The results from your last physical were generally positive, but the doctor mentioned that your creatinine levels were looking a little high. They recommended some changes to your diet and lifestyle to get things under control, but you were left with a few questions.
What the heck is creatinine and how can you lower creatinine levels? Can a special list of fruits reduce creatine levels? What about vegetables?
We’re covering everything you need to know about creatinine – what it is, what makes it significant, and how to decrease creatinine levels so your next physical is nothing short of perfection. Read on for more!
What is Creatinine?
So, your body naturally produces this amino acid called creatine, which supplies energy to your muscles. Your body will also get creatine from various food sources, including red meat, seafood, and animal milk. Because creatine is useful during physical activity, like high-intensity exercise and heavy weightlifting, athletes and other fitness enthusiasts often use creatine supplements to increase lean muscle mass, strength, and exercise capacity.
When your body breaks down creatine, it produces a waste product called creatinine in your muscles. Creatinine enters the bloodstream and, provided your kidneys are healthy, it is filtered out and expelled from the body through urination.
What Does Creatinine Do?
Creatinine is a waste product that does not enhance or support any metabolic function. Our body creates it when breaking down creatine and, so long as everything is healthy, it’s excreted before long to maintain proper homeostasis.
If your kidneys are not healthy, you’ll have more creatinine in the bloodstream, which serves as an indicator to health professionals that something might be wrong with your kidneys. Elevated creatinine levels could also indicate other underlying medical conditions.
To put it simply, creatinine is a waste product that doesn’t really do anything for the body. It exists solely to be excreted. What makes creatinine important is its role in alerting medical professionals to your overall health, indicating potential problems at a point where early intervention is critical.
What are Normal Creatinine Levels?
Creatinine enters the bloodstream before it’s expelled via urination, so your healthcare provider may measure creatinine levels with a blood test or a urine test.
According to Mount Sinai, “a normal result is 0.7 to 1.3 mg/dL (61.9 to 114.9 µmol/L) for men and 0.6 to 1.1 mg/dL (53 to 97.2 µmol/L) for women.”
What’s considered a normal creatinine level may vary depending on your size, muscle mass, age, and gender. Additionally, different labs and healthcare providers may define the normal range differently. To understand what your creatinine level could indicate, consult your doctor.
How to Reduce Creatinine Level
Interventions to both diet and lifestyle could be useful in reducing creatinine levels in many cases. A kidney-friendly diet, which typically involves consuming less protein, sodium, and potassium, can be beneficial. According to the Journal of Renal Nutrition, consuming more fiber may decrease serum creatinine levels as well.
Dietary interventions will only get you so far, however. Regular exercise and hydration contribute to reducing creatinine levels, but the best plan for reducing your creatinine levels will depend on the underlying cause and your own personal health factors.
Your doctor will provide the best personalized advice on how to reduce creatinine for you.
List of Fruits to Reduce Creatinine Level
The best fruits to lower creatinine are:
- Kiwis
- Apples
- Cranberries
- Blueberries
- Acai
- Grapes
- Oranges
- Cherries
These are low in potassium, low in phosphorus, and rich in antioxidants, supporting kidney health as well as greater overall health and wellness.
List of Vegetables to Reduce Creatinine Level
Fruits are fantastic, but, as everyone’s mother used to say, you’ve gotta’ eat your veggies!
Here are some of the best vegetables for lowering creatinine levels:
- Bitter Gourds
- Bell Peppers
- Cucumbers
- Onions
- Pumpkins
- Kale
Like their fruit counterparts on the other side of the food pyramid, these vegetable options are generally low in potassium and rich in antioxidants. Some of the options, namely pumpkin, are high in fiber too, making them an excellent choice for lowering creatinine.
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What Does it Mean if You have Low Creatinine Levels in Blood?
The medical community has historically been more concerned with high creatinine levels in the blood, but new studies are emerging begging researchers to examine the relationship between low creatinine and morbidity as well.
Low creatinine levels in the blood also may indicate underlying health conditions, such as reduced muscle mass, malnutrition, liver disease, or certain medications’ side effects. It may also suggest impaired kidney function, as the kidneys play a vital role in excretion of creatinine from the body.
What Does Low Creatinine Mean in Terms of Disease Risk?
Low creatinine levels aren’t necessarily an indicator of disease, but they may indicate the presence of an underlying condition or factor that needs further evaluation by a medical professional.
Basically, a low creatinine concentration in your blood sounds the alarm and lets you (and your doctor) know that something needs to be examined and addressed.
Different Types of Diseases and Issues That Can Arise from Low Creatine Levels
What kinds of diseases and conditions may develop if low creatinine is left unchecked? Ignoring the writing on the wall regarding low creatinine levels could lead to the following:
- Muscle Atrophy: Low creatinine levels could indicate reduced muscle mass, which could be the result of muscle-wasting diseases, prolonged immobility, or malnutrition.
- Liver Disease: Certain liver diseases cause a lower creatinine level in your blood.
- Kidney Disease: Creatinine levels primarily offer insight on the health of your kidneys, indicating kidney dysfunction, severe kidney impairment, or end-stage kidney disease.
- Malnutrition: We want to limit protein intake to avoid spiking creatinine, but low creatinine levels may indicate you’re now not getting enough protein to sustain muscle maintenance and growth. Everything in moderation.
Natural aging often results in a loss of muscle mass, which, in turn, may decrease creatinine levels in your blood. There are also some medications that lower creatinine levels too, which might explain a result that’s below the threshold for normal creatinine concentrations.
Other Types of Treatment for Low Creatinine Levels
If dietary interventions alone don’t do the trick, it will be up to your doctor to determine the underlying cause and treat accordingly. Certain conditions must be managed by medication, whereas adjusting current medications might be necessary if a medication you’re already on turns out to be the culprit behind your low creatinine levels.
If poor nutrition, reduced muscle mass, or atrophy are to blame, your doctor might recommend connecting with a certified personal trainer and/or physical therapist to build muscle strength and size, encouraging proper kidney function as a result.
We should always do our best to eat right to reduce our risk of developing conditions that will negatively impact our health, but, if your situation seems to be worsening despite eating right, talk to your doctor and discuss your options.
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