How Long Are LFTS Elevated After Drinking (And Why)?

How Long Are LFTS Elevated After Drinking (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 2-6 Weeks

Drinking alcohol may have some benefits if they are consumed at a limited percentage. However, people having drinking problems do not have any concern about how much they drink and therefore their internal organs like the liver and kidneys are affected due to heavy drinking.

Liver function tests also abbreviated as LFT is a test that not only get affected from drinking alcohol but drinking other beverages like coffee, smoking, and other such things affect LFT. The effects of these habits should be interpreted carefully and there should be other things that need to be kept in mind.

How Long Are LFTS Elevated After Drinking

How Long Are LFTS Elevated After Drinking?

The purpose of conducting LFT testsTo measure specific enzymes and certain types of proteins in the blood.
For treatment of liverIn case, there is some kind of fluctuations then there might be some complications like liver infection or some other type of disease.

If you have been called by doctors for an LFT or a liver function test then you should not consume any kind of beverages drink for 24 hours before the test. As mentioned earlier that these things will affect the overall result of the test.

It is because a trace amount of alcohol could remain in your bloodstream for several days. However, these tests are done in case you are showing some poor liver functioning symptoms.  Some of the common symptoms are jaundice, pain in the abdomen and swelling, legs and ankles being swollen up, dark urine color, itchy skin, pale stool color, chronic fatigue, and nausea or vomiting.

In case, you are experiencing most of the above symptoms then you should immediately make an appointment with a doctor. Signs like these show that you have poor liver functioning that needs immediate attention.

Blood test

You should also make sure that you do not consume any kind of beverages that might affect the result of the test. There can be a chance that you might have a healthy liver but doctors might get confused because of the beverages that might show different outcomes.

Why Does It Take That Long For LFTS Being Elevated After Drinking?

People who are into heavy consumption of alcohol will get their LFTS elevated for several weeks. However, within the next few weeks of abstinence, the levels slowly and gradually start to decrease and reach almost the normal range.

Even if you drink for one night then researchers have found that the liver enzymes have increased in those people. If your test result is between the range of 7-56 units/liter for ALT then you should know that your liver is functioning normally and there is nothing to worry about.

A liver function test is conducted similar to just like any blood test and the test may be conducted at a hospital, clinic, or at a specialized testing facility. Just before the process of the test, your skin will be cleaned by the physician who is about to conduct the test so that to prevent any substances and avoid any kind of contamination of the test.

You will be asked by the practitioner to fold your arm. The practitioner than with the help of a pressure device will make the veins more visible. The next thing is needle will be inserted so that to extract some amount of blood for the test. And as soon as this is over the blood collected would be sent to the laboratory for further testing for obtaining the results.

Blood test

This is one of the easiest ways to detect any kind of problem that you are facing internally. Although, you will show some symptoms if your liver is not functioning properly. You should be very careful about the things that you consume and drink.

Conclusion

In the end, it is your health that matters the most because once your liver is in the final stage of failure then there would be nothing that the doctors could do except for a liver transplant. You will want to keep your liver as healthy as possible because a liver transplant might not be a cheap option at all.

You just need to follow some simple routine like reducing the consumption of alcohol and other things that might affect your liver. Try to talk it out with a doctor if you are noticing some early symptoms because proper treatment will cure the disease easily.

References

  1. https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1756-0500-5-493
  2. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1136/vr.103605
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