Hi all - still going through my journey of trying to figure out what has been causing my elevated enzymes (alt/ast). Anyway, figured I would ask this question to see what the community thought -
As far as weekly units of alcohol (I think recommendation is somewhere around 14-20 for men), is it the same if you spread those out over the course of the week or drink 14 in say a 24 hour period but then take 5 days off?
My update: I have had ultrasound, MRI, endocsope, all blood tests (hep, celiac, etc.) normal except enzymes. Still trying to get to the bottom of it - biopsy scheduled in a couple weeks. Hope all have a good weekend.
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Ha, well of course. They were discovered in Nov and I havent had a drink since, but they remain elevated (alt 54/ast 40 currently). But was just curious as that was my drinking pattern before i stopped. No weekday drinking, but could go to 10-14 units on a saturday couple times a month. Anyway, just wondering - thanks for responding!
Do look at Ayrshire’s link - it’s only a side to read and it’s an easy read too - in the way that it’s not written with “big” words - if it was I would have given up after the first sentence 😁. It answers your question. Of course jojo gives an equally succinct, but slightly different, 😁, response - as per!
I did. I read the whole thing and some of the additional content. It was very helpful.
Most causes of liver disease are established by elimination. By ruling out alcohol they will need to rule out other possible causes, the various Hepatitis viruses for example. They may need to do a biopsy of your liver to see what's going on. So it's very much a waiting game.
Sadly you can't really treat a condition without first understanding the cause. But, the liver is a very forgiving and resilient organ so just hang on in there.
Yeah, that is what I figured. That is what has me concluding it must be ALD of some kind. We have eliminated basically everything else and still enzymes remain elevated after 7 months with no alcohol. I appreciate you taking the time to respond, Richard64.
I stopped drinking as I was getting dependent, but your post got me curious about the 14 unit limit and whether that figure had a significance or was arbitrary.
The 14 units is there for a reason as described in the link below. I’ve listed the main points:
- 14 units comes from a worldwide study over the last 20 years (to 2016)
- the main risks of exceeding 14 units a week are cancer related
- bowel, liver and breast cancer risks are similar for those on 0 to 14 units a week but double for those exceeding 35 units
- oesophageal cancer risks - 0.6% for non drinkers, 1.27% for up to 14 units and 5.77% for those on 28 units - wow!
- The heart benefits of moderate drinking (<1 unit a day) are likely to only apply to women over 55 - no health benefits to anyone else!
The article doesn’t mention liver illnesses except for liver cancer. It also only mentions binge drinking in terms of accidents as opposed to medical conditions.
The oesophageal cancer risk is shocking. 35 units is 2 pints of beer or half a bottle of wine a day. For that, you stand about a 1 in 17 chance of developing that disease.
I’d say the rationale for the new 14 unit limit isn’t widely known, but I reckon education about some of the points above would surely cut drinking.
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Need some positivity 
Non-alcoholic fatty liver - Borderline FibroScan score F3, 11.4 kpa with quality study 12% (good quality), how long am I going to live?
Endoscopy
Hair loss
