Health Tests to Help You Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

December 30th, 2009   1 Comment

The number of medical conditions that are caused due to an unhealthy lifestyle are increasing every day. This New Year as you make a resolution to maintain a healthy lifestyle, make sure that you keep to your promise by monitoring your progress with a home cholesterol test, a home diabetes test or a stress test. It is estimated that about  17 percent of adult Americans have high cholesterol. Diabetes, also a lifestyle and/or hereditary condition, is estimated to have an incidence of about 6 percent. And there is almost no guessing the incidence of a condition like stress that almost all of us face each day. The manner in which each of these tests can help you monitor your health has been described below.

Home cholesterol test High cholesterol puts you at a higher risk of heart diseases like a heart attack or arteriosclerosis. As you decide to eat healthy and ensure that you stay away from foods high in saturated fats like junk food, make sure that you know how you are faring. Not only will this help you ensure that you do not go beyond a certain limit, a home cholesterol test can be a great motivator. You can for example buy a cholesterol test kit that contains two tests. Do one which will give you the results of your total cholesterol in about 10 minutes, and do the other a month later to see how well you’ve done at lowering your cholesterol.

Home diabetes test – One of the most important tests that physicians prescribe if you are at a high risk of contracting diabetes or are already suffering from the condition is the hemoglobin A1c. This is a test that most diabetic patients tend to ignore since it does not calculate the blood sugar levels. This home diabetes test is actually a hemoglobin test that enables the physicians to understand the consistency of the blood sugar levels maintained by you in the last 3 months. Therefore this home test is one of the best ways to understand the fluctuations in blood sugar levels so that better management is made possible.

Stress test If you have been plagued by stress and feel that you have just had it with all the tension and the pressure, then it might help you to understand that a little bit of stress is beneficial for peak performance. The body reacts with secretions of DHEA and cortisol and it is the balance between these two that is critical for stress management. Only when the cortisol test gives results that are benchmarked with the population can one understand the level of stress that one is going through. A simple saliva sample can help you do the stress test at home so that you can later discuss the results with your physician and ask for a strategy for stress management.

You can make as many New Years’ resolutions as you want. But unless you follow it up with proper implementation of a plan, your resolutions may come to naught as so many others. Make sure that you put a plan in place for a healthier ‘you’ and work towards it with a controlled diet, exercise and a positive attitude towards life too. Make sure to complement the plan and use home test kits like the home cholesterol test, the home diabetes test and the stress test.

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Alcohol Test to Control Drunk Driving

December 29th, 2009   Add Comment

The holiday season is considered to be one of the most hectic times for police and traffic departments due to the significant increase in impaired or drunk driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there are more than 1000 people in America who are killed across the country in highway crashes between Thanksgiving and New Year. Despite the various campaigns that have been run by parents, social workers, activists and police departments, alcohol abuse and drunk driving do not seem to reduce among teenagers and adults. While there are some who are aware of the dangerous consequences and abstain from driving when drunk, guards seem generally down during the festive season between Thanksgiving and New Year.

Here are some tips that can help you stop drunk driving around you during the holiday season.

- Have a word with your teenagers and explain to them that drinking and driving shall not be tolerated. Make sure that you purchase an alcohol test that can be used at home and convey the message loud and clear to them.

- If you are hosting a party, then you should set the rules about alcohol abuse and driving when drunk upfront. If you feel that most of your guests are likely to drink through the night, make some provision for sleepovers.

- The other thing to do is to designate drivers in your group. You’ll probably have more than one party this holiday season and you can always take turns among your group of friends.

- If you are a worried about the safety of your friends, you could also carry a small alcohol test with you that can be used on the spot to determine whether someone is fit for driving or not. The alcohol tests that you can buy over the counter or online are non-invasive and easy to use. While some alcohol tests are breath analyzers, other may require a saliva sample.

- If you want to help in keeping the roads safe for yourself and your loved ones, call in the local law enforcement authorities and let them know where a dangerous car that you’ve spotted was headed. Drunk driving is not only harmful for those driving the car but also for innocent pedestrians and other vehicle drivers on the road.

- If you feel that someone is about to drive home and you feel that they are drunk try and convince them to take some form of local/public transport. Use an easy to use alcohol drug test like a breath analyzer to help prove to them that they are not fit for driving.

Many lives can be saved if we are only careful about the kind of danger that happens on the roads when people drink and drive. This kind of alcohol abuse can only stop if we are conscious and aware of the devastation such incidents can cause in the lives of people. The use of alcohol tests to ascertain drunk drivers should be encouraged so that the law can be upheld and enforced properly.

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5 Advantages to Home Drug Testing

December 16th, 2009   Add Comment

A home drug test is a scientific piece of equipment that allows you to conduct an experiment at home that tells you whether the person from whom the sample is taken has been taking drugs or not. While home drug testing is becoming extremely popular among parents of teens, the drug testing kits are also being used in schools, offices and small businesses.

These home tests can be used to detect harmful drugs like THC (called marijuana, weed, pot or hash), opiates (heroin, morphine or codeine), cocaine (crack or snow), MDMA (ecstasy or X), Amphetamines (speed or uppers) and Benzodiazepines (Valium or Xanax).

A home drug test has various advantages over a test that is done in the laboratory. The top 5 advantages of testing drugs at home are listed below:

1. Faster results – This test can be done within minutes. You do not have to collect the sample, deliver it to the laboratory and then wait patiently for the results to come in. With a drug test kit, you can take a sample and use a disposable drug test to know the answer to the question that has been plaguing you for some time.

2. A deterrence for children – Teenage drug users may try to convince other teenagers that they should give drugs a try because their parents will never find out. Now teens and parents can counter this with an easy retort about the availability of a home drug test at home. This helps in providing children with a convenient way of getting out of a situation and parents an easy way to help their children.

3. Affordable – A urine or a hair follicle drug test is relatively cheaper as compared to a laboratory test. The cost advantage of an at home drug test is evident especially when you look at employers who are using the tests. These employers find the tests easier to pay for and administer – and if the prospective employee fails, the burden falls to them to prove they are drug-free by taking a more expensive laboratory test.

4. Private – A home drug test can also help you maintain your privacy. This is particularly important in smaller towns where you may not want the whole local area to know that you have had drug testing done for your child.

5. Convenient – In addition to all that has been mentioned above home drug testing is extremely easy to use and convenient for all. The item can be carried on a vacation and can be used anywhere. A saliva test or disposable breath alcohol test can simply fit in your pocket and be used without any sort of trouble or invasion of physical privacy.

While drug testing at home has many positives, such kits should be used judiciously. False positives that can be caused by poppy seeds, mouthwashes and medicines can lead to false accusations and therefore knowing the right time of using a home drug test is critical. However, most home drug test kits are FDA Approved (check specific products to be sure) and with upwards of 95% accuracy are a great way to start a conversation about drug use.

-Anne Hamilton

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Home Cholesterol Testing – Interpreting Your Results

December 15th, 2009   Add Comment

There are some people who state that home cholesterol (Chol.) testing is not as accurate as testing that is conducted in a laboratory. Well, this may surprise you, but it is not true! There are two major types of tests that you can perform at home, a full lipid profile test (the same as is performed in a hospital) or a total cholesterol test. With this variety of options there is no doubt that cholesterol testing joins blood sugar tests, ovulation kits and home HIV testing as a standard product that can be found in any American home.

The fact is that home kits are essential so that you can monitor your Chol. levels in the convenience of your home without having to go to a laboratory. A total cholesterol home test is meant to be able to monitor total Chol. levels so that the ‘borderline’ cases can be identified before they reach the ‘high red alert’ zone. In addition to this, a total cholesterol test is extremely helpful in keeping track of Chol. levels when you have set a target for yourself and want to lower your levels. A full lipid panel gives you more detail, breaking down the results into four categories.

As is the case in most medical tests that you perform yourself, cholesterol testing done right also involves understanding the readings that appear on the scale. A complete lipid profile cholesterol test will give you [a] reading for total Chol., low-density lipoprotein (bad Chol.), high-density lipoprotein (good Chol.) and triglycerides. Measuring total cholesterol at home gives you just one number which is a fairly good idea about the direction in which your total Chol. level is going.

It is important to be able to read the numbers on a total cholesterol home test and know what they mean if you are to be able to understand whether you are in the safe zone, high cholesterol zone or the borderline zone. Such a test gives you the total cholesterol levels in a matter of a few minutes and all that you need to do is to look at the reading and find out whether your cholesterol levels are under control or not.

According to the National Cholesterol Education Program, following are the cholesterol test result ranges and their interpretations.

Desirable range – lower than 200 mg/dL or 5.17 mmol/L

Borderline – Between 200 mg/dL and 239 mg/dL or between 5.17 mmol/L and 6.21 mmol/L

High cholesterol levels – higher than 240 mg/dL or 6.21 mmol/L

If the reading that you obtain on your cholesterol test is in the desirable range, then you have no reason to worry. On the other hand if the reading falls in the borderline or high cholesterol range, then you might need to purchase a full lipid profile home cholesterol test to completely understand the situation. The specific action that you take in trying to reduce the total cholesterol levels shall also depend on the kind of scores that you obtain for HDL, LDL and triglycerides.

Continuing to use a home cholesterol test as you take specific steps to reduce the cholesterol levels is a good idea since you can keep a tab on how you are faring.

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Alcohol Testing – Why Is It Done?

December 10th, 2009   Add Comment

The increase in the amount of alcohol testing conducted in this country is something that should have probably happened much earlier. The government agencies are facing up to the fact that alcohol abuse can result in various harmful situations. Since it is possible to avoid such accidents from occurring, a stricter control is being levied on people who drink and abuse the freedom that has been granted to them. Alcohol testing can be done in various ways. The various affordable options include the famous breathalyzer-like breath alcohol test and also a saliva based test.

The effect of high levels of alcohol in the blood has been studied in various laboratory experiments. Other empirical studies have also been conducted to understand how alcohol can affect judgment and action. For example, it is known that a large proportion of highway fatalities occur due to a “drinking and driving” situation. The government legislators and organizations like MADD therefore feel that implementing rules with random alcohol tests can help in reducing irresponsible behavior on the road leading to a safer environment for many innocent people.

Some organizations are now beginning to conduct random alcohol tests at the workplace to ensure that the work environment is safe, sophisticated and sober too. It has been seen that such random alcohol tests that can be done using home alcohol test kits can reduce employee theft, on job injuries, turnover, sexual harassment and violence at the workplace. In addition to this there is also an increase that can be observed in the overall productivity levels.

Each of the alcohol tests attempt to arrive at the level of alcohol in the blood. The most common acceptable measure is BAC or Blood Alcohol Concentration. This is the amount of alcohol in the blood as a percentage of the total blood composition. A BAC of 0.09 indicates that there are 9 parts of alcohol per 10,000 parts of blood. Most state laws specify BAC levels in terms of grams per 100 milliliters of blood. The specific BAC levels that have been defined as permissible are covered under state jurisdiction and therefore differ, but it is a criminal offense in every state in the US to operate a vehicle with a BAC of greater than 0.08.

It is important to note here that an alcohol drug test can only confirm that alcohol abuse has taken place. It does not confirm that the individual being tested is an alcoholic or anything like that. Therefore while the test can be accurately described as an alcohol abuse test, it is surely not a test that can confirm alcoholism or addiction. To illustrate, drinking heavily during a birthday party and then driving home can cause a positive result on a breath alcohol test. However, the test result does not indicate a pattern of abuse.

Regular alcohol tests and random and surprise testing conducted in schools and colleges can keep children and teenagers under check making it difficult for them to illegally procure alcohol and consume it, especially during school hours. Not only are alcohol tests providing a safe environment for all concerned, they are also helping our youngsters lead a better life.

-Anne Hamilton

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Nicotine Test – Top 5 Reasons to Buy

December 3rd, 2009   Add Comment

Have you ever thought of purchasing a tobacco test? You know, an easy to use urine drug test that allows you to figure out if cotinine is still in your system? Here are the top 5 reasons why this might be a good idea for you:

1. You will learn what cotinine is. Cotinine is a metabolite of nicotine, and when you purchase a nicotine test, that is what you are testing for in urine. Cotinine can still be detected in urine up to 2 to 4 days after the last tobacco use. And indeed, as wikipedia states, it is an anagram of nicotine. So that is one fun fact about the nicotine test already!

2. It is really, really easy to use. Just like any other urine-based home drug test, the nicotine test uses a very simple procedure. Just collect a urine sample and use the included dropper to put a few drops of urine on the cassette (see the full nicotine test instructions for details). You will have your results in all of five minutes!

3. Nicotine tests are an increasingly popular form of screening among insurance companies and employers. The days of 50s chain-smoking live on only in Mad Men. Insurance companies are keen to know who smokes and thus has higher risk factors for a number of conditions, and employers who provide health insurance want to know as well. A recent story about someone who lost their job because of a nicotine test highlights the issue, as does this blog article on smoking.

4. It is extremely accurate. Nicotine tests are very, very good at detecting tobacco use of all kinds – cigar smoke, cigarette smoke, chewing tobacco. They are FDA approved and 99% accurate. They can also detect very very small amounts of cotinine in urine – the tests we sell meet the standard cutoff level of 200 ng/ml.

5. It will help you quit. When you quit a habit like smoking, it is good to set goals and have a plan. You may want someone else to monitor your progress, or you may want to use them to monitor someone else’s progress. Will you be gratified when you take one of these tests and see that your test comes back negative for cotinine – that your body is clean? We think so.

There are many reasons to be interested in this particular home drug test, but these are your top 5 for today!

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