With 2–6 weeks of abstinence, levels generally decrease to within the normal reference range, with the half–life of GGT being 14–26 days.
If you stop drinking alcohol for 2 weeks, your liver should return to normal.
Sometimes, factors such as hormonal changes or reactions to medications can cause temporarily elevated liver enzyme levels. Elevated levels caused by these factors will generally return to normal in about 2 to 4 weeks without treatment.
The researchers also found that even a single episode of binge drinking elevated the levels of the liver enzyme CYP2E1, which metabolizes alcohol into toxic by-products that can cause oxidative damage and other forms of tissue injury.
Alcohol is predominantly broken down in the liver through the actions of an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase. On average, the liver can metabolize 1 standard drink per hour for men, or about 0.015g/100mL/hour (i.e., a reduction of blood alcohol level, or BAC, by 0.015 per hour).
2–6 hours for methanol) after blood alcohol levels have returned to normal levels.
Liver enzymes are typically elevated, and tests of liver function may be abnormal. Up to 35% of heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis, and of these 55% already have cirrhosis. AH can be mild or severe. Mild AH may be reversed with abstinence.
Elevated liver enzymes often indicate inflammation or damage to cells in the liver. Inflamed or injured liver cells leak higher than normal amounts of certain chemicals, including liver enzymes, into the bloodstream, elevating liver enzymes on blood tests.
An AST/ALT ratio higher than one (where the AST is higher than ALT) means you may have cirrhosis. An AST/ALT ratio higher than 2:1 (where the AST is more than twice as high as the ALT) is a sign of alcoholic liver disease.
You will experience physical signs your liver is healing, such as healthier-looking skin and eyes, increased energy levels, and reduced stomach pain and swelling. Other signs your liver is healing include: Improved amino-acid regulation – Your liver processes proteins and amino acids that your body cannot store.
The liver damage associated with mild alcoholic hepatitis is usually reversible if you stop drinking permanently. Severe alcoholic hepatitis, however, is a serious and life-threatening illness.
Generally, symptoms of alcoholic liver disease include abdominal pain and tenderness, dry mouth and increased thirst, fatigue, jaundice (which is yellowing of the skin), loss of appetite, and nausea. Your skin may look abnormally dark or light.
Diagnostic Testing
If elevated abnormal liver enzymes are present, it could indicate liver damage, as these enzymes are normally only found within the liver. In most cases, liver enzyme levels are only mildly or temporarily elevated and don't signal a serious liver problem.
This study demonstrates that even very modest levels of alcohol intake can significantly affect liver enzymes and the most sensitive measure of alcohol intake is the enzyme GGT which is potentiated by alcohol intake as low as 7–14 g/day.
The short answer is yes: blood testing can show heavy alcohol use. However, timing plays a significant role in the accuracy of blood alcohol testing. In a typical situation, blood alcohol tests are only accurate six to 12 hours after someone consumes their last beverage.
Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) is the most widely used laboratory marker of alcoholism and heavy drinking, detecting 34-85% of problem drinkers and alcoholics.
In typical viral or toxic liver injury, the serum ALT level rises more than the AST value, reflecting the relative amounts of these enzymes in hepatocytes. However, in alcoholic hepatitis, the ratio of AST to ALT is greater than 1 in 90 percent of patients and is usually greater than 2.
Drink more water.
Simple liver detox remedies can often seem, well, simplistic. But here, the simple truth is that water helps the liver move toxins through its own cellular systems and speed them on their way out of your body.
The most common causes of elevated ALT levels in subjects undergoing health screening exams are alcohol intake, viral hepatitis, and NAFLD [18].