Cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL and HDL monitoring

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Dornfield

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Are there any sensibly priced and (reasonably) reliable instruments for monitoring/ measuring blood cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL/ HDL? The only one I have found costs about £800, and while you can't put a price on your health, I am reticent about spending that much!
Since adopting a low carb diet to try to shed weight and maybe put my T2D into remission, I'm slightly concerned that my animal fat/ dairy intake may have increased, at least proportionally.
Any suggestions?
 
I am not sure there is a cost effective way of home testing lipids and for £800 you could probably buy quite a few private lab tests.

If it reassures you at all, some of us found that reducing our carbohydrate intake and increasing our fat intake reduced our cholesterol levels rather than increasing them. I eat more fat now than I have ever done and mostly saturated fats and my cholesterol is stable in the mid 4s, down from 5.2 when I was diagnosed 5 years ago.
I must confess that I get a bit twitchy about what my next lipid panel will show when I have a blood test because I have cream in my coffee every morning and I eat A LOT of cheese but so far no shocks. My nurse and consultant would like me to take a statin to bring it down below 4 but I am resistant to that as my cholesterol is stable in a range that would otherwise be acceptable if I didn't have diabetes and I expend a decent amount of effort in managing my diabetes well, so I don't consider my risk warrants statins at this time.

Your cholesterol levels will be checked at least annually and it tends to be long term elevated levels when problems arise, so waiting until your next blood test should be fine.
 
You’d be better off paying for extra private tests if you’re concerned @Dornfield Or you could adjust your diet if you feel that would help.
 
How often is your GP testing your HbA1c? if you're still on a 3 monthly cycle for that, I would ask them to check you cholesterol at the same time. They can only say no! My GP is still testing my cholesterol alongside my HbA1c.

I'm in a funny situation whereby, when I was 20 stones, my cholesterol was very low but since losing all the weight, it has now climbed to what is considered to be an unacceptable range (over 6 total).

I have been resisting statins (so far) but following various recent conversations with medical professionals, they have advised what I'm eating now and what I weigh now have very little to do with cholesterol levels. The main factors are age and a genetic predisposition to elevated levels.

Don't waste your money - ask your GP for a test and go from there.
 
You will be monitored at least annually , but as others have suggested you could ask for more regular tests, or pay for private tests. Our blood tests often take a while to change after changes that we have made in diet etc, so having very small gaps between tests may not be that encouraging. For HbA1c they won’t usually repeat the test after less than three months, since the results shows an average from the past three months. I am not sure how big a gap makes sense for cholesterol levels.
 
It does seem with that pricetag that asking your GP for more frequent monitoring, and/or requesting additional checks privately might be the way to go?
 
Cholesterol can increase during active weight loss, so that might be something else to consider. If you were to have a lipid panel and see your cholesterol levels rising, you might assume that that was not good and that could discourage you from something that might actually be benefitting you longer term.
 
Deb_l said:
How often is your GP testing your HbA1c? if you're still on a 3 monthly cycle for that, I would ask them to check you cholesterol at the same time. They can only say no! My GP is still testing my cholesterol alongside my HbA1c.

I'm in a funny situation whereby, when I was 20 stones, my cholesterol was very low but since losing all the weight, it has now climbed to what is considered to be an unacceptable range (over 6 total).

I have been resisting statins (so far) but following various recent conversations with medical professionals, they have advised what I'm eating now and what I weigh now have very little to do with cholesterol levels. The main factors are age and a genetic predisposition to elevated levels.

Don't waste your money - ask your GP for a test and go from there.
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I find that interesting. When I lost over 4 stones, my cholesterol shot up. I put the weight back on and my cholesterol went down. When I was ill I lost almost 2 stones and again the weight shot up. I too was told my level was the result of the way my liver worked, not what I eat, as I've followed a low fat diet most of my life. Now of course it's low fat, low carbs and low calories. Good job I love my veggies!!!
At my last review my nurse, yet again, talked about statins. I'm one of the people who are actually severely affected by the side effects, and after 3 different sorts and months of trying, my GP at the time took me off them. 4 GP's and 4 nurses later, we still have the same argument each time (nobody seems to bother to read my notes). However, she said their are alternatives to statins and I said I was willing to try the minimal dose for a test period. I have an appointment with the prescriber on 12 August and we'll see what happens.
 
£800 for cholesterol check seems excessive.

Have mine checked annually at same time as blood work for diabetes check, to date not had any issues with cholesterol despite not restricting much foods. Exercise everyday & eat porridge for breakfast so guess that helps in some way.
 
Felinia said:
I find that interesting. When I lost over 4 stones, my cholesterol shot up. I put the weight back on and my cholesterol went down. When I was ill I lost almost 2 stones and again the weight shot up. I too was told my level was the result of the way my liver worked, not what I eat, as I've followed a low fat diet most of my life. Now of course it's low fat, low carbs and low calories. Good job I love my veggies!!!
At my last review my nurse, yet again, talked about statins. I'm one of the people who are actually severely affected by the side effects, and after 3 different sorts and months of trying, my GP at the time took me off them. 4 GP's and 4 nurses later, we still have the same argument each time (nobody seems to bother to read my notes). However, she said their are alternatives to statins and I said I was willing to try the minimal dose for a test period. I have an appointment with the prescriber on 12 August and we'll see what happens.
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Your story sounds horribly familiar especially the bit about the lack of medical note reading. I have decided at my next blood test to see where my cholestrol is and if necessary I will try the cholestrol lowering drug (ezi something) without the addition of a statin I will give it three months and see what happens. Apparantly it does work better with a statin , but I really don't want a repeat performance of my experience with avostatin (sp).
 
Sharron1 said:
Your story sounds horribly familiar especially the bit about the lack of medical note reading. I have decided at my next blood test to see where my cholestrol is and if necessary I will try the cholestrol lowering drug (ezi something) without the addition of a statin I will give it three months and see what happens. Apparantly it does work better with a statin , but I really don't want a repeat performance of my experience with avostatin (sp).
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That's what I'm prepared to do as well, without the statin. Minimum dose for a trial period
 
Felinia said:
That's what I'm prepared to do as well, without the statin. Minimum dose for a trial period
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Good luck. I know at my surgery there is very little accommodation for a patient's thoughts. But there is a hell of a lot of eye ball rolling and sighing...
 
Sharron1 said:
Good luck. I know at my surgery there is very little accommodation for a patient's thoughts. But there is a hell of a lot of eye ball rolling and sighing...
Click to expand...
I'm so lucky with my GP surgery, as they really listen to me when I speak to them - even of they don't prepare first!! 🙂
 
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