DR. ADAM STATEN - GP VIEW AND RED FLAG SYMPTOMS
Cholesterol is an essential part of every cell in our body but too much cholesterol running in our blood stream can lead to cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and strokes. Sometimes high cholesterol levels run in families, often it is a result of a poor diet, but in either case detecting high levels of cholesterol can let you make treatment and lifestyle decisions that suit you.
Understanding your cardiovascular risk is in fact more complicated than simply measuring your total cholesterol. Cholesterol can be divided into ‘good’ cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) which actually helps lower your cardiovascular risk, and ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL or non-HDL cholesterol) which causes a problem. This test checks for both as well as the all important total cholesterol/HDL ratio which is important for accurately assessing your risks. We can use this data along with a number of other parameters such as blood pressure, age, sex and family history, and put it into the QRisk calculator which estimates your risk of heart attacks and strokes in the next ten years.
Red flag symptoms for the Cholesterol Blood Test
Even if your blood tests are normal, see your doctor if you have any of the symptoms below.
- Chest pain or shortness of breath on exertion
- Unexplained abdominal swelling or fluid around the ankles or eyes
- Unexplained weight loss
Your Results and Health Dashboard
The results of your Cholesterol Blood Test will be emailed to you as a secured PDF file, ready for your GP and will also be uploaded to our Health Dashboard area of the website. It’s a unique and powerful tool, powered by our in-house clinical analysis research, to match your biomarkers across test panels and symptoms, as well as provide clinical commentary on all individual biomarkers you tested for.
The health dashboard will also provide "panel level" commentary - a birds eye view of the biomarkers that were tested. This feature allows you to view your test results and clinical commentary, and compare them to previous results, giving you a clear understanding of how your health is progressing.
By using the Health Dashboard, you can identify changes in your biomarkers and make necessary adjustments to your lifestyle. This added value is immense, as it empowers you to monitor your health and make informed decisions about your well-being.
It's free and is available with all of our tests.