Testing your blood cholesterol at home using devices available at any pharmacy or ones that can be purchased online, can be quickly and easily done without the hassle of scheduling an appointment and waiting in the doctor’s office. That’s right. Pricking your finger is easy. All you have to do next is squeeze a few blood drops to a tiny “well” or a strip and the results will be ready in a matter of minutes.

But is testing your cholesterol at home as reliable and worthy as a laboratory test? The answer is no. Unfortunately, testing your cholesterol at home, is a quick inexpensive and convenient process which is accurate 95% of the time, but it won’t tell you if the changes you made to your lifestyle or your diet had any effects on your blood cholesterol level and it will not provide you with the crucial information regarding potential risks of cardiovascular problem, heart attack or a stroke.

Keep in mind that at home, you don’t have the optimal controlled condition required for such a test the ones a laboratory can offer. For example, results can be thrown off if the blood isn’t squeezed right onto the strip or well. With an expert supervision, this would almost never happen.

Another problems with home testing of cholesterol is that most home testing kits such as Home Access Instant Cholesterol Test or CholesTrak will only give you the total blood cholesterol level. These kits will not provide you with the other not less important measures of LDL, HDL or triglycerides level required to indicate the risk of heart attacks and your overall cardiovascular health.

If you have, for example, 180 mg/dl blood cholesterol level, but your LDL is 150 which is considered relatively high and your HDL is 30 which is lower than what is required, then you are in much greater risk for a heart attack than someone who’s LDL is 100 and has HDL of 90 even though the other guy’s total blood cholesterol level is higher than yours.

Some cholesterol home test kit do measure HDL and triglyceride levels, the only caveat is that they are very expensive and require accurate pricks with sharp lancet to perform the check. Another downside is that these kits don’t measure LDL. Another problem with home testing for cholesterol is that some individuals will probably not take the necessary action required to treat their blood cholesterol if they were diagnosed with high blood cholesterol and won’t get the follow up care that can save their life.

Annual visits to your doctor can sometimes mean the difference between a healthy future and a stroke or a heart attack. When you check your blood cholesterol level with your doctor, he will measure three parameters: Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) – to check that this figure is below 100, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) to check that the good cholesterol is above 40 and that your total cholesterol is below 200 mg/dl.

Home test for cholesterol can provide you with an early warning about your health condition, but inexpensive ($15) and quick as it can be, it should not substitute the more reliable doctor’s check, which is far more accurate and detailed. Home test won’t reveal whether you are at risk of having a heart attack and can be quite tricky to understand. It short, it is recommended not to test your cholesterol at home or at least not to give up your annual cholesterol check. When it comes to your blood cholesterol level and the risk it can mean to your health, take it to the lab and leave it to the pros.