Elevated liver enzymes 5 years post op

Hi all! I have not been here in a long time as everything has been smooth sailing for the last few years. A few months ago my AST and ALT came back elevated. May 14th they were ALT 80 and AST 67. I took milk thistle for a couple of weeks and they dropped to ALT 44 and AST 34. At some point I stopped taking that and now my ALT is 97 and AST is 44. I know these are only slightly elevated but am wondering what the heck would be causing this. Right after my surgery they were never elevated and were both in the 20's until a couple of years ago when they went up into the 30's. At that time I had an iron infusion and have been regularly supplementing iron ever since so I do wonder if that could be a connection. My iron and ferritin are still not great, it couldn't be iron overload. My vitamin d is finally really good at 81. Does anyone have any ideas? Could it be my supplements? 

Mine stay a little elevated too and I think you are probably right, it's all the supplements. It's a balancing act to get them just right but then the liver is working just a little harder than you are accustom too. 

--gina

I guess I could try a couple of things to really figure it out. Go off everything for a couple weeks, get tested and go back on one by one by most needed retesting as I go. That sounds like a lot of work though ;-) Or go back on the milk thistle. It scares me to think of damaging my liver at all, especially when I'm still in my 30's.

A little elevated isn't going to hurt like being vitamin deficient. Just try to determine what you can cut back on...maybe go on a few things like D3 and iron by 1/2. 

--g

I just got some more labs back. My vit A is a little low, my k and calcium are also low. It seems like my body has gone through some sort of change recently. I've noticed other things too, I've started losing instead of maintaining weight (not complaining on that one!). My HDL has shot up, all my bad cholesterol numbers are way low and keep dropping everytime I'm tested. I'm going to try cutting my vit D in half, I don't know if I should mess with my iron, my ferritin is only 9.2. 

If ferritin is only 9.2 your iron stores are crashing. What are iron serum, hematocrit, hemoglobin on your latest labs? Something else may be going on and you might want to get your doc to have a look especially if you're supplementing and haven't changed your diet. 

--gina

I've never been able to get my ferritin up. My iron is 73, hematocrit is 36.3 and hemo is 13.1. The highest my ferritin has ever been is 31 and that was a few weeks after an iron infusion. The only iron I absorb is carbonyl, heme doesn't even work for me. These numbers are also right after a fairly heavy period and my iron number is one of my higher ones since surgery (not counting right after infusion).

So I have been reading and reading about liver enzymes, vitamin k, and ferritin and found a connection, Celiac. I wonder if it's possible that I have it and this surgery triggered it. I know you have to have the gene but from what I'm reading sometimes you don't get Celia****il there is a trigger. I think I'm going to ask my PCP to test me....I'm sure he'll think I'm nuts!

It might be worth being checked. You seem to be malabsorbing more than you're used to. 

--g

Your story sounds like mine, although they tested me for celiac and it was negative. Something is wrong with my intestines though... they did a stool sample and it was positive for blood. Idk whats going on.