I know, I know, I'm full of questions these days!!!! Sorry!

My husband's work had a company come in for all of the employees and dependants to do a risk assessment for weight related illnesses. They tested blood lipids, blood sugars, weight, height, and body fat (using a Tanita professional scale). Anyhow, they used the finger prick/instant read monitor for the blood lipids....does anyone know if those are accurate? I was really surprised to see that (according to their monitor) that my HDL had gone down quite a bit and my trigylcerides had gone up quite a bit, but my total cholesterol was the same.

Forgot--- I've had great luck reducing triclycerides with fish oils. (I am on more meds now, but the fish oil alone brought down my tri. levels significantly.

Maybe you've gotten this response....

I have not read through them- sorry, but I have limited time...

Fasting is important. Did you fast for 12 hours?

The info I have learned is that the finger prick is less accurate than the standard draw, but it still gives a good ballpark.

BTW, I keep hearing that labs and medical testing equipment give variable results. To have a 10-20 point variability is a regular thing...
Plus, your own blood levels vary depending on food eaten, exercise, stress, and more.

Good luck.

I went to a reputable health fair, and they used the pin prick method too. In that case, the sample was sent to a lab, which mailed me the results.

I assumed that the test was accurate, because the results were good.

(Yes, fasting was a requirement of the test.)

This is a good article on triglycerides

http://www.healthcentral.com/c.../33326/triglycerides

I Googled "cholesterol test accuracy finger prick".

There seems to be agreement that finger prick tests are not as good as a blood draw. However, most of the articles seem to be about 5 years old.

I know that 10 years ago, there was a lot of controversy because cholesterol results varied from lab to lab to lab. But that seems to have been addressed. Perhaps the finger prick methods have improved, too?

Were you fasting for 12 hours? That can make a VERY big difference in your numbers.

Also cholesterol numbers change from day to day. It is a little bit like taking your pulse at noon. And then taking it again the next day. It can be up or down and still be "normal". Same with cholesterol.

Also, if you are worried about triglycerides numbers going up... I'd really encourage you to go in and have a blood draw at a lab.