I had high (1.5) bilirubin on my latest blood work back in Sep., and the doctor was asking about drinking or other factors that could be affecting my liver. Did a little digging, though, and came across this article:
I did fast for about 16 hours prior to the test, so it makes sense that when your body isn’t busy digesting food, it’s repairing and recycling (autophagy). Anyone else get similar results? I may try to limit the fasting period before my next test to see what happens.
Yeah, mine came in at 1.2, much higher than usual for me, after I’d been fasting about 30 hours. Had me a little concerned at first.
I guess I shouldn’t be, but I’m surprised the doctor didn’t know the association with fasting. They’re probably not used to people going more than 8 hours or so before testing
Mine went from .9 to 1.4 in tests less than a week apart. On the 1.4 test I had been fasting about 14 or 15 hours. Was just googling my results and came across your post. Thanks for this. I’ll keep an eye on it for my next test.
I just got a reading of 1.8, at about 16 hours fasted (and I didn’t eat that much even on that day). I also got a reading of 1.4 (the high end of the normal range is 1.2) three years ago, probably 12 hours fasted. Everything else looks good, so I’m disinclined to see a doctor, but the jump up from three years ago was a bit concerning until I saw this thread.
Does anyone have any more information about this number?
Your bilirubin needs to be considered in the context of your other blood work, in particular the liver enzymes AST and ALT. If they are normal, and markers of inflammation (such as C-reactive protein, ferritin, white blood cells, etc.) are all normal, then I wouldn’t worry. Do you know what your lipid numbers and your HbA1C are?
Thanks, Paul. My crp 3 years ago was 1.03, but it wasn’t included in this new test.
All numbers on the CBC and lipid panels were listed as normal. For context: male, age 46, 6’0", 222 lbs. Specific values:
HbA1C = 4.8 (fasting glucose = 93)
total chol = 141 (HDL 41, LDL 85, VLDL 13)
trigs = 63
AST = 18
ALT = 22
GGT = 15
How long have you been low carb?
Your total cholesterol and LDL are lower than mine, and I thought mine was low. My HDL is higher, your trigs are lower, my AST, ALT, and GGT are slightly lower. Not sure about bilirubin…will have to check tonight.
I started keto in October 2017 at 228 lbs and had good success, losing 30 lbs by the next October and staying around there for a year. Then I changed jobs, moved cities, and gained the 30 lbs back pretty quickly. In the last 6 months of pretty strict keto, I’ve only lost 8 pounds, which is disappointing.
I don’t know what my markers looked like before January 2018, when my A1C was at 4.6 and my lipds were essentially identical to this new test (except trigs were 100), but I’d been as heavy as 270 lbs in 2012 before losing 80 lbs on MediFast, so I wouldn’t really expect to be showing healthy numbers (and I’m probably still 35-40 lbs overweight). Maybe keto really did make a fast improvement; I just don’t know for sure. I did have bloodwork done about 10 years and some things were vaguely alarming to the doc (he prescribed “eat better and exercise”, neither of which I did at the time), but I knew nothing of such things then and so I don’t remember what they were, and the report is in storage.
Anyway, hopefully that helps provide some useful info. Thanks for any input.
Usually it does, amazingly so. If you see people’s HbA1c, for instance, it plummets on keto.
Some other markers can take a while, though. My HDL was 37 after about 6 months low carb. It was 49 a year later (so 1.5 years into low carb/keto). It was in the 50s 6 months later, and now (6+ years later) is around the mid 50s.
As for losing only 8 pounds on keto for 6 months, that is frustrating. Not much to do except keep on keeping on, and try to shake things up if it really becomes an issue. Fasting can help too.
Nice numbers! Your HbA1C and ratio of triglycerides to HDL are both superb. Mazel tov!