Youâll have to do some sleuthing to figure out whatâs prompting your perspiration. Night sweats arenât rare: In one study published in Annals of Family Medicine, about a third of primary care patients reported night sweats during the past month.
Cholesterol tests also measure total cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of fat found in the blood. People are typically told to have no food or liquids other than water for nine to 12 hours before the exam. Routine check-ups provide no health benefits, study finds.
Fasting for a certain length of time before a blood test is one way of ensuring that your test results are not contaminated by the food you've eaten. The Mayo Clinic notes that fasting may not be necessary to get an accurate reading on a cholesterol test, but most doctors will still ask that you fast for at least 12 hours before your appointment. For certain other kinds of tests, such as a blood glucose test, fasting is necessary. This test is done to check for diabetes, and it requires that you abstain from any food intake for at least eight hours before the blood is drawn. There are alternatives to this test for diagnosing diabetes, but according to howstuffworks.com, the blood glucose test is easy, fast, and inexpensive. Other types of blood tests do not require that you fast prior to the blood draw.