L-Arginine + blood/liver tests

Hi guys,

I wanted to bring something up as it may or may not be important to you.

As we all know, L-Arginine is an Amino Acid and I guess is naturally produced by the body.

Well, I am 23 yrs old and last month, I got my first blood test EVER. It was an overall physical, but it was also for a blood test.

Well, I don’t drink nor do I smoke. I drink alot of water, but at the time, I was including cokes, mountain do’s etc… into my diet. I was also on a multi-vitamin from GNC and I was taking a GNC L-Arginine + L-Orthanine mix. I believe it was probably 2500 mg a day of the stuff. It recommends 1500 and 1000 mg respectively, or 4 pills a day.

Well, the test results came back and I was good in alot of categories like sugar levels, cholesterol, etc…

Out of the entire blood test, there was only 1 red flag that came up. My liver tests. There were 4 tests completed. 2 came back normal, 2 came back abnormal. Now, they weren’t abnormal like “critical” abnormal, but enough to make him want to do a few more tests.

So he gave me another blood test but to look for things like hepatitis and such. That came back clean. I went the last month without taking a single pill other then advil occasionally. We wanted to see if the amino acids (L-Arginine) were having an effect on the numbers.

My test results came back great this last time. He told me last time my numbers for those 2 abnormal tests were a little higher then they should have been, but only yesterday did I find out they my numbers that were irregular were 3 x higher then what is the “good range”.

We think this may have been the amino acids because they make the liver work extra hard. We can 100% verify it, because I am sure it could have possibly been something in the multi-vitamin, but he felt it was in my best interest to get off the amino acids.

Kinda freaked me out even though the numbers weren’t critical high, but at age 23, and with my mom being dead at the age of 44, I have to watch my health asap.

Here are the two tests and the numbers I had.

there is one test called ALT. A number between 10 and 45 is pretty good.

Test 1 (with pills in my system) - 105
Test 2 (no pills in system) - 36

The second test was called AST. Again, a number between 10 and 45 is pretty good.

Test 1 (with pills in my system) - 84
Test 2 (no pills in system) - 27

I know the liver is one of those things you don’t fuck with. Good thing I don’t drink, that would have made my numbers worse.

Anyways, not trying to scare anyone, but think to yourself about the last time you got a blood test. Think about going to check if you are on supplements, you just never know what your doing to your organs. Supplements are good, but for those of you taking 6 g a day of Arginine, you might want to think twice.

My dad always says, “How many times do you get your teeth looked at in a year” Answer: usually 2 times. “Then why don’t you treat your body the same way”?

There you go…

Hope that has been of some use or help.

Interesting. Was the other one, GGTP, the same for both tests?

Did you exercise vigorously before the first test, such as lift weights, run hard, etc.? I’ve heard that can bump up the numbers a bit.

Years ago I had a liver test come back abnormal. All the numbers were way high - in the hundreds. I tested negative for hepatitis, thank goodness. Unfortunately the numbers were still up well above normal when retested a month later. I then took milk thistle for a couple months, changing nothing else, including my (quite high at the time) level of alcohol consumption, and with the following test AST, ALT and GGTP were all back in the normal range.

I got so busy with the figures I skipped over the tail end of your post.

Don’t jump to the conclusion L-Arginine is bad because it raises the test numbers. That doesn’t mean actual liver damage is occurring. IIRC, the reason heavy exercise can increase the numbers is because of increased protein breakdown. That doesn’t mean your liver is suffering.

What these tests measure is the level of certain enzymes in the blood. Normally these enzymes are inside liver cells. When the liver cells are damaged the enzymes are released into the bloodstream. Other things, such as heavy exercise and perhaps L-Arginine or other amino acid consumption, can produce high readings, yet your liver is fine.

This test is often referred to (incorrectly) as a “liver function test.” It doesn’t measure liver function, and is only an indicator of possible liver damage. Other things can cause the numbers to be high. In addition, in some liver diseases the circulating enzyme levels can actually decrease as the disease progresses.

Funny this thread came up. I went for a physical at the end of June and had a liver test done and it came back abnormal because of high liver enzymes. One of mine (alt or ast, can’t remember) was 112, with the normal for the test between 20 and 40. I had not been taking anything as far as supplements or anything. I had the flu right before I went to the doc though. He wanted me to have the hepatitis tests to. Low and behold the tests came back that I had hepatitis c antibodies in my blood. What a shock!!! I have never had a blood transfusion or done any kind of drugs with needles, or any kind of drugs for that matter. Needless to say I was dumbfounded. He sent me for another test to confirm that I had the virus. It took a week for the test to come back and I was like a zombie that week. I also lost about 7 pounds because I didn’t have much of an appetite.

Anyway, the hep c test came back negative that I did not have the disease. They also did a ultrasound on my liver that came back normal. Thank God, what a relieve. He said I had contracted it and my body had gotten rid of it or there was a problem with the tests. Only 5 to 10 % of the people that contract it get rid of it.

Anyway he sent me to a gastro???? doctor. I just went today. He looked at my charts and said to come back in 6 months for more bloodwork. I will probably go somewhere else to get a second opinion on it as he acted like I probably had it and didn’t really care.

The scariest part is I worked with a guy that now has liver cancer due to hep c. I don’t think he knew he had it until he found out he had cancer. When they said I may havethe virus my mind jumped to the worst possible scenarios. I know some of the guys that I worked with blamed it on some of the chemicals we were around.He did drink alot and do some meth though I think. This probably speeded up his liver damage and the onset of cancer.

Thanks Hobby.

I don’t remember doing any exercise before the test .If I did, it was the previous day.

I know Arginine isn’t bad. Personally, though, I think taking 6g of it daily can’t be all that good for you.

I am not working out right now, so I don’t know how much of a benefit Arginine would even be to me. I might stick with a multi-vitamin and some vitamin E for now, go back take a blood test and see if its something in the multi. If so, then I can start back up on Arginine.

But at 23 with my mom dead and my father has heard disease at 52, I just gotta be on the lookout, you know.

They told me that if hepatitis would have been in the blood, the results would have come back in the 1000’s , I guess that depends on the hepatitis though.

During the time I thought I might have hepatitis, I looked around for possible treatments. One doctor reported good results from a combination of milk thistle, selenium and alpha lipoic acid. I don’t remember what, if any studies had been done to support his regimen, but he claimed his patients had good results. Seemed to be a viable alternative to Interferon.

Milk thistle is a good liver protector. Studies show it helps. If I worked around chemicals, pesticides or other potentially liver-toxic substances I’d take it daily.

This is interesting. I recently had a complete physical as well and my ALT was 86 which caused my physician to order further tests for hepatits (all negative). I think I failed to tell him about all my supplements.

http://www.gast … md.com/lft.html

Good thing you don’t have hepatits. Tits on the liver could be a bad omen. ;)

well, I am glad I could bring some of this to light for you guys. I recommend getting checked if you

a. Have never
b. Take alot of supplements
c. you just should :)

Hmmm. Hep-a-ti-tis. Gotta quit typing so fast. :)

It’s much more likely that the amino acid supplements are throwing off the test results and not that they are causing liver damage. Someone taking a lot of supplements would probably show a false high reading on the ALT and cause his physician to be concerned and order more expensive tests.

Interesting, though the unsurety involved makes me want to cut back to only using my creatine+arginine+ginseng pills only on days that I work out.

Ok, I have a question for our pharmacist members, maybe westLA knows too, or? I’m delving more and more into L-arginine.

Grossly stated, is the L-arginine affecting the Thalmus as a growth hormone???

How sensitive to damage is the Thalmus?

And, is the skin hardening statement external only, or more logically internal also, what about arterio-sclerosis?

Is a herpes attack triggered by L-arginine?

At what doses does this become a problem?

Need input!
Thanks
J