Diet affecting blood tests - High Cholesterol Message Board

love2fishfork · 12-24-2007, 10:55 AM

As I have discussed in the past I recently convinced my Dr. to take me off of Zetia, and I am feeling much better. I am now on 10mg of Lipitor and 2g of Niaspan. So my Dr. wants to check my lipids and have a follow up visit on Feb. 13th. So here is my problem. I normally eat pretty health and work out daily. I am pretty close to my ideal weight. However I have a scuba vacation to Cozumel coming up and I'm pretty sure I will blow my diet for the 10 days I will be there. Due to the timing of the trip, my blood test will be my first week back from vacation. How much effect will my 10 day binge have on my numbers? Should I try to postpone my blood test?

annmg · 12-24-2007, 11:13 AM

Don't know if this will help...but I had my cholesterol test done 2 days after July 4th this past year, and my cholesterol was 256. (I did fast for 12 hours) I did eat the normal stuff on July 4th..hamburg's, hotdog's...salads..and tasty deserts. I just got re-tested in November and my numbers were 187. It dropped 69 points. I still have to tweek it. I think eating all that food did raise it some. If it were me, I would make it some other date...maybe before you go.

Arizona77 · 12-24-2007, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by annmg

Don't know if this will help...but I had my cholesterol test done 2 days after July 4th this past year, and my cholesterol was 256. (I did fast for 12 hours) I did eat the normal stuff on July 4th..hamburg's, hotdog's...salads..and tasty deserts. I just got re-tested in November and my numbers were 187. It dropped 69 points. I still have to tweek it. I think eating all that food did raise it some. If it were me, I would make it some other date...maybe before you go.

When tested I found out that sticking to your daily diet will give you a more accurate reading and my Doctor told me this as well. If you eat like a vegetarian for two weeks everyday before your test it will not give you an accurate reading of your real numbers. On the other hand if you do not eat hamburgers, hot dog's etc.. daily and eat it the night before your test it will most likely effect your readings. Best thing to do is eat as you typically eat and you will be good to go.

Connie122516 · 12-27-2007, 12:44 PM

You will probably see an effect mostly on your triglyceride level.

I'd go ahead and get it done; that way you'll have a good "baseline" for what your level is on the current med regime without a perfect diet. Then see if you can be tested again in a few months after you've been eating well, and you'll have a good comparison.

On the other hand, you could really try to stick to a good diet...you should be able to eat lots of fresh fish, no?

HubbleRules · 12-27-2007, 02:24 PM

Love2FishFork,

I would postpone the test until a couple of weeks after your return from vacation.

Eating more rich, sweet foods and drinking more alcohol than you normally do for 10 days will skew your results to the high-side. It will take several days (maybe longer) for your blood lipids to get back to normal. I know that alcohol especially will make your trigs soar, and they won't come back to normal for several days.

You want to have a 12-14 hour fast after you've been on your 'normal' diet again for a few weeks (IMHO).

Otherwise the results may be misleading.

HubbleRules