High AST & ALT Liver Numbers

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Sep 2, 2015
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497
Recent blood work with doc indicates high AST (82 vs 41 last year) and ALT (58 vs 51 last year).

Ultrasound and more bloodwork scheduled. Guessing it's the doubling of tuna (i.e., heavy metals, 10 foil packets/ wk) or possibly a supplement I'm taking.

All other bloodwork and stats were great and normal.

I've been on a weight program that is on the upperend of what I can recover from daily. It's pushing me some.

The day before the blood draw, I had a very taxing run, again for me. Research indicates excercise can throw off liver numbers.

Barring disease fatty liver or hepatitis we are testing for as well as heavy metals, just wondering if anyone had experienced similar issues.

Doc says it could even be a bad test. More testing to be done, but just brainstorming where else to look.
 
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robby denning

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Recent blood work with doc indicates high AST (82 vs 41 last year) and ALT (58 vs 51 last year).

Ultrasound and more bloodwork scheduled. Guessing it's the doubling of tuna (i.e., heavy metals, 10 foil packets/ wk) or possibly a supplement I'm taking.

All other bloodwork and stats were great and normal.

I've been on a weight program that is on the upperend of what I can recover from daily. It's pushing me some.

The day before the blood draw, I had a very taxing run, again for me. Research indicates excercise can throw off liver numbers.

Barring disease fatty liver or hepatitis we are testing for as well as heavy metals, just wondering if anyone had experienced similar issues.

Doc says it could even be a bad test. More testing to be done, but just brainstorming where else to look.
have not , but following and hoping the best outcome for you on this🙏
 

mtwarden

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Are you taking creatine by chance? My creatine levels are always a little “high” and my last one ast/alt were as well.

My reading shows that supplementing with creatine can raise all these.

I’ve been taking 5 g of creatine daily for 20 years, afaik no ill effects. Next blood work I have done, I’ll knock the supplement off for a couple of weeks ahead of the test and see what (if any) differences there are.
 

sz28

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The tuna could possibly be contributing or responsible for the increase. There are studies linking elevated liver enzymes to increased mercury levels.
 

LFC911

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@insanelupus you sound like a fit guy (tuna, taxing run), so don't take this the wrong way...what is your height, weight and do you drink heavily? I had a high ALT in my past and my doc thought it was due to being overweight/obese (5'10" 260-280 lbs) and/or drinking 6-12 beers a night. I have since quit drinking and down to 245 and curious where the numbers will land.
 
OP
insanelupus
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5'8, 195 ish, 22.4% body fat (electric impedence), almost 50, gaining strength, slowly getting faster and building endurance.

5 years ago I was about 80 lbs heavier, drank off and on irresponsibly over the years but haven't for over a decade.

Creatine, 5g/day for almost 2 years consistant, which wasn't new.

Talking to others in my family and in the gym, there's a chance it will lower. I still think the excess skipjack and heavy exercise will be the leading causes, but we will see.

I feel great, other than a little taxed from outside stress and the higher volume lift program I'm on. This program will be done in 3 weeks, I'm sure that will help.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Joined
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Do you take a lot of Tylenol?

Many reasons your liver enzymes can be elevated. Even a recent viral illness can sometimes jack them up a little.

Yours aren’t terribly elevated. I wouldn’t fret too much.
 

lintond

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My liver numbers were off the chart at the beginning of the year. 300 or something crazy. Had no good reason why. Luckily they went back down and we’ve since concluded it was likely from taking cold meds for too long. Aka my 1 yr old was trying to kill me with daycare sicknesses for 2 months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

NealS02

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Dec 22, 2022
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I’m an emergency medicine doctor and don’t want to provide comprehensive diagnosis (nor am I able to), but if I did labs on you and they came back at those levels I wouldn’t be too concerned. It could be fatty liver if you are overweight, slight dehydration when labs drawn, or a variety of things. My recommendation if I saw you as a patient would be to stay well hydrated and repeat in 1-2 weeks. Don’t get worked up about those numbers. Avoid alcohol and Tylenol, and listen to your doctor.
 
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insanelupus
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Doc wants another blood panel in JUL. I've been following his advice, so we'll see. The high volume program is done. Three weeks in to a new lesser volume program has me feeling more like myself.

We'll see!
 
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OP
insanelupus
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Sep 2, 2015
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Re-tested this past week. I'm waiting on the doctor to call and confirm, but I've received the results of the blood tests and it appears all my liver enzyme tests came back fine, within normal ranges. Thank you Lord!

I'm all of the opinion it was the hard run the day before the blood draw, but fish consumption may have been part of it too.

Thankful to have the numbers come back even better than last year!
 
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