Creatinine: I have one very interesting... - Kidney Disease

Kidney Disease

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Creatinine

vinadhun2 profile image
8 Replies

I have one very interesting question and I will appreciate if you someone can clarify on this:

Creatinine is waste product of muscle breakdown.

They also say that creatinine goesup due to ageing and they also say that muscle mass goes down due to age.

So how come creatinine goes up due to age

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vinadhun2 profile image
vinadhun2
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8 Replies

They also say that starting at age 45 you lose 1% of your kidney filtering each year.

orangecity41 profile image
orangecity41NKF Ambassador

I agree muscle mass goes down with aging. Here is link to info on creatinine from National Kidney Foundation. It does mention relation of creatinine to aging.

kidney.org/atoz/content/ser...

vinadhun2 profile image
vinadhun2 in reply toorangecity41

my point is why there is this contradiction:

Creatinine goes up due to ageing and muscle mass goes down due to ageing , so since muscle mass goes down, creatinine should go down

Marvin8 profile image
Marvin8 in reply tovinadhun2

Totally depends upon the rate of loss of nephrons compared to loss of muscle mass. It is not a perfect relationship. If you take your theory to its natural endpoint, the more muscle mass you lose, to the point of detrimental muscle wasting, the more likely you'll remain in homeostasis with your nephron losses due to aging. Again, it doesn't work that way. It would be just as bad to say that the more muscle you put on, the worse and worse your kidney function will become. ;)

marimar378 profile image
marimar378 in reply toMarvin8

This makes me sad

RhenDutchess123 profile image
RhenDutchess123 in reply tovinadhun2

The higher Creatine Levels is reflecting that your muscle mass is "melting"...and that your kidneys can no longer clean it from your blood as well as it could before

4to3 profile image
4to3

As Muscles Breakdown they release Creatine. As you get older the amount of Muscle Breakdown INCREASES. The result will be more Creatine as you Age. Simple Cause and Effect.

TR6872 profile image
TR6872

I think there is some confusion here. When we have blood labs done and a renal function panel (or a comprehensive metabolic panel) is done, they are not measuring the total creatinine produced by muscle activity, they are measuring the amount of creatinine remaining in the blood after the kidneys have filtered the blood.

The creatinine number is simply a marker of how well the kidneys are functioning at the time the test is done.

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