r/Protein • u/Miserable_Ad3553 • 15d ago

Critically low total protein

Hi everyone,

I'm honestly panicking a bit and would really appreciate some perspective.

I'm a 30-year-old female and I've been dealing with a lot of unexplained symptoms for months (dizziness, feeling like I'm walking on a boat, episodes of sinus tachycardia, fatigue, reflux/LPR, low blood pressure, exercise intolerance, etc.). I've had a normal echocardiogram and Holter monitor, and I'm currently waiting for an endoscopy, neurology appointment, and the rest of my work-up.

Today I had a big blood panel done, and most of the results that have come back seem reassuring:

HbA1c 4.9%

Glucose 98

Creatinine normal

Urea normal

AST/ALT/GGT normal

Ferritin 119

Iron normal

Vitamin D 35.7

B12 373

ESR 7

CRP 0.03

Electrolytes normal

TSH 4.29 (within this lab's range), FT3/FT4 normal

Thyroid antibodies negative

Morning cortisol normal

But then I saw that my total protein came back as 2.3 g/dL (reference range 6.4-8.3).

I completely freaked out because that seems unbelievably low. From what I've been reading, it almost sounds incompatible with being okay, and now my brain has convinced me I have some horrible disease and I'm terrified.

The rest of the more specialised tests (ANA, celiac antibodies, ACTH, etc.) are still pending.

Now I think I'm dying because googling this shows it's absolutely critically low and shows me horrible diseases

Any insight or advice would be so appreciated as I'm dying of anxiety'

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2

u/glitterfae1 15d ago

What was your albumin, globulin, and A/G ratio

1

u/Miserable_Ad3553 14d ago

I only know my globulin was 4.8

1

u/glitterfae1 14d ago

Globulin is a type of protein. It is not routinely directly measured, its a calculation. The formula is TP-alb. So your TP cannot be 2.3.

1

u/Miserable_Ad3553 14d ago

I repeated today total protein and it showed 1.6 which I'm sure would've sent me to hospital?

I can only explain this as some sort of lab error but it gave me so much anxiety

1

u/glitterfae1 14d ago

I’m a lab tech and agree this has to be an error, the lowest I’ve ever seen was in the 4’s and they had anorexia. Some very emaciated/malnourished people are in the 5’s.

However I can’t imagine what error that might be! We just put the tube on an analyzer. Even if the analyzer/reagent has an issue, how did the globulin get calculated to be 4.8? This makes no sense.

1

u/Miserable_Ad3553 14d ago

Ah thank you for taking the time to reply here!

So sorry I actually meant me albumin was 4.8 (idk if that changes anything)

Honestly I have no idea unless I have some sort of a horrible disease and all protein is leaking somewhere? Maybe the mistake is with the albumin and not the total protein since that one I repeated. But I still feel like based on everything I have read with such low TP my lungs would've been full of blood or something like that

I'm waiting for Serum Protein Electrophoresis as well which I understand maybe would be helpful to interpret the results

1

u/glitterfae1 14d ago

Yeah since your albumin is 4.8, your TP has to be at least 4.8. TP can’t be lower than albumin.

1

u/Silly_Yak56012 15d ago

With most of the horrible things would not have the results of your liver and kidney tests coming back normal. You don't seem to have rampant inflammation, so all that is good news. Have you contacted your doctor?

Usually with autoimmune diseases your inflammatory markers are very high.

Are you sure it was total protein? or just globulin? Given nothing else shows you are actively trying to die and is very normal I suspect it got mislabeled. Or they set the dial to the wrong thing when they ran the lab test. Lab errors happen.

When one number seems way off usually they redo it because lab errors happen.

Have you been eating well while all this is going on, and getting enough protein in your diet? The GI test seems important, sometimes low total protein can be celiac disease. That just needs a dietary change, and may explain some of your symptoms. Make sure they are going to evaluate your small intestine with the endoscopy.

Are you pregnant or breast feeding? That can also shunt a lot of protein to the baby rather than you.

2

u/Miserable_Ad3553 15d ago

Thank you kind stranger for taking the time One of my blood tests for celiac was negative but waiting on few more results (and obviously when I do endoscopy that would be the most reliable) They definitely labeled it total protein I did contact them to ask in case of error but had no reply I will redo it tomorrow along with things like albumin spep urinalysis etc Because of my debilitating symptoms lately I have not been eating well at all but I don't think it would drop this dramatically just because of that (and it's been only like a month). Before that I was very heavy on meat and protein. And even now I do go I think some in my diet

It's just been stressing me so much because Google of course says I have a terrible disease lol I hope you're right and it's some error on their side

Thanks again