Hi All,
So I've been ill for a couple of years now.
Brain fog - difficult to wake up
Stiff joints
Heavy arms and legs
Tiredness
Bloodwork ok except for gamma GT which sits around 125-185.
Most recently I have uncontrolable itching!!! Mostly arms but also on my abdomen which comes and goes and looks like a red rash.
Any ideas as to what I might be up against?
Thanks a million!!
Itching seems to be worse after eating...
Too much alcohol. Your GGT is about three times the max level. It is an indication of how hard your liver is working and except in certain circumstances, is the key indicator of alcohol consumption.
Brain fog is down to lack of thiamine, which is washed out of your body by alcohol and makes it difficult for your body to produce more, especially if you are not eating properly.
Stiiff joints, arms and legs, central nervous system.
Tiredness/fatigue, again an indication that the liver is struggling and also probably bad eating habits.
Itching, peripheral nervous system. I should imagine this happens when you stop/are not drinking.
I could of course be wrong, but at a guess, I would say that is why.
Not medically qualified, just someone who has had his own share of alcohol problems and ended up in hospital for it.
Thanks for your reply! I was drinking quite a bit but stopped a couple of weeks ago. How long before the itching stops in your opinion and without alcohol how long should it take before GGT normalizes?
Anything else I can do to help myself? I started sport which seems to help although my legs are SO heavy.
Thanks!!
If the itching is alcohol (it could always be something unrelated) usually only a couple of weeks.
If you had another GGT in three months it would most likely be in the normal zone.
In the mean time, you may want to get a month's worth of thiamine for the brain fog. A month's worth of vitamina B complex/compound strong and folic acid for your body.
Do not go to the supermarket and buy some multivitamins, they will not help. It must be thiamine, folic acid and vitamin B compound strong or complex. H&B sell them all, even if the staff member doesn't actually know it or a chemist will sell them.
Thank you very much RHGB, much appreciated!
Hello again.
What kind of doses would you suggest?
thiamine
vitamina B complex/compound strong
folic acid for your body.
Thanks in advance
Thiamine usually comes in 100mg tablets and one a day will be enough.
Folic acid comes in 400ug tablets and one a day is enough.
Both of those you can probably just get off the supermarket shelf.
vitamina B complex/compound strong one a day, they don't seem to give a weight, might be because it is made up of several different B vitamins. It contains things like a small amount of thiamine, but nowhere near the needed amount, so please still buy that separately. The is no reason that this should be behind the counter, but you may have to ask for it.
My post will get moderated if I say their name because it is advertising, but the large chemist beginning with B also sells all of these and would definitely have them in stock. Not that you should be asked, but if you did have to ask for it from behind the counter and they helpfully asked what it was for, just be honest and say you had a drink binge over Christmas that ran into January/Feb and you're suffering a bit of fatigue.
OK great, thanks for the advise.
The itching is a bit of a nightmare, doesn't stop. I also have a very irritated (swollen feeling) tongue.
No alcohol, eating well and drinking lots of herbal tea and water.
Well, if it persists, see your GP in case it is something else. Last time I gave up alcohol, the itching stopped after a week, but everybody is different.
Thx will do
This has been a really interesting thread as I have the same symptoms, at the moment I just take two milk thistle tablets a day and two cloves of garlic. I only eat fruit for breakfast and when I wake up I drink 550ml of water and nothing else for 50 minutes, every other day I mix a squeezed lemon into the water. It definately helps but the symptoms still remain enough for them to be a daily difficulty. I will be looking into what's been suggested as it seems really promising. Thanks guys.
I'm starting to think this is liver cirrhosis although GGT was the only elevation. Could it be or am I going mad?
I've no idea. I have no information other than your GGT measured high on your last test. Perhaps your drinking history may help.
Mid 40's almost, drank quite a bit of beer over the last 20 years .... never an extreme amount but maybe the frequency is a problem?
Stil litching, heavy legs and mild abdomina pain. Extremelly tired especially before getting up - I struggle to get out of bed.
Try Googling haemochromatosis.
Thanks Eric, wow! I have had a lot of blood transfusions too. I'll read up further on this. Thanks a million!
I would have thought your transferrin level/saturation would have been part of the test. If not you can be tested for this, to see if your iron levels are high. But it doesn't neccesarily mean haemochromatosis because mine were through the roof when I came out of hospital, but settled down over the nexr year.
What were the blood transfusions for? Were they complete blood or blood products such as plasma?
There is a separate forum for haemochromatosis here.
What does quite a lot of beer mean? Six pints daily for 20 years?
The only way to be 100% sure about the state of your liver is an abdominal ultrasound.
Thanks! Blood transfusions were 10 years ago, I very suddenly lost a huge amount of blood, after testing for 3 days they found I had Merkels Diverticulum.
I'll check the haemochromatosis forum too.
Thanks all! I really appreciate your help and advice.