Blood sugar haywire on McD - and I'm not diabetic

[TanneryGulch]

After 10 weeks...

Good
Fructosamine = 225 (= A1c 5.4%). Finally below what I'd consider blatantly abnormal. The trend is encouraging and seems to confirm the McDougall/Barnard claims about insulin sensitization and the body adapting to process all the starch. I'd still love to know what true-normal glucose is for a non-diabetic on this diet.

My weight is stable as long as I eat enough, and I seem to be getting even leaner; I can almost see my abs now.

Bad
Still having a lot of headaches and "hypoglycemic" symptoms. Never in my life have I felt bad (nor particularly good, either) because of my diet, until now.

My @*#! liver enzymes are still elevated (AST=52, ALT=92). It's been too long to be due to something transient like a virus. I don't drink. What could be going on here? The low-carbers would say that the diet is giving me NAFLD. But starch (glucose) isn't a problem, right? I've been eating very little fructose -- basically just the amount in sweet potatoes; no fruit or overt sugars. The only confounder I can think of is that I've been chewing way too much sugarless gum. Can sugar alcohols (sorbitol, etc.) do this? I looked for evidence of this online and couldn't find any, so I'm guessing that's not it. Any tips on not destroying my liver?

[JeffN]

My @*#! liver enzymes are still elevated (AST=52, ALT=92). It's been too long to be due to something transient like a virus. I don't drink. What could be going on here? The low-carbers would say that the diet is giving me NAFLD. But starch (glucose) isn't a problem, right? I've been eating very little fructose -- basically just the amount in sweet potatoes; no fruit or overt sugars. The only confounder I can think of is that I've been chewing way too much sugarless gum. Can sugar alcohols (sorbitol, etc.) do this? I looked for evidence of this online and couldn't find any, so I'm guessing that's not it. Any tips on not destroying my liver?

As I am sure you know... it is very unlikely that your changes in diet have anything to do with your elevated liver enzymes.

An increase in AST levels may indicate:
* Acute hemolytic anemia
* Acute pancreatitis
* Acute renal failure
* Liver cirrhosis
* Heart attack
* Hepatitis
* Infectious mononucleosis
* Liver cancer
* Liver necrosis
* Multiple trauma
* Primary muscle disease
* Progressive muscular dystrophy
* Recent cardiac catheterization or angioplasty
* Recent convulsion
* Recent surgery
* Severe deep burn
* Skeletal muscle trauma

Greater-than-normal ALT levels may indicate:
* Celiac disease
* Cirrhosis
* Hepatitis (viral, autoimmune)
* Hereditary hemochromatosis
* Liver ischemia (blood flow deficiency to the liver)
* Liver tumor
* Use of drugs that are poisonous to the liver

You may want to review some of this with your MD to rule out any of the above possibilities.

While I would not recommend it, it's not the sugarless gum.

In Health
Jeff