The Cholesterol Test Helps Detect the Presence of HDL and Total Cholesterol Levels

The leading cause of death in the Western world is, without a doubt, coronary heart disease and high cholesterol levels are one of the biggest risk factors involved in coronary heart disease. It is thus imperative that cholesterol levels be controlled, and for this, it is necessary to conduct a cholesterol test to look for the presence of high density lipoproteins or HDL (good cholesterol) as well as Total cholesterol. A cholesterol test that measures total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol is able to gather more information about separate values and thus get more detailed and accurate readings. There is also another cholesterol test that looks for the presence of Total cholesterol and is ideally suited for obtaining a general idea of the total cholesterol levels in the blood.

According to recent studies, it can even actually halt or reverse coronary artery disease.The Total Only Cholesterol Test uses two test strips, and in case the first test strip result shows abnormality, the test may be repeated with the second strip.

It is also believed that HDL cholesterol picks up cholesterol from the walls of the arteries and transports it to the liver for further metabolizing. This is a one-time disposable test for which one would need to have a clock, timer or a watch. Once one has a reading, one can compare it with the yellow conversion charts that come enclosed with the test and be able to determine whether the cholesterol level is healthy, slightly elevated, high or strongly elevated.

The Total Only Cholesterol test allows one to quickly check the cholesterol level in blood, and if the level is high, it means it is time to contact a doctor. This cholesterol test should be performed after fasting for a minimum of six to nine hours. This test result is a semi-quantitative evaluation and thus a second opinion may also be necessary. Also, when making a color comparison, it should be done within twenty-five seconds; otherwise the color may lighten and the evaluation would end up being lower than the real instance.

The colors correspond to different cholesterol values with the lightest being 130 mg/dl and the highest 350 mg/dl. For readings that fall in a range that is less than 200 mg/dl, one may rest assured that the cholesterol levels are desirable, while a reading between 200 and 239 mg/dl evaluates to a borderline high blood cholesterol level. Any reading higher than 240 mg/dl is considered to be high blood cholesterol.

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