Blood Drug Testing

Can not fasting cause errors in blood tests?

I just got a letter from my doctor at Veterans Affairs saying a blood lab test I recently took showed levels far above normal in my liver tests. The levels they referred to were my AST and ALT. I've done a little checking online and now I'm pretty nervous that I have some serious liver problem and I'm sorta freaking out a bit. I feel completely fine and haven't had any pain in the area. I'm only 32 years old. So I'm wondering if it was a bad test. I wasn't made aware of the testing so I had eaten a large bowl of cereal just an hour or two before the test. I've done the test before and they usually require a 12 hour fast. So could the fact that I had just eaten a large bowl of sweet cereal caused an error? I'm going in tomorrow to get checked but was hoping someone might be able to shed some light on this for me. Thank you!

Public Comments

1. I'm not sure about sugar, but herbal vitamins can have an affect on the results, so if you're taking any herbal supplements you may not get a proper reading, even if you skipped it one night. Vitamins that aren't water soluble can stay in your system.