Kidney problems so need to stop exercising?!

stac3wa

Went to the Drs as had blood drawn a week ago for my PCOS and she added in other needs to. One of which was Vitamin D and kidneys.
So went back today. Vitamin D is really low so on 2 tablets a day for 3 months then a tablet a month after.
Kidney function test came back low. So need to do another blood test in a week. In that week I have to stay away from all red meat and any form of exercise.
I thought exercise helps improve you? Not be detrimental?
Anyone have any idea why? I’ve googled it and just see posts about why it’s good for you to exercise. Not bad.
Thank you

janejellyroll

I would ask your doctor about their advice.

There are lots of things that are good for the general population but not good for people with specific medical issues. In your case, it looks like exercise may be one of those things. Ask your doctor until they can give you an explanation you understand -- don't be afraid to keep asking questions if you don't get it!

concordancia

Exercise can stress your organs. After all, the point is to stress your heart and muscles to strengthen them. Excessive exercise can cause you to break down your own muscles, which are protein. Measuring blood proteins is the main way we measure kidney function.

In short, you are asked to refrain from exercise for this test for the same reasons you are asked to abstain from red meat: to create a level playing field to understand if the issue is your kidneys or your lifestyle.

brookekaczor

It could be that you are leaking protein through your kidneys. Hence the reduction in red meat etc. Ask your dr directly for information.

kimny72

It's also possible that whatever further testing they are going to do would be skewed in some way by the exertion from exercise. As @janejellyroll said, get in the habit of asking your doctor these kinds of questions. They often don't elaborate because they figure people don't want to know anyway, so make it clear you are interested in hearing the "why" for everything.

stac3wa

I asked her over and over. She just said she advices to not work out. I asked if that meant like HIIT session, running , lifting weights etc. She just kept saying to not work out. I said that isn’t something I’m happy with, as my working out is therapeutic, a stress relief, my time. I enjoy it too much. But she was adamant to not do it.
I mean, I’m happy to not eat red meat for the week, I haven’t eaten it in a while and I tend to not go for that anyway. But exercise...

deannalfisher

i would agree with what @kimny72 said - there are certain tests you don't want to have any kind of strenuous exericse prior to because that can screw up the results - my doc specifically told me to do nothing more than walking in the 24-48hrs prior to my comprehensive blood work to avoid those issues

stac3wa

I have to do a urine sample first thing to see if there’s any protein leaking. I just was bewildered as I bought exercise was what made us healthier. What was better for us. Learn new things everyday

concordancia

stac3wa wrote: »

I have to do a urine sample first thing to see if there’s any protein leaking. I just was bewildered as I bought exercise was what made us healthier. What was better for us. Learn new things everyday

Both exercise and rest, in balance, make us healthier.

If you ignore this advice, you might end up getting treatment you don't really need, which would not be healthy.

cwolfman13

My guess is that they're going to do a creatine clearance test. Don't eat meat and don't exercise are standard for a creatine clearance test just like fasting and no strenuous exercise before blood work is standard. It levels the playing field for the test. Follow your doctors orders.

cmriverside

I recently had a blood draw where my kidney function and my electrolytes were all out of balance, and outside the normal range.

I went back for the second draw six weeks later and everything was normal.

My doctor didn't make any suggestions for me during that six weeks, but I did cut back my protein - I had been eating around 25% protein. I cut back to 15%.

My doctor did tell me to be well hydrated before my next blood draw. I was and it came back normal.

Ask him/her why she made those suggestions. It may be that your electrolytes were out of balance. Was your iron high? Potassium low? What about sodium? Ask those important questions.

Were you exercising a lot?

kimny72

stac3wa wrote: »

I have to do a urine sample first thing to see if there’s any protein leaking. I just was bewildered as I bought exercise was what made us healthier. What was better for us. Learn new things everyday

Think about it for a second. If your organs are struggling, how would demanding more of them help?

Exercise effects different parts of your body differently. You shouldn't exercise during an asthma attack, or if you're running a fever, or have chest congestion for example. Exercise is healthy for healthy people. But people with injuries or illnesses have different sets of rules. You shouldn't walk on a sprained ankle. Someone with Crohn's may have to eat a low fiber diet. Someone with an allergy shouldn't eat shellfish. Different rules.

They only asked you not to exercise for a week. If someone tells you not to ever exercise again, ask for more info or get a second opinion.

urloved33

so sorry. prayers for your returned health.

mph323

Sure, exercise is healthy, but you are conflating that with what you have to do to get a valid test result. It doesn't sound like your doctor told you to stop exercising period, just for the week before the test. I don't see why that would be such a big deal?

stac3wa

It isn’t a big deal ^^ it was a simple why?! She couldn’t give me a straight answer. Just kept saying not too. I googled. Nothing. So I asked why. As I’ve always been told exercise is what’s best. So I’m of course going to be taken back at the thought of exercise could be damaging my health.


I lift heavy 4 times a week. Legs / shoulders / back and chest and I only do around an hour at a time.
I am so so new to this all. I’ve attempted to lose weight for years on Slimming World, Slimfast etc. I’ve never looked into the whys or the how’s of weightloss.
So I felt the need to ask for opinions on why this could be. As my Dr couldn’t.
She didn’t mention about my potassium or iron levels. Just my Vitamin D, PCOS and kidney.

pkr527

I am a RN. Please make sure you are well hydrated before your next lab draw. Even being slightly dehydrated can throw off the results of your glomerular filtration rate which is most likely what they drew. Hydrate!

cwolfman13

stac3wa wrote: »

I have to do a urine sample first thing to see if there’s any protein leaking. I just was bewildered as I bought exercise was what made us healthier. What was better for us. Learn new things everyday

It can be...it can also exacerbate medical conditions.

In this case it is simply for test purposes.

CMNVA

stac3wa wrote: »

It isn’t a big deal ^^ it was a simple why?! She couldn’t give me a straight answer. Just kept saying not too. I googled. Nothing. So I asked why. As I’ve always been told exercise is what’s best. So I’m of course going to be taken back at the thought of exercise could be damaging my health.


I lift heavy 4 times a week. Legs / shoulders / back and chest and I only do around an hour at a time.
I am so so new to this all. I’ve attempted to lose weight for years on Slimming World, Slimfast etc. I’ve never looked into the whys or the how’s of weightloss.
So I felt the need to ask for opinions on why this could be. As my Dr couldn’t.
She didn’t mention about my potassium or iron levels. Just my Vitamin D, PCOS and kidney.

I don't think your doctor meant to imply that exercise could be damaging your health. But exercise could stress some of your organs for a short period of time. For instance, doing some strenuous exercise can cause low-level dehydration if you don't hydrate properly. This could affect a kidney test. Now while you know yourself you will hydrate properly, your doctor cannot trust that. So they just want you to lay off for a bit to get rid of any variables that could give you false results on a test.

collectingblues

I'm not a physician, but I'm a diabetic who spills protein in her urine (function is fine, it's just a thing that mine do, because of course they can't be cooperative). Although more common in athletes, exercise can induce proteinuria -- AKA, when there's protein in your urine. It's generally short lived, but I can understand why your doctor would want you to back off until everything is clear and fine.

mph323

stac3wa wrote: »

It isn’t a big deal ^^ it was a simple why?! She couldn’t give me a straight answer. Just kept saying not too. I googled. Nothing. So I asked why. As I’ve always been told exercise is what’s best. So I’m of course going to be taken back at the thought of exercise could be damaging my health.


I lift heavy 4 times a week. Legs / shoulders / back and chest and I only do around an hour at a time.
I am so so new to this all. I’ve attempted to lose weight for years on Slimming World, Slimfast etc. I’ve never looked into the whys or the how’s of weightloss.
So I felt the need to ask for opinions on why this could be. As my Dr couldn’t.
She didn’t mention about my potassium or iron levels. Just my Vitamin D, PCOS and kidney.

But your doctor isn't saying exercise is damaging to your health!! She's saying that in order for your test to be valid refrain from exercising before the test. I get the frustration in her not being able to tell you why, but she's probably just going by the test protocol, which will tell her the conditions under which the test is to be performed. Why do you insist on conflating the requirement to refrain from exercise specifically for this test with "Exercise is bad for you", which is not what your doctor is saying.

cwolfman13

stac3wa wrote: »

It isn’t a big deal ^^ it was a simple why?! She couldn’t give me a straight answer. Just kept saying not too. I googled. Nothing. So I asked why. As I’ve always been told exercise is what’s best. So I’m of course going to be taken back at the thought of exercise could be damaging my health.


I lift heavy 4 times a week. Legs / shoulders / back and chest and I only do around an hour at a time.
I am so so new to this all. I’ve attempted to lose weight for years on Slimming World, Slimfast etc. I’ve never looked into the whys or the how’s of weightloss.
So I felt the need to ask for opinions on why this could be. As my Dr couldn’t.
She didn’t mention about my potassium or iron levels. Just my Vitamin D, PCOS and kidney.

Your doctor isn't saying it's necessarily bad for your health...it's going to interfere with the tests they want to run.

PAV8888

Sounds like your needs for explanations were not met by your doctor.

This is by no means a one way issue where your doctor is always at fault. Some of us are more demanding than others when it comes to explanations and we are definitely not all equally willing to be convinced to do things the way our health providers want us to!

But, the end result remains that you did not receive the level of care that you desired from your doctor.

We log our food on MFP, and presumably review our choices with a view of optimising our decision making.

Your interactions with your health providers should also be reviewed from time to time so that you can decide whether you have access to options that might better meet your needs.

Don't be like my dad who for the past 10 years has done nothing but grumble about the care he receives from his doctor... while refusing to try out two other doctors who opened practices and were accepting new patients.

Gisel2015

@stac3wa The links below may give you some ideas about what the doctor is saying. You can also ask the phlebotomist drawing your blood about the relationship between read meet, exercising and the particular test that the doctor ordered. Phlebotomist are usually lab techs too.

https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/eating-cooked-meat-can-affect-kidney-test-results/
https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/eating-cooked-meat-can-affect-kidney-test-results/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chronic-kidney-disease/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20354527

choppie70

I found this in an abstract from a medical journal:

Exercise induces profound changes in the renal haemodynamics and in electrolyte and protein excretion. Effective renal plasma flow is reduced during exercise. The reduction is related to the intensity of exercise and renal blood flow may fall to 25% of the resting value when strenuous work is performed.

My guess is that they don't want you to put strain on a kidney that is already under strain and/or they want a good read for the blood work.

I have chronic kidney issues. I was not allowed to exercise for a month before I had my nuclear renogram. Once they found I had hydronephrosis due to a 22mm kidney stone in my ureter, I was able to go back to moderate exercise.

jefamer2017

My sister had kidney issues and her dr didn't want her to exercise for a while either. Once her medicine was regulated and she was healthy again she was able to exercise again. I believe it was only for a week or two. She was allowed to walk though. I'd ask if walking is okay.

Dreamyriver

I had minimal change nephritis as an older teenager. One of the diagnostics was to collect all urine for 3 days - I had to take a 5 litre plastic container to school with me and cart it back and forth from the teachers' staff room every time I had to go to the bathroom. To compare and contrast my active day with non-active days, I then had to have complete bed rest in hospital for 3 days while they also collected all urine. Because they didn't want to catheterise me, but I had to remain completely flat, I had to wee into a bedpan lying down - I'm fairly sure more went up my back than into the pan.

Hey ho.

I'd be glad you've only got to avoid red meat and exercise before your next round of tests

shaumom

Just as an aside - you may want to request a celiac blood panel. A lot of research on celiac disease, including many of the symptoms, is pretty new, so many doctors may not be aware of it.

For example, 1/3 of celiacs report no gut symptoms of any kind, so having no gut symptoms is not uncommon. Low vitamin D can be a symptom of celiac disease. Kidney problems are more common with celiacs than the general population, because certain of the nutritional deficiencies can impact kidney and gall bladder more. PCOS and celiac disease may be commonly found together (it is anecdotally reported in some areas, so there is speculation, but studies on it have yet to be done. )

Not saying you have this, but with the issues you are having, it couldn't hurt to get one extra test, you know?

taziarj

stac3wa wrote: »

As I’ve always been told exercise is what’s best. So I’m of course going to be taken back at the thought of exercise could be damaging my health.

Eating a balanced diet is usually good for you too, but you will be asked to fast for lab tests where they want to measure blood glucose levels, yet you wouldn't question why you need to fast. It isn't because it is unhealthy, it is so they can get accurate test results.

stac3wa

Ok.
No I wouldn’t ask why they wanted me to fast before a blood test. Know why that is? Because someone explained it to me when I needed one years ago. Because when I asked why, he told me why.
Now trust me, I wish my Dr told me why, all these dig replies I’ve gotten on here, damn for asking questions eh...
I probably worded it wrong, I did say “Oh you learn something new everyday” cause guess what... I didn’t know Yep. That’s right.
I did say i googled it too. Nothing. Damn google. Because that left me one other choice. Here....
So. I did not know that strenuous exercise could possibly have an affect on my kidneys. I did not know why in particular that and red meat would affect kidneys. I did not know why I did not know. Maybe I’m not as clever as certain people. Maybe I mentioned that this whole looking after my body, the whys and what’s and hows is all new to me. So I’m very slowly starting to learn. I read these forums - if you over look any snarky remarks, there are people here who genuinely want to help us. Us = people who don’t know as much as you do.
There were a few replies that actually helped me. So thank you to you - I have liked your reply. So now. Guess what?! I understand. So now I don’t need to question or reply to your snarky comments.

LifeWithPie

Wow.