hi,, back after a few days,,,seems pgh is a real gall bladder city,,,so many people having them removed,,I am wondering if anyone has taken welchol? I took it for 6 yrs. until my gb surgury,,,stopped all meds ,,took questran for diarrehea,,,stopped after bloodwork showed high liver function tests on my alt,,read on another board Caltratre d and 1 welchol stops it, and well so far it has worked, but does anyone know about welchol causing abnormal liver function tests? I call the company that makes it and they said, they have had no reports,,but thought zetia caused abnormal liver function tests,,,and these are sort of in the same family,,
also a ? for harry,,,saw you listed back in feb, alt levels being up to 70 or so,,,where did you find this info,,
thanks all

pyewacket,

Evidently when getting blood work done, the normal range is listed on the righthand side of the test report. I think the blood test machine used to conduct the test lists the normal range and not all machines are the same?

The normal range listed on several blood test reports that I have had was for liver enzymes and is --- ALT-- 19 to 71 and for AST -- 0 to 36.
I have seen others test results where the ALT range is 7.0 to 35.0 and the AST range of 8.0 to 34 done at hospitals.

I had never heard of the cholestrol lowering drug WelChol until tonight when you wrote about it --- I did a little search and found it works much like Questran by binding bile salts in the intestines and not letting them reach the colon to cause diarrhea. WelChol is not absorbed by the intestines so it should not have any affect on your liver enzymes.

I have seen the ads on TV about Zetia and it appears to do the same thing but have not read about it-- yet. It does not work on your liver like the statins drugs do!!

Keep us informed----Harry

My personal experience with Zetia -- horrible stomach pains -- like very bad stomach aches. (not in the gallbladder area). It took me a long time before I realized it was the Zetia causing stomach pains. I have also been on Lipitor, but it did not cause me any problems. But I took myself off all medications since the gallbladder issue, etc. I have not had my cholesterol retested, so not sure where it is right now -- but I do not plan on going back on Zetia. I think it works great if you can tolerate it. Again, just my personal experience.

One more thing, i too have had horrible troubles with cholesterol meds, been on lipitor, zocor, pravachol, zetia. can't do any of them. i quit.