I have a concern. I know I can trust you to give me a straight answer. I had blood work done yesterday. My ALT Serum was 16 in June 2010. Yesterday it was up to 36. I understand it should be below 33. The only difference was the Dr. put me on SloNiacin 500mg 2x/day. She did this for my cholesterol (which I don’t believe in and after taking Lipitor 2 times and having bad reaction to it I will not touch Statin drugs.)
My cholesterol went from 282, June 2010 to 219. Chol density lipoprotein went from 5.2 to 4.8, HDL from 44 to 46, LDL from 160 to 158 and triglicerides from 121 to 75. So the niacin appears to be doing its job there , but I am concerned about my liver.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all you do.
I consider liver enzyme levels below 26 as being healthy. The normals typically go up into the 30s and 40s, which demonstrates the difference between alternative medicine interpretation and conventional medicine.
Because any number of toxins may make the levels rise, the best way to find out is to stop the Niacin, see the levels drop, re-initiate the Niacin and watch the levels rise again. There is a form of Niacin that will never cause liver abnormalities, but that form may not do what you need it to do. Since from my perspective there is no need for cholesterol levels in the 200s to go down, I don’t see the need to use anything that lowers the total cholesterol level. However, other options to lower cholesterol include gugolipids, red yeast rice, fiber.
