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Suggest Treatment For Fatty Liver And Normal Bilirubin Levels
Question: My brother just got back his blood work on the hospital website from his yearly physical. His alt is 95 and ast is 49. Back in 2012 is numbers were 100 alt and 67 ast and his family dr did an ultrasound and said he had fatty liver and ruled out hepatitis.. He worked on diet and exercise and had gotten his alt down to low 50's and ast to the twenties over the last few years until todays results when they became more elevated. He is 55 years old and weighs 234 but is very muscular and is 5'11. He gained about 10 pounds in the last year. He takes valium and a mulitvitamin. He is over all in good health and has no symptoms of any illness. His glucose number did come back at 128 even though he has not ever been diagnosed with diabetes. His bilirubin is normal and all other numbers are normal except cholesterol is 255. He does not drink alcohol. He will not be able to talk to the doctor until Monday and this is Friday night and we are concerned. Can you tell us how serious his alt and ast are? Is this indicative of serious liver problems? Should he see a liver specialist? Thank you
Brief Answer:
Information
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
The elevation is considered mild because it is less than 5 times the upper limit of normal.
Guidelines for evaluating and treating mild elevations are to start with lifestyle modifications. His having gained 10 pounds may have tipped his liver enzymes into the abnormal range. It also sounds as though there are metabolic issues if his fasting glucose and cholesterol are elevated too. Losing weight and avoiding simple carbohydrates may return all of these to normal. But a repeat liver enzyme test in 2-4 weeks would be advisable. Four weeks will give him time to work on his lifestyle practices further.
Sometimes having taken a Tylenol/acetaminophen within a week or so of the test can raise the liver enzymes too.
I do not think he needs to worry about a serious liver problem based on the liver enzyme test results you provided. But he should work on his lifestyle/diet to bring all of these numbers down. And talk about this further with his doctor.
I am providing a professional article here that you might find useful. You will have to copy and paste it into your address bar as it won't "link" when you click on it.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2011/1101/p1003.html
I hope this information helps. Please let me know if I can provide further information.
Information
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
The elevation is considered mild because it is less than 5 times the upper limit of normal.
Guidelines for evaluating and treating mild elevations are to start with lifestyle modifications. His having gained 10 pounds may have tipped his liver enzymes into the abnormal range. It also sounds as though there are metabolic issues if his fasting glucose and cholesterol are elevated too. Losing weight and avoiding simple carbohydrates may return all of these to normal. But a repeat liver enzyme test in 2-4 weeks would be advisable. Four weeks will give him time to work on his lifestyle practices further.
Sometimes having taken a Tylenol/acetaminophen within a week or so of the test can raise the liver enzymes too.
I do not think he needs to worry about a serious liver problem based on the liver enzyme test results you provided. But he should work on his lifestyle/diet to bring all of these numbers down. And talk about this further with his doctor.
I am providing a professional article here that you might find useful. You will have to copy and paste it into your address bar as it won't "link" when you click on it.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2011/1101/p1003.html
I hope this information helps. Please let me know if I can provide further information.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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