Creatinine levels relating to possible kidney problems.

Chieflrg

I had the pleasure to ask some questions via livestream this past weekend with StrengthTraining coach and powerlifter Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum involving my kidney issues in relation to creatinine levels in my blood along with the removal of the creatine suppliment from my diet by my Oncologist. He was very detailed on explaining the protocol of tests he would use to determine kidney fuction.

After the livestream Q/A ended, he immediately reposted a clip on IG in which he explained to Mark Rippetoe a few months earlier on his views on how to determine the validity of creatinine levels in relation kidney function.

I thought this might be helpful to those that either went through radiation treatments and/or have an autoimmune disease that attacks organs like myself or kidney disease.

At the bottom of his posts he writes how to view the complete video on youtube.

richln

Thanks for this; it is a good podcast.

It sounds like you already have a good diagnosis of your disease, but for the lurkers, I would like to point out that it is not necessarily a good idea to dismiss elevated creatinine levels just because you are on creatine. I dismissed my elevated creatinine levels for some time because both my serum and urinary levels were high, indicating a good GFR. However, after later quitting creatine supplementation, my levels remained high, and subsequent follow-up tests discovered a kidney abnormality during an ultrasound.

Although Dr. Feigenbaum doesn't mention it specifically in the podcast, hopefully if you test high on serum levels, your doctor would ask you to quit creatine supplementation and then retest serum a couple of weeks later.

Chieflrg

Agreed.

I don't think anybody should dismiss why their creatinine levels are high when both the serum cretinine and urinary are high.

Only that serum creatinine level alone is not a valid indicator of kidney function on a individual taking creatine. Meaning more tests hopefully .

My Onc never took a uninary sample only a additional serum two weeks later. He then ordered a ultrasound to see if I had scar tissue possibly from the radiation treatments.

Cecily55

I have polycystic kidney disease with a normal (for me) blood creatinine of 1.1 -1.5; BUN is steady at 26 - 30. When I take creatine the week before I go in for labs, my creatinine shoots up to 2+ and my nephrologist gets all excited. Nephrologist and I talked and the solution was just to stop taking the creatine for 7-10 days before labs; lab results returned right back to normal. Same kind of results with 24 hour urine test. So the abnormally elevated creatinine levels are probably due to the dietary creatine dumping into the blood anud urine rather than a decline in kidney function.

joeybrid

You don't even need to be taking creatine supplementation to have elevated creatinine though, post workout you have extremely elevated natural creatinine levels. My GP freaked out when he saw my blood test and forced me to see a Nephrologist despite me telling him it was negligible

ColwellCat

Pro tip: you can also get a significant (false) creatinine boost in your bloods from slow cooked red meat, especially lamb. My husband, post kidney transplant, had three unnecessary kidney biopsies before we learnt that having slow cooked lamb the night before was a Bad Idea.