Home tests
 

Has anyone ever tried those home cholesterol tests? Are they accurate? I know it doesn't replace a real blood test, I would just like to get a ball park figure of where I'm starting from. Also, I don't have ins. right now.

thanks,

cimart ;)

hi cimart,

From what I could see, the home cholesterol test is about 97% accurate. You get two tests in the one kit. It measures ONLY the total cholesterol.

It could be useful to let you know a baseline figure where you're at. If it's a nice low normal result, rejoice! If you get a high result .. well, you have no way to know what part of it is high. It could be that your HDL is high .. that's the "good" cholesterol, and you WANT it to be higher. Plus, the test doesn't measure triglycerides, and that is more of an indicator of heart disease risk.

Apparently there's another "home" kit you can buy ... you take the blood yourself with a little finger-prick, just like a diabetic uses for checking blood sugars. You send off the packet to a lab (the cost includes postage, etc) and they guarantee the results AND it includes all of the blood lipid values, not just total cholesterol. It costs about twice as much as the other.

My personal thought would be to go for the simple home test. If the result is low and normal, yay ... and you get a second test, so you can check again in a few months. If you get a high result, well ... then you can look at having a more accurate check of all the blood lipid levels.

Doreen

BodyWATCH
 

I have just tested myself with the BodyWATCH Total Cholesterol and HDL Cholesterol Test.

The web site is http://www.bodywatch.co.uk

Total was 175mg /4.5mmol
HDL was 50mg/1.3mmol

Ratio 3.5

This is fine.

As I was going to be sticking pins in my fingers I bought the prostate screening test as well. Negative (Phew!)

The Cholesterol tests seem OK but the Advice sheet that comes with it is the complete opposite of low carb and is way up there with the low fat brigade

They suggest

Lean meat, only two egg yolks a week, 1oz cheese per week, skimmed milk, avoid butter. bread low in fat.

Just when I thought they were being sensible by saying avoid chocalate, toffee and fudge they say:-

Sugar,jam,honey,syrup,boiled sweets,marshmallow, and hard peppermints are permitted!

I suggest ...

Buy the tests ditch the advice sheet.

Here's a site I ran across. They have a pretty broad range of test kits and their prices for the CholesTrak are the best I have seen anywhere yet ($15 vs. $20) as are the lab-analyzed tests ($17 vs. $40).

http://www.testsymptomsathome.com/bio06.asp

I did a home test the night before my lab test just to see how close they were. The home test showed me at 190 (maybe a little higher...the line is not very distinct and can be hard to read on these tests) and the lab test came back with a total of 177, so they were pretty close, but the home test read a bit higher. Home tests also only give you the total cholesterol reading, not the breakdown that you really need. The total is not a good indicator of your cardiac risk; only the Triglycerides, HDL and LDL ratios can tell you that. So if I'm going to spend the money and get poked anyway, I'd say that I'd rather have the lab test that gives you the complete information.