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How Many Hours Fasting For Fasting Test?

Antje77

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Staff Member
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Messages
21,599
Location
Friesland (the Netherlands)
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Tomorrow I'll go for a fasting yearly blood test. Glucose, hba1c, all the lipids thingies, eGFR/creatinin (the form is in Dutch, so not sure if everything is called exactly the same in English, but this part is about kidneys I think) and kalium. Plus morning urine for micro-albumin.
So how many hours of fasting? The form gives a time after which I shouldn't eat/drink anything but water. Seems pretty senseless to me, as they don't know if I'll be coming in at 7AM or 1PM.
Plus, I love my late night snack and a night cap. Ayone know for sure?
 
Maybe do what you think best.
 
dbr10 said:
Not sure we have any Dutch speaking scientists on here, but I may be wrong.
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The problem is that I asked the hospital, and they won't budge and keep telling me I can't eat from 10 pm, as that's what the form says. I won't be in before around 11:30 AM and I can't believe I have to fast 4,5 hours longer than someone coming in at 7AM for an accurate test.
bulkbiker said:
"they" usually say 10-12 hours fasted..
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Thanks for answering so fast. What does 10 to 12 hours mean? Why can't they just say you have to fast for at least this many hours? What if I happened to fast for 14 hours? Does it render my test useless?
 
It is normally 10 to 12 hours, and no alcohol the night before.

I don't know about 14 hours, but a long fast can skew the result apparently. One of the keto dudes said so somewhere. Maybe @bulkbiker knows.
 
Antje77 said:
They didn't tell me about the alcohol part. Do you know which part of the test it might affect? And I'll go for 10 hours Although I still think it's strange they won't tell you.
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It is the cholesterol because it is made by and in the liver, which alcohol affects. No idea about the science behind it. I have never been told officially. I just read it somewhere. Most of us in the UK are told not to fast at all (as per NICE) but we tend to because of the triglycerides. They will be raised if we don't fast and have eaten something fatty beforehand.
 
Thanks! Too bad for the alcohol I already had. I'll eat something fatty with some carbs (yeah, nuts, olives and some chicory with hummus) five minutes before the ten hour mark to make sure I won't have to eat anything to fend off a hypo before letting them take my blood
 
I did a private cholesterol test a few weeks ago and they said at least 8 hours fasting before the test and 2 alcohol free days before. Alcohol affects the triglyceride result I believe. So as you’ve had alcohol at least you’ll know why if it’s a bit raised! Seriously good luck.
 
Thanks! I'm mainly curious about my hba1c, and a little concerned about the kidneys, as I had some protein in my urine at my latest test about a year ago, but nothing they wanted to investigate further. On the other hand, at the previous urine test, some twenty years earlier and way before diabetes, there was some protein in my urine as well, so nothing really changed in 20 years. Guess that's good.
They put me on statins upon diagnosis, but didn't worry when I wanted to stop them two months later, as cholesterol wasn't worrying, so I'm not too worried about that
 
Crossing fingers for you
 
I've been told by Blood Path nurses to stay between 10 - 14 hours. The reality is that it depends on so many factors so go for 12 hours as a target.
 
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