Lyme - Elevated ALT and AST levels

While it is fairly common, you do need to target your detoxing to your liver. The abx break will help, but it's possible that you will have to continue to have these breaks if you don't concentrate on detoxing your liver well.

you could take a supplement - Milk thistle.

(unless you have a ragweed allergy)

I use Pekana Apo-Hepat.

My liver enzymes climbed when on lyme treatment...so I was forced to take a 2 1/2 month abx break - to let them come down...which they did.

After the break, I went on bart abx treatment (including Rifampin) and they continued to drop...and have never risen again..this is now over a year and a half that they've been stable.

Sometimes it can also be the infection causing the liver enzymes to climb and/or killing off the bacteria.

I've too have had several occurrences of elevated AST/ALT levels. The first time my LLMD had me stop my Rif/Zith/Doxy protocol and retest in two weeks. I was planning to get a PICC line and start IV Rocephin in 30 days, and when I retested the levels actually increased. But went ahead with PICC anyway.

The next several times they were elevated my LLMD dismissed any concerns and we plowed thru it. I guess it all determines how high they go. Normal is around 40 and below. Mid 60's to 70's is where you should start to be a little concerned. Sometimes an elevated reading is just sloppy lab work. Bart can also elevate the levels.

Girlie said...
you could take a supplement - Milk thistle.

(unless you have a ragweed allergy)

I use Pekana Apo-Hepat.

My liver enzymes climbed when on lyme treatment...so I was forced to take a 2 1/2 month abx break - to let them come down...which they did.

After the break, I went on bart abx treatment (including Rifampin) and they continued to drop...and have never risen again..this is now over a year and a half that they've been stable.

Sometimes it can also be the infection causing the liver enzymes to climb and/or killing off the bacteria.

I second the bolded.

As others have said, it depends on just how high they are now. If it's just in the 'watch carefully' area, then you may not need to stop treatments, but if they go too high, then yes, you will have to stop treatment until they go back down to avoid liver damage.

There are many good liver detoxes, so it depends on what you wish to use. The one I use is a liver and gall bladder detox, and Pirouette has it in her wonderful yeast/fungal post at the bottom of page 2 of our 'new to Lyme?' thread, if you are interested. I use this only when my liver is bothering me, not as a regular detox - although I do try to use it at least twice a year just for a good liver cleanse.

If you have been using R-lipoic acid and NAC-Sustain all along, then you will need to add in other liver detoxing, as that was not enough, as your testing shows.