I received some recent test results with high SGOT (52)and SGPT (99) levels. From reviewing a variety of materials, I suspect it is due (in part anyway) to my high alcohol intake (3-4 beers or wine almost every night).
If (and assuming for my question) my liver is "damaged" from this ingestion amount, can I "repair" my liver by doing (or not doing) anything?
Is liver damage irreparable or can it naturally heal if allowed to do so?
Follow Ups:
Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol
Posted by Snow on January 09, 1999 at 03:25:33:
In Reply to: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol posted by Andreas on January 08, 1999 at 13:56:51:
you may want to check into the nutrients Choline, Inositol,
and if i remember correctly Methionine. They have been
proven to support liver function. whether or not it can help I don't know but it is kinda like the kitchen sink approach.
Follow Ups:
Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol
Posted by Walt Stoll on January 09, 1999 at 12:48:01:
In Reply to: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol posted by Andreas on January 08, 1999 at 13:56:51:
Dear Andreas,
The liver is remarkably capable of regrowing itself. Cirrohis is only when so much scar tissue froms from recurrent damage that the scars block off the normal "flow" from the liver.
However, the first thing you need to do is to STOP damaging it. That means not only NO alcohol for the rest of your life but to become a student of the other things the rest of us are also exposed to every day that OUR livers cope with because they do not also have the alcohol monkey on the liver's back.
There area other things now known that will help resuscitate the cells not already dead but they would be wasted so long as you keep killing cells with alcohol.
Walt
Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol
Posted by Walt Stoll on January 10, 1999 at 10:06:17:
In Reply to: Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol posted by Snow on January 09, 1999 at 03:25:33:
Hi, Snow.
You are right AND you should look into alpha-lipoic acid as well. So far it looks like this stuff wil do more good for liver function than all of the stuff you mentioned. Of course, combining them all would help even more.
HOWEVER, If that is all Andreas does, it will only put off the time when his liver fails (if he keeps stressing it with the alcohol). THEN what is he going to do? That is why I didn't even mention the alpha-lipoic acid. None of these "props" are the answer to his problem.
Walt
Follow Ups:
Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol
Posted by Snow on January 10, 1999 at 21:29:01:
In Reply to: Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol posted by Walt Stoll on January 10, 1999 at 10:06:17:
Walt,
Thanks much..I had not yet heard of that last nutrient. Also I suppose I should have mentioned that the cessation of the consumption of alcohol is the ideal solution. I just wanted to give something to perhaps help in addition to that. Thanks once again!
Snow
Follow Ups:
Total Cessation of Alcohol??
Posted by Andreas on January 11, 1999 at 09:22:43:
In Reply to: Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol posted by Walt Stoll on January 10, 1999 at 10:06:17:
Does total cessation of Alcohol mean for the rest of my life...? I hear news stories about how some alcholo in moderation is beneficial. Let me pose this (yet to be proven) hypothetical.
ASSUME, after several months of total abstinence from ANY alcohol my levels all return to normal.
ASSUME further that I have exhaustive examination and testing by a liver specialist which reveals not "other" problems and I otherwise get a "clean" liver bill of health.
With my history of high numbers, would it be medically "dangerous" to return to a dramatically lower alcohol consumption level of say, one glass of wine once ot twice per week with a large meal
Or, have I now entered a new category of condition that requires my total abstinence from any alcohol from this day forward?
Follow Ups:
Re: Total Cessation of Alcohol??
Posted by Walt Stoll on January 12, 1999 at 12:35:56:
In Reply to: Total Cessation of Alcohol?? posted by Andreas on January 11, 1999 at 09:22:43:
Hi, Andreas.
There is a "Bell Curve" of sensitivity to alcoholic damage to the liver just like there is to everything else about living things. For you to have shown this kind of damage, you live low on the curve. The older you get, the less liver reserves you will have to deal with alcohol.
To get back some of your reserves, you would need to TOTALLY abstain for about a year. Even then, you are playing Russian Roulette with alcohol. Some people at that same place on the curve as you would get away with it and others would not.
If you became a serious student of "wellness" you would likely move far enough up the curve in a year that you would never have to worry about it again.
The statistics that show that alcohol, in moderation, is good for you only pertains to the majority of people in the upper 2/3rds of the bell curve. Your tests have shown that you are far down in the lower third.
If you start asking YOUR liver to detoxify alcohol, within 6 months of your enzymes becomming normal again, you are asking for it. Besides, the tests you are reporting are "liver DEATH tests" not what you really need: "liver FUNCTION tests". The function tests measure how efficient the liver cells are and the death tests only measure how many dead liver cells there are.
This has been discussed many times on this BB under liver conditions. You can find out about the tests, and where to get them, in the archives about this subject.
Walt
Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol
Posted by Irene in TX on January 17, 1999 at 21:10:28:
In Reply to: Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol posted by Snow on January 10, 1999 at 21:29:01:
Dr. Stoll,
On the topic of SGPT, is there a problem if this figure is too LOW? I had some routine lab work at my last physical, and noticed I was out of the reference range on the low side for this item. My doctor didn't say anything about it.
Does this mean anything?
In appreciation,
Irene in TX
Follow Ups:
Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol
Posted by Walt Stoll on January 18, 1999 at 10:46:56:
In Reply to: Re: Liver enzymes, function and Alcohol posted by Irene in TX on January 17, 1999 at 21:10:28:
Dear Irene,
I don't know. These enzymes are intracellular enzymes and, were it not for the normal turnover of cells dying and others taking their place, there wouldn't be any in the blood at all. The cell has to die so the cell mambrane will degrade to the point where the enzymes are leaked into the blood.
Perhaps Doc Dave will know something about this.
Walt