Quick question on the nature of cholesterol tests

[Dougie22]

Keeping it really, really simple (is this possible?), can anyone tell me what time frame the common total cholesterol blood test, as done by your GP, covers.
By which I mean:
* Is it an instant snapshot, like a fasting blood glucose, subject to daily or hourly change, or
* Is it a longer term view, as in, say HbA1c

Thanks

 

[alaska]

I think these are snapshots -but I could be proved wrong.

I know that main reason they ask for cholesterol tests to be fasting is that triglyceride levels tend to rise after meals.

I think with the trigs it is more like a finger prick test than A1c.

I think with LDL and HDL, they are literally measuring the amount of these in the blood and if this is true, this would be more like a finger prick test than an HbA1c again.