What about ALBUMIN?

[Bajanne]

I have never heard much talk about albumin.  We have a great bulletin board with lots of information.  This week it has been about the importance of albumin to a dialysis patient.  It seems that our outcomes are directly influenced by it.  They said it should be at least 4.0.  I just asked my nurse to check my last blood works, since that is one of the things I never check for.  I check for potassium, phosphorus, calcium, baemoglobin and cholesterol.

BTW, for the first time in over 15 years, my cholesterol in within the proper range.  I have been using Vytorin and using it fairly religiously, so I feel great about that.

Some of you know that I had a low BP problem.  It has now changed to a high BP problem.  The difference is that with low BP, I felt horrible, had blurred vision,etc.  No matter how high my BP is, I usually only know when it is tested.  When it is super-high, I do get a little headache.

[RightSide]

Albumin is a measure of your serum protein level in your blood.

Many of us ESRD patients lose protein in our urine (proteinuria); and the dietary restrictions on phosphorus mean that we eat less protein than we used to.  The result can be poor protein levels, which can lead to malnutrition.

Malnutrition combined with the chronic inflammation that hemodialysis seems to cause is known to be a lethal combination, significantly shortening life expectancy.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14582032

So it's very important to keep that albumin level above 4.0.  Lower than that and you're prone to malnutrition.

[jbeany]

Lower albumin levels also affect how fast your body can repair itself.  It's important for building new tissue.  If it I couldn't have a skin graft done until mine was back to normal levels.

[Bajanne]

Well, I checked my last albumin result and it was 4.1.  Hope that is good.  I know the article said 4.0, but I don't know if that is the lowest it should be, or if that is exactly what it should be.  Can it be much higher?