Response to letter from Dr Charles Edmonds Re: Apical potassium (BK) channels and enhanced potassium secretion in human colon
ARTICLE

Sir,

We should like to thank Dr Edmonds for his interest in our recent review.1 Healthy individuals do indeed have modest losses of K+ in faecal fluid (∼9 mmol/day, which is ∼10% of the dietary intake, the remainder being lost in the urine2) and their colonic capacity for K+ secretion is relatively small.3 We also appreciate the importance of increased colonic K+ secretion in situations where dietary Na+ intake is restricted or the body is threatened by …