Albumin. What Is It?

[Darlene]

i was looking at past blood test i had done, and my albumin was low (just a little). just curious what it is and what causes this.

[sj75]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albumin

Not sure how useful this is? I just google low albumin and it came up.x

[pulp]

Albumin is the most common protein you have. If it's low it can be a sign of malnurishment or other disease. It has many functions in the body and is very important, for example it's an important transporter protein (it binds calcium to give one example) and it also binds to medications so low albumin can affect how big of an effect the medications give you ie Low albumin = less of the medication gets bound and the levels of it in you get abnormally high. Albumin works to keep homeostasis. It makes the water in your body keep in the blood instead of wandering off out into the surrounding tissues (edema). Albumin is made in the liver. Excuse my rather struggling English, I'd so write this much better in Swedish

[sue1234]

Pulp, your English is great!

Regarding POTS, what Pulp mentioned regarding it holding onto water is really important. Albumin keeps the fluid from leaking out of the vascular system. I know this is an extreme example, but low albumin(low protein) is what causes starving children to have that big belly and swollen hands and feet. Of course, we don't get to that degree.

[lieze]

I knew about albumin from working in the nursing home. It is what they would check in elderly when they were not eating and doing poorly. If albumin was low they knew to call in hospice or it was an acceptable diagnosis for hospice not to say that all cases of low albumin are fatal but in the elderly it is a sign that things are going downhill and they would generally get a failure to thrive diagnosis.

[Darlene]

pulp, i do have mild edema (shin area). guess if it was concern the dr. would had said something. how can i make my albumin higher?

[Darlene]

i just found my paper, it says normal range is 3.8 to 5.6. mine is 3.7. my sodium, potassium, chlroide, uric acid, calcium was normal.

[pulp]

Thanks Sue! Glad to hear

northerndarlene: That's a too difficult question for me, I actually don't know what's done to make albumin get higher. I think it all depends on why the albumin is low.. ie if it's due to the kidneys leaking albumin into the urine (a sign of failing kidneys) then something has to be done about the kidneys or it can be due to liver failing so then they have to focus on that. An infection can also be a cause. There's many reasons for albumin being low so the treatment depends on what the reason is. If you are concerned about it I def. think you should speak to your physician about it and maybe check your albumin again and ask him to explain it to you, he might have a reason not to react to the albumin being on the low end.

[sj75]

3.7 isn't significantly low, So I really would try not to worry but would ask the dr if you can repeat the blood test ( if he was worried I would think he would already have requested this) to see if it has changed. It's not at all unusual to have the odd abnormal result which is later retested and shown to be fine.

Also, low albumin in itself is not a huge cause for concern unless you had lots of other new symptoms, it's just a marker but Drs would be looking at the bigger picture.xx

[ramakentesh]

Its low in POTS purely because of hypovolumia.

[Lenna]

Strange...my son (who has low-flow POTS) has slightly HIGH albumin (5.7)...and the doctor told us that it is a sign of dehydration. Of course, he drinks 2-3 liters of water a day, so it's pretty hard to imagine that he's dehydrated!