Home cholesterol test

[Marsha]

Has anyone ever used the CholesTrak test kit? I bought one
today and my cholesterol came out to 130. The last official
test I had was about three years ago and it was 175 then.
Supposedly, if you follow the instructions, it has a 98%
accuracy rate, whatever that means. I figured that even if
it is off a little, I'm still under 200. It doesn't do HDL,
LDL and all that good stuff, though.

Marsha/Ohio

[Jenny]

I've used the Cholestrak. It came in about the same as a lab test.

The big problem with it is that it doesn't distinguish HDL and LDL. You
could have a very high HDL portion of your cholesterol, which would be
extremely healthy, but only see a high total number.

Also, the triglycerides are probably the most damaging portion of
cholesterol for people with blood sugar problems of any type (which includes
a lot of low carbers.) They typically go down with a low carb diet,
but again, you won't know that with the Cholestrak test.

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm



"Marsha" > wrote in message
...
> Has anyone ever used the CholesTrak test kit? I bought one
> today and my cholesterol came out to 130. The last official
> test I had was about three years ago and it was 175 then.
> Supposedly, if you follow the instructions, it has a 98%
> accuracy rate, whatever that means. I figured that even if
> it is off a little, I'm still under 200. It doesn't do HDL,
> LDL and all that good stuff, though.
>
> Marsha/Ohio
>

[Sleepyman]

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 17:17:51 -0500, "Jenny"
> wrote:

>I've used the Cholestrak. It came in about the same as a lab test.
>
>The big problem with it is that it doesn't distinguish HDL and LDL. You
>could have a very high HDL portion of your cholesterol, which would be
>extremely healthy, but only see a high total number.
>
>Also, the triglycerides are probably the most damaging portion of
>cholesterol for people with blood sugar problems of any type (which includes
>a lot of low carbers.) They typically go down with a low carb diet,
>but again, you won't know that with the Cholestrak test.
>
>-- Jenny

On top of that 50% of the people who have heart attacks do not have
high cholesterol.

Sleepy

---------------------------------
The True Axis of Evil
Bush - Cheney - Ashcroft - Rumsfeld
---------------------------------