Urine Albumin Test ACE Inhibitor/Statins

JessicaLCHF

Urine Albumin Test

So I've never had this test before, but I recently switched doctors and this one says she does it yearly for all her diabetic patients. Mine was 100, and she says normal levels are 30, but no treatment is recommended until 300. HOWEVER, that being said, because any level according to her above 30 shows kidney ongoing damage, she wants to put me on ACE inhibitors. She noted they are used to treat blood pressure and tho my blood pressure was excellent (and has been) she still wants to do it to protect my kidneys since I am diabetic (I took the summer off LCHF due to two surgeries and my a1c went right back up - I've only been back on diet just over a week, but I'm off the pain meds and stomach issues they caused so I'm hard set on low carbing it). Lot of info, I know.

ADDITTIONALY, since I'm diabetic, she wants to start me on statins to protect my heart. I told her my concerns and she still thinks the benefits would outweigh the risks to me. Of course on both accounts, I told her, well, I just started LCHF (old Atkins), I want to wait off on adding two lifelong meds, check my a1c and weight loss in three months, and see how it goes. Here's my question for the forum:

I asked her if the albumin levels (which she said is undigested protien) could be due to my LCHF diet and not a result of kidney damage. I explained since all good is carbs, fat or protien, obviously I'm eating more protein and fat than normal since I'm drastically cutting carbs to control my blood sugar. She SAID "no", but her face told me "I'm not sure". I can't change doctors. We are in a small town and it was a struggle getting one at all. I would like to know your thoughts on this albumin urine test, and specifically your own experiences?

Thanks to all who take time to read this long post and reply!

KetoTheKingdom

There should be no increase in protein on keto. There is an ideal range where you will not lose muscle tissue but will not consume so much that unneeded protein is converted by your body into glucose. Beyond your maximum carbohydrate allotment and protein within this range, everything else should be fat for keto.

I am not an expert, but the advice you received regarding hypertension medications and statins is standard, and there are many here who take strong a pro or con stand on each.

KnitOrMiss

Personally, I would not take statins ever under any conditions. The work by killing off part of your liver to reduce critical cholesterol production. Sorry, that's just me. There are better explanations in the book "Cholesterol Clarity" and other resources. The side effects, including eventual dementia and all that mess, are just far more than I am willing to tolerate when the underlying "push" for all this stuff is outdated medical data.

That being said, I personally was on an ACE inhibitor for actual HPB caused my taking birth control pills at the ripe old age of late 30's to early 40's. I was on the lowest dose of Lisinopril, which is one of the most commonly prescribed ones, to my understanding. I developed extreme sun sensitivity, resulting in blistering sun rashes from simply walking across the parking lot to my car, among other things. Personally, it does list this as protective for kidney stuff as a diabetic, but you manage all that better with your dietary intake. Additionally, it can cause all kinds of potassium chaos, too. I'm no longer allowed to take anything in that "class."

My Albumin tests have always been low/borderline, but they are on a different scale than yours (so maybe blood test instead of urine?), so I can't speak to that specifically, but my BUN and ratio have been off sometimes recently, which they said is dehydration... Expressed concern, but yeah, I don't know if I would be willing to go on an Rx to treat something like this. Like you, I would rather tweak my dietary intake and manage through supplements. Personally, I would research the heck out of all of this before agreeing to anything at all...

Hopefully some of our kidney folks can chime in here, too.

RalfLott

Seems @KnitOrMiss and I may have had similar debates recently

I am flummoxed about statins, to be honest, but until I'm persuaded otherwise, I'm taking Crestor, which unlike Lipitor doesn't produce nightly leg cramps.

This is mainly because my total LDL is high enough to make me a little nervous - I recently had a coronary calcium scan showing mild atherosclerosis in one artery branch.

I take Lisinopril, with no apparent side effects, for hypertension and kidney protection. Unlike the scenario with statins, the effect of ACE inhibitors on kidney cells doesn't shout "Controversy!" when Googling...

In my of , I'd like to go a month or two with NO meds and NO supplements and see how I feel, but I'm not sure it's in the cards...

(I'm doing fine. Just didnt happen to land on < Go To Keto > early enough in the game!)

RalfLott

Oh, and yeah, @JessicaLCHF, good idea to watch the protein. Too much can indeed slowly raise your BG (tried and tested by yours truly, with BG meter in hand 5-10x every *kitten* day).

FYI, my daily protein goal is 85-110g.

tcunbeliever

opinion here, it's worth what you paid for it, please do your own research and take whatever action you are comfortable with, you are the one who has to live in your body.

albumin - I'm assuming this was a urine test, not a blood test based on your description? High levels of albumin in the blood are usually caused long term by leaky gut but short term can be caused by dehydration, and are definitely increased when eating a high protein diet. Your kidneys are supposed to filter it out of your urine, which doesn't seem to be happening here, so your doctor is concerned about the kidney damage escalating. This is a very valid concern as truly healthy kidneys would not allow any albumin to be present in the urine.

cholesterol - as your body ages all of your organs perform less efficiently and require more fuel to continue operating because they are processing this fuel less efficiently. Your brain needs fat to function and cholesterol is how your body circulates fat. It is normal for cholesterol levels to increase as you age even in healthy individuals, ideally this is HDL "good" cholesterol that increases more than LDL "bad" cholesterol. Additionally, cholesterol serves the purpose of being the bandaid for the circulatory system, so when you have a tiny tears in your arteries your body patches them up with cholesterol, so general weakness in the cellular structure of the circulatory system will also cause the body to boost cholesterol production because more bandaids are needed - unfortunately bandaids do not fix the underlying cellular weakness, they just keep you functional. There is no evidence that lowering cholesterol reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, all of the long term studies show no impact to fatality rates due to cardiovascular disease with the application of statin drugs. Reducing cholesterol will absolutely impact cognitive function as you age, you are essentially starving your brain and eventually it will begin shutting down higher level sections in order to maintain critical life support while continuously malnourished.

If it were me I would alter to high fat, low carb, moderate protein and I would limit protein to plant sources, poultry, eggs, and fish. I would try to get mostly plant sources of fat (coconut oil, nuts, avocado, etc.). Keeping animal products below 10% of your total consumption has been show to turn off and reverse cardiovascular disease. There are lots of websites for vegan/vegetarian LCHF, it's very possible to reduce animal consumption with this WOE.

I would also try to get 2 servings of probiotic foods daily to eliminate or heal the potential leaky gut and I would avoid dairy options, but if no non-dairy options are not tolearated (kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, etc), then take the dairy options (kefir, yogurt) rather than miss out on the probiotic benefits.

I would also look for herbal/nutritional supplements to support the kidneys and liver specifically and general cell strengthening supplements like antioxidants or MSM and I would stay on these for 90 days or until a more favorable test result is achieved.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you will keep us posted!

krazyforyou

Since your diabetic I can see the concern of your MD. Try going to a more moderate level of protein in your diet. Early signs of kidney disease is an increase of protein in your urine, and bring diabetic increase the risks of kidney disease significantly. Make a deal with your MD to modify your diet then recheck the numbers in one month and see if they change. If not then you may actually need the meds to protect your kidneys.

JessicaLCHF

To clarify, my macro goals are 10%carbs, 25% protien and 65% fat. I'll go check and see if I can get an average of what I actually hit last week.

Edit: ok, so based on my eating logs from last week, I normally average about 15% carbs (note, this is total carbs, not net, my carb grams average at 25g net carbs a day), 25% protein - so right on goal - and 60-65% fat. She did not check my cholesterol. Only my a1c which had gone up about a half a point from the last one, and the urine albumin.

KnitOrMiss

If you aren't heavy lifting, that protein number might be a little high... Looking forward to hearing actual grams...

JessicaLCHF

Actual grams? Did I miss something?

I'm mostly hoping the diet causes a higher than avg albumin. Because avg is 30, she said mine is 100. I was hoping other ppl had the test. She said they usually don't recommend treatment till 300, so I'm a bit confused as to why she's treating, but I guess it's because I'm diabetic and overweight. I guess with the avg being 30, everyone does have some protein in their urine? I've had two major surgeries and massive pain killers all summer. Literally since June. So, I wonder if they impacted my kidney function. However, before each operation I had a full work up of both kidney and heart, and all my results were excellent.

Sunny_Bunny_

JessicaLCHF wrote: »

Actual grams? Did I miss something?

I'm mostly hoping the diet causes a higher than avg albumin. Because avg is 30, she said mine is 100. I was hoping other ppl had the test. She said they usually don't recommend treatment till 300, so I'm a bit confused as to why she's treating, but I guess it's because I'm diabetic and overweight. I guess with the avg being 30, everyone does have some protein in their urine? I've had two major surgeries and massive pain killers all summer. Literally since June. So, I wonder if they impacted my kidney function. However, before each operation I had a full work up of both kidney and heart, and all my results were excellent.

She's asking how many grams of protein you're eating. An average person not lifting heavy weight only needs between 60-90g a day.
Your kidneys may be extra taxed since you've not been at super great health and maybe just aren't able to handle higher protein amounts right now. Maybe as time goes on and more healing occurs they will be able to. ???
My daughter has had that test done dozens of times and has never had anyone mention kidney issues. I'll go take a peek at what her numbers look like pre and post keto to see if there are any clues.

JessicaLCHF

Did you mean how many actual grams of protien I'm eating a day? It's almost always under my goal of 125. Last week it was 77, 84, 44, 104, 92, 72, 50 grams (Wed-Tues).

Sunny_Bunny_

Ok. In my daughters records she has only a couple of very old urine albumin tests. They were not high and she was not keto then.
There are no urine tests since she went keto. There are blood tests and they are all about exactly the same, which is in normal range.
The only time she ever had a high reading was while hospitalized for Diabetic KetoAcidosis. But, she was probably metabolizing muscle under the circumstances.
So, her records really didn't give anything usable.
Other than I found out she lied to me about a recent A1c result that shows her cheating is actually a problem unlike what she would like to believe. (Insert mad face)

JessicaLCHF

Ok, well, thanks all. I haven't heard much about it in the LC world. I guess I'll rerun the test in three months and see where I am then.

KnitOrMiss

I can't remember for sure, but I think @sweetteadrinker2 and/or maybe @KETOGENICGURL and one other have suffered kidney issues. I'll look back and see if I can find more names.

KnitOrMiss

This thread might be helpful: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10430483/Discussion_10430483

KnitOrMiss

Another friend whom I don't think is in this group but dealt with her sister during Kidney failure - who recovered - might have some insight into these numbers. She's @Anniepi66 here, and is a friend of mine...

Sorry, searching my stored info...but here's something about the better forms of magnesium for kidney issues:

Magnesium chloride: Though magnesium chloride only contains around 12 percent elemental magnesium, it has an impressive absorption rate and is the best form of magnesium to take for detoxing the cells and tissues. Moreover, chloride (not to be confused with chlorine, the toxic gas) aids kidney function and can boost a sluggish metabolism.

Magnesium carbonate: Magnesium carbonate is another popular, bioavailable form of magnesium that actually turns into magnesium chloride when it mixes with the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs. It is a good choice for people suffering from indigestion and acid reflux, since it contains antacid properties.


Another useful thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10211449/Discussion_10211449


@Peggy108 is another friend who had irregular kidney tests - I don't know how the follow ups went.


These are related somehow according to my notes: http://www.health-science-spirit.com/borax.htm http://gwens-nest.com/high-blood-calcium-parathyroid-tumor/


I'm a pack rat, I know. I only went back about a year. Let me know if you need more info or people, and I'll keep going! (HUGS)

JessicaLCHF

Thanks! I'll reach out to them. Much appreciated.

MiamiDawn

On keto and LCHF if your kidneys are working normally, then you should not have protein in your urine.

There's some good information at this link
http://robbwolf.com/2011/06/16/clearing-up-kidney-confusion-part-deux/

I think you really need to look at the whole picture ... an elevated A1C could also be adding to the problem.

Did she agree to holding off on the meds for a couple of months ? I would see if she would recheck the urine at that time and go from there.

KnitOrMiss

@JessicaLCHF - Did you ever get any answers or resolution on this?

RalfLott

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

Sorry, searching my stored info...but here's something about the better forms of magnesium for kidney issues:

Magnesium chloride: Though magnesium chloride only contains around 12 percent elemental magnesium, it has an impressive absorption rate and is the best form of magnesium to take for detoxing the cells and tissues. Moreover, chloride (not to be confused with chlorine, the toxic gas) aids kidney function and can boost a sluggish metabolism.

Magnesium carbonate: Magnesium carbonate is another popular, bioavailable form of magnesium that actually turns into magnesium chloride when it mixes with the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs. It is a good choice for people suffering from indigestion and acid reflux, since it contains antacid properties.

@KnitOrMiss -

Do you have a good source of info on the various magnesium supplements and which form is best for which folks, and when?

There's a lot of conflicting, yet impassioned, advice out there from experts and hobbyists alike ......

Thx!