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Have High MCV Due To Alcohol. How To Reduce This?
Question: my MCV is high due to alcoholism. (also GGT AST, ALT) How can I reduce this?
Hi XXXXXX,
Alcohol can damage significantly your liver, and if those liver enzymes (GGT, AST and ALT) are indeed elevated, then it reflects there is inflammation in your liver. You should stop completely alcohol. The fact that you are also diabetic places you at risk of having metabolic liver problems, and therefore "fatty liver disease", which is simply fat accumulation in the liver that can lead to liver inflammation and injury.
The only way to decrease your liver enzymes is to eliminate the insult, therefore stop alcohol completely. If this does not normalize your enzymes then further investigation should be sought.
Regarding your MCV, this is very common in patients that drink large amounts of alcohol.
Alcohol interferes directly with red blood cell development, making your body produce grossly enlarged red blood cells, and therefore an elevated "MCV" (which means "Mean Corpuscular Volume" or the red blood cell). It usually comes down to normal after 2-4 months of abstinence.
MCV can also go up when a patient has vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency. Therefore make sure you take oral supplements of these vitamins.
Hope that answered your question! let me know if you have any further questions.
Alcohol can damage significantly your liver, and if those liver enzymes (GGT, AST and ALT) are indeed elevated, then it reflects there is inflammation in your liver. You should stop completely alcohol. The fact that you are also diabetic places you at risk of having metabolic liver problems, and therefore "fatty liver disease", which is simply fat accumulation in the liver that can lead to liver inflammation and injury.
The only way to decrease your liver enzymes is to eliminate the insult, therefore stop alcohol completely. If this does not normalize your enzymes then further investigation should be sought.
Regarding your MCV, this is very common in patients that drink large amounts of alcohol.
Alcohol interferes directly with red blood cell development, making your body produce grossly enlarged red blood cells, and therefore an elevated "MCV" (which means "Mean Corpuscular Volume" or the red blood cell). It usually comes down to normal after 2-4 months of abstinence.
MCV can also go up when a patient has vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency. Therefore make sure you take oral supplements of these vitamins.
Hope that answered your question! let me know if you have any further questions.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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