[PROJECT] B.L.O.A.T: Getting the best liver of all time - Sean Sullivan

[PROJECT] B.L.O.A.T: Getting the best liver of all time

By Sean Sullivan on 19 May 2026

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Earlier in 2025, I did bloodwork for the first time in a while, and had some high liver enzymes. I’d come off the heels of five years of college, and having spent the last ~year and a half drinking like my liver was bulletproof. This blood test made me realize that it should probably change.

One really cool piece of context to this is that I’ve been getting blood tests since I was seventeen. That is useful because I have my own younger-me data, which is more useful than a generic ‘normal range’ for these test results. I can look at what my numbers were before I spent a few years making worse decisions.

So my goal was simple, I wanted the best liver test results I have ever personally recorded. The best liver of all time. BLOAT.

The baseline

The main markers came from a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel. I used to call this a liver panel, but that isn’t quite right. A CMP covers more than the liver, so I filter it down to the values I care about:

Total protein

Albumin

Globulin

Albumin/globulin ratio

Total bilirubin

Alkaline phosphatase

AST

ALT

ALT and AST are the big ones for me because they are the main liver stress enzymes [0]. They don’t tell the whole story of liver function, but if you have been drinking and those numbers are high, they get your attention pretty quickly.

Albumin, total protein, globulin, and A/G ratio tell more of the surrounding story, helping to explain things like immune activity and whether the body is keeping its basic chemistry in a good place. (I sound like I know what I’m talking about, but most of this is from Google). Bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase are worth watching too, though bilirubin can bounce around for reasons that do not automatically worry me, and alkaline phosphatase is not purely a liver marker.

So while ALT and AST are my focus, the whole picture has to look good.

Now even inside of a normal range, the individual value is still important. After some research, I came across these generalized ‘trends’ for what makes something more optimal, even if it’s the normal range.<br>Holding all else equal, if we are within the normal range, here’s what you want for each marker in a liver panel:

Albumin: Higher is better

A/G Ratio: Higher is better

Total Protein: Higher is better

Globulin: Dead middle is better

ALT: Lower is better

AST: Lower is better

Alkaline Phosphatase: Lower is better

Bilirubin: Makes no difference

This provides a way to differentiate test results that are close but still considered ‘within the normal range’. So if I’m comparing two test results that are within the normal range, clinically they may both be considered the same, but biologically one of them might be just slightly better.

Now, here was seventeen-year-old me when he got his CMP:

Analyte<br>2018 report, age 17

Total protein7.1 g/dL<br>Albumin4.7 g/dL<br>Globulin2.4 g/dL<br>A/G ratio2.0<br>Total bilirubin0.7 mg/dL<br>Alkaline phosphatase90 U/L<br>AST28 U/L<br>ALT17 U/L

Pretty good, honestly.

Then there was twenty-four-year-old me:

Analyte<br>2025 report, age 24<br>Change from 2018

Total protein6.7 g/dLDecrease by 0.4<br>Albumin4.4 g/dLDecrease by 0.3<br>Globulin2.3 g/dLDecrease by 0.1<br>A/G ratio1.9Decrease by 0.1<br>Total bilirubin0.7 mg/dLNo change<br>Alkaline phosphatase54 U/LDecrease by 36<br>AST147 U/LIncrease by 119<br>ALT71 U/LIncrease by 54

Yikes lol.

While my liver was still functioning generally well at the time of this test, the enzymes were extremely worrisome. As I mentioned before, this was taken after I graduated college. For nearly the entire calendar year, from Summer 2023 to Fall 2024, I was out at a bar. It was interesting since I had drank little in 2025, at the time this test was done, but I stopped because the hangovers were getting too bad, so I knew any bad results were a sign of latent liver injury.

Needless to say, after getting this test, I was motivated to finally take charge of my liver health.

Step one: research

The glutathione rabbit hole

I had dealt with glutathione before. Back in 2022, a men’s clinic told me my liver looked stressed and put me on intramuscular glutathione. I think it was 400 mg weekly.

The problem was simple: the injections hurt like hell.

My liver was mostly normal at the time, so I stopped. It did not feel worth it, and then I mostly forgot about glutathione for a few years.

When I came back to it in 2025, I had one basic question: can I take this orally and avoid stabbing myself?

The answer, unfortunately, was maybe.

Plain glutathione has a bioavailability problem. One newer paper on glutathione analogues says native oral glutathione has bioavailability below 1% because it gets broken down enzymatically and does not absorb well through the gut [1]. That same paper tested modified versions of glutathione and found...