Can Weight Lifting Make Your Lab Results Look Bad?

[PeakT]

Okay. 

Well, what really bothers them imo is that throws additional variables into their diagnosis.  Weight lifting, for example, modifies many lab results.  Fasting can do the same thing.  So it just makes it harder for them.

Question for you: 

Are you on many meds for the depression?

Wouldn't lifting affect bloodwork positively? And most bloodwork they get you to fast anyway. Either way if you see in my other thread, all the labs until about mid 2012 were while I was eating in a normal fashion with a about 4+ meals a day, mainly wholefoods without any sort of grain/gluten/carb restriction. And nothing changed when I switched over.

And no I don't take any sort of meds. I don't think I'm depressed. I just feel like a zombie most of the time.

I can't tell you the number of guys on the forum that have had low T and the docs have told them that it's all in their head and to go see a psychiatrist or get some help.  I wish I had a rheostat on the wall where I could dial down his testosterone to about 250 and see if he still made that comment after a couple of weeks!

Add me to that list. I was given a referral to a psychologist by that GP who thought LH was a female hormone and my first endo also said I should see a psych.

Sure weight lifting, in general, is good for you and can even tweak up testosterone a little.  But some examples as to how it can skew your lab results:  your creatinine levels can go way up for example.  PSA can rise.  Liver enzymes can look ugly when all is well:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2291230/

[Ken]

I don't know that simply weightlifting without additional supplements such as creatine can throw lab results off.  I am skeptical of this.  If anything weightlifting and exercise in general should improve your panels.  I believe it is proven to help your ratio for good vs bad cholesterol.

With that said, I can tell you that I failed a physical about 15 years ago that a life insurance underwriter required for a somewhat large policy.  I failed it for elevated creatine level.  As soon as I heard it, I said well of course.  At that time I was taking supplemental creatine.  I explained this to them and they asked me to retest after a couple of weeks off of the stuff.  I did and everything was fine.

My 2 cents on the matter. 

[PeakT]

All the examples I gave are examples where you give a negative lab result even tho you are fine

[Sam]

The liver enzymes etc, are often indicative of what normally happens when your body is under repair mode I believe.   This is why they use some of these tests for early indicators for cancer etc.

Part of it is just working with a knowledgeable doc who can take into consideration your lifestyle when interpreting lab results.   For instance PSA after doing a 20mile bike ride or having sex with your wife.  Do they ask the right questions before drawing conclusions.

[PeakT]

The liver enzymes etc, are often indicative of what normally happens when your body is under repair mode I believe.   This is why they use some of these tests for early indicators for cancer etc.

Part of it is just working with a knowledgeable doc who can take into consideration your lifestyle when interpreting lab results.   For instance PSA after doing a 20mile bike ride or having sex with your wife.  Do they ask the right questions before drawing conclusions.

True, but the doctors don't always know from what I've seen.  Yes, with PSA it's pretty common knowledge.  But the kidney/liver changes are often missed.

[JackAndy]

The liver enzymes etc, are often indicative of what normally happens when your body is under repair mode I believe.   This is why they use some of these tests for early indicators for cancer etc.

Part of it is just working with a knowledgeable doc who can take into consideration your lifestyle when interpreting lab results.   For instance PSA after doing a 20mile bike ride or having sex with your wife.  Do they ask the right questions before drawing conclusions.

Yeah my creatinine was pretty high when I had my last blood tests done because I had just done a killer workout the day before so my muscles were in "repair mode" it was 3 times higher than the previous test but still nowhere near what you would get if you had a heart attack or accident that caused a lot of muscle tissue to die. When I drink enough water to satisfy my doctor's comfort zone on the liver enzymes I have to pee like every 20 minutes. That's just not possible when you have to work and can't get up for a couple hours at a time.

[T-Power]

Sure weight lifting, in general, is good for you and can even tweak up testosterone a little.  But some examples as to how it can skew your lab results:  your creatinine levels can go way up for example.  PSA can rise.  Liver enzymes can look ugly when all is well:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2291230/

Interesting. But that study was done on non trained individuals. I wonder how much the results differentiate on individuals who regularly weight lift. As you can see in my bloodwork thread ALP, AST and ALT were mostly in range or slightly elevated. Creatinine in range, bilirubin a little high. Seems that the labs don't get significantly affected, in my case anyway.

[PeakT]

Interesting. But that study was done on non trained individuals. I wonder how much the results differentiate on individuals who regularly weight lift. As you can see in my bloodwork thread ALP, AST and ALT were mostly in range or slightly elevated. Creatinine in range, bilirubin a little high. Seems that the labs don't get significantly affected, in my case anyway.

Yeah, sorry, I should have said that.  I was really just pointing out that your labs kind of showed this trend, not that it was cause for alarm or anything.  Just a matter of discussion that I though some guys would be interested in.

[JackAndy]

Interesting. But that study was done on non trained individuals. I wonder how much the results differentiate on individuals who regularly weight lift. As you can see in my bloodwork thread ALP, AST and ALT were mostly in range or slightly elevated. Creatinine in range, bilirubin a little high. Seems that the labs don't get significantly affected, in my case anyway.

I guess that depends on the range of the labs. The rangers are pretty loose in America because they have the same ranges for all the races. When I get tested here in Japan the ranges are very different and quite narrow. The range for testosterone is 2.0-7.0 ng/dl for instance which is the lowest I've ever seen. Also my temperature is always considered to be feverish by Japanese standards. So it's quite a pain sometimes because my doctor doesn't really know what to make of my results sometimes and then I have to go home and try to google it.