Low potassium and vitamin d

[Alyjod3]

I have had my blood checked several times in the last 6 months and every time my vitamin d and potassium seem to be low or at the lowest number in the range. Yesterday my potassium was 3.3 the range was 3.5-5. My vitamin d was at 17 out of 30-100 back in November. The doctor gave me supplements and it came up but still was at the very bottom of the range. I've also been having gastrointestinal issues for a while( gerd, excessive gas) . Had a colonoscopy and endoscopy which were both normal. I have a thyroid goiter with abnormal texture and a nodule. I'll be seeing an endocrinologist in may.
I eat foods with vitamin d and potassium. Bananas, potatoes, milk, vegetables, fruit, chicken.
Is there anything known to cause both vitamin d deficiency and low potassium even if your getting both from the foods you eat.

[gymdandee]

Pax. "wear clothes with petrochemicals in them" Sorry but I walk around in my birthday suit.

[Paxiled]

Gym, actually, it's aduki, but pronounced azuki.  It's the closest approximation to trying to write Japanese in English.  Every 25 pound bag of it we got, every week, was spelled aduki.  But again, pronounced azuki in Japanese.  As to soy, has anyone studied the people who eat it the most to determine whether it causes any of these things?  Do Chinese and Japanese, who eat tofu at least once a day (they put in that miso soup, by the way) and who eat soy beans in the pod in several ways and who consume soy milk and have for centuries, do they have any of these problems?  Lab experiments on animals are interesting, and I don't know where "reports" from humans are coming from, but I've asked this before -- in a society where all of us are smothered every day by petrochemicals which are far more estrogenic and toxic than soy why do you insist on focusing on soy?  Not that this isn't important research, but every day you handle plastic and wear clothes with petrochemicals in them and eat food grown in petrochemicals but you continue to blame these things on soy.  So that's my continued issue here -- I know, obviously, because I worked so long in health food stores, an awful lot of people who ate a lot of soy.  None of them had any of these problems.  All of them were pretty thin.  All of them were ridiculously healthy.  Now, I've always felt that was more because they were the type of people who worked hard at it and ate a lot of vegetables -- I don't think anyone needs to eat soy to be healthy provided they have an alternative source of food -- but the fact is, most Americans eat very little soy.  Although you're correct that there are a lot of soy derivatives in food, the quantities are tiny.  But we have a huge population, the most populated places on Earth, in Asia where people have been eating soy daily, both in fermented and non-fermented forms for centuries.  If the estrogenic claims are true it's really hard to see how we ever got a billion Chinese.  If the thyroid claims were true, we should see it in this population (although perhaps with the Japanese the daily consumption of seaweed compensates for it).  So again, are there any studies of the people who eat the most soy?  Are vegetarians in the US, who eat more soy one would assume than the rest of us, showing these problems?  We have real people to study, we really don't need animal studies in this case.  Soy is a staple food, not just an occasional treat for billions of people, so why don't we see it in those people?  And don't answer that they eat mostly fermented soy, because it isn't true -- though they do eat fermented soy products, they also eat a ton of tofu and fresh soybeans and other forms of unfermented soy products -- most of the fermented soy products they eat in small quantities as condiments.  Just saying, the proof is there waiting, yet you never cite any studies of people who eat soy the most.  I'm still waiting, because if soy isn't actually a problem food it's extremely nutritious, relatively inexpensive, and plentiful, so to avoid it would be a huge loss.

[gymdandee]

Pax. My good friend who I talk or text to just about every day his last name is Bore. Pax. It's azuki or adzuki not aduki. only against soy.
Some say soy is a toxin, and is particularly toxic to thyroid patients. Various experts and organizations, including the Weston Price Foundation, are vocally opposed to soy.
There are experts who suggest that some soy as long as it is in unprocessed food form, or fermented forms, and not genetically modified  may be safe for thyroid patients, as long as it's eaten only in moderation.
A U.S. government-sponsored review of 200 different studies on soy, published in 2005, found very limited evidence of health benefits from soy. Primarily a small reduction in "bad" LDL cholesterol, and a small percentage of women who have a minor reduction in hot flashes when using soy during menopause. The Journal of the American Medical Association has reported that isoflavones do not improve cholesterol levels, cognitive function or bone mineral density. The American Heart Association backtracked on its earlier support of soy, and is now saying that there is no evidence that soy has specific benefits for heart health or for lowering cholesterol. Research on the use of soy and isoflavones for cancer prevention is also inconclusive. And there is no evidence that soy can "cause" weight loss except as part of the simple equation of substituting a lower fat, lower-calorie protein source for a fattier, higher-calorie protein as part of a weight loss effort. In general, at present, there is insufficient data to suggest that soy has a protective role against any medical conditions or diseases.
There are long-standing concerns that soy may have negative effects on thyroid function and hormonal health. Soy falls into a category of foods known as goitrogens vegetables, grains and foods that promote formation of goiter an enlarged thyroid. Some goitrogens also have a definite antithyroid effect, and appear to be able to slow thyroid function, and in some cases, trigger thyroid disease. These concerns have been studied for years, but were raised specifically by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers Daniel Doerge and Daniel Sheehan. Doerge and Sheehan were the FDA's key experts on soy. In 2000, Doerge and Sheehan wrote a letter of protest to their own employer, protesting the positive health claims for soy that the FDA was approving at the time. They wrote there is abundant evidence that some of the isoflavones found in soy, including genistein and equol, a metabolize of daidzen, demonstrate toxicity in estrogen sensitive tissues and in the thyroid. This is true for a number of species, including humans. Additionally, isoflavones are inhibitors of the thyroid peroxidase which makes T3 and T4. Inhibition can be expected to generate thyroid abnormalities, including goiter and autoimmune thyroiditis. There exists a significant body of animal data that demonstrates goitrogenic and even carcinogenic effects of soy products. Moreover, there are significant reports of goitrogenic effects from soy consumption in human infants and adults.
Since publication of their letter, Doerge and Sheehan have refined their concerns, and in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, suggested that for soy to cause toxicity, there need to be several factors, including iodine deficiency, defects of hormone synthesis, or additional goitrogens in the diet. They also stated that: "Although safety testing of natural products, including soy products, is not required, the possibility that widely consumed soy products may cause harm in the human population via either or both estrogenic and goitrogenic activities is of concern. Rigorous, high-quality experimental and human research into soy toxicity is the best way to address these concerns."

[Paxiled]

And for everyone, some people are very avid about recommending krill oil in place of fish oil from other sources.  I feared that this would deplete the krill, which most of the largest life in the oceans depends on for sustenance.  Recent analysis of the krill around Antarctica have now proven this to be happening, as huge trawlers, probably Russian, are scooping up all the krill from that area to make fish oil.  We all have to ask, is it worth eliminating whales, seals, penguins, and other sea animals for what is just a slight benefit over other sources of fish oil?  The problem with krill is that they're very tiny shrimp, and so it takes a huge number of them to make the oil.  And now they're disappearing from the ocean.

[Paxiled]

By the way, I won't ever eat wild boar -- I don't eat pork.  It's my one year-long deference to my faith, though I don't follow the other rules except during Passover.  Do you follow any of the dietary rules?  I didn't growing up, but decided as an adult to give up pork, and decided to follow the stupid Ashkenazi rules even though they make no sense at all.

[Paxiled]

Why do have to stop?  The blood thinner aspect?  Actually, with my failed prostate operation I might take more turmeric than water!  By the way, it's wild boar, not bore.  Unless you're eating a very crazy but very dull person.  But you're right, I often don't get into the details of supplements because they're actually very individual -- some do better with ones others don't absorb well.  Usually I tell people to do some homework or see a professional if they don't know their supplements.  I'm just a lot more cautious than you about giving specific advice.  But here's a question for you -- if you recommend not eating unfermented soy beans for their phytic acid and oxalic acid content, then do you also suggest people avoid all unfermented beans?  Pinto, black turtle, aduki, anasazi, lentils, peas, string beans, peanuts, kindney, etc etc.?  And all grains, as they also contain phytic acid unless they're fermented?  Or at least soured or sprouted?  That's pretty radical.