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Ever stared at a lab report that says “SGOT” and had no clue what it meant?
You’re not alone. I’ve been there — sitting in the doctor’s office, pretending I understood while secretly Googling “SGOT test” on my phone under the table. Turns out SGOT is one of those old-school medical terms that’s still hanging around, even though most labs now call it AST (Aspartate Aminotransferase). Same thing, different name.
So let’s talk about the SGOT test like two normal people over coffee — no medical degree required.
First off: What the heck is the SGOT test anyway?
Your liver (and to a lesser degree your heart and muscles) makes this enzyme called AST or SGOT. When those cells get damaged or die, the enzyme leaks into your blood. The SGOT test just measures how much of it is floating around.
Think of it like this: if your liver is a nightclub, SGOT/AST are the bouncers. Normally they stay inside doing their job. When the place gets wrecked (inflammation, alcohol, hepatitis, etc.), the bouncers spill out onto the street. More bouncers outside = something bad probably happened inside.
Normal SGOT levels (so you can stop panicking)
Here’s what labs usually consider normal:
- Men: 10–40 U/L
- Women: 9–32 U/L
- Kids: can be a little higher, up to 50 U/L
Anything above 40–50 starts raising eyebrows, but here’s the thing doctors won’t always tell you straight: a slightly high SGOT by itself doesn’t mean much.
I once had a patient whose SGOT was 68. He freaked out thinking he had cirrhosis. Turns out he’d done a brutal leg day at the gym two days before. Muscle damage from lifting heavy can bump SGOT up just like liver damage can.
Common reasons your SGOT test comes back high
Here are the usual suspects — from “chill, it’s fine” to “yeah, we need to look deeper”:
- Intense exercise (especially weight training or marathon running)
- Medications — statins, painkillers, even some antibiotics
- Alcohol — even a heavy weekend can spike it
- Fatty liver (the most common cause these days)
- Viral hepatitis (A, B, or C)
- Heart attack or heart failure (less common now that we have better heart tests)
- Muscle disorders or major injuries
SGOT vs ALT — why your doctor always orders both
You’ll almost never see an SGOT test by itself. It’s always paired with ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase). Why? Because ALT is way more specific to the liver.
Quick cheat sheet I use:
- Both SGOT and ALT high → probably liver
- SGOT high, ALT normal → maybe muscle or heart
- ALT way higher than SGOT → classic for viral or alcoholic hepatitis
- SGOT way higher than ALT → think alcohol or cirrhosis
Real story time
My buddy Mike got blood work done before starting a new job. SGOT was 92, ALT was 105. He hadn’t drunk in weeks, eats clean, exercises like a beast. Full panic mode.
We repeated the test two weeks later after he stopped his pre-workout and cut back on deadlifts — both numbers dropped to the 30s. Lesson learned: sometimes the SGOT test catches you flexing too hard, not your liver failing.
When you should actually worry about a high SGOT
Red flags I tell people to watch for:
- Yellow skin or eyes (jaundice)
- Dark urine + pale stools
- Constant exhaustion
- Swelling in your legs or belly
- Unexplained weight loss
- SGOT over 200–300 (especially if it stays high on repeat tests)
If you’ve got any of those, don’t wait — get seen.
How to lower SGOT levels naturally (if your doc says it’s safe)
Most of the time it’s about fixing the root cause, but these help:
- Cut the booze for a few weeks (or longer if fatty liver is the issue)
- Drop processed junk and sugar
- Coffee — yeah, actual studies show 2–3 cups a day protects the liver
- Exercise, but don’t go full CrossFit beast mode right before bloodwork
- Milk thistle and turmeric get thrown around a lot, but evidence is meh. Focus on the basics first.
The bottom line on your SGOT test
One weird number on a lab sheet doesn’t tell the whole story. I’ve seen people with SGOT in the thousands walk in feeling fine (acute hepatitis) and people with SGOT of 45 get told they’re dying (they weren’t).