Elevated Bilirubin

[LandonL]

do most everyone with celiac disease have elevated bilirubin. On my official visit to my GI I had slightly high billirubin, and when I went back for my two month check up, it was still slightly high. He didn't seem concerned, I also had slightly high bad cholesterol and slightly low good cholesterol both times. I have read that several people on here had elevated bilirubin. Does it go back to normal after going gluten free, and it is just a result of having celiac and just finding out. I am 26 and was diagnosed at the end of february

[mimommy]

Hello. Sorry for the delayed post. When my child first became symptomatic her liver enzymes and bilirubin count were really high, with no medical reason/explanation. Once it was discovered that she had celiac and her body healed, the counts all eventually went back to normal. After much discussion and questioning of her GI doctors, the only answer we have is that she could possibly have had some viral type infection that caused both the onset of celiac and the elevated liver counts and that the liver responds to disease and auto-immune issues, but is often not indicative of anything specific. My daughter's GI told us that he has been seeing studies of, and many of his own patients with, similiarly high counts w/ celiac.

Not very exact, I know, but I remember about twenty years ago I had mono and my liver counts were high; they also became elevated when I went on a dangerously low calorie diet. However, elevated bilirubin CAN indicate other diseases and should not be taken lightly. Was your potassium level tested? The combination of low potassium and high liver enzymes can indicate heart problems.

Hoped this helped. Here is a link to another thread discussing this:

https://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/index.ph...d+liver+enzymes