Rhabdomyolysis recovery

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
, ,
1

Hello,

Two recent podcasts have touched on sensitive topics to me. I (M, 26) was hospitalized for CK levels 9000+ roughly a year ago following ~3 week pause in workouts, and then doing the popular CrossFit workout “Annie”. The ER physician recommended removing supplemental creatine and high intensity workouts. As a precaution, I’ve partitioned my workouts to be either exclusively weights or exclusively cardio-focused.

There’s a lot of speculation I’ve heard from friends and colleagues regarding certain risks following a rhabdomyolysis diagnosis. The recent podcasts have lead me to a few conclusions, but I’d like to get some expert opinion on recommended rhabdo rehab.

Questions:

  • Is there increased risk of recurring rhabdomyolysis (extreme CK levels) after initial initial incident?
  • Will supplemental creatine-monohydrate introduces increased risk for elevated CK levels? Recent creatine podcast suggested minimal CK impacts with creatine monohydrate supplementation.
  • Are there any general recommendations for both short term and long term recovery from extreme rhabdomyolysis to reduce probability of chronic kidney disease? E.g. low-protein diet, avoiding certain supplements, exercise modalities?
2

  1. Having experienced exertional rhabdomyolysis once does not confer a permanent increased risk of recurrence, outside of the factors that led to your initial bout (i.e., doing too much, too soon).

  2. No, there is no relationship/risk here.

  3. If you did not experience any kidney problems in the acute period, then you are not at increased risk of chronic kidney disease in the future. There are no specific diets or exercise modalities that would be recommended for you. There are also no specific long-term exercise limitations; rather, the most important thing is a gradual re-introduction and ramping up of activity, without sudden spikes in workload to which you are unadapted.

FYI, although I have limited information regarding your case, based on what you’ve described here I would not characterize what you went through as “extreme” rhabdomyolysis – unless you did have complications that were not mentioned in this post, or far higher CK levels than 9,000.

3

Ah, yes – 90,000 is indeed a much different level of severity.

And again, assuming you did not have significant complications arise while admitted during the acute phase, I would expect/not worry that long-term complications would emerge later.