Creatinine clearance versus creatinine

I went to see my family doctor earlier today. There I was, all concerned about my high creatinine clearance result, but he explained to me that it was a GOOD thing. Eh? Oh yes, it turns out that I had mixed up serum creatinine and creatinine clearance, duuuh…Hmmm, well, as George Bernard Shaw said, A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing. Although I do hope that I won’t make MANY more mistakes! 

At any rate, by George (pun intended)!, my doctor is right! The following, taken from Labtestsonline (a very helpful website: http://www.labtestsonline.org/), clears  up matters a bit:

Any disease or condition that affects the glomeruli can decrease the kidneys’ ability to clear creatinine and other wastes out of the blood. When this occurs, the blood creatinine level will be increased and the creatinine clearance will be decreased because not as much creatinine is able to be excreted in the urine. A decreased creatinine clearance rate may also occur when there is decreased blood flow to the kidneys as may occur with congestive heart failure, obstruction within the kidney, or acute or chronic kidney failure. The less effective the kidney filtration, the greater the decrease in clearance. 

(Emphasis mine.)

In sum, high serum creatinine = bad; high creatinine clearance (from a 24-hour urine test) = good. I will not get that mixed up again!

My doctor looked over my tests and agreed with me that the way to go is: C3 Complex curcumin with bioperine. Next set of tests will tell more of the story. In the meantime, I going to enjoy my lovely spring flowers, as you can see.  Well, right now I have to do some work, actually. Off I go!

8 Comments

  1. Hi Margaret,
    That is excellent news! (I’m here from Bix’s blog.) I love your use of the Shaw quote–he’s one of my favorite writers. I hope to learn a lot from your excellent blog.

  2. Lovely flowers, ours are taking a bit of a beating in England at the moment, The wind is really bitter and we had hale again this morning.
    Well done for sorting out the difference of those tests, I have never had a creatinine clearance test, there are also several tests that I don’t get done very regulary, where as you seem to get them each time do you ask for these test or do they do the tests as standard in Italy?
    All the best
    Sue

  3. YES that is great news. I am so glad to hear the news. You deserve this, and more. I don’t like broccoli, but guess what I am eating it every day I can. I also added raddish to, since I really like those.

    Its amazing the amount of information that you have provided. I see your blog, then its time for more reading.

    Be well my friend

  4. Love the flowers! We still have large patches of snow on the ground. The bright flowers on my post came from a greenhouse.

    Thanks for your update.

  5. Hi Margaret,
    Gotta couple of questions for you? Yesterday I read in another blog (can’t remember which one) that we shouldn’t use cream to dissolve our curcumin. I remember specifically that it said “Do NOT use cream.” I think you responded by saying the writer was talking about curcumin powder not capsules. I could be mistaken…I read so much yesterday! Please clarify for me. I’ve been using a small amount of heated heavy cream with 1 Hershey Kiss (dark chocolate) to dissolve my C3 Curcumin Complex capsules. It works very well. Please let me know if you think this is ok. I thought I had this process down pat but maybe I don’t!

    Also, my labs do not list a creatinine level in my 24 hour urine results. Do they test yours automatically or do you ask for this test? My tests do however, list serum calcium and creatinine. My numbers are always well within the range, thank goodness! As always, I appreciate your opinion. Thanks, Donna

    PS-Daffodills are my favorite flowers in the whole wide world! Yours are beautiful!

  6. For Sue: my haematologist requested the creatinine clearance test, and also all the other kidney and liver function tests. I did ask her if we could test my liver function, yes. And she simply added the kidney tests, too.

    I do get quite a lot of tests done on a regular basis. My GP usually lets me ask for new tests if I tell him I think it’s important based on this or that study. He’s fabulous.

    Most of the tests I have done here are standard for myeloma, yes. Even though she has a different haematologist, Sherlock has many of these tests, too.

    For Donna: this is a real puzzler. Could you find the reference and send it to me? Hmmm. I myself have experimented with warm, almost hot, cream, and don’t see there would be a problem with it. Except for the fat content, perhaps. Possibly coconut milk would be better, also because it contains a substance (lauric acid, something like that) that is beneficial…but the taste…yuckaroni.

    Thanks, everyone! Margaret 🙂

  7. My doc told me recently, after my 24 hour urine, that high creatinine clearance was bad; that it was an early indicator that diabetes was affecting my kidney function.

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