Rapamycin and Creatinine Levels

Does Rapamycin affect creatinine levels?

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From what I could find it shouldnā€™t but if you get more muscular or supplement creatine your creatinine levels could rise of course

If you exercise regularly and take 5 grams of creatine supplement daily, should you stop the supplement and exercising for a few days before your blood test to get an accurate reading of your normal creatinine levels?

Mine are always high because I take creatine and exercise and donā€™t stop before my blood tests.

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Thanks for your reply. I donā€™t take a creatine supplement and I do exercise. My PCP referred me to a nephrologist who insisted that even low dose rapamycin does affect kidney numbers/function. I will continue looking for research/tests on the subject.

Related:

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Thank you for your response. Interesting information. Still looking for kidney-specific studies/reports.

I find creatinine a difficult biomarker as it continues to be generated in blood post blood draw. Hence unless the testing happens quickly the result is skewed. However, my own hypothesis is that senescence and failed differentiation in the kidney causes the gradual deterioration of kidney function. Hence if Rapamycin reduces senescence you should see a reduction in creatinine (ignoring the exercise issue).

A quick search of ā€œkidney function and rapamycinā€ finds mostly positive to mixed results, but the last article has a negative result. I would first look elsewhere to explain your result.

Rapamycin worsens renal function and intratubular cast formation in protein overload nephropathy

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Thank you for sharing your interesting ideas re. creatinine and timing of tests. I will pursue this topic with my PCP re. future lab work.

Thanks for posting these links. I have found mixed commentaries as well. Will read and see what useful information I can find.

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My creatinine goes up when Iā€™m on rapamycin and goes slightly down when Iā€™m on a break from rapamycin.

Very interesting results. Iā€™ve been wondering about that. Thank you.

Why do you ask about creatinine; do you have Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), like me? Iā€™m not on any rapa --yet. My serum creatinine is high (thatā€™s more or less one definition of CKD). So, of course, no creatine for me, as it turns right into creatinine. Iā€™m gonna read the 3 refs from EnrQuy (thanks). I had non-alcoholic-fatty-liver cirrhosis, leading to a liver transplant, and CKD-3 Iā€™m trying to gather research about switching to sirolimus immunosuppression (IS), to remove the nephrotoxicity of tacrolimus IS, and maybe become IS-free, because mTOR- inhibitor IS, can induce tolerance (no IS / no rejection / healthy immune system). This is the holy grail of transplantation and some people can get there.

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Iā€™m on Rapamune (sirolimus) after kidney transplant for 12 years already. At the beginning I was also on Tacrolimus that gave me horrible side effects. Rapamycin works very well for me - no side effects.

Thanks for your reply. No CKD, just monitoring creatinine levels in conjunction with rapamycin dosage, wondering about othersā€™ experiences. Best wishes for healthy outcomes for you.

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Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to know you have no side effects.

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As mentioned before on other threads, Iā€™d consider requesting a simple Cystatin C test from your PCP. Itā€™s cheap, readily available (at least in USA), and gives you a GFR (i.e. estimate of kidney function) that is relatively independent of muscle mass, exercise and creatine supplementation.

I take 5g daily of creatine and do regular resistance training, so my creatinine is relatively high and estimated GFR fairly low when assessed by this standard method. My GFR via Cystatin C, however, is nice and high, which is reassuring.

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Thank you for sharing your information. A Cystatin C test is an excellent suggestion.

improved both my creatinine and egfr which had been out of range for 5 years prior to staring and is now excellent

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My cystatin c test was 1.22. How does that translate into a conclusive creatinine number and efgr number?