative with respect to the outside potential. A protein-based ion-pumping mechanism located within the lipid bilayer of the....
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| By influencing the electrical potential difference across the cell membrane, the ratio of the [[concentration]]s of potassium in intracellular fluid (ICF) to that in the cells' surrounding extracellular fluid (ECF) has important effects on the rate of transmission of electrical activity (pulses) along nerve fibers and skeletal muscle cells, which, among other things, affects the degree of contraction of the smooth muscles of arteries and arterioles (vascular tone).<ref name=moczydlowski2009>Moczydlowski EG. (2009) Electrophysiology of the Cell Membrane. In: Boron WF, Boulpaep EL (editors), Medical Physiology, 2nd ed. Saunders/Elsevier: Philadelphia. ISBN 9781416031154.</ref> Inasmuch as extracellular potassium varies in the 3-6 mmol/L range, while intracellular potassium concentrations average about 145 mmol/L, small changes in extracellular potassium concentration have a greater effect on the ICF-to-ECF potassium concentration ratio than similar small changes in intracellular potassium concentration. Subsequent sections discuss the implication of changes in the ICF-to-ECF potassium concentration ratio in human physiology.
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| ''[[Potassium in nutrition and human health|.... (read more)]]''
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| ! style="text-align: center;" | [[Potassium in nutrition and human health#References|notes]]
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The Irvin pin. The eyes have always been red, but there are
urban legends about the meanings of other colors.
A pin from another company, possibly Switlik or Standard Parachute. This style is common in catalogs and auctions of military memorabilia.
The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin.
History
Before April 28, 1919 there was no way for a pilot to jump out of a plane and then to deploy a parachute. Parachutes were stored in a canister attached to the aircraft, and if the plane was spinning, the parachute could not deploy. Film industry stuntman Leslie Irvin developed a parachute that the pilot could deploy at will from a back pack using a ripcord. He joined the Army Air Corps parachute research team, and in April 1919 he successfully tested his design, though he broke his ankle during the test. Irvin was the first person to make a premeditated free fall jump from an airplane. He went on to form the Irving Airchute Company, which became a large supplier of parachutes. (A clerical error resulted in the addition of the "g" to Irvin and this was left in place until 1970, when the company was unified under the title Irvin Industries Incorporated.) The Irvin brand is now a part of Airborne Systems, a company with operations in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.[1].
An early brochure [2] of the Irvin Parachute Company credits William O'Connor 24 August 1920 at McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio as the first person to be saved by an Irvin parachute, but this feat was unrecognised. On 20 October 1922 Lieutenant Harold R. Harris, chief of the McCook Field Flying Station, jumped from a disabled Loening W-2A monoplane fighter. Shortly after, two reporters from the Dayton Herald, realising that there would be more jumps in future, suggested that a club should be formed. 'Caterpillar Club' was suggested because the parachute canopy was made of silk, and because caterpillars have to climb out of their cocoons and fly away. Harris became the first member, and from that time forward any person who jumped from a disabled aircraft with a parachute became a member of the Caterpillar Club. Other famous members include General James Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh and (retired) astronaut John Glenn.
In 1922 Leslie Irvin agreed to give a gold pin to every person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes. By 1945 the number of members with the Irvin pins had grown to over 34,000. In addition to the Irvin Air Chute Company and its successors, other parachute manufacturers have also issued caterpillar pins for successful jumps. Irvin/Irving's successor, Airborne Systems Canada, still provides pins to people who made their jump long ago and are just now applying for membership. Another of these is Switlik Parachute Company, which though it no longer makes parachutes, still issues pins.
