Wellness Services Cholesterol & Diabetes Screening

As one of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD), the first step in evaluating your risk of CHD is to emasure your total cholesterol (TC). This includes both HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol. When having your total cholesterol tested, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that your HDL also be measured. A high HDL level (>60 mg/dl) is beneficial, while a low HDL (<40 mg/dl) increases your cardiovascular risk.

A TC/HDL ratio is another good way to assess your heart disease risk. This compares the amount of "good" cholesterol to your total cholesterol. A ratio of 4.0 or less is desirable.

The TC, HDL and TC/HDL are not affected by fasting and are an indicator of what one has eaten over the past week. Therefore testing can be done at any time of the day. Glucose testing is now an option to screen for diabetes. Fasting is not necessary as we have both fasting and non-fasting norms.

Typical recommended worksite health fair screening packages are:

Total Cholesterol/HDL
Total Cholesterol/HDL and Glucose

Adventist Health/Wellness Services can provide cholesterol screening to your employees right at the worksite. The test is a simple finger stick, and results are available within approximately 5 minutes. Our professional staff will explain the results as part of the screening. With two staff, we can generally screen/counsel up to 22 people per hour. With advance notice, arrangements can be made to increase the test volume if necessary.

Adventist Health/Wellness Services also offers a more complete Lipid Panel that includes total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides and blood glucose. This is an excellent test package that can also be offered at the worksite. This test requires a 12-hour fast so is not as appropriate for a health fair as the test listed above. more information on this option is available upon request.

Some additional worksite screening options include:

Osteoporosis Screening (heel ultrasound)
Hearing Screening provided by the AMC Audiology Van
"Stroke Alert" Screening (carotid ultrasound)
Lipid Profile (fasting draw from arm: TC, HDL, LDL, triglycerides and glucose)
Computerized Health Profiles

For more information, please call Adventist Health/Occupational Health Services at 503-261-6916.