Can high serum creatinine and high urea nitrogen be influenced by what you
eat? Kidney disease patients are often rather confused whether foods they take
have increased their serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen level, in the hope
of seeking for foods that can decrease the two levels. Based on this, experts in
Shijiazhuang Kidney Disease Hospital give an answer as follows.
Can foods influence high serum creatinine?
Actually, creatinine has little to do with what we eat but is closely linked
to our kidney functions. To understand it better, we'll have to firstly know
what creatinine is.
Creatinine is the metabolic products of muscle movement. As the total amount
of muscle in individuals is stable, creatinine produced every day seldom
changes.
Normally, creatinine is filtrated through kidney filtrating
units(called as glomeruli) and is seldom reabsorbed through renal tubules, for
which almost all creatinine can be excreted with urine. , Due to kidney strong
compensatory functions, creatinine level will not increase until kidney function
has declined for 50 percent. Therefore, for patients with kidney diseases,
elevated serum creatinine level indicates severe kidney damage. The only way to
decrease high serum creatinine level is to repair damaged renal intrinsic cells
and recover its filtrating and excreting functions.
Can foods influence high blood urea nitrogen(BUN)?
Blood urea nitrogen measures the amount of a waste product called urea in the
blood. Urea is formed by the liver in the process of ridding the body of ammonia
which is built up as protein is broken down. It is normally filtrated through
kidneys and is excreted with the urine. If kidney function is impaired, the urea
builds up in the blood. Temporary blood urea nitrogen can be caused by excessive
protein intake, but it can recover with an adjustment of diet. However, for
patients with kidney disease, persistent high urea nitrogen may indicate that
kidneys are damaged to a certain that proteins can not be effectively excreted.
In this case, protein intake should be adjusted and balanced properly based on
your own condition so as to achieve the goal of both supplying necessary
nutrients and not adding to kidney burdens.
What to do for elevated serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen?
For patients with kidney diseases, obviously elevated blood urea nitrogen and
serum creatinine levels can indicate severe kidney damage. A timely and proper
treatment that can recover kidney filtrating and secreting functions by
repairing damaged kidney functional units should be taken into
consideration.
