High creatinine level is one of important indexes to measure kidney function, so it is very easy to be misunderstood as kidney failure by some patients. There is a question: do high creatinine levels indicate permanent kidney damage? Please read on and you will find the answer.

The relationship of elevated creatinine level and kidney disease.

Kidney disease is a medical condition that the kidney fails to function well. Normally, our kidney is responsible to discharge extra wastes and toxins from the body, including creatinine. Therefore, creatinine level is always maintain in a stable range (0.5-1.3mg/dl). However, when there is something wrong with the kidney, kidney will fails to discharge excessive creatinine, as a result of which serum creatinine increases. But I have to tell you that creatinine level is not easy to increase. Why? Because our kidney is composed of over 100 millions nephrons which mainly include glomerular and renal tubule. When small part of nephrons are damaged and can not remove the waste, other nephrons will help discharge extra wastes from the body. According to clinical practices, high creatinine level won’t occur until a half of renal function is affected. Therefore, in cases of kidney disease, high creatinine level implies hat your kidney is damaged severely.

Well then, aside from kidney damage, are there any other causes of high creatinine level?

Yes. To be frank, high creatinine level indeed indicates kidney damage in most cases, but it does not always mean kidney failure. It can be caused by the following causes:

Improper diet like over-intake of meat

Dehydration or inadequate water intake

Drastic physical exercises

Usually, in the mentioned above conditions, high creatinine level is temporary and it can come back to normal when you change dietary plan, lifestyles and so on. In these condition, high creatinie level has no connection with kidney damage.

Through the above analysis, we can see that there are many factors which can lead to high creatinine level. you should find the underlying causes if you suffer high creatinine level, so as to solve problem from the root. Have a question? Please talk with our online doctors or leave a message to renal-disease@hotmail.com and we are glad to help you.