What does 10 meq mean on my prescription?

Answer 1

MEG on a script means milliequivalent & doesn't really tell you the measurement, it must be for potassium; it's very thought provoking I too have been trying to figure this out. you just want to know the mg huh? Evie mEq is used to denote an amount of a solute in a liter of solvent (i.e. the blood).

For instance, potassium (K) is often measured as mEq/L or mEq/dL. 10 mEq is equivalent to 750 mg, USP. -See related link: DailyMed.

After some research using various websites, the typical K intake per day is ~ 3.5 grams (3500 mg.). At the same time the usual K intake is stated elsewhere as 50-100 mEq/day. So, 1 mEq is somewhere in the range [70 mg, 35 mg.] (i.e., 3500/50 to 3500/100). Using the mid-point of the 50-100 mEq range (75), we get: 1 mEq ~ 46.7 mg -or-

10mEq ~ 467 mg.

A harder question is: If you start taking an additional 20 mEq of K today, how long does it take to show up in a blood test ?