Okay, so here it goes…
I am only 23 years old, have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism since I was 20, and just now recently have gotten my TSH in check by switching from Levothyroxine to Synthroid (the Levo wasn’t controlling my TSH at all), but so far, the Synthroid had kept it in check very well in the 6 months I’ve been taking it. My TSH hovered around the 10-14 range when I was taking Levo for the 2.5 years previously, but the doctors kept just upping the dosage, I finally said that I failed the trial enough times and they agreed to switch me to Synthroid, and now it’s only been in the 1.5-3.5 range for the previous 6 months, which is great. But here’s where things get weird…
So I went to get a full blood panel done this past Friday and low and behold… my AST was 318 (normal is 10-40) and my ALT was 98 (normal is < 35). This immediately concerned the NP, for obvious reasons. Now, I don’t hardly ever drink, don’t smoke, don’t do any drugs, workout somewhat regularly and try my best to eat healthy nowadays. The only catch to all of that is that I usually will drink an energy drink (Monster) each night that I work my night shift nursing job in order to stay awake. The NP said that she wanted to repeat the lab in 3 days and for me to not drink anymore energy drinks in the meantime, so I didn’t drink any in the 3 day period that I waited to get labs done again, which was on Wednesday of this week. My lab results from that draw which came in earlier this morning were an AST of 58 and ALT of 55.
I was doing some research and it seems as if there’s a correlation between hypothyroidism, liver problems, and a possible diagnosis of NAFLD. My NP asked if NAFLD runs in my family, and it doesn’t. My parents are majorly hypothyroid though and have been receiving treatment for years.
My question is complicated, but I just want to know if anyone has gone through this same super strange issue / have gone through it, because the doctors looked at me as if was a binge drinker since I’m a 23 year old male. That’s far from the correct case. I would really appreciate any advice or guidance on this matter.
To summarize:
- had thyroid issues for 3+ years, just recently got TSH in check with the help of Synthroid switching from Levo
- recent lab panel showed extremely elevated liver enzymes values (AST and ALT), but normal bilirubin.
- wondering if there is a link between excess niacin in energy drinks, a weakened liver due to hypothyroidism?, and if I could potentially have NAFLD as a result of my uncontrolled TSH that went on for so long