Hi. This is my first time here. 🤗My GP send me for an annual blood test.
My liver function test results are worrying me. My ALT level is 83. And my AST is 57.
Is this really bad? I have no idea. I had a message to book a telephone appointment to discuss the results. I couldn't get one for earlier than 3 weeks. Help! 😮🫣
Thank you!
Hi. Your ALT and AST are elevated, but try not to panic. These enzymes show that the liver might be under some stress. However, it does not indicate a possible reason for these changes.
There are many possible reasons for mild to moderate elevations ALT and AST — from things like fatty liver, alcohol, medications, or even just recent illness.
It’s good that your GP wants to discuss it, and while 3 weeks feels like a long wait, these numbers don't suggest an urgent or critical situation.
In the meantime, if you want to help your liver, you can focus on simple things like reducing alcohol (if you drink), eating healthy, and staying active.
Hope your doctor can figure out what's going on.
Thank you for your reply. I've actually been wondering if the medication I'm on might be to blame. I'm on allopurinol for goutGoogle does suggest it can cause liver problems. 🤔
Allopurinol is a reasonable hypothesis. Your doctor will likely explore other potential causes as well. Depending on your gout control, they may consider lowering the dose or temporarily stopping the medication, followed by additional tests to monitor the dynamics after some time.
Hi! Sometimes those tests go up to due to a temporary virus, Tylenol, and things like that. I wouldn't worry but would baby your liver while waiting to be retested. Mediterranean diet, no alcohol, walking each day if you feel ok. It may be back to normal in 3 weeks so hopefully you'll get retested.
If it remains elevated the doctor may want to do other testing to see if you have extra fat on your liver or something else bothering it. I wouldn't worry ahead. That happened to me twice and both times it was back to normal in a week.
Hi Sunny, try not to overly worry. Raises in liver blood tests cab be quite common. Many things can cause it a bit of upset. You could be right with your medication being the cause, but better to wait and see what the doc thinks. Even if it is, it may not be necessary to make any change.
Standard protocol when a rise in liver blood test is found is to do a retest in a few weeks to see if they are indeed just a blip. So only having your appointment in 3 weeks is actually a good thing in that respect.
Good luck.
Hey there, I've been here mine were 120 and 70 so worse than yours, I was definitely in a mad panic after being a heavy drinker in the past but thankfully it was only fatty liver so been working on that. Hope all goes well 🙏
Hi.
My liver function test results are usually elevated because I have the hereditary genetic Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency " SZ" and can usually effect the liver, lungs and /or kidneys. My GGTs have risen to 160+ in my last blood test as I'm on a cholesterol tablet and phenobarbital for epilepsy "seizure free 14 +years". Ask your GP to do blood test for this hereditary deficiency as it I'd very common and known as the viking gene.
My husband has just had the same, went at end of October for 40th check up, ALT was 63, he was retested end of Jan and it was 58 then was retested this week and it's 85! Since October he has really cut back on alcohol and all bad food so we are at a loss as to why it's gone back up again. He's now being sent for a scan which is on 17th March. His AST and all other liver work blood tests were all good. He also had FBC and bone blood test which was also all good and so was ferritin levels
Is this the first time they have been elevated? (They aren't startling numbers at all). I've had a BMI of 20 - 22 (never drank) my whole life and these enzymes are always elevated for me. It can actually be hereditary that certain enzymes always have a higher base rate. But as Fibro2021 says, can be due to things as simple as medications, vitamins, or a recent viral illness.
I had a blood test same time last year. It didn't show anything for ALT at all. And my AST was 47.
Probably not hereditary then. Mine have been elevated since I was born... Could be a million small things though. I had a reaction to covid vaccine mine went from 60 to over 200. I used a different supplement and they went from 60 to 150. Probably something very very small.
I had both scores at over 400 in the summer with a glandular fever-type virus (that absolutely flattened me): however, the readings came back to normal after 5 weeks and 2 further sets of tests. It’s important to keep an open mind and look at the bigger picture, as people have said. I am still having investigations because of various factors, but I would echo others and say try not to panic!
Echoing really what others have said, a single test doesn't really give a trend, the test will be repeated to see if it was transient.
I had similar elevated Enzymes as well during a blood test in Jan. I had a particularly hard time shaking of the winter viruses. So when I did the test that may have led to increase in enzymes. I do also have an elevated LDL, so the GP went down the route of NAFLD.
My retest 4 weeks later showed optimum levels. I did panic at the first result and started to loose weight, diet exercise which may have helped bring it down quicker but overall it was probably transient rather than an issue with the liver.
Hopefully that gives you something so that you dont panic, improve you lifestyle a little and wait for the retest. At those levels the timeline for any progression is quite long, if there is anything its been flagged early enough for you to do something about it and fix it completely. But most the time it is just an increase due to temporary factors.
Those numbers are fine (a tad elevated, but nothing extreme). Could be from having a cold or something. Just eat healthy, avoid alcohol and get some excersize. Of course only a doctor can tell you for sure, and I am NOT a doctor. Good luck!
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