Does Elevated Blood Creatinine Level Indicate Kidney Disease?

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Creatinine is a waste compound produced by the muscle. The kidneys remove it during the blood filtration process. Creatinine stays in the blood until your kidneys eliminate them along with other waste through the urine.

The doctor measures creatinine in the blood to get an idea of how well your kidneys are working. If there is too much creatinine in the blood, it signifies that your kidneys are not working as efficiently as expected to though it is not a problem.

Creatinine is measured with the help of blood and urine tests. A serum creatinine test, along with other measures, such as age, weight, gender, can be used to determine how well kidneys are or depict any issue.

Blood creatinine test

Doctors refer to this test as a serum creatinine test. With the help of the blood sample, the lab technician will check for creatinine and creatinine clearance.

The healthy range of creatinine in the blood is typically around 0.9 to 1.3 mg per deciliter for adult males and 0.6 to 1.1 mg per deciliter for females.

Creatinine levels above the normal range are considered a sign that you have underlying kidney disease. But your doctor may want to do the repeated tests before concluding that your kidney function is not normal. In certain cases, creatinine may also rise for temporary reasons such as dehydration, or after strenuous exercise or taking a diet rich in red meat.

Urine creatinine test

Your doctor will ask for a urine sample to determine the creatinine range in the urine. To measure creatinine in the urine, the doctor will collect a 24-hour urine.

  • In order to males, 0.8–1.8 g/day or 7.0–16.0 mmol/day
  • In order to females, 0.6–1.6 g/day or 5.3–14.0 mmol/day

Urine creatinine range above this is considered high. It may indicate that you need treatment like Ayurveda to get better.

What does high creatinine range indicate?

Primarily it is a kidney disease linked to a high creatinine range. But there are many other causes of high creatinine range, some of which could be temporary or longstanding. Examples include dehydration or the consumption of supplement creatine.

These reasons put your kidney function at risk.

However, medical conditions which are recent or longstanding also elevate the risk of kidney disease. These may be linked as:

  • kidney failure, both acute and chronic
  • recurrent kidney infection
  • glomerulonephritis
  • diabetes
  • high blood pressure
  • heart diseases, such as congestive heart failure
  • blockage of the urinary tract
  • drug toxicity

What are the symptoms of high creatinine range?

Some people accidentally get to know about kidney disease using routine blood and urine tests without having any major changes in the body.

In others, different signs may appear depending upon the cause of kidney disease, such as:

  • feeling dehydrated
  • fatigue
  • swelling (edema) in the lower extremities
  • shortness of breath
  • confusion
  • nausea and vomiting
  • neuropathy
  • dry skin
  • poor concentration
  • lack of appetite
  • malnutrition
  • anemia
  • weight loss
  • muscle cramps
  • changes in urination frequency and appearance

Creatinine and glomerular filtration rate

Based on creatinine, the doctor will determine the estimated glomerular filtration rate. GFR is a measurement of how well the kidneys are filtering the blood on a per-minute basis. GFR is determined using a formula that has the numbers related to your serum creatinine test, age, weight, body size, and gender.

If you are diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, eGFR indicates the five stages of chronic kidney disease you are in.

The outlook

There are many possible causes of high creatinine range. The symptoms appear differently in different people depending upon the cause.

Non-permanent causes can be addressed by resolving the underlying cause. For instance, dehydration can be addressed by increasing the intake of fluid, and if the cause is the supplements you have been taking, you can avoid them to bring creatinine down.

Some conditions like high blood pressure, recurrent kidney infections can be treated by taking medications for the same.

The best treatment of all is Ayurveda for high creatinine. Ayurveda helps to strengthen kidney function so that kidneys can eliminate waste while keeping the important substances like protein can be preserved.