Whats the difference between fasting and non-fasting blood tests?
A fasting blood test is a test performed on a person who has not eaten or drunk anything, other than water, for 12 hours prior to the blood sample being taken. A non –fasting, or ‘random’, blood test is a test performed on blood taken from a person without regard to their previous dietary intake in the hours before the blood sample being taken. Glucose In the case of blood glucose, measuring this randomly throughout the day has been a common practice for many years and is standard practice for the routine management of diabetes. Non-fasting blood glucose is usually higher than fasting as the glucose levels rise and fall during the day in response to body needs and dietary input. To get around this, clear normal values have been set for the WorkHealth check, meaning lower and upper limits of what is ‘normal’ for the vast majority of the population being tested. Cholesterol In the case of blood cholesterol, many studies have looked at the difference between fasting and random testing and
