How To Check Cholesterol

Statistics show that the main cause of deaths in the USA is heart disease and strokes. High levels of cholesterol in your blood is the culprit for these statistics. This realization has fast food chains and restaurants jumping on the healthy choice options bandwagon. Americans have also shown more interest in taking more personal initiative in taking care of their bodies. Keeping a watch on your cholesterol is one of the health trends that is becoming more widespread. We can attribute this to the constant pleas from doctors to do routine cholesterol checks. There are a number of ways to go about checking cholesterol. The key is to find the method most comfortable for you and being consistent with checking your cholesterol.

1. Visit your doctor. To determine if your cholesterol is high you will need a blood test. Cholesterol and triglyceride tests are blood tests that measure the total amount of fatty substances in the blood and can tell you if your cholesterol is HDL(good) or LDL(bad).

2. Talk to your pharmacist. Pharmacies provide free cholesterol screenings regularly. They also provide consultation services to go along with these screenings. Providing consultations has reduced the cholesterol levels of patients with high risk for cardiovascular disease.

3. Screen at home. Screening at home has become very popular over the years. There are FDA approved cholesterol testing kits for home use. Some measure your total cholesterol levels in as little as 10 minutes, while others provide a full lipid profile complete with an analysis from a certified clinical laboratory. A drop of blood is all that is nested for these at home kits.