Albumin Levels

[RichardMEL]

Mine's 39 (3.9).. I try to eat a lot of chicken for the protein

[Chicken Little]

I just looked at my labs from today.  My Albumin has gone from 3.1 to 4.0 in one month!!!   Thank you Muscle Milk!!   And thank you Zach for posting about it.   

[Amanda From OZ]

gees after reading this thread i noticed my albumin is the highest here!!  its 4.8! 

[glitter]

gees after reading this thread i noticed my albumin is the highest here!!  its 4.8! 

thats really wonderful-may it stay high for a long time to come!!! 

[charee]

Mine is 4.3

[BigSky]

gees after reading this thread i noticed my albumin is the highest here!!  its 4.8! 

Jeeeeesh.  That is higher than alot of people who have no kidney problems.

[stauffenberg]

While maintaining the albumin level above a certain minimum is important as a measure of adequate nutrition, pushing it higher and higher is not a good idea, since the creatinine level will rise along with it.  Albumin is protein; creatinine is a by-product of protein metabolism; and in renal patients, the creatinine level is abnormally high because this toxin is not being cleared by the kidneys, and high creatine levels have been linked to many of the complications dialysis patients experience.

[Amanda From OZ]

gees after reading this thread i noticed my albumin is the highest here!! its 4.8!

Jeeeeesh. That is higher than alot of people who have no kidney problems.

Yes i eat at least a cow a day 

Well  i do  eat a lot of protein for every meal. Fish, chicken, and meat. And i think having a high Album is why i have done so well.

While maintaining the albumin level above a certain minimum is important as a measure of adequate nutrition, pushing it higher and higher is not a good idea, since the creatinine level will rise along with it. Albumin is protein; creatinine is a by-product of protein metabolism; and in renal patients, the creatinine level is abnormally high because this toxin is not being cleared by the kidneys, and high creatine levels have been linked to many of the complications dialysis patients experience.

yes i agree with what you said, but every dialysis patient is different i guess and my doctor thinks that my albumin is perfect at that level, and my creatnine being high isn't a problem because i dialyse more than the average person. And without that extra protein i would not be cabable of training 6 days a week. 

[jbeany]

Bleah, I'm still working on getting mine up.  I tried the protein powder -"just sprinkle it on your food."- yuck!  I tried the protein bars that the nutritionist claimed were "just like a candy bar!"  Ewwww - what candy is she eating that tastes like that?  I'm supposed to be eating 80 grams of meat/protein a day.  I'm lucky if I get half that. 

[kitkatz]

I crave protein sometimes and will eat it morning, noon and night. I guess it has been good for me. My albumin levels are up.

[tamara]

Had a blood test Tuesday and mine was 4.6, and the test before that was 5.0

[jbeany]

  This is me, banging my head against the fridge.

My last albumin was 3.5.  I had a long discussion with my dietitian about ways to increase it.  She was worried that it was on a downward trend, and that it was going to start dropping even further.  So I spent the last month trying the protein powders and protein bars, upping my intake of meat, adding extra egg whites to anything I've baked...blah, blah, blah.  Tuesday was the monthly blood draw, and what exactly have my efforts done for me?  My phosphorous is now back up over the correct range.  I've stopped losing weight because the calorie intake went up with the increased protein, and my calcium is too high thanks to an excess of phoslo.  (I take 2 with a snack, 3 with a low-phos meal, and 4 with a high phos meal.  Naturally, I've been taking 4 with all the extra meat.)  And after all that - my albumin level is. . . .(drum roll, please. . . .) 3.6.

Sooooo worth the effort.

[goofynina]

But Jbeany, just think what it could've been if you hadn't consumed that extra protein, might've been too low, right?

[glitter]

Zach posted earlier that it takes a long time to raise the level- my husbands is going up very slowly too, but it IS rising.

[Zach]

 
The more you know ....

[koutsounel]

If you are fluid overloaded when you have a blood test, the albumin level will come up as lower than it really is, as the blood is "diluted".

Albumin is extremely important, as it controls the water in our blood. Without enough albumin (as in a case of nephrotic syndrome), the water does not go to the blood, so you are dry, and have low blood pressure, but instead goes to the tissues, and causes odema. My baby was born with congenital nephrotic syndrome, he was diagnosed at 2 months old, and at that point his albumin was 8 (we are in the UK, so it is measured differently). He was in critical condition, but fortunately the fluid hadn't gone to the lungs.

You can increase the albumin by increasing the protein intake (if indeed it is low) but our doctors are always cautious, as protein brings the urea up too.

[RightSide]

93gms of protein isnt alot if you have a big steak or similar 

Of course not.

But the more protein you eat, the more phosphorus you're consuming, which isn't great either.  And phosphorus binders don't bind all that phosphorus, just part of it.

So I find myself walking a tightrope between avoiding too much phosphorus and avoiding too little albumin.

I've computed the ratio of phosphorus to protein in various protein-containing foods I like to eat.  Chicken seems to offer the least phosphorus per ounce of protein, eggs the most phosphorus per ounce of protein.   So I try to get most protein from chicken.

[Stoday]

I think for eggs it varies considerably between the white and the yolk. If I remember correctly my dietician told me that egg yolks had little phosphorous; it was all in the white. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

[Zach]

I've computed the ratio of phosphorus to protein in various protein-containing foods I like to eat.  Chicken seems to offer the least phosphorus per ounce of protein, eggs the most phosphorus per ounce of protein.   So I try to get most protein from chicken.

Could you share that chart with us, RightSide?
Thanks.

I think for eggs it varies considerably between the white and the yolk. If I remember correctly my dietician told me that egg yolks had little phosphorous; it was all in the white. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Actually, quite the opposite.  Egg whites contain little phosphorus, but almost all the potassium.



Large Egg, white, raw, fresh:
Protein      3.6 grams
Phosphorus   5 mg
Potassium      54 mg

Large Egg, yolk, raw, fresh
Protein        2.7 grams
Phosphorus    66 mg
Potassium       19 mg

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

[Lillupie]

hi,
 I feel as though my protein levels have been good because I am lucky! I guess my trick is, even if you eat veggies, certain veggies, I dip them in egg and then breadcrumb and either fry them or  bake them in the oven like that. So, I am getting my protein from the egg and the meat. You can do this same thing with boneless skinless chicken or whatever meat you got. and try to cheat less.

Lisa

[RightSide]

My albumin level seems to hover around 4.0-4.1, but there is an occasional month when it has dropped to 3.9.

Just today, my dietician gave me some new evidence that too much protein can also be bad for you!  (Oh, man!)

I'll post more on this when I get a chance.

[Lillupie]

Perhaps maybe a high protein is bad because it is too high because the dialysis is not taking it off because you are not getting enough dialysis? That would make sense to me because protein goes though the dialysis. I have always have heard that Albumin is the 'number one indicator of death for dialysis patients.'

Lisa

My albumin level seems to hover around 4.0-4.1, but there is an occasional month when it has dropped to 3.9.

Just today, my dietician gave me some new evidence that too much protein can also be bad for you!  (Oh, man!)

I'll post more on this when I get a chance.