The Surprising Truth About This High Liver Enzyme: GGT and Glutathione
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- Опубликовано: 20 мар 2024
- Do you have a high GGT level like this or something similar? Maybe it's a little lower, maybe it's a little higher. In this video, I am going to discuss the actual cause behind high GGT levels, what its importance is in detoxification and in your body in general.
Glutathione: geni.us/9sH9rdA (Amazon Link)
I got a question from a viewer, Critter Clips, and it says, AST are okay, but my GGT is 186. So what she's asking is, what are actually high GGT levels? I wanted to answer this question in a little more depth, so here's a video about what's actually behind or what causes high GGT liver enzymes. Remember, the GGT is going to be less than 25 and possibly even lower than that.
So, what could be going on in your body when your GGT is high, but your AST and ALT, which are other liver enzymes, are normal? Now, remember, those ones should be less than 25 as well, and the reference range for those is usually much higher in the 40s, sometimes even the 50s, depending on which lab you use.
So liver enzyme is gamma-glutamyl transferase. And it's a liver enzyme that plays a critical role in transferring amino acids across cell membranes. And it's primarily found in the liver, but it can also be found in tissues like the kidney, pancreas, and spleen. And it plays an important role in things like detoxification and neutralizing oxidative stress through its connection with glutathione production.
Higher amounts in the blood suggest that the liver is dealing with more toxins, but also that the liver is upregulating its production of this liver enzyme, and it's going to do that based on either one increased oxidative stress or two increased toxic load or toxic burden.
Glutathione, if you don't know, is critical for both of these things. It helps with the process of reducing oxidative stress and eliminating toxins. The glutathione molecule goes through a process of oxidation when it's neutralizing toxins and free radicals in the body, and once the glutathione has oxidized, it needs to be recycled back into its reduced form so that it may continue to work as an antioxidant.
So where does GGT come in? Well, GGT is involved in the recycling process. Specifically, it breaks down extracellular glutathione into its constituent amino acids off of the glutathione, allowing for the cysteine and other amino acids to be used to make more glutathione.
So if you have more GGT levels or higher GGT levels, it implies more toxic exposure, which could be coming from alcohol or chemical exposure and other things like persistent organic pollutants that are often abbreviated as POPs. Some examples of persistent organic pollutants are going to be pesticides, polychlorinated biphenols, or PCBs, dioxins, and basically, a lot of the plastics and toxins that persist in the environment and are slow to break down or get eliminated.
So what we have to keep in mind with the elevations in GGT is that it's a very sensitive test, meaning that it moves up and down very reliably with increased need for glutathione. And it can also go down just as quickly as it goes up. The GGT liver enzymes are so sensitive that many doctors don't even run the test because it picks up on a lot of these anomalies that are not true liver disease. Maybe they're just going to be transient kind of blips.
However, while it may only be elevated transiently or for a short period of time, that's not a very good reason to avoid doing the test. And even if it is only elevated for a short period of time, It's also not a good thing for it to be elevated. So here's an excerpt from a review article on glutathione by Dr. Pizzorno. Both fatal and non-fatal coronary heart disease events, atherosclerosis, fatty liver, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, etc.
Of particular note, these are elevations of GGT within the supposed normal range. For example, men with GGT of 40 to 50 have a 20-fold increased risk for diabetes. Research also shows that GGT in the 30 to 40 range is associated with doubling the risk of all-cause mortality. So for sure, we should reconsider the reference range for some of these liver enzymes, including GGT.
And when it's high, it suggests that your body is in need or demanding more glutathione.Now, typically, when I see an elevated GGT, what this means to me is that the body is undergoing some sort of toxic exposure, and you want to find that and eliminate it. You can provide the body with more glutathione through various methodologies, but that's sort of like just putting a band-aid on it. It's not going to ever go away until that toxic exposure is removed. Now, if you know what the toxic exposure is, and it's just going to be a short period of time, then maybe something like taking exogenous glutathione may be the right way to go.
Finding and understanding what the underlying cause is for that increased GGT is what's going to help you resolve the elevation. Check out my other videos on elevated liver enzymes. 
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Best. Video. EVER. Thank you SO much for all of the unvaluable info you bring to us. In particular, letting us understand how to best read lab ranges, in their very broad range. Please keep up the excellent work, is so much appreciated.
You are so welcome! Sometimes it is hard to understand normal vs abnormal liver numbers
@@swintegrative It's so nice being able to understand meaning of lab exams that we do. And interpret results properly. Thank you so much.
Hi Doc excellent one.. My USG shows no sign of Fatty Liver.. But my GGT is 153 and ALT is 61
Thanks for sharing. More videos on fatty liver coming which may help you so stay tuned but basically it does take time for that to develop.
Could gallstones cause high ggt i was Diagnosed with gallstones my ggt came as 64 ...AST and Alt 30 and 38 respectively normal range for all three was less than 30 u/l
Yes gallstones do cause this too
Excellent video.I have a 136 GGT everything else is good. Does cancer has something to do with elevated levels?Thank you
it is too general to say but in some cases it may be related. It is more specific to liver and gall bladder.
hopefully your issues have resolved around this but I am doing a free live stream next Thursday on this topic if you still have questions. submit your questions in the comments of this post (link below) or live during the stream. Join us if you can! ruclips.net/user/postUgkxvC_29eriOmQ1kK5P275BPsO195-QqUe5
@@user-ne8vl2uh8g no not that I know of but gall bladder yes.
Could it be frying pans? The nonstick ones?
Yes it could be it you were using it a lot and it was a bad pan. A lot of chemical toxins can increase ggt but it’s not the only thing