Does Fasting Help Cholesterol?
Before a cholesterol test, your doctor will likely tell you to fast for 8-12 hours. This is to prevent an intake of calories from disrupting the results of your test, which will measure your total cholesterol, as well as the amounts of HDL (“good” cholesterol), LDL (“bad” cholesterol), and triglycerides. This has led many who have been diagnosed with high cholesterol to wonder: if fasting is prescribed before a lipid panel, does fasting help cholesterol levels in the long term?