Creatinine is the chemical product, which gets extracted from the body, by the kidneys. Though, this is required by the body in moderate quantity, anything in excess can be harmful. High creatinine levels are very harmful for the body, especially for the kidneys and cause a lot of complications. Let us see in details the symptoms of higher creatinine levels and also the outcome of it.
What Happens When the Level of Creatinine is too High or Symptoms of High Creatinine Level
Creatinine is the broken waste molecules of creatine, which is generated during metabolism of muscles. The working muscles utilize the chemicals, for producing the energy. Creatinine helps in giving the right picture of the functioning of the kidneys. If the level of creatinine increases, it can lead to kidney diseases. If you have high creatinine in your body, you are bound to feel tired and fatigued. Other than that, the people with elevated creatinine also feel confused, weak and dehydrated. The other symptoms of high creatinine level include:
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Dry skin
- Swelling in the skin, which is also known as oedema
- Headaches
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Itchy skin
- Dark colored urine.
In a lot of cases, there won’t be any visible symptoms of having severe kidney problems, or having a high creatinine level in the blood. Only a routine blood test might reveal the excess of creatinine.
As creatinine indicates the condition of the kidneys, a high level of creatinine can indicate that the person’s kidneys are getting severely damaged. The kidneys have a major function of metabolising in our body, and it helps in guaranteeing the health of our body. So, if the creatinine level is elevated, and it leads to the damage of the kidney, it means that more than 50% of the kidney functioning is already damaged.
With rising creatinine level, the kidneys of the person damages further. The severely damaged kidneys are unable to perform the metabolic activity, thus the toxins and wastes get accumulated in the patient’s body. To eliminate the wastes and toxins, the patient will require dialysis on a regular basis or kidney transplantation is done to increase the patients’ life-term. When the creatinine level reaches 5, the doctors usually recommend dialysis. This signifies that the kidney functioning has been severely damaged, and it poses a threat to the life. Apart from this, the person could also suffer from various other health problems.
The final stage of kidney disease is the complete damage of kidneys and, the patient will have to undergo kidney transplantation. In fact, the damage to kidneys can also lead to increase in urea and urate, as the kidneys lose their ability to filter any kind of fluid. Acute renal failure can also happen due to blood loss, trauma, serious infections, and other biochemical imbalances. Along with this, the kidneys become completely dysfunctional, and this in turn can also lead to a creatinine levels being too high.
High creatinine level in the infants can lead to bacteraemia and in adult males, it can lead to prostate cancer.
Factors Affecting High Creatinine Level
A lot of factors affect the creatinine level. These include:
- Diet
- Medicines
- Muscle Mass
- Chronic diseases.
The chronic diseases include hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, etc. While a healthy man will have an average of 0.7 – 1.2 mg/ dL, a healthy woman have 0.5 – 1 mg/ dL of creatinine in the body.
Causes of High Creatinine Levels
Some of the main causes for increased creatinine levels include diabetes and blood pressure. Sometimes, severe fever or other illnesses can leave the person completely dehydrated. This could also lead to having too high creatinine levels in the blood.
Although, a higher amount of creatinine does not always necessarily mean that the kidneys are going to be damaged, yet it must be checked thoroughly if there is a probability of damage to the kidney. The doctor would also advise some additional tests, and rechecking of results, to determine what could be the main reason for your problem. You can try to bring down your creatinine by following the right diet, lifestyle and doing proper exercises.
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