Brief Answer:

Information

Detailed Answer:

Hello,

Having elevated liver enzymes means that your liver cells are inflamed and spilling more enzymes.

Common causes for this are alcohol, medications, and fatty liver from high triglycerides or carbohydrates.

Hepatitis such as from a virus can also cause this, but in the US, this is a less frequent cause.

It may take more than 12 days to see the elevation resolve after changing your diet and eliminating alcohol, but it is reasonable to recheck at 12 weeks to make sure that the enzymes are not rising instead of staying the same or going down.

If they are rising, and you have eliminated possible aggravating causes such as alcohol and are decreasing weight if overweight, then an ultrasound of the liver is the next step.

Most likely, given your change in lifestyle, you will see the enzymes either stay the same (because 12 days is a short time) or go down.

In addition to the check at 12 days, I would recheck again about 6-8 weeks after the lifestyle changes were initiated, because it can take that long for liver cells (hepatocytes) to regenerate.

So, I totally agree with your doctor's plan.

If you are used to having 2-3 drinks/day, are you replacing the alcohol with something else (some activity or healthy food as well as something for stress), because if not, there will be a void that you may feel the need to fill again with alcohol down the road when the thought of elevated liver enzymes isn't fresh in your mind.

And yo-yo-ing (starting stopping repeat) can do harm. The lifestyle dietary and alcohol reduction changes have to be long term.

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.

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Brief Answer:

Thoughts on this

Detailed Answer:

Hello,

Your triglycerides are borderline high and may be contributing to your liver cells being unhappy.

I expect with your alcohol and dietary changes that these will come down as well.

Increasing vegetables in your diet (and fruits, legumes, nuts) along with decreasing simple carbs and alcohol will usually help the triglycerides (and the liver cells).

Your liver enzymes are elevated but not alarming as long as they don't remain high.

Whether you can have 1 drink a day every day, it's hard to say as some people do fine with this, while I have seen elevated enzymes in others with just 1 drink a day.

Wait till the enzymes come down, then you might try that pattern and get your enzymes checked after several weeks to see.

Some people are more sensitive to alcohol than others, and it may be that you will have to either do without or have just an occasional drink. Usually an occasional "cheat" meal is ok too.

Hope I have answered your query.

Take care

Regards,
Dr Bonnie Berger-Durnbaugh, General & Family Physician

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