Home Self-testing

[Paul_B]

Just out of curiosity has anyone bought and used any of the numerous medical self test kits available?

Boots stock Coeliac test and cholesterol check for example. I've tried the cholesterol one for fun. Only had one official test before and it was OK, the boots cholesterol check shows I'm high for cholesterol. Can you trust that self testing kits?

Anyone got any experience of these tests? Anyone cross checked with a gp administered test?

 

[santaman2000]

To be honest, I didn't even know they existed.

 

[Janne]

Not tested myself. If they are approved by the medical body they should be fine.
The problem I see is that if you feel fine and go for regular checks with your MD and those checks show you are fine - waste of money to check yourself.
As you are fine.

 

[Janne]

Eating normal bread is a good test for Celiac disease.

OT: lots of people eat “free from” whatever foodstuff, completely not needed.

The vast, vast majority of us are fine. Diet fads are simply just a way for somebody to make money off peoples ignorance.

 

[Paul_B]

To be honest, I didn't even know they existed.

Neither did I?

I was looking at BP monitors and below them all on the shelves was a large coeliac self test kit box. Next to it was a cholesterol test kit for little money. At left without anything but talking about the tests we decided to get one for me. So I went back for it (and got a BP monitor too, well it was two shelves up and a gadget I don't own).

Using it was easy but the 12 hours fasting wasn't! Cholesterol test was a lancet (plastic thing with a button that fires out a needle hat recedes back into plastic case afterwards, captive bolt style). You squeeze out a drop of blood (mine clotted at the pinprick before I could get a big drop to fall onto the target on the card). The blood must fill the target circle. Then time 3 minutes accurately. Too much or too little time will affect accuracy. Then you put the card into its cover and slide the card up until the dot of colour matches the range of colour bands on the card.

Then you turn it over and two windows give the cholesterol level in two different units. One of the units is in the hundreds, anything over 200 is high and they recommend more in depth testing at your GP.

I'm down as high so I'm thinking of booking a visit to the practice nurse for a cholesterol check. I'll ask for the in depth one which gives HDL & LDL levels not a single bulk level.

I've had one cholesterol check and whilst I'm it was upper levels of acceptable. I reckon it is high but not serious. I'll get it down if I need to. I also think I'm likely to be high in the good cholesterol and low in the bad one. That's what my parents tend to be so I suspect I'll be like that because we eat less high cholesterol foods than they do.

Feeling fine? Depends on how fine you think fine is. I've been slowing down on my commuting bike rides big time without the usual causes (for me it's usually good related). Overall I'm under the weather. RHR has risen too. At least I'm only mid forties, not like I'm entering the stage of life when risks start rising!

Jeez! I sound like a hypochondriac, which I'm not. I just exercise as often as possible and generally look after myself. I am always fairly consistent in activity, performance and how I feel. So a change gets noticed.

 

[Paul_B]

I looked at free from bread. OMG! I'm not paying £3+ for a small loaf when normal bread at 800g (over twice the weight of the free from one) costs £0.75.

BTW another change is ibs came back big style late summer. Big style! So much I've got medicines filling my medicine cupboard (well small box in another cupboard with glasses that's normally only pain relief and allergy tablets, pretty empty).

I'm not Coeliac I know. Won't buy this test. The cholesterol one was bought on a whim. I did it for fun.

 

[santaman2000]

Yeah, being a celiac isn't cheap. To add insult to injury those expensive GF loaves taste horrible. On the plus side though the GF pastas have actually improved and come down in price.

 

[Paul_B]

A friend got a mystery illness that left her wiped out. Unable to go to work some days. It took ages for her gp to work out out. Coeliac disease.

She went gf free and recovered quickly to manage work and eventually got well enough to get back into her previously very active life. She and her husband got into home baking of bread and cakes. So much better tasting of you do it yourself I believe.

 

[Toddy]

I didn't know you could test your own. Is it a bit like the pregnancy test things though ? that are better confirmed by the Doctor ?

Himself found his cholesterol test figures high enough that he fretted, despite him being as fit as a fiddle, lean and inclined to decent exercise on a daily basis. So he does the 5:2 diet thing...it dropped his blood pressure too.....and the rest of the week he eats exactly what he wants.

 

[Paul_B]

Actually I am reliably told the pregnancy test strips you buy are as good as the tests GPS use. They detect the same hormones as the gp tests do with as high a degree of accuracy. That's from someone who would know about it.

I don't one how accurate the cholesterol tests are or the coeliac ones. Personally I see them as a convenient test to indicate whether you need the palaver of getting your cholesterol tested at your GP. Unfortunately my gp surgery got merged with another but it became a take over resulting in fewer appointments at my surgery or certainly a reduced number of late appointments. My choice is losing time from work to go for a cholesterol test that might not be needed or self test to give a probably very good indication whether a gp test is needed. It might have shown a very low reading saving me the time off. I don't get many holidays and I'd rather use them with my family.

Mind you my employer is as likely to let me leave early for the health check as not so possibly lot as big a deal. However self testing is likely to become more common. The blood is used to test for so much these days that eventually more tests will come into the marketplace. If you can afford them and their accuracy is good enough then they could reduce unnecessary gp visits or give ppl an early warning about their medical condition sending them to a gp in time to enable easier treatment. There's certainly conditions where early diagnosis will make treatment easier and less invasive.

 

[Paul_B]

We really are in the early stages of advances in home medical monitoring. Medical devices aimed at home use (biomedical sensors) are big growth sector for major tech players. Seriously big tech players like apple, Intel, Google, etc have been heavily investing in medical sector research for home use devices. Either doing their own research or buying up startups and expertise.

 

[santaman2000]

Agreed we're going to see more and more self tests available and getting popular for a wide range of ailments. Likewise agree that electronic telemedicine by real doctors is on the increase. That said if you're in your 40s you should already be getting a regular cholesterol screening at your doctor's office anyway. Annually at a minimum.

 

[Paul_B]

It's every 5 years between 40 and 49 years I once got told. More frequent 50 upwards.

 

[santaman2000]

It's every 5 years between 40 and 49 years I once got told. More frequent 50 upwards.

I just looked up CDC recommendations and it appears they also say 5 years interval for healthy people under 50. Bear in mind though that such recommendations are intended to be taken as the minimums. I get tested quarterly for A1c levels, Lipid levels, and assorted other vitals due to my diabetes and HBP. If I weren't already being tested I'd certainly request the cholesterol screening during an annual physical exam. I probably wouldn't want to be jabbed just for it, but while they have a vein open drawing samples for other annual tests it just seems too logical.

 

[Paul_B]

In the UK I don't think we do annual health checks. It is free at the point of need without forms (unless you're visiting another area and they need to access your health records and other similar reasons). However you get very little in the way of maintenance checks / MOTs. I believe Germany do them and no doubt other places.

Personally I think it was ten years back when I last had a cholesterol test. It was not too many years back the gp started to take my BP when I went in for something or other. I guess that's the sign that my gp is thinking I'm getting on a bit. Kind of he's in his forties so things will go wrong soon. Best keep checking up on him! Not a good thing personally but good for catching common issues like high BP.

 

[Tengu]

https://gizmodo.com/how-dna-testing-botched-my-familys-heritage-and-probab-1820932637

(Southern Europe would be a lot of Middle Eastern stock, wouldnt it??)

 

[santaman2000]

BP is checked here every time somebody walks in the clinic door at whatever age Along with the other vitals: heart rate, temp, height, weight, etc.) I dare say most people here don't get regular physicals either; but that would be because they just don't schedule an appointment. Had I been a civilian I probably wouldn't have done either (it just wouldn't have crossed my mind) However I got into the habit of the mandatory checks in my career and just kept them up.

 

[Paul_B]

Personally I think there is some value in annual health checks.

As far as height / weight checks well I suspect that whilst my gp has never bothered weighing and measuring me, except when I first signed up with the practice, I'm pretty certain every visit the gp is making an educated guess whether my height / weight is healthy. I'm naturally mid BMI. I've not changed weight since mid twenties. Apart from a short spell when I went towards the top end of acceptable BMI range for a few months.

I think my relationship with all my GPs have been affected by looking healthy. You can't be that bad if you're tall, slim and athletic looking with an active life, right?

 

[santaman2000]

You may have a point about the doc's preconceptions based on appearances. The nurse takes all my vitals prior to putting me in the exam room to wait for the doc. Pretty much the same way the veterinary technician weighs my dogs and takes their vitals before the vet sees them. LOL. Last month the vet informed me that the oldest (and bigger) one has lost 5 pounds since last year. He was mildly concerned but said it was expected to lose muscle mass at her age (I've been noticing the atrophy for a while already) We put her on an arthritus treatment hoping that the decreased pain will lead to more exercise and slow the muscle loss.

 

[mrcharly]

Definitely value in annual checkups (post a certain age).
I'm over the acceptable BMI, swinging between 26-29
So the doc sees that and wants me to lose weight - then looks at me and rethinks; I look skinny, you see.

But my cholesterol levels are well above healthy levels, despite a really good diet, it is just genetics, all the men suffer from it and cardio vascular disease. Brother is the same, he's been given serious warnings about the state of his arteries.