USA/NJ. I am not on a keto diet. I am halfway dialed into doing a Keto diet, thus I am not in Ketogenesis. I am halving my carb intake and adding a tablespoon of MCT oil and some grass fed organic butter for each meal. And some meat, and lots of veggies.
Just got a physical, doc did a blood test and all looks good he says but my LDL is 149, he says too high. I know there is so much discussion on this LDL topic. But to lower the LDL he did tell me to exercise more and eat (even) more fiber. OK I am doing both. In the meantime I want to get a lipid panel done to see if all my efforts are having an effect on my LDL, and find out before my next yearly physical.
Any tips on how to best arrange and pay for the lipid panel? There is a Quest lab location nearby. I can arrange to have it done for $59 + $6 for a physicians fee. Can anyone suggest a good, less expensive option?
Much thanks!
Paying for Bloodwork directly, any advice?
That seems like a great price. I doubt you’ll find better.
As a side note, the limit for LDL has been lowered only in the last five years. It used to be 150, until recent research showed that pharmaceutical companies could sell more statins if the limit were lower, so now it’s 130.
Thanks PaulL. I never made my own arrangement w a lab before, always went to a dctr or was sent by a dctr to a lab… Good to know the price is great.
Yeah … I am aware they dropped the acceptable rating on the LDL, my supposedly enlightened doctor offered no discussion about that controversy. He also suggested that I take the supplement *Red Star Yeast for the Statin-like effect. which I did not end up doing, just really increased my exercise and fiber intake per his recommendation. My recent bloodwork says the ideal LDL reference range should be less than 100. Then there is the Non HDL Cholesterol line item, not sure what that is as they already covered the LDL, but the Non HDL Cholesterol it says that it should be less than 130…
*I bought Red Star Yeast but read about it and it’s hard to get the real stuff in the US and plus if they make it sloppily there is a potential poison, so nope I am not doing that.
Thanks!
If you really want to do a deep dive into your lipids, you’ll want an “NMR” lipid profile. Quest doesn’t do them in the US. You’ll need to find a LabCorp for that.
RequestATest.com is the cheapest way I’ve found to get an NMR. Check out their website - I usually wait for a “sale” for 10-20% off, then pay for it and show up at the lab (no appt needed) when the time is right for my own purposes.
It’ll likely run just a bit over $100 if I recall correctly. 
I googled a tiny bit and sites say it may be acceptable below 130 but ideally it’s below 100… Sigh.
It’s good I don’t even know mine and don’t care (but I start to get curious. if it would be no effort, I would get a bloodwork. I looked it up, it’s not expensive but why don’t I get it for free, I pay for healthcare as everyone legally should here - even if the workplace does it usually - and basic bloodwork isn’t a big deal. oh well).
After being on this forum for long, I just care about my HDL/trigs and I am merely curious about LDL and cholesterol, I don’t care about the actual number 
I know I eat better than ever
Whether your LDL is potentially a problem is very much dependent on the size of the LDL particles (big is fine, small and dense is not). I think Joey’s advice is right on; while it’s less expensive, a simple LDL number really tells you nothing.
Yep I know that much, I’ve read about big fluffy particles when I researched my eggs (as I eat 8 a day since more than a decade, it’s good food so I never thought it would pose any problem but was curious).
But after 46 years of zero info, I would be happy with just that 4 mere numbers.
I remember exactly one time when a bloodwork was done and they just said it’s great. I don’t even know my blood type. I never dared to donate blood as I don’t have a visible vein 
The blood plasma center pretty much mocked me at the test, saying it can’t be even felt and is useless. Well it works well enough for my own health…
The triglyceride/HDL ratio is a very good predictor of what the NMR will say, and both are strongly associated with cardiovascular risk.
In the U.S., a ratio of 2.0 or less indicates the healthy Pattern A and minimal risk. In the units used elsewhere in the world, the ratio should be 0.9 or less. But it never hurts to have the NMR done, just to show the doctor, and for one’s own peace of mind.
An interesting study done on patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia showed that, of the half of them that never developed cardiovascular disease, the life expectancy of the cohort aged 71-80 was actually higher than that of the general population of the same age. Almost as though the elevated LDL had some sort of protective effect. Hmm. . . .
Another interesting figure is that 75% of people presenting in the emergency room with their first heart attack had normal or even low LDL. Now, one way of looking at things would be to question whether LDL actually does cardiovascular disease, but the pharmaceutical companies have successfully argued that this just means that the “safe” level of LDL is even lower than we thought. Hmm. . . .
Here’s another:
As of today, for an NMR, it’s $120 at Request A Test:
This is $69 here:
They also have multiple versions, at least one of which has a graph of size, if you’re into that (I personally find this inscrutable, but you might not).
That’s a bummer. I give 5-6 times per year, usually 6 (max amount you can give), but a few years, I’ve not been able to get there. When covid hit and people were home, too many people went one time. Even though I had an appointment, it was going to be 1-2 hours for me to be seen. Last year, I got covid right before I was scheduled to give. I had to delay giving until early January, so only got 5 donations last year.
My “official” amount given is 43 units (about a pint each), so I’ll hit 6 gallons this year. That does not count many times I gave in other states.
I’ve reached the conclusion that most things I do are not helpful or of dubious benefit. I think giving blood IS helpful though, for the person giving it. Sadly, it’s another one of those things where I BELIEVE it to be good, but I have no actual evidence it IS good. There are a lot of theories, but we humans live too long for real studies.
Well, just got back from seeing a new general care practitioner. They don’t normally order fasting insulin or HbA1c, only will do so if fasting glucose is high. They really need to change what they are doing.
I probably could donate blood but I need some experienced one who can find my vein.
Donating blood plasma is different, one needs a very good vein for it and I don’t have that.
It’s sad, it would bring money (unlike donating blood) and I am healthy and glad to help and I wouldn’t even had the problem that my SO had as I eat way more protein than him… Poor one lost his spleen, no problem (except needing a ton of vaccines sometimes) but blood plasma donation is over. He still can donate blood as far as I know.
Only 6? Blood plasma can be donated maybe once a week? Something close to it, at least. Once my SO donated twice in 2 weeks but his protein level dropped. Well the need to drink A LOT very early and the expectation of low-fat eating in the previous many hours sounded bad but I would have just fasted (not advised but who cares? such a short fasting is normal to me while low-fat, like only 80g in the previous day is doable but tricky. we tested it, not super fatty but somewhat fatty food worked).
Meanwhile I googled more and there are free blood checks here, no idea what data it gives though… But the lipid panel is cheap anyway so I will make a tiny effort to figure out how it works. You guys on this forum talking all the time about these results lately made me more curious than ever!
@ctviggen Wow, I’d heard of the Own Your Labs effort but never bothered to check it out before… their pricing is amazing and seems to be the same LabCorp platform. I need to keep this info handy for next time! Thank you.
Ask your doctor about getting your ApoB and Apo A-1c measured. Evidence from fundamental, epidemiological and clinical trial studies indicates that Apo B is superior to any of the cholesterol indices to recognize those at increased risk of vascular disease. The evidence also indicates that the apo B/apo A-I ratio is superior to any of the conventional cholesterol ratios in patients without symptomatic vascular disease or diabetes to evaluate the lipoprotein-related risk of vascular disease. In my part of the world, this is sometimes covered and sometimes not. The cost here is $99.00.
Dave Feldman on Twitter said there were other places that could sometimes beat his prices. I did not write those places down, though, because I think the money Dave makes goes to running his organization, which I thought was a good one. So, I’m willing to pay a bit more.
I want to get an NMR with IR estimate, as the last one I got – the only one I got – said I had high insulin resistance.
I’d like get some inflammation indicators, too, but the only one I know of is HS-CRP. Need to do some research.
Yes they do. And theirs includes ApoB, LP(a) and hsCRP, so arguably better than the LabCorp one. But without deals/discounts it’s pricier.
Order it through PrivateMD Labs and you’ll save some money, but either way the price you got from them is a good one. If you’re actually gonna order one I can give you a discount link if you want, lemme know.
Ferritin, white blood cell count, TNF-α, IL-1b, IL-6, IL-8, CCL-2, CCL-3, CCL-5, VCAM-1, ICAM-1, E-selectin, leptin, adiponectin, CRP, serum amyloid A, fibrinogen, NF-kB, STAT3, COX-2, 5-LOX, 12-LOX; also MCP-1, PAI-1, VEGF, EFG, P-selectin (see Forsythe et al., Lipids. 43(1):65-77, 2008). Apparently, leptin is an inflammatory mediator, as well as being a satiety hormone.
To clarify, are we both talking about the NMR lipid profile? If so, Quest keeps coming up as “not available” whenever I have ordered through Request-a-test over the past 3 years - only Labcorp is an option for NMR.
Perhaps it’s a regional thing? Or maybe Request-a-test doesn’t have a contract with Quest for this particular test (despite having the others)?
