Accutane and high AST and ALT levels

AllTheGainz

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This issue is probably pretty uncommon, not many people I know take accutane and probably none will ever have to deal with what I went through but I figured it would be good for the general public to know and learn about.

I've been on accutane for 5 months now (6 in total), finally finishing it up. Because accutane is so hard on the body and the liver monthly liver enzyme blood tests are done.

So cool, they draw blood everything is good and you get your next months dose. The problem is that they fail to tell you one very very important fact. Your AST and ALT levels are affected by how hard you train and when you train. And I have proof of this in the form of blood work.

NormalAST: 10-40
Normal ALT: 7-56

Month 1:
AST: 18
ALT: 23

Month 2:
AST: 21
ALT:26

Month 3:
AST: 15
ALT: 13

Month 4:
AST: 553. (WOAH! Explanation below)
ALT: 389. (WOAH! Explanation below)

Month 4 Retest after 2 weeks:
AST: 364. (WHAA?)
ALT: 182. (WHAA?)

Month 5: Had to take the month off.

Month 6:
AST: 18
ALT: 10

Final test: coming soon.

Explanation. AST and ALT are heavily influenced and directly correlated with the amount of working out done before the test and DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness. But why? How? Those were my questions as well.

Aspartate aminotransferase aka AST is An enzyme used to detect liver damage in conjunction with ALT another enzyme. The two in conjunction are supposed to show signs of liver damage if both elevated, however they can be influenced rapidly and easily. Both enzymes are found in muscle tissue and when you work out you break down muscle tissue. The more tissue you break down the more enzymes are released into your blood stream. So why was mine so high for both month 4 tests? Simple. The doctors failed to tell me I couldn't workout before a liver panel test, so for the first month 4 test I did a FBW the day before because I knew I'd have to take the blood draw day off from the gym due to travel time. The second test I worked out earlier that week, on a Tuesday and the test was Friday. Body still hadn't repaired all the damage in my muscle which was evident because of the severe DOMS I had on test day.

Just goes to show that doctors don't know everything, especially dermatologists looking at blood work.
 

rrivers

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Was doing some research because my ALT and AST (201 and 94, respectively) were high after a blood test in March which worried my Dr. After reading through some forums and PubMD publications I concluded the levels were high because I was lifting 6 days/week and doing high intensity leg sets each day. My Dr wasn't that convinced so I took a few days off (still played soccer and ran sprints the day before the test) and had the tests redone. Now ALT and AST are down to 92 and 46, respectively, without changing anything else.

In case your Dr isn't aware or doesn't mention anything, don't train for a few days before getting bloods done to save the pain of trying to explain why results are high to your Dr and have to have blood drawn again.
 

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