Over the past two years, the blood test labs across the nation have started using stricter criteria for what is ‘normal’ kidney function, and I have had a lot of discussion with patients about this. Many healthy, normal adults are seen to be ‘out of range’ and express concern that their kidney function is at a dangerous level.
Much of this is due to tough new criteria that have been set by national agencies, and much of this new thresholds are overly sensitive and creating concern where there should be none. In fact, a recent study out of England shows that by the latest criteria, up to 14% of people in the US are noted as having kidney issues, when previously it was only 1.7%
If you have concerns about your test results and see that they differ from ‘normal’, please be in touch to review and see if this is a case of ‘overdiagnosis’. Fortunately, we all have way more kidney function than is required for day-to-day living, and we can have variations that come with aging without having any cause for worry.