Fasting for labs

How important is fasting?  I need to have my labs drawn, but every single night, I wake up STARVING in the middle of the night.  I know that fasting affects the cholesterol and the A1C tests, but isn't the vitamin and mineral levels the ones we are concerned about?

Fasting is fasting...8-12 hours nothing bu****er.

--gina

Ok, but do you know why they make us fast?  Like the medical reason?  Curiosity is killin' me.

I think the main reason is to check you blood glucose levels. You may be dealing with low blood sugar after losing so much weight but that wouldn't show up if you don't fast. Some of use need to see if diabetes is still having an effect on our health.
I find it odd that after a year you are waking in the night starved. Perhaps it has become a habit that is wreaking havoc with your nights rest. Just a thought.

I still eat every 1-2 hours during the day and most every night, at least once during the night. It's not usually the hunger that wakes me, it's my bladder.  When I'm up peeing, is when I experience the hunger pains, and then I can't go back to sleep until I eat something.  I don't know how or why, but just that it is.

I know what you mean about the hunger. Mine hits from 10 AM to around 5PM. I have found that going out to eat after 5 is a waste as I eat a whole lot less in the evening. I guess we all develop our own food habits and schedules. Good luck with the fasting.... I have to do it soon for my 2 year labs and, thank goodness, I am not usually hungry in the night or first thin in the morning.

yes fasting is required, and very important, not for all tests (and BTW cholesterol _total is NOT an assay that requries fasting it is the trig part of that lipoprotein)  if you are looking for the reason it s due to lipemia, when we eat fats get released intot the blood, lipemic samples are an exclusion, and an interfering substance, on many assays so it is best not to have anything to eat or drink stick to water, nothing esle (black coffee is ok, but I would stay away) 

Thanks, Lady!

You're not fasting for the HgA1c, that's a blood test that measures a period of time for blood sugars, like 3 months worth.  You're fasting for the lipids and such.

Eat something right before bed and book the first appointment of the day.

Have a protein bar in your pocket to eat as soon as you're done.

That's what I did.