How soon should I be retested?

[ares]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering how often someone might have their blood drawn and tested for cholesterol or how soon to get it done again after prior results.

Since I was last tested I have aggressively been working towards lowering it and improving my numbers and ratios. I was tested last right around 11-06 and for about a month now I've been focused on improving my profile. How long before I should see changes?

[ares]

It would probably help if I gave a bit more info about myself.

As of 11-25-06 I had the following;

Total Cholesterol 285
HDL 64
LDL 199
Triglycerides 107

For the past three weeks I've started an intervention phase of PPLP and have taken the following supplements.

Fish oil, physilium husk, niacin, L-carnitine, a liver cleanse, a multi, garlic, magnesium and potasium, alpha lipoic acid, taurine. I'm probably forgetting something. I also thought I might take some additional lecithin in granule form. I don't exercise right now but I plan to start up soon. Who has the time?

My ratios don't seem too bad but I'd like to get them at the best.
Total Chol/HDL = 4.5, LDL/HDL = 3.12, and Tri/HDL = 1.67. My doc wants me to go on statins but I say no way, I'll do this first while I look for a new doc. And my blood test doesn't tell my the various LDL subtypes.

I'm wondering though how long it would be before I see any changes in my lipid profile.

[dvdmon]

You might want to get a test that gives more info - such as your subtypes, homocystein, crp, lpa, etc. These will be a lot more helpful in figuring out where your risk is.

As far as when to test, the problem is that except for triglicerides, the other markers can be fairly stubborn. Just about everyone sees a very quick drop in tri's - maybe in as little as 6 weeks. But HDL and LDL can take a lot longer. Some people see a big change in 6 months, but for others it can take 12 or even 18 months. It took about 15 months for me. Granted, it might have taken sooner as the time before was only 9 months after I started, but since my total and LDL were going up at that point, I wanted to wait some extra time. Somewhere in between 9 and 15 months, they reversed themselves and they were getting very reasonable - a lot less than what they had. Actually, I have a page where I went into all this in detail, maybe I should just provide you with that link!

http://www.dvdmon.com/pp/cholesterol.asp