How Often Should You Check Your Cholesterol Levels?

The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, issued new guidelines for preventing and managing high blood cholesterol in 2001. NCEP indicates that everyone over age 20 should have their cholesterol measured at least once every five years. The preferred test for cholesterol levels is a lipoprotein profile. This is a fasting blood test (where you fast for 9 to 12 hours before the test is done) to check your cholesterol levels (measured in mg/dL, or milligrams per deciliter of blood), including:

• your total blood cholesterol level;
• your LDL level (bad cholesterol);
• your HDL level (good cholesterol);
• your triglyceride (another form of fat in the blood) level.