K is for Potassium??

Well, this is a bit weird, but at my job many times a day, I see K+ and I know that means potassium. The dictionary says the K is for Kali, from the arabic qily, which means alkali. It's atomic number is 19 and it's chemical symbol is K. Potassium is a necessary element in the human body. When someone's level of potassium is low in their blood, it is called hypokalemia (and not hypopotassemia, through I've seen that written as a diagnosis on lab orders!). When it's high, you have hyperkalemia. We have a big chemistry analyzer that can tell us the level of potassium in a serum sample in a few seconds. Potassium is plentiful inside of red cells, too, so when there is hemolysis of the blood sample, due to a difficult blood draw, the potassium level is falsely elevated, so that's something we are always on the watch for. Wikipedia says potassium was "discovered" in England in 1807, by Sir Humphry Davy, but I think it's been around a long time. Your body does an amazing job of keeping the correct levels of potassium in your blood all the time. Hurray for the K!