Hate fasting before a blood test? Soon, you might not have to

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/fasting-blood-test-best-study-article-1.1863653

The days of fasting before a blood test may soon, happily, be over.

"There are no data to suggest that a fasting blood sample provides more prognostic information than a nonfasting blood sample," said Dr. Sripal Bangalore, a cardiac physician and associate professor of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, whose new findings on the matter appear in Friday's online edition of the journal Circulation.

Doctors look at lipid panels to check cholesterol levels. The panels show the total cholesterol circulating in the blood, plus "good" HDL cholesterol, "bad" LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, a different kind of fat. Patients are advised to not eat for about eight hours in advance of their test because fat from food may interfere with the final counts.

But Bangalore argues that a nonfasting lipid profile may give doctors a more accurate read on a patient's levels, which could help them determine an appropriate diagnosis and plan for treatment.

"If you look at a 24-hour timeframe for a person, most of the time is spent in a nonfasting state, which would mean that the body is more exposed to nonfasting lipid numbers," he said. "The nonfasting numbers might accurately reflect what the body is getting exposed to (in terms of) bad cholesterol."

Surprisingly, the recommendation to fast before a blood test was just based on expert opinion, not clinical trials, Bangalore said. Your triglycerides and LDL could vary after a meal, but he said that doctors can see your nonfasting numbers and still know how to treat you. And fasting before a test might be a way to cheat the system.

"It's (like) cramming just before the exam," he told the News. "It's, 'let me be on my best behavior, not do any of the bad stuff.' That might not be ideal. The body is exposed to what you're doing on a routine basis."

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Fasting before a blood test isn't just an annoyance for you: Iit slows down doctors, who have to keep tabs on patients over days while waiting for test results to come back. This is a win that patients and physicians can get behind, Bangalore said.