My egfr dropped after drinking lots of water!!!

[RickHow]

We are all instructed that with CKD we should make sure we drink plenty of fluids. And also how you can actually improve your egfr by drinking more than usual a day or 2 before a blood test. My blood is tested every 3 weeks (for various reasons). My last 10 tests have reported a Creatinine level of 1.4 up to 1.6. This gives me an egfr , on average of 43. I decided before my most recent test to be sure to drink a lot of water. Generally I take about 64 ounces per day. I increased it the day before the test to over 100. What would be reasonable to expect?? I thought at least my average numbers. And probably some small improvement. I stopped drinking at 9 pm the night before the test. The blood was taken at 8am the next morning. During those 11 hours I had 8 ounces of coffee. My results??? The highest Creatinine level yet, of 1.7!!!! Yielding a gfr level of my worst yet, at 40! (70 year old male). They say the more hydrated you are the better will be your egfr. I'm wondering if perhaps drinking this much actually caused dehydration?? Because it cause frequent trips to the bathroom and perhaps cause me to lose fluids. Thoughts?

[orangecity41]

Could be. Drinking lots of fluids may impact people differently.

[Bet117 in reply to orangecity41]

True.

[Hidden]

I am not a doctor but personally worry about the stress people have over fluid intake. There are so many variables in what is considered to be the "healthy" fluid intake for adults.

As you are mentioning fluid ounces, i assume you are in America? I dont know about ounces but in the UK our NHS recommend an average of 1200mls.

Other registered bodies such as British dietetic society recommend (from memory) about 1700mls. WHO recommend 30mls per kilo of body weight but that is way too much for anyone with say heart disease and some other conditions.

Exaggerating your fluid intake can increase work load on your heart and I can only imagine, other organs, so be careful. Best person to speak to about what is right for you is either your general practitioner or consultant.

Stay well, stay safe!

[Glyndwright]

Hi I am a 70 young male. I have stage 4 CKD kidney function 22%. And when I was diagnosed with kidney failure, my consultant informed me that I only drink 1 litre of fluid a day.

[citronc3 in reply to Glyndwright]

Yes. I have a friend and that is what she was advised when she was 70 she is now 85. I know if you are in dialysis that advice is often the case.

[Glyndwright in reply to citronc3]

when i had kidney failure i Was on dialysis for two months, and kidneys improved a bit. But my consultant still recommends that I stick to the 1 Litre a day.

[Netty321]

In the UK you should only drink water between the evening going to bed & the morning test, don't know much about coffee but could that have skewed your egfr?

[Hells6]

I am new to this but I have now realised that the gfr/ creatinine test isn't very reliable. I had a fasting test for lipids so i didnt drink at all,( and had my creatinine tested at same time ) I had exercised too, and my gfr tested at 45. I had a repeat test a few weeks later, drank heaps of water , didn't exercise and it went up to 56. So i think you should not panic. If you are having tests every 3 weeks then you need to rely on the overall trend of results , not specific tests.

[BarronS]

I think drinking lots of water in relation to GFR and kidney disease is pure pseudo-intellectualism. I haven't seen a single study out of the hundred or so that I have read, that indicates increased water consumption slows down GFR decline or increases GFR readings. If you are urinating this frequently and the color of urine is not a dark yellow, there is no reason to drink that much water. You're already hydrated. As you can tell, drinking excess water after hydration just leads your body to increase urine output and mineral secretion.

[Marvin8]

If you had nothing to drink for those 11 hours before your test, the chances are that you were slightly dehydrated, especially since coffee makes you urinate, thus losing more water. I would have had normal amounts to drink before the test. Also, don't forget that some foods and liquids can turn your urine darker yellow, which can lead folks to thinking that they're dehydrated when they're not. Btw, coffee is both hydrated and dehydrating (diuretic). The common wisdom is to follow every cup of coffee with a cup of water.

[Rottie60]

I drink 90oz or more of water every day and excercise a lot. The water I drink is well water which is high in alkalinity with a balanced pH. Which is good for the blood and the heart. I have not had any issues with this. Most bottled water is from reverse osmosis which takes out all the minerals in the water that the body needs and also has has a very low alkalinity. A lot of the things we consume is acidic and our blood needs to be a little more on the alkaline side with a pH of 7.35 - 7.45. Guess I should add that I am stage 4 but not retaining fluids.

[Mary-intussuception]

Caffeine can cause dehydration, it's a diuretic.