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Cholesterol testing kits

C

CathNewman

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2
hello

I'm type 2 diet and exercise controlled and have been since 2012. My cholesterol has been ok but just gone up to 5.5 overall and I've been offered statins. I said no thanks as I would rather be proactive with diet and exercise. I'd like to keep track of my cholesterol at home and I wondered if anyone uses a cholesterol tester? If so, which one and is it fairly accurate?

Thanks in advance
Cath
 
Sorry Cathy as I don't have any direct knowledge of home kits. I was once trained on a kit for use by non hcps but this just gave me a total figure.
I think the total figure is rather meaningless as you will need to know a breakdown of the total inculding LDL, HDL and triglycerides at a minimum. LDL particle size seems to b e crtical too but I know the NHS doesn't even do that! There is plenty of stuff on YouTube if you need to know more about all of that but most people seem to concur that knowing the total figure is meaningless without this context. Try Ivor Cummins especially if you like an Irish accent!
If your GP won't test more than once a year then perhaps you could pay for a private test to soothe your worries? If you are controllng your t2 with lifestyle then you have eliminated a major risk factor for damage to your arteries but your GP should advise on any other risk factors such as family history, smoking status , duration of diabetes, bp etc. There's a bit of a tick box mentality to get patients on to statins though so watch out!
 
"A basic tenet of modern cardiology is that elevated cholesterol increases the risk of myocardial infarction (MI). Significantly lowering cholesterol should, therefore, reduce MI risk. Statins reduce cholesterol and, in some contexts, adverse heart outcomes, but meta-analyses of primary prevention clinical statin trials have found no statistically significant cardioprotective effect for women.[1,2,3,4] These meta-analyses reasonably reflect the individual primary prevention trials. Of these studies, none showed statistically significant cardioprotection for women and some yielded hazard ratios exceeding one.[5,6,7,8,9] The meta-analyses are consistent with the absence of effect for women in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT), atorvastatin's (Lipitor®) primary prevention clinical trial, and are also consistent with the unpublished Carotid Atorvastatin Study in Hyperlipidemic Postmenopausal Women (CASHMERE) atorvastatin clinical trial,[27] which demonstrated no improvement in carotid intima-media thickening (IMT) in a study limited to postmenopausal women. The cholesterol-heart attack link and the achievement of lowered cholesterol without protective effect is an important scientific puzzle."

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/587563
 
JohnEGreen said:
The cholesterol-heart attack link and the achievement of lowered cholesterol without protective effect is an important scientific puzzle."
Click to expand...
i.e. the fact that there doesn't seem to be one should blow our statin theory out of the water but the people who paid for the trial won't let us say that so we have to say it's a paradox?
 
Thank you for taking the trouble to reply.

Since I posted I have found that you can buy a test from Boots. It's a one off blood test. Not sure how accurate it is and I'm positive it won't give HDL and LDL - but it is available!

My HDL has always been really good - so I'm upping my exercise and starting on Benecol drinks again - which do seem to help.

Thanks again.
 
Not sure how old you are but... higher total cholesterol seems to be protective of older women (over 60 I believe) in terms of all cause mortality ...so lowering it may not be such a great idea for you. Benecol is a marketing ploy and probably best avoided. If you have high HDL and hopefully low triglycerides then you probably have nothing to worry about in terms of CVD risk.

Edit to add I think that this was the thread that @Rachox meant to link to

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cholesterol-and-statins.156985/
 
There are several online companies you can use. I have used Thriva, you may have to sign up for a subscription but you can cancel any time. I use them every 4 months or so as I want to check my HbA1c more often than my Surgery allow as I have normal numbers now. They have just added fasting insulin as an extra which I intend to use. Their tests are sent to labs used by the NHS. Other companies are available!
 
I tried one and it's pretty iffy so you couldn't really rely on the results. Statins work well as long as you find one that works for you.
 
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