A Cholesterol Test Kit Can Save Your Life!

As you get older, the advice from most GP's is to get your cholesterol checked regularly. That means at least once a year. Also, weight loss diet programs are suggested as well. This is advice that I've not followed as I thought that because of my regular running and generally active lifestyle it wasn't important.

How wrong can one be?

Lying in bed one night 3 weeks ago I started to get a tight feeling in my chest. This was followed a few moments later by a strong feeling of wanting to burp. This feeling just wouldn't go away. The tightness in my chest then morphed into a definite squeezing feeling in my upper chest together with pain in my chest.

The pain moved up towards my collar bone and became more intense. This all happened over a period of about 20 minutes. Not wanting to alarm my wife, but at the same time thinking that perhaps I had misaligned rib, I rolled onto the floor and attempted to relieve the pain that had now spread to my back.

It was at this time that my wife suggested that we call the paramedics. I phoned them and after informing them of my problem they calmly suggested that I remain exactly where I was and that they would be there in a few minutes.

A couple of minutes later the paramedics arrived and hooked me up to an ECG machine and then sprayed something under my tongue. This didn't work and after a 2nd spray the pain in my chest started to subside. They then suggested that we make our way to the emergency room at teh local hospital. My wife then drove me to the local hospital with the paramedics close behind.

There isn't much that one can do if you have got to this point other than to allow the doctors to do their thing. After being hooked up to their machines, having my blood pressure taken and some blood samples removed, I was given an unpleasant injection into my abdominal region.

This injection is apparently to break up any blood clots that may have been present in my blood stream.

And so I was admitted and spent the next 3 days having tests and generally feeling miserable with myself and the world in general.

The prognosis is good and I should make a full recovery but the one worrying thing was my cholesterol count which was 6.4 on their scale. Apparently 4.5 is the target value and as I don;t smoke, drink or eat red meat the doctors where mystified as to why my cholesterol count was so high. It is apparently heredity and so I'm now on medication as well as a diet to bring the levels down.

It would really have helped if I had taken my GP's advice and had my cholesterol checked regularly. I'm only 41 so it's been a bit of a shock. You can buy very effective cholesterol test kits,
which is really what I should have done to start with.

So don't be like me, go have your cholesterol levels checked, it might just save your life. Alternatively, check out this information about the Cambridge Diet.