reading ALT threads from 2024 and half of it aged badly
Posting this as a discussion rather than a claim: reading ALT threads from 2024 and half of it aged badly. Why so many single values look alarming and turn out to be nothing. A reference interval is built to contain about 95% of a healthy reference population, so one test in twenty falls outside one by construction.…
Left up. It is a question about how to compare panels, not a request for interpretation.
The confounding problem, stated plainly, because this board keeps stepping on it.
Substantial weight loss moves lipids, liver enzymes, insulin sensitivity markers and several others in its own right. If you are losing weight while taking something, any change in those markers has at least two candidate explanations and you cannot separate them from your own panel.
What you can do is standardise, take a baseline, keep the series long, and be honest in your posts about what is and is not attributable. The threads that say "this compound did X to my fasting insulin" almost never have the design to support the claim, mine included.
the trend line matters more than any single value
Not convinced by the attribution. Weight loss alone moves that marker and you have no way to separate the two.
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Correction: that marker is reported in different units by different labs, which explains the tenfold difference you are seeing.