" Elevated serum GGT level remains the most widely used marker of alcohol abuse. Levels typically rise after heavy alcohol intake that has continued for several weeks (Allen et al. 1994). With 2–6 weeks of abstinence, levels generally decrease to within the normal reference range, with the half–life of GGT being 14–26 days."
Biomarkers of Heavy Drinking
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It's really hard to tell based on what you said. If the liver function tests are elevated from chronic alcohol, the AST will usually be twice the value of ALT. If ALT is higher than AST (or both elevated the same amount) it may be from something else (medications/ virus/ etc) Also how old you are, and how long you have been drinking large amounts of alcohol play a role, because it would indicate how much reversible vs irreversible effects have taken place.
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I am in my early thirties, most of my life i did only drink in the weekends, but usually in the weekends it was always a large amount.
not to a point i get drunk, barely that happened, but the last year i also drunk a bunch beyond the weekends.
I forgot i had access to the blood results so i looked and i don't know how it translates (not seeing anything called ALT/AST/GGT)
but it says cholestrol must be under <4,5 while it is 5,5 and LDL is 4,5 when it must be below 4,5, so not majorily off the charts.
At the doctor's they said i have to go do a liverscan to check for hepatitis.
But yeah alcohol (especially when you drink a bunch in a weekend rather then 2 glasses everyday i was told, medicine but also stress, bad diet it can also make it increase.
It already was slightly elevated since 2012 but only now they bothered to actually test it further.
They also told me to do another bloodtest, while i just had this one 2 weeks ago, in my opinion it might be smarter to wait first and maybe stop completely for about 6 weeks to see what change that might bring, and i already cut down since 3 weeks but that would not have shown up yet in the last test, so that's why i was curious about it.
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Ah got it. I figured they would want to do either an ultrasound or CT (liver scan). The follow-up blood work is most likely to see if the liver values were just transiently elevated. Try not to be too hard on yourself, in regards to directly correlating how many drinks to the lab values. Things like lipids/ cholesterols can also cause the values to be elevated, it really comes down to the AST/ ALT (how elevated/ what proportion) to tell if it is alcohol vs viral vs something else. The real take-home point would probably be, if your liver is off balance, alcohol will put it under additional stress. If you are able to stop drinking (without physical withdrawals), that would help your liver, as well as your cholesterol tremendously, as would changing some of the foods you eat, and a little bit of physical activity (even regular walks would count). If it's from something else, those changes would help your body recover, and if it is related primarily to alcohol or diet, then it may be just what you need. If dealt with early enough, alcohol and metabolic related liver changes can be completely reversible, and then in the future you wouldn't have to be as stringent about avoiding alcohol completely.
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Thanks, well i think all bits that you mentioned beside the drinking or not i can do better when it comes to better eating, excercise more (i hate walking though especially because we have alot of bad weather, sometimes i lift weights but that doesn't help in all areas of your body), plus being stressed often.
There are no physical withdrawals, most times i don't even miss it, but in the weekends i still enjoy something, play some tf2, listen to 90's music, sing a bit. Just helps me unwind a bit, and less stress is good.
I am already diabetic and have some genetic heart thing (which at the moment is fine but they can't say how it progresses) so it all came as a bit of a shock to hear the word hepatitis last week, and it's not something i want to add to my list of having offcourse.
Plus i am the kind of person who gets all sorts of bad thoughts through his head when you hear such news.
But you eased my mind a bit, and yeah i have to start working on better eating and exercising too.
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In the old days they referred to ALT/AST as SGOT/SGPT or OT/PT, maybe that's terminology they use where you live. Try looking up those lab results again. Also, perhaps you've been checked for something called HbSAg or anti-HCV, those would be of interest, too.
Here's a fun read for you. Further reading is available by googling those terms.
Saying "hepatitis" is like saying "fever", really. Doesn't really say what is the cause, doesn't really say much about disease progression. That's what the other tests are for.
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http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=4df94ae uploaded a picture of what information i am seeing, only the cholestrol thing (the red) is slightly elevated, so with the liver they either take the cholestrol thing in account or they have other results that are not uploaded on my page.
Most of the other results are about sugar levels and such which was better in that i could even decrease my medicine for that.
Maybe that ALT/AST and HDL/LDL are the same.
I looked at what they would use on my blood test form for my next time, but only the box hepatitis is ticked so that isn't doing much either.
Well yeah it's just to hoping that cause is stuff like better eating and exercising and such then it being something wrong physically (with the liver).
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Nope, HDL and LDL are subcategories of cholesterol. None of the things in the picture are liver markers.
Also, those cholesterol values seem to be only slightly elevated. Heck, mine are worse than yours.
Here's a tip - ask your doctor about your concerns, and what the hepatitis thingy is all about. It's his/her job to explain these kinds of things, yo.
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That's what i thought that it was different.
These bloodtests were done through my diabetic nurse, and i asked her questions but she barely knew anything more.
The only thing i received was that my liver values (whichever ones) were slightly elevated too, so i am not worried as that i have to believe that and just hope with the excercise/food/less drinking can improve the levels..
Depending on what comes out of that scan or not, i will probably have to go back to a doctor yeah, but till then i can't do much then wait.
Also our healthcare is really going down the drains rapidly and costly and becoming more and more as it is in America, so cost wise atm i also have to be careful.
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They'll provide you with a scan, but no contact with a physician? That's... weird.
Or are you paying for the scan out-of-pocket? If so, well, that's not very nice.
Anyhoo, these days, you gotta be an informed patient. So yeah, do your research, find a disease forum, ask your physician, question things that don't make sense.
Healthcare everywhere is going down the drain it seems, for a lot of different reasons. Gotta really look out for yourself.
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We pay about 100 euro a month plus on top 350 total own risk so if you draw blood, get a scan, go see a doctor then it will all go off that 350 own risk, anything after will be free. Plus a bunch of medicin will also not be covered and you have to pay yourself.
So while i am not paying for a total scan, it is going to cost me about 75 euro (aside from the blood tests and the rest).
Well here managers, directors of hospitals, retirement homes etc etc just get ridiculous high salaries, and the regular folk just pays more and more every year to compensate. And if you have a government who only supports it rather then regulate well..
You are right one has to really look out for yourself.
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Well for anyone caring (or if you don't just scroll to below :p) or who answered here, i did the scan today and while normally i had to call back for my results tommorow morning i went by the doctor's office to see if they had my results today already, while i only spoken to the receptionist and she can't really give a diagnose offcourse she did told me my results where the same as a few years ago, and thus nothing drastically increased or gotten worse or something. So therefor i think i can say there is no hepatitis, and probably when i diet, exercise more etc the remaining values can decrease. By "coincidence" i met an old classmate and he pushed me into going jogging with him.
Since i can kinda stop despairing over this i made a private giveaway of this game http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/4tQLi/despair
(There is another public giveaway of this game with 2 copies if you check my profile).
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Not asking for a diagnosis offcourse, but suppose person x drinks a bit more alcohol then he should at times, with 1 liver level plus cholestrol being slightly elevated and then decided to cut down a bit on that drinking, how long would that cutting down start to show, days, weeks or months?
Was just curious and maybe someone here knows.
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