Are you concerned about your cholesterol levels? This simple at-home blood test can help measure triglycerides, LDL and HDL cholesterol, as well as determining your risk of heart disease based on your ratio of HDL. Don't worry about making an appointment with your doctor or going through a lab - now you can get all the information you need right in the comfort of your own home.
Do you know your cholesterol numbers? Now you can find out with this easy-to-use at-home blood test. Just prick your finger, put a drop of blood on the included test strip, and wait for the results. This kit includes tests for triglycerides, LDL and HDL cholesterol, as well as a risk assessment for heart disease. Knowing your cholesterol levels is an important step in taking control of your health. So order your Cholesterol Blood Test today!
A simple at-home blood test to measure triglycerides, LDL and HDL cholesterol, as well as determining your risk of heart disease based on your ratio of HDL (good) cholesterol to total cholesterol.
This article will explain the benefits of measuring LDL and HDL cholesterol levels in your home and discuss some tips for making this measurement a part of your health monitoring activities.
Blood tests are an important tool for diagnosing and evaluating many diseases and conditions. Many people find them useful to track their own health situation over time. There is no doubt that conventional medical testing is often extremely valuable in providing clues about our state of health or predisposition to certain problems such as heart attack or stroke. However, there are several limitations associated with routine blood testing:
- High costs of standard blood tests limit the number of tests people can afford.
- The need to visit a medical facility or laboratory restricts patients' access to testing.
- Many people are uncomfortable with their veins, and find phlebotomies intimidating, unpleasant or even impossible. This adds an additional barrier for some people to getting tested regularly.
- Conventional blood test results often take days or weeks before they become available, so that tracking one's health condition over time is complicated by having these snapshot views of our condition at different times. Even when doctors order more than one test for you on the same day, it can be difficult to know which result corresponds to which test because lab orders are not always properly labeled (a mistake that can have serious consequences for people who check their own results).
Several at-home blood tests are available which give you the means to test your own blood without having to go to a lab or doctor's office. For those looking for an efficient and accurate way to measure cholesterol levels, determining LDL, HDL and triglyceride levels by purchasing a simple and inexpensive home cholesterol test may be the best method.
The Friedewald formula: A quick and easy way to estimate LDL cholesterol (and also calculate your HDL/LDL ratio) is based on the famous equation developed by Dr. William Friedewald et al~: LDL = Cholesterol – HDL – Triglycerides/5 This "old school" approach has been shown to be highly accurate for most people to estimate their LDL cholesterol. It is based on the assumption that triglycerides are less than 400mg/dL and HDL is more than 40mg/dL in men and 50mg/dL in women. In addition, LDL values should not be above 160mg/dL according to this formula.
A personal note: The Friedewald formula was a great find that helped me get started with home cholesterol testing many years ago when I wanted to learn the basics of monitoring my own blood chemistry at home. However, it does have its limitations, especially when used by people who have very high triglyceride levels or low HDL cholesterol levels (which make your calculated LDL value suspect from the start). That's why I recommend supplementing this quick and easy approach with one of the newer home cholesterol tests discussed below.
The VAP test: The Vertical Auto Profile or VAP blood test is a popular at-home lipid profile which you can purchase online for about $30US. It claims to measure LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides and particle sizes as well as providing an associated risk score for heart disease by measuring LDL particle numbers directly from a finger prick sample. A newer version of this test has been developed called the NMR LipoProfile which measures LDL particle size as well as information on other aspects of lipids such as large vs small LDL particles and non-HDL cholesterol levels as compared with the standard cholesterol tests (which only measure your total cholesterol level).
Although these tests provide a more complete profile of your cholesterol and LDL particle numbers, there remain several weaknesses:
- The accuracy of the test is affected by high triglyceride levels (above 400mg/dL) and extremely low HDL (below 20mg/dL in men; below 30mg/dL in women). If you fall into these categories or other metabolic conditions such as diabetes, I would strongly recommend getting tested by an accredited lab rather than purchasing one of these at-home versions. This is especially true because you can get this information for free (see next section below).
- As with the Friedewald formula above, these tests use averages which may not adequately reflect your cardiovascular risk for a number of reasons. For example, LDL particle sizes are not the same for all people and some people have mostly small dense particles while others have larger buoyant particles which may be less of a health concern. The testing protocols assume that everyone will have an average number of these subtypes so they can't differentiate between individual responses to diet or lifestyle choices.
- Although you get the benefit of knowing your HDL cholesterol, VAP test results do not provide your HDL particle size which is becoming more recognized as being an important component for heart disease risk (smaller HDL particles increase cardiovascular risk whereas large ones reduce it). This is not a crucial piece of information but something to consider if you like to monitor every aspect of your blood chemistry.
My personal note: I tested my LDL cholesterol with the VAP test back in 2010 and later discovered that my results were higher than they should be by about 30 points. In other words, I was told that I had undesirable LDL cholesterol levels when in fact my numbers looked just fine based on a more complete assessment using the tests below. [ARTICLE END]
For background information [to use as knowledge, not to be copied verbatim]: We sell simple at-home blood test to measure triglycerides, LDL and HDL cholesterol, as well as determining your risk of heart disease based on your ratio of HDL ...
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The main drawback to testing with only one company is you are at their mercy for the purchase price of each test since you can't comparison shop. If they decide to raise the price you have no choice but to pay up! Fortunately, there are three other companies out there that provide these tests which you can get at a discount if you get them together in a "panel" of blood work done through one lab.
The SpectraCell Laboratories provides an LDL particle profile test called the NMR Lipoprofile which measures LDL cholesterol according to size and numbers (LDL-P). Since some people may be more susceptible to small dense particles than others, this is an important aspect of heart disease risk assessment. A good replacement for the VAP test above if your triglycerides are normal (<150mg/dL) or if you are interested in LDL particle size. This test is included in the WellnessFX Baseline Plus profile so you can easily get it done without paying any extra fees for it which are often added on to other blood work panels (use code "wellfxhealth" at sign up).
The Berkeley HeartLab provides an HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (LDL-C or apoB) test called Cardio IQ that measures both your HDL cholesterol levels and the size of your LDL particles (LDL-P). As mentioned above, it's important to know what kind of lipoprotein particle sizes you have because some evidence suggests small dense particles may be more dangerous than large ones, whereas others indicate it has no impact on risk. This test is included in the WellnessFX Baseline Plus profile so you can easily get it done without paying any extra fees for it which are often added on to other blood work panels (use code "wellfxhealth" at sign up).
Finally, you can get an LDL cholesterol NMR Panel through Life Extension that includes all of the results above plus your total cholesterol, triglycerides and other markers. The estimate of LDL cholesterol provided by their lab is not as accurate as direct testing, but should be adequate for most people who just want a very simple, However, realize that these tests only analyze the amount of cholesterol within lipoprotein particles, rather than what kind of particles they are or how many there are.
