I am a 55 year old guy, in good shape, no high blood pressure, no diabetes, no hypertension. Don't smoke, drink and workout 3x a week since my 20s.
Since 2007 my GFR has always really been between a 69 and a 78. I am pretty muscular.
This past June 3rd, I got results back that were a creatinine of 121 umol and GFR of 58. So, like most people being told I am in "stage 3 renal disease", I panicked.
Up to that test, I had been eating a lot of meat, sometimes twice a day for at least 6 months, including some 18 hrs before the test and also didn't drink for 12 hrs before the test. I'd been dealing with some sort of stomach bug, so I took that into account.
I cut out meat, increased water intake from 1-1.5 liters a day to 3.5-4 liters, and increased fiber with a lot of whole grains (bulgur, oats, quiona etc) and psyllium fiber supplements and lots of vegetables/fruits. The only animal protein was a piece of salmon a day (but no red meat/poultry/pork etc). And didn't exercise 5 days before the next test this week on July 22 (so, 6 weeks later)
Also drank one cup of nettle tea a day. Added fish oil and CO Q10, both of which are good for cardiac function and anti-inflammatory (anything that helps with circulation will be good for kidneys as heart and kidney function are intimately connected)
Now my creatinine is down to 104 and GFR up to 70 in 6 weeks.
One question I have though is my PCP also sent me home with a 24-hr urine collection. I wonder about these results which show my urine creatinine as being roughly in the middle of normal but the 24 hr urine creatinine as being at the high end of normal range:
Creatinine 9.6 (range: 3.5-24.5 mmol/L)
Creatinine (24 hr urine) 19.2 (range: 7.8-20 mmol/Day)
is the high 24 hr urine clearance bad?
My thinking is that having the opposite, high serum (blood) creatinine and low urine clearance would be bad. This would likely tell us that the kidneys, not working properly are not excreting creatinine, so it results in low in urine clearance and building up of levels in the blood.
So, would it be that is it good to have low serum/blood levels of creatinine and higher urine clearance levels - or is having higher 24 urine clearance levels of creatinine a concern?