Rapamycin and Creatinine

My father just got his blood work back from the doctor and he has high creatinine levels and high Vitamin D levels. He does not yet take Rapamycin, but he does take Metformin. Metformin causes high creatinine along with vitamin D metabolites and an anti fungal medication he was taking and has just stopped.

My question is will taking Rapamycin help or hinder the higher creatinine levels? I have found both sides and am unsure what the latest data is. Thanks.

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Does he supplement creatine and/or is he tall and athetic or muscular?

High creatinine levels are not problematic in itself but high levels CAN be a sign of poor kidney function

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He doesn’t supplement with creatine. He is 75 years old. He exercises at the gym about 3x a week. He is pretty healthy and has never had high creatinine levels before. We are concerned it is a kidney or medication issue (anti-fungal prescription, metformin, and High Vitamin D). So we want to know if Rapamycin will help bring this down by improving kidney function.

First you need to diagnose the reason for the high creatinine (the cause could be the kidney, before the kidney or after the kidney) than you can look at treatment options.

He could have a stone in one of his ureters or a blocked artery, rapamycin will never fix that but he could have one of many kidney diseases and rapamycin could help or not

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I have a kidney transplant and Rapamycin is the only medication prescribed for me to avoid rejection. I’ve been on it for 12 years. Rapamycin, if taken in a big dose (which is sometimes prescribed), does negatively affect creatinine level per my experience (and has many other side effects too). The dose has to be just right for everything to work properly. It took me years to figure it out. Unfortunately, nephrologists won’t calibrate it for you. One dose fits all - is their approach. Now at a right dose for me, my creatinine is excellent. I also don’t have any side effects. Zero! Dose is everything! And it’s very individual too. Your father should check his kidneys first, then make decision re Rapamycin. If he starts, the minimum dose will probably be the safest. Disclosure: it’s my own opinion and I’m not a doctor.

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creatinine levels are the main thing used to calculate egfr, so high creatinine will lower egfr. there is another test called cystatin c that he should take. its another way to look at it. if they are both high, then his kidney function is probably not great (doctors consider this normal for a 75 year old, and the main thing they worry about, is if its rapidly declining further, vs just the current number)

I just went through this with my father. is creatinine has been high for 10 years already, but its been fairly stable. When I did some research, I wondered about giving him rapamycin, but I couldnt find anything clear enough about humans to justify it. There does appear to be some data about giving sglt2 inhibitors to protect kidney function.

The other think I would look at, is how his glucose is doing. High glucose or blood pressure, seem to be the main causes of lowered kidney function. If his glucose management is not great, that would be another reason to try an sglt2 inhibitor. keep in mind that for some people, rapamycin makes their glucose handling worse.

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Concur on the cystatin C. It’s a very underutilized test. I resistance train regularly and take a daily creatine supplement, and my eGFR per creatinine is 62, which is pretty unsettling for a 51 year old. However, just had my cystatin C checked and eGFR is 125, so my kidneys are doing just fine but never would have known that if I hadn’t specifically asked for cystatin C test.

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Thank you all for your care and support. My father called the nurse back to arrange further testing for his kidneys, when the nurse clarified that it was high creatine and not creatinine. We are all relieved as my father regularly goes to the gym and high creatine levels are not uncommon for gym goers.

We did learn a lot about creatinine levels and kidney function though! Thank you all for your support during this mixup.

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That doesn’t make sense to me. Creatine is not a standard blood test, while creatinine is. I’m thinking the nurse was confused. Again, very easy for a medical provider to order cystatin C if asked.

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Creatinine can be a testing artifact if the blood sample takes a while to get to the lab.