Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 LKeller asks

Q: Could a cholesterol test produce false results depending on previous days meals?

I had a grilled ham, turkey, and cheese sandwich with fries for lunch and for dinner I had a 6 oz steak with steamed brocolli, baked sweet potato and cheesecake for dessert.  This was on Monday.  My fasting cholesterol test was Wednesday morning.  Is it possible that this made my results be overstated?  I'm only 27 and pretty active so I was surprised to see my cholesterol was high.  Total was 226. 

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Answers (2)
10/15/08 7:38pm

Hi L Keller,

 

No, your meals on Monday would not affect your lab results on Wednesday.  A fasting test (no foods/drinks 8-12 hours prior to labs) gives you the most accurate results.  If your labs had been non-fasting then there is the possibility for false highs.

 

A total cholesterol of 226 is not cause to panic, but a good wake up call to make some changes to lower your levels.  Click here to learn more about a diet to lower cholesterol and keep up the physical activity.  Also, discuss your results with your MD.

 

All the best,

 

Lisa Nelson, RD, LN

The Heart of Health - Heart Health and Weight Loss Tips

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2/ 5/09 3:24pm

I think that the expert who first answered your question contradicted herself. First she said that the meal wouldn't affect your result, but then she implied that your diet (your meals) do affect your results when she recommended a diet for you to support good cholesterol levels.

 

Suppose you had eaten that meal not only on Monday, but also on Sunday. And Saturday. And Friday. And...etc. By the expert's second assertion, that will affect your cholesterol test results. But the expert's first assertion, it won't (because you fasted).

 

I found this question looking for an answer to one of my own: how long, following a change of diet, does it take for cholesterol levels to converge to a new norm? Suppose, for example, I eat a horrible diet and I decide to cheat on my cholesterol test by adopting a new very healthy diet 1 day before taking the test. Will 1 day suffice to give me a good score? How about 3 days? A week? A month? Six months? A year? When? (At some point, obviously, it stops being a cheat and starts being my normal diet, but that isn't the point.)

 

Does anyone know?

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9/29/10 2:50pm

When I was working in oil and gas, and needed offshore physicals every year, I experimented with this becuase my cholesterol levels were at the high end: I went on a vegetarian diet, gave up drinking, really excersized every day, and lost weight.  I got retested 6 months later and there was no change in my cholesterol level.   I read a book called "Survival of the sickest" which is an interesting read.  In it, the author points out that a cholesterol test done in Winter time will always be higher than a test done durring the summer.  This is because if the relationship to sunlight, Vitamin D, and cholesterol.  Vitamin D is the only vitamin our bodies will manufacture if we dont get enough of it.  The body used sunlight and cholesterol to make it!  To studies need to be done to see if lower Vit D intake = loweer colesterol levels, if you follow my logic here.

Anyway, the acceptable level of cholesterol in the blood will keep being a lower and lower number so long as pharmacuetical companies are making drugs that help you lower it, and profiting on said drugs.  Nuff said.  Just look at what the acceptable levels used to be a few years ago compared to now....total BS

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