What Does A High Creatinine Level Indicate

High creatinine level in blood indicates kidneys can not expel excess creatinine timely or successfully. Creatinine is one of the wastes produced by our kidney and normally discharged by our kidneys. Therefore, most of the time, high creatinine level indicates kidney problem.

Chronic Kidney Disease is the leading cause for high serum creatinine level, but for people with slightly higher creatinine level, there are many other possible causes:

1. Improper diet: Creatinine is produced during the metabolism of meat in our body. Therefore, eating too much meat or doing too much drastic physical exercises before the test may lead to a slightly high creatinine level in blood. In such a condition, patients are usually recommended to do a test again.

2. Creatine supplementation: Creatine supplementation is commonly used to atheletes in an effort to increase muscle performance and it is another possible cause for high creatinine level.

3. Medicines: some common medicines, like over-the-counter painkillers, can also cause high creatinine level if taken for too long. This is particularly true for combinations of acetaminophen, aspirin and ibuprofen. Therefore, it is necessary to tell your doctor what medicines are you taking if you were told to have a high creatinine level in blood.

High serum creatinine is an abnormal medical condition which need to be taken seriously. If one is found to have elevated creatinine level in blood, he needs to consider if it is caused by the above condition. If he is not in the above cases, then he is probably suffering from kidney problem. Normal creatinine level is 0.5 to 1.3mg/dL. In cases of kidney disease, high creatinine level indicates serious kidney damages because serum creatinine usually does not increase until a half of kidney function is impaired. Dialysis or kidney transplant is urgently needed when creatinine level becomes very high, as it indicates there are lots of toxins in blood. In theory, dialysis is suggested when creatinine level increases to 5, but in reality, many patients do not start dialysis at all until their life is seriously threatened.

With high creatinine level caused by Chronic Kidney Disease, patients need to adjust their diet to protect residual kidney tissues. Generally, they need to limit protein intake, limit salt intake, limit potassium intake, limit phosphorus intake and limit fluid intake if they have edema. Besides, eat more foods which are high in vitamin and calcium.