Elevated Bilirubin, AST and ALT, Looking for Advice

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Was looking for some advice and got referred here, I’m a male 23 year old and just had a blood test that concerned me since it showed elevated readings of Bilirubin, AST and ALT. Doctor has setup another test in a month and I am thinking of stopping weightlifting for 7-12 days before to try and get a more accurate test result. The reason I am worried is back in 2019 I had some very elevated readings for these due to a lot of heavy drinking that I had back then but I have reduced my drinking to about 1-2 drinks a week since 2020. Below are all the values I could find for these and just hoping for some advice and how to best ensure these readings are from weightlifting not a damaged liver, and anything I could ask my doctor to test additionally towards that goal.

Date AST ALT Bilirubin
STANDARD RANGE 10-40 9-46 0.2-1.2
9/13/2019 72 94 0.7
12/2/2019 40 41 1.5
2/12/2021 25 34 1.1
9/30/2022 37 73 1.1
3/21/2024 55 52 1.6

Also want to add that before my 3/21/2024 test in the ten days leading up to the test I lifted 6 times pretty intensely as I was about 3 weeks into a muscle gain phase.

Thank you for any help!

2

Hi there,

We have a general resource on this topic available on the website: HOW DOES EXERCISE AFFECT LIVER FUNCTION TESTS? | Barbell Medicine . In short, while training can temporarily raise AST and ALT measurements, I would not expect it to have significant impact on bilirubin levels in most patients.

Unfortunately it’s difficult to give individualized advice with the limited information here; we’d need a one-on-one consultation to get further into those details, or you could continue working with your physician to get to the bottom of this. Additional lab testing and a liver ultrasound would likely be useful.