Unsure of What’s Next

[Pickles19]

My ALT liver enzyme is slightly elevated, 54. My mom has/had (does it ever really go away? Her levels are normal now) NAFLD that progressed pretty far before she made lifestyle changes. My doctor told me to stop drinking, to limit Tylenol, and to work on my diet and exercise. I have severe anxiety, especially around my health. I never drink alcohol and I rarely take Tylenol or any medication. I do use CBD to help with my anxiety and I did have a love of using cream and drinking milk whenever I could. With my ALT level do I really only need to make dietary changes and increase my exercise? Should I push for an ultrasound? Should I return for follow up labs in a few months? Any advice would be great

[nash2 Partner]

Hi Pickles

You probably would benefit from learning more about the disease. It can certainly be anxiety producing but have you been diagnosed or are you making assumptions based on your mother? ALT can be elevated for a lot of reasons and isn't very useful for defining liver health. There are some blood calculators that can give you some guidance. I'll give you a link to the most sophisticated one but you can also try one called FIB 4 and there are links on the site under non-invasive tests. There is a lot of information on the website about the disease and may help you understand your situation so you can communicate better with your doctor. Not many answers I know but the question of diagnosis is your doctor's job

fattyliverfoundation.org/li...

Good luck

[Pickles19 in reply to nash2]

Thank you for replying and the link. No, I have not been diagnosed. Just making those anxious assumptions!

[nash2 Partner in reply to Pickles19]

Dr Google can worry you silly. If you have access to your blood tests a screener you can use that might suggest next steps is the FIB 4 here is a link

hepatitisc.uw.edu/page/clin...

The thing to understand is that it is a slow motion disease. Even if you have it you have time to deal with it so try to relax a bit.

[Alterity]

Stressing over it is one of the worst things. Listen to your body, talk to mom about it if she is better, eat right, rest when needed and if you can get the Doctor to investigate more, great, but they probably won't until you get the pain and the signs that you are doing as well as you should. You will feel it, just watch for the signs. Exhaustion, stabling pain, swelling. Good Luck.