Cholesterol Meter: Do Your Own Testing At Home

Normally, people go and visit their doctors once every six months in order to get their medical condition checked up and this in turn will also mean having to determine whether their cholesterol levels are normal or not. In case you have high cholesterol levels you may be advised by your doctor to take a few steps with which to bring the cholesterol levels down to normal and this in turn will mean making more trips to see your doctor. However, there is a means by which you can check your cholesterol more often and which won't mean having to visit your doctor every six months.

More Accurate Than Litmus Testing

In fact, you can check your cholesterol levels in quite a few different ways and at home and without needing to visit your doctor. To start with, you could use home cholesterol kits and there are also cholesterol meters available. In fact, a cholesterol meter works very much in the same way as do blood glucose monitors and it is also a lot more accurate than trying to read litmus test results.

To use a cholesterol meter requires taking a drop of blood that is then put on a test strip that is then inserted into the cholesterol meter that in turn will output a certain number that shows what your total level of cholesterol is. Though using a cholesterol meter is convenient, you must realize that it should not be used daily or too frequently because a person's cholesterol levels do not change on a daily basis and in fact, it is better to test the levels after at least a week.

Also, the findings of the cholesterol meter will only show you the total level of cholesterol in your blood and won't actually tell you about your LDL and HDL levels of cholesterol. Thus, to find these levels you would have to visit your doctor who will perform fasting tests to determine these cholesterol levels in your blood.

In any case, finding a suitable cholesterol meter with which to do the testing is not all that difficult given the fact that there are numerous options available in terms of makes and models, and there are also many online sources where you will be able to find one that will suit your needs and budget. Among the better-known makers of the cholesterol meter are names such as Accutrend and Kernel Intl. Corp.

So, if you need to simply know about total cholesterol levels in your blood, why waste time and money and effort in visiting your doctor, when you can just as well buy a cholesterol meter and find out the levels at home at your own convenience and also as often as you want.