John John John
Cholesterol levels one month 199 then next month 250
How could this Be???
Simple answer! “Your Alive!!!”
Variables like this are not uncommon like it appears! If I’m reading this right you had one done at Quest and another done at Lab Corp.
Answer here; Different Machines, Different calibrations, Different handling methods etc.
You!
What did you eat the day before or even three days before each test/
How much sleep did you get for each test?
What kind of physical and emotional stress did you experience before each test?
What was the attitude of the Lab tech who drew your blood at the different locations?
Did you see if they just placed the blood sample tubes on the table or did they place them in a rocking machine?
I could go on but you can see that variables are at play here! Cholesterol levels vary through out the day as the body demands must be met. Almost every one of your hormones are a product of cholesterol!
As an example; Let’s say your reading a book your having a little bit of a problem understanding and you look at the clock and you need to hurry to get to blood draw appointment so you jump in your car push it a little harder then normal to get there! When you arrive their running a little behind so you sit down and read a paper that’s sitting on a table and just when you catch your breath you see your favorite sports team lost their butt in the finals! Now you go in an get your blood drawn to get your cholesterol checked!
My bet would be your levels will be high! Why because all that excitement caused an increase in all the hormones needed to get excited, need cholesterol to be produced and the cells in your body being stimulated need food after the sugar rush and that is what cholesterol does so up goes the levels!
So just because one test shows good and the other don’t is not a reason for concern also since you had them done at different labs. I would suggest waiting a month or so and getting a third test from one or the other labs and see if there is a pattern developing be it low or high and pay attention to what happens before the draw.
Of course if you were taking STATINS your levels would always be low but you wouldn’t be able to find your way to the lab or read the paper and book you thought you were suppose to be reading. You wouldn’t have to worry about cholesterol levels but your new onset of type 2 diabetes would have you more interested in your glucose levels. Now let’s talk about them heart murmurs that just started!! But hay your cholesterol levels are down!
So the main thing here is not to get lost in numbers and don’t try to chase them it’s a race your going to lose!
Do what makes you feel healthy and wise!
Bottom line anything between 180-220 are normal! Remember the 200 mark was a product of big pharma! Proof is numbers under 200 haven’t made any difference in the incidence CAD! In fact about 60% of people who have heart attacks have cholesterol levels under 190. The real culprit is Lpa and yours is a 7 which well in the safe zone and your HDL total is over 40 so your actually doing real well! HDL2 is a little low perhaps a little niacin could kick that up and take your Lpa down a bit. Give it some time and get a third test like I said before and see what the trend is before losing sleep over this!
I think you can tell I felt creative tonight!
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is
research!