Fasting before lipid tests 'unnecessary'

Fasting has only minimal impact on cholesterol levels and could be scrapped as a prerequisite for most routine lipid tests, a study suggests.

Canadian researchers found there was less than 2% variation in mean total cholesterol and HDL levels between people who had fasted before testing and those who hadn’t.

LDL levels varied by about 10%, whereas triglyceride levels varied the most at around 20%.

“This finding suggests that fasting for routine