The FastDay Forum

I had my yearly physical last week and the doctor ordered a routine blood test panel which included liver and kidney tests. Everything came in fine except that my bilirubin was elevated. So the nurse called me and told me the doctor wanted me to retest in 3 months.

I've had elevated bilirubin in the past when I was eating very low carb, so I wasn't alarmed, but this time it was a bit higher. A bit of Googling came up with the information that high bilirubin can be a sign of liver damage, but in that case other liver tests will be abnormal. It can also be a sign of plugged ducts. In that case, there may be some kind of pain. But more importantly, it turns out that fasting raises bilirubin, and I took my blood test the day after a fast.

A little more Googling also turned up the fact that high bilirubin occurs without other signs of liver disease it appears to be protective against heart disease, because bilirubin turns out to be a strong antioxidant and when it circulates in the blood stream it keeps LDL from getting oxidized. It is oxidized LDL that is bad for us.

So this may be another unsuspected benefit of fasting. Though it may also be something I've inherited. Some people apparently always have elevated bilirubin and I have had it in the past, just not quite so high.

Have any of you had elevated bilirubin after months of fasting. I've been at this almost 10 months now.

This is one of the things that gets tested annually in Japan in our health check. I had it tested right before starting IF and 1 year after. Mine hasn't changed at all--it's right in the middle of the normal range.

Thanks for flagging this up, very useful to know this in case the situation arises in future. I had routine blood tests including liver and kidney functions done in July, after nearly a year of IF, and they must have been OK as I heard nothing back from the docs. I couldn' t tell you what they were as getting numbers from the NHS is like extracting hen' s teeth, ad I discovered when I wanted the blood sugar and cholesterol readings. Whose blood is it anyway?

He has scheduled me for another test in January, so we will see.

The Doctor sent me to get my blood tested again on Tuesday because of that high bilirubin reading I had a month ago, and this time I fasted on Sunday and ate a bunch on Monday and on Tues morning before going for the test. This test was rock solid normal, right in the middle of the range.

I had been fasting since 7 PM the previous evening the day when I took the first, abnormal, test. So this confirms, for me that fasting can affect a bilirubin test. Keep this in mind if you run into this problem.