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Science 18 September 1959:
Vol. 130. no. 3377, pp. 713 - 714
DOI: 10.1126/science.130.3377.713
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Articles

Average Potassium Concentration of the Human Body as a Function of Age

E. C. ANDERSON 1 and W. H. LANGHAM 1

1 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of California, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Potassium-40 measurements on 1590 males and females ranging in age from less than 1 year to 79 years show sex differences and age trends in the ratio of muscle mass to the mass of other body constituents. A difference first at approximately 12 years of age. While females show a continuous decrease in potassium concentration, males show a rapid increase between the ages of 14 and 16. During adult life both sexes show a persistent and parallel decrease, which may be related to physiologic aging.


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