Cholesterol is carried through the bloodstream by molecules called lipoproteins. Low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is characterized as “bad” cholesterol and high density lipoprotein (HDL) is called the “good” cholesterol. LDL transports the cholesterol from liver to the cells and if the cells have enough cholesterol, these cells refuse the transported cholesterol causing the building up of cholesterol in the blood vessels walls and narrowing the arteries thus reducing the blood supply to vital organs. This phenomenon causes atherosclerosis.

HDL is responsible for the return journey and acts like a vacuum cleaner that picks up excess cholesterol and carries this back to the liver which converts it to bile. Too much intake of cholesterol causes atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis reduces the diameter of blood vessels thus increasing the pressure on the blood vessels to pump blood.

The major source of cholesterol is saturated fats that come from animal sources. These enter the human body in the form of food like meat, egg yolks, fish, poultry, cheese, butter, liver and other dairy products. Reducing saturated fats intake helps on preventing atherosclerosis. The way one body handles and controls cholesterol is determined by genetics and diet. The liver of a healthy person would reduce its production of cholesterol when this person eats high cholesterol food to keep it at a healthy level, in contrast to cholesterol-sensitive individuals where their livers cannot easily regulate the production of cholesterol.

Listed below are the few tips on how to lower down the cholesterol in the body to prevent high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes from occurring:

• As recommended by doctors, all 20-year old adults and above should have their cholesterol level  checked at least once every five years.
• Obese people are more prone to high blood pressure because of unmonitored cholesterol intake. Losing weight and regular exercise are highly advised and are often enough by themselves to keep cholesterol under control .
• Awareness of what food to eat should be developed. Drinking green tea, eating food rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and eating plenty of green vegetables and juicing fruits to lower cholesterol.
• Monitor cholesterol level. There are plenty of home cholesterol test kits out on the market these days, which save people from time consuming and costly appointments with doctors. Some test kits measure the overall cholesterol level, while other more advanced test kits can provide LDL and HDL cholesterol level breakdowns.

Many people who have suffered from high blood pressure and heart attacks because of cholesterol level are prone to developing anxiety. They tend to worry too much about their cholesterol intakes and cholesterol level fearing such complications might happen again. This development of anxiety can make things worse, therefore it is highly advisable to regularly monitor the cholesterol level of the body as well as the development of anxiety to prevent the occurrence of heart attacks, high blood pressures and strokes. Taking anxiety tests online and buying home cholesterol tests kits is far more affordable than paying for hospital bills.

Home Cholesterol Tests Kits

First things first; why use a home cholesterol test kit anyway? For some people, they simply want to find out what their cholesterol level is so as to know whether or not they need to do anything about it or seek further medical advice. For others, they might already be aware that they have raised cholesterol levels and thus wish to monitor their condition without the effort and delay involved in booking an appointment to see a doctor. Then there are those who simply like to monitor their health on a regular basis and obtaining frequent cholesterol tests through their doctor would be frankly impractical as well as unnecessarily expensive.

How Cholesterol Testing Kits Work

So what’s available? Well, all home cholesterol test kits work by analyzing a blood sample, but beyond the initial business of extracting some blood (usually by pricking your finger – an Auto-Lancet which is a push-button pen device can help if you find this difficult) the main difference is how much analysis you get. Simple test kits provide an overall cholesterol level, which while useful and commonly used as a shorthand summary as to whether action might be required, doesn’t tell the whole story.

More sophisticated kits provide figures for not only total cholesterol but also LDL (Low Density Lipids, or “bad” cholesterol), HDL (High Density Lipids, or “good” cholesterol) and triglycerides and possibly glucose levels. The way that these typically work is by supplying separate types of test strips; you thus require a separate blood sample for each strip. Note that LDL is often inferred using the following calculation: LDL = total cholesterol – HDL – triglycerides/5.

Be aware that the actual test strips are sold separately and you may not be supplied with a full set of different test types. Also, you will eventually use up all the originally supplied strips and will have to purchase more so be sure you can obtain these at a reasonable price.

The testing process itself very often uses “reflective photometry” to analyze the light transparency (discernible as a change in color intensity) of the blood sample which means it can be sensitive to interference from strong light sources and changes in room temperature.

Interpreting Cholesterol Test Results

This is all very interesting, but the fact is that unless you also understand how to interpret for example the LDL/HDL ratio or account for your own personal factors such as age, gender, size, medical history, lifestyle and so on then these numbers won’t mean very much to you. Also, if you’re already being treated with statins then the blood test that your doctor performs may examine other indicators such as your serum creatine kinase level in order to check for possibly side effects (statins in high doses can in rare cases cause muscle and liver damage which can be detected in this way).

In short, the test itself and the range of values available are an important component, but the crucial part is the ability to understand and evaluate this data in order to determine for example the risk of heart disease. But assuming that you’re comfortable with interpreting your results well enough to monitor your condition, the next best thing to do is calibrate your home test kit with the results obtained by medical professionals. In other words, shortly before or after you go for a full blood test use your home kit and compare the two results in order to gauge the margin of difference (if any). Most modern kits are pretty accurate but you do want to be certain that when you home kit assures you that your cholesterol levels are fine that you are not being misled.

Common Problems Using Home Cholesterol Tests

Where a home test kit can all go wrong is in the upfront part of obtaining a blood sample. You need a clean, fresh sample which is not always easy to arrange. Obviously an absolutely key start point is ensuring that you have clean hands so as not to contaminate the sample. This can also be advantageous because dipping your hands in warm water will ensure that it is easier to extract blood. Blood retreats from your extremities when they are cold making extraction that much harder and more painful.

If you’re not familiar with deliberately making your finger bleed or you take too long or squeeze too hard to get the blood out then you can again inadvertently affect the result. As noted above an auto lancet can save a lot of time (and discomfort). You also don’t need to use a finger – some people prefer a toe as they find these on the whole less sensitive.

The other commonest cause of inaccurate results is failure to read the instructions carefully, in particular not noticing that you must not eat or drink anything other than plain water for about 12 hours prior to conducting the test.

Cholesterol production is triggered by ingesting food of any description – so even sipping a drink that contains sugar (as do all alcoholic drinks for instance) or milk will be enough to raise your cholesterol levels and give a false reading. You should also not perform a test if you are pregnant or have been subject to extreme physical stress such as a major accident or after an operation.

Other “user errors” are not placing enough blood onto the test strip collection well, or taking too long about it, so it is no longer a fresh sample when the test is performed (both usually connected with difficulties extracting blood in the first place – see above). Also some test kits are particularly sensitive to light and should be kept away from direct light sources while they perform the test process otherwise the results will not be accurate.

Your cholesterol, like your blood pressure (something else you can monitor at home if you want), varies normally throughout the day and over time depending on what you’ve eaten and what activities you engage in. Monitoring it frequently really is unnecessary and counterproductive. Depending on your pre-existing condition you should only need to test between a handful of times a year at most and once every 5 years. The most important element in using a home cholesterol test kit effectively is not the frequency of use but acting upon the information appropriately.

What To Do With A Troubling Result

Regardless of the type of kit you use, if the data suggests there is potentially an issue with your cholesterol then it is time to book an appointment with your doctor (who will promptly run another test just to be sure). These kits are intended to act as a heads up to a possible problem, not to replace qualified medical guidance. In many cases the initial way to lower cholesterol is simply to change your diet and take more exercise, but in other cases it will mean prescribing drugs, invariably one of the various types of statin in some particular dosage to suit your own particular situation.

In summary, home cholesterol test kits can be quite accurate and an effective means of monitoring your own levels if you study and follow the directions carefully, understand what it is you’re actually monitoring and how to diagnose good cholesterol levels, and respond to any troubling results by following up with a medical professional.

First things first. High cholesterol (or hypercholesterolemia to use its medical name) is usually considered to mean high levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood.

Cholesterol – A Tale Of Two Lipids

Cholesterol is a type of fat (known as lipid) and is regarded as being made up of 5 main components: chylomicrons, HDL (high density lipoprotein), IDL (intermediate density lipoprotein), LDL (low density lipoprotein) and VLDL (very low density lipoprotein). Of these, only HDL (often referred to as “good cholesterol”) and LDL (“bad cholesterol”) are considered for modern cholesterol tests.

Cholesterol cannot actually travel through the bloodstream on its own so it binds with proteins, hence the term “lipoprotein”. The “density” describes the ratio between lipids and proteins, so LDL is mostly lipids (fat) with a low amount of protein and HDL is the reverse and has “spare capacity” to absorb additional lipids.

Most cholesterol in your blood stream is LDL (the average ratio is about 75% LDL to 25% HDL or 3:1) and it is absolutely vital to maintaining health, but too much can cause deposits to form that progressively constrict and harden the main arteries, leading eventually to heart disease, strokes and other unwelcome outcomes. HDL absorbs excess cholesterol in the bloodstream (including LDL) and returns it to the liver where it is metabolized and reused or excreted.

What A Cholesterol Test Kit Can Tell You

For quite some time now, many if not most low-cost cholesterol tests have measured only the total cholesterol count, the amount of HDL and triglycerides (basically fat absorbed from food) present in the bloodstream and estimated the other constituents (working on the basis that VLDL accounts for about 45% of the triglyceride count, and LDL equates to total cholesterol minus HDL and VLDL). This is simply due to the cost of direct measurement of LDL and provides workable results, though it is important not to eat for 12 hours prior since triglyceride levels are obviously highly affected by food intake.

Quite a few home cholesterol test kits in fact only give a total cholesterol count, though there are home test kits that do provide additional data about HDL, and occasionally LDL, concentrations in the blood. Home cholesterol test kits sometimes provide accurate figures that map to standard units of measure (such as mmol/L or mg/dL) and sometimes just yield an indication such as a change of color which suggests whether the result is high, medium or low.

Understanding Cholesterol Levels

Before we dig much further into this, be aware that there are two basic units of measure in use for cholesterol. One is the traditional mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter i.e. weight of cholesterol in suspension) which is still widely used particularly in the United States. The more contemporary scale is the SI (Systems Internal) mmol/L (millimoles per liter which is a count of molecules in a given volume of blood) and this is gradually becoming the accepted standard.

To convert between the two simply multiply mmol/L by 39 and divide mg/dL by 39. But note that this conversion is specific to cholesterol – triglycerides for example have a different molecular weight and therefore require a conversion constant of 89 instead.

For total cholesterol, the medically accepted range is:

above 6.2 mmol/L = high; 5.0 to 6.2 mmol/L = medium; below 5.0 mmol/L = low.

The equivalent scale in milligrams per decilitre is:

above 240 mg/dL = high; 200 to 240 mg/dL = medium; below 200 mg/dL = low.

If you also have access to your HDL reading then you can calculate your “risk factor” (how exposed you are to the possibility of developing cardiovascular problems). This is known as the cholesterol HDL ratio and is simply total cholesterol divided by HDL and the risk tables are as follows:

For men, above 4.6 = high; 3.6 to 4.5 = medium; at or below 3.5 = low;
For women, above 3.6 = high; 3.1 to 3.5 = medium; at or below 3.0 = low;

So for example, a man with total cholesterol of 6 mmol/L and HDL of 2 mmol/L has a risk ratio of 6:4 or 1.5 which is low, whereas a woman with total cholesterol of 4.5 mmol/L and HDL of 1.0 mmol/L has a very high risk ratio of 4.5:1 or 4.50. In this latter case, diet and in particular exercise might bring her HDL up to 1.5 mmol/L which brings the ratio back to a safe 4.5:1.5 or 3.0.

If your home cholesterol test kit provides (or at least estimates) LDL data then you can also monitor your HDL LDL ratio, where the goal is to keep this ratio above 0.3 and preferably above 0.4 (for example HDL 1.2 mmol/L and LDL 3.0 mmol/L). In other words 1 or more parts HDL to 3 or less parts LDL.

Although the ratios between these HDL and LDL and total cholesterol provide reasonable indicators of risk, medical advice also cautions against a standalone LDL value above 3.0 or or an HDL value below 1.0.

As you can see then, measuring your cholesterol levels can present a surprisingly sophisticated picture of your general state of health now and your chances of living out a full and healthy life in the future. In the modern world, where to be honest many of us take too little exercise and eat too much food (much of it high in fat), regular cholesterol testing is an important monitoring tool and one that is these days reasonably cheap and easily accessible, especially online.

The problem is that you cannot tell what your cholesterol levels (there are 2 main types of cholesterol) are by any means other than taking a blood test. A person with very a high level of cholesterol in their bloodstream will generally experience absolutely no adverse symptoms right up until their first cardiac arrest. Even if treated with cholesterol lowering drugs, they won’t actually feel any different at all.

Needless to say, waiting for a heart attack is not the best way of finding out whether your cholesterol levels are too high, because by then much of the damage has already been done. High cholesterol is a silent killer and the only way to detect it before it causes irreversible damage to your well-being is by periodic testing. Once you find out the hard way that your arteries have become clogged through years of unnoticed high cholesterol it is already too late – there may be few symptoms of high cholesterol per se, but the symptoms of resulting cardiovascular disease most definitely will intrude on your enjoyment of life.

So who should have their blood cholesterol levels checked? Pretty well everyone is the short answer, but obvious high priority candidates are those who are overweight or who take very little exercise, smokers, drinkers, anyone who favours a high fat diet, and most people over the age of 30. There is considerable evidence of a causal link between these specific factors and high cholesterol.

Young, fit and healthy people should also take a cholesterol test if there is a history of high cholesterol in their family, since although most of the cases seen these days are caused by environmental and lifestyle factors, there is also a genetic disorder commonly termed familial hypercholesterolemia (or FH) which is passed down through family lines. Certainly, if the incidence of premature cardiovascular disease features prominently in your family tree then FH could easily be the culprit.

What will a cholesterol test actually tell you? Most people and indeed medical practitioners refer to a single value, such as 5. This is in fact a summary of the 2 main types of cholesterol: HDL (often called “good cholesterol”) and LDL (characterized as “bad cholesterol”). HD stands for High Density, LD obviously for Low Density and the L prefix is short for Lipoprotein.

In general levels below 5 mmol/L are considered good, levels upto 6.2 are borderline (i.e. not good at all but not necessarily cause for alarm either), and values above 6.2 are treated as indicators of high risk for heart disease. There is an alternative scale which measures milligrams per decilitre and the boundaries are 200 and 240 mg/dL (corresponding to 5 and 6.2 mmol/L respectively).

If you have your cholesterol tested and the results fall in the low-risk bracket and there are no other factors weighing against you (i.e. you’re reasonably fit, maintain a healthy diet and haven’t noticed any trends towards sudden and untimely death among your biological relatives) then you really don’t need to be tested more than once every 5 years or so.

Those who fall somewhere in the borderline category should consider which of the known risk factors might be causing raised cholesterol levels and address them. It is well known that losing excess weight can correct a slightly high cholesterol reading without the need for further intervention. People who fit this borderline profile should also monitor their cholesterol levels much more frequently both in order to determine the effectiveness of measures to improve their levels and also to ensure that things aren’t deteriorating.

If you find yourself classified as high risk it’s important that you seek medical advice as to what may be the underlying cause of your condition and what treatment would be best. Obviously, if you find you have inherited FH then frankly there is no viable diet that can address this genetic disorder (though using this as an excuse to indulge in high fat food is akin to fighting fire with petrol).

In most cases, you will be prescribed a drug known as a statin. These vary in strength and your doctor will need to assess the amount of statin necessary to decrease and then maintain your cholesterol level below the approved limit (5.0 mmol/L). This is part educated guess and part trial and error – people react differently to different drugs and at the levels needed to treat cases of very high cholesterol the statins themselves can present a real risk of serious damage to muscle tissue and the liver.

Obviously, if this is you then the good news is that you should be able to easily reduce your cholesterol level well below 5.0 and keep it there quite effortlessly, simply by taking statins. The less thrilling news is that regular blood testing is going to be part of your life from now on – both to monitor cholesterol levels and check for any evidence of unwelcome side-effects from the statins.

This triggered an alert for those related to him to also go get their cholesterol tested and, lo and behold, mine was also extremely high (9.0 mmol compared to a recommended level of 4.5 mmol). It turned out that I had inherited a defective chromosome passed from my father which resulted in a condition called familial-hypercholesterolemia.

Despite being relatively young, fit (I play a lot of tennis), eating a low fat diet (more to keep my weight down than any other reason) and not indulging in other “risk factors” my liver was simply unable to properly process cholesterol.

Now, while I was in many respects immensely pleased to have been alerted to this years before my own impending heart attack would have eventually done the job for me, I wasn’t quite expecting a lifetime subscription to The Program. Put simply, medical researchers in this area thought I would make an excellent subject for study, and so I have since become an unwitting amateur expert where cholesterol, its causes and treatements are concerned.

I hope you find the material on this site interesting and informative – please feel free to either contact me or leave a comment on any of the articles if you would like to share your own opinions or experiences.

Elaine