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Alkaline phosphatase raising slightly

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claudia312
claudia312

I have had two blood tests, one in Feb 2017

And one last week

feb 2017

My alkaline phosphatase (ALP):106

AST: 17

ALT: 12

Last week

ALP: 116

AST: 31

ALT: 23

Is this something I should be concerned about?  What questions should I be asking if any?

The ranges are all in normal range but the ALP is one away from being considered high.

I do take red yeast rice 1200 mg to lower cholesterol .

My cholesterol is good:166

Combination of diet, exercise and red yeast rice supplements.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Claudia 

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • george16226
    george16226 claudia312

    Posted

    Hi!

    Alkaline phosphatase represents liver and bone funktion.Since Ast and Alt are normal there is likely no problem with the liver.In bone disorders the ALP level rises from 3 to 10 times higher than normal,so we can exclude that.How old are you?ALP results are very sensitive to age.Were CBC and billirubin tests done?Such levels of ALP can also be explained with low or borderline low level of vit D.Do you have other symptoms?

    • claudia312
      claudia312 george16226

      Posted

      Hi. Thank you for replying. I do take take Citracal with Vit D...  but up to two months ago I had been taking 5000 iu of vit d daily. I thought maybe too much and scaled back to between 1000 and 2000 per day between my citracal and one-a-day vitamin.

      A few years back I did have a deficiency and why I started taking in the first place.

      Could the red yeast rice supplement  have raised the ALP?

      A year ago I started that when I had a 210 total cholesterol - the only thing high was LDL at 122.

      Between fixing my diet, cardio 6 x per week for 30 mins and the red yeast rice, my numbers went to 166 total cholesterol and LDL down to 90.

      Not sure how much of that was due to exercise or red yeast rice. 

      I have temporarily stopped the red yeast but am afraid of my cholesterol inching back up.

      My bilirubin was 0.5 with the reference of normal being: 0.0 - 1.2

      FYI I’m 52. 😊

      Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.

      Claudia

    • george16226
      george16226 claudia312

      Posted

      I had to go through my pharmacognosy book to answer your question about the red yeast.This is apart of what it says:"statins,found in red yeast (Monascus purpureus) can improve osteogenic function through osteoblast cell proliferation and differentiation".

      That means that the red yeast stimulates a type of bone cell to divide more.These cells do have ALP,so yes red yeast can increase the levels of ALP.

      Also 5000IU of vit D daily is a huge dosage used to treat severe cases of D deficiency and malabsorbtion.If it was not prescribed by a doctor you should not take that high of a dosis.If you have been taking the vit D supplements for a month you should be fine now without taking them anymore..

    • claudia312
      claudia312 george16226

      Posted

      Thank you so much!

      Do you think it’s still safe taking the red yeast rice. I went to my doctor today and did not see a problem with me continuing.... she said it probably only lowered my cholesterol by 5%.she also said that the AP does fluctuate and they would be looking for a much higher number that one or two points if something were seriously wrong.

    • george16226
      george16226 claudia312

      Posted

      Indeed ALP tends to rise from 3 to 10 times the normal ammount in seroius disorders

      .You still can take the supplement ,but i think tat the exercise is more important.

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