Liver function test advice

[Sampson]

How long before taking the test should you stop training? I have a test next Wednesday and thought taking a couple of days off of training would be cool, but I have just seen a study that says "liver function is significantly increased for at least 7 days after weightlifting", also should I stop taking softcore supps protein, creatine and bcaas.

Any adivce would be appreciated, I might have to give the test a miss if this is true!

British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

Muscular exercise can cause highly pathological liver function tests in healthy men

What is already known about this subject

• The occurrence of idiosyncratic drug hepatotoxicity is a major problem in all phases of clinical drug development and the leading cause of postmarketing warnings and withdrawals.

• Physical exercise can result in transient elevations of liver function tests.

• There is no consensus in the literature on which forms of exercise may cause changes in liver function tests and to what extent.

What this study adds

• Weightlifting results in profound increases in liver function tests in healthy men used to moderate physical activity, not including weightlifting.

• Liver function tests are significantly increased for at least 7 days after weightlifting.

• It is important to impose relevant restrictions on heavy muscular exercise prior to and during clinical studies.
Aim

To investigate the effect of intensive muscular exercise (weightlifting) on clinical chemistry parameters reflecting liver function in healthy men.
Methods

Fifteen healthy men, used to moderate physical activity not including weightlifting, performed an 1 h long weightlifting programme. Blood was sampled for clinical chemistry parameters [aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LD), gamma-glutamyl transferase (γGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), bilirubin, creatine kinase (CK) and myoglobin] at repeated intervals during 7 days postexercise and at a follow-up examination 10–12 days postexercise.
Results

Five out of eight studied clinical chemistry parameters (AST, ALT, LD, CK and myoglobin) increased significantly after exercise (P < 0.01) and remained increased for at least 7 days postexercise. Bilirubin, γGT and ALP remained within the normal range.
Conclusion

The liver function parameters, AST and ALT, were significantly increased for at least 7 days after the exercise. In addition, LD and, in particular, CK and myoglobin showed highly elevated levels. These findings highlight the importance of imposing restrictions on weightlifting prior to and during clinical studies. Intensive muscular exercise, e.g. weightlifting, should also be considered as a cause of asymptomatic elevations of liver function tests in daily clinical practice.

 

[Sampson]

Help me out fellas

 

[KillerStack]

Ask to have GGT values tested for. It's more specific to liver function and is affected if there is any damage.

 

[Jarconis]

2 days should be plenty id think

 

[GoneForever]

True, GGT and bilirubin are more important than ast and alt. Now LDH is another test but is often screwed up a lot. Levels will be high if blood is left out too long, but if all of your other levels are very elevated and LDH is also very elevated its an early sign of cell death in the major organs, but if bilirubin and ggt are normal then a high LDH is just an error from the lab.

 

[vadim_b1]

2 days should be plenty id think

At least 2 weeks.

 

[Sampson]

Thanks for the advice, Ive already taken a couple of days off, so hopefully it will be cool come test time. I dont even want to consider taking two weeks off unless there is actually something wrong (touch wood).

Cheers!!!

 

[vadim_b1]

Taking that much time off will ensure that any damage your muscle fibres may have sustained will have healed, so that the test will give an accurate reading (the reason is that muscle fiber damage will elevate AST/ALT as well as liver damage would). But as previous posters have said, GGTP and bilirubin levels are the most accurate tools in diagnosing liver damage.